Press the Down Arrow key (or any other key)

Daniel Millan

Can I run this in a background command?

Russ

@Daniel-Millan, you could, but it wouldn't do any good. The command would run, but as Local System, not the user, so it wouldn't press any buttons for the logged in user.

If you make it a foreground command it might do what you're trying to accomplish though - you don't actually see the command running, you just see the results of the button(s) being pressed.

Daniel Millan

@Russ I want to run it before I am logged into the computer.

Russ

@Daniel-Millan, don't think that's possible.

Daniel Millan

@Russ
Okay, thanks.

Russ

@Daniel-Millan, sorry. I think it would be a security flaw to allow any process to simulate key presses at that point. That said, there might be some way to do it.

João Paulo Pugialli

Hello,

Do you know if it is possible to press a F-media key? For example, I wanted to make alexa press f9 key because that is my shorcut for keyboard lights off. I tried this code:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.SendKeys "{F9}"

But it just keeps pressing numlock.

Regards,

Russ

@João-Paulo-Pugialli, according to this article, {F9} is correct, so maybe your keyboard is doing something in hardware to toggle its own light off.
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/5169.vbscript-sendkeys-method.aspx

Russ

FYI, I found that Wsh.SendKeys can't do ALT+1 (or any other digit), but I was able to make it work with this AutoHotKey script.

Send, !1

! means hold the ALT key (while pressing 1). You can see examples like this in the Tutorial page in AutoHotKey's help.

My TRIGGERcmd command is this: start d:\tools\AutoHotKey\pressAlt1.ahk

Let me know if you need me to do a video on this.

Gerfesson Alves de Oliveira

How could I press windows key + "P" so I can open up the projection options?

Russ

@Gerfesson-Alves-de-Oliveira, for this one I'd use AutoIT.

I like AutoIT because it can do almost anything in Windows, and it allows you to compile your script to a stand-alone .EXE file. After you install it, look for SciTE Script Editor, that's the actual AutoIT script editor.

You can see here how simple it is to make an AutoIT script that presses Windows+P:

Send("{LWINDOWN}") ; Holds the Windows key down
Send("{p}")       ; Presses the p key
Send("{LWINUP}") ; Releases the Windows key

This is a good reference page for pressing keys: https://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/appendix/SendKeys.htm

Gerfesson Alves de Oliveira

@Russ , I found a way thru your guidence!! Thanks a lot!

The whole au3 document was this:

Send("{LWINDOWN}") ; Holds the Windows key down
Send("{p}") ; Presses the p key
Send("{LWINUP}") ; Releases the Windows key
sleep (500)
Send("{UP}") ; Presses Up arrow
Send("{ENTER}") ; Presses Enter
sleep(500)
ShellExecute("C:\Users\nosse\AppData\Local\Programs\Opera GX\launcher.exe")
ShellExecute("https://www.primevideo.com")
ShellExecute("https://www.netflix.com")
sleep (2000)
Send("^{TAB}") ; Presses Shift + Tab
Send("{CTRLDOWN}") ; Holds the CTRL key down
Send("{w}") ; Presses the w key
Send("{CTRLUP}") ; Releases the CTRL key
sleep (300)
Send("{ENTER}") ; Presses Enter
Send("{LWINDOWN}") ; Holds the Windows key down
Send("{SHIFTDOWN}") ; Holds the Left Shift key down
Send("{RIGHT}") ; Presses Right arrow
Send("{SHIFTUP}") ; Releases the Shift key
Send("{LWINUP}") ; Releases the Windows key

With this code I change the screen mode to extend the for my projector, open up a new opera window with netflix and prime video, close the opera's welcome window and finally put this new openned window to the second screen!

Now I'm going to do the reverse engineering! Thanks a lot once again

Russ

@Gerfesson-Alves-de-Oliveira, nice job!

I hope you do a youtube video showing it off.

Andoni Cantón

how can I make it press the spacebar? I'm trying to get it to play or pause netflix or youtube

Russ

@Andoni-Cantón said in Press the Down Arrow key (or any other key):

space

@Andoni-Cantón, for space, you can use this script:

Dim Wsh
Set Wsh = Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Wsh.SendKeys " "

You can run the script with this command:

wscript c:\scripts\space.vbs

Tribo

@Russ said in Press the Down Arrow key (or any other key):

@Gerfesson-Alves-de-Oliveira, for this one I'd use AutoIT.

I like AutoIT because it can do almost anything in Windows, and it allows you to compile your script to a stand-alone .EXE file. After you install it, look for SciTE Script Editor, that's the actual AutoIT script editor.

You can see here how simple it is to make an AutoIT script that presses Windows+P:
Send("{LWINDOWN}") ; Holds the Windows key down
Send("{p}")       ; Presses the p key
Send("{LWINUP}") ; Releases the Windows key
This is a good reference page for pressing keys: https://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/appendix/SendKeys.htm

I added:

Send("{LWINDOWN}") ; Holds the Windows key down
Send("{p}") ; Presses the p key
Send("{LWINUP}") ; Releases the Windows key
Send("{DOWN}")
Send("{DOWN}")
Send("{ENTER}")

but it didn't happen as expected (using AutoIt's F5), it applies the three commands in AutoIt's own window.

it's the first time I've seen and dealt with it, so sorry for any silly question.

Russ

@Tribo, with AutoIT you can compile an EXE, and when you run the exe via TRIGGERcmd, the keys will be pressed in whatever the current application happens to be. You can also have AutoIT activate a particular Window first.

https://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/functions/WinActivate.htm

Arthur Neufeld

I really don't know what I did wrong.

They only thing I want is to let Triggercmd press F7.

I created a vbs file with

Dim Wsh
Set Wsh = Wscript.CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Wsh.SendKeys "{F7}"

in it. Safed it at

c:\scripts\key.vbs

Then I wrote this into the "Command" line: in TRIGGERcmd

wscript c:\scripts\key.vbs

Even if I ope the File manually it doesn't press F7. I have to say, I'm really new to this topic.
What did I do wrong?

Cheers
Arthur

Russ

@Arthur-Neufeld, that should work. It worked for me. Can you show me a screenshot of your command?

Mine looks like this:

Also, does it work if you run the command from a cmd prompt?

Xander

Haven't tried this feature myself but Nirsoft's NirCMD has a "sendkeypress" ability.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd2.html#using

Here's my question though -- how does your VBS script send the keypress to the right window or, on your PC, is F7 being recognized by one program no matter what program is in the foreground?

Nircmd has a WIN feature which lets you activate a window so you could use it twice in a new script, once to activate the window and again to send the keypress.