Press the Down Arrow key (or any other key)

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.

Arthur Neufeld

@Russ Hi Russ, no unfortunately it doesn't rund the command from a cmd prompt. This happens if I copy and paste it in cmd:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/se4b59gxgk43su2/Screenshot 2021-01-26 19.25.19.png?dl=0

The command looks exactly like yours:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a1b2parwrkjf848/Screenshot 2021-01-26 19.20.48.png?dl=0

The F7 Button is a Hotkey for a Streaming Software called OBS to change the Scene. Does that matter?

Thanks for your help already

Russ

@Arthur-Neufeld, I'm glad you mentioned OBS. I had no luck using wscript to send hot keys to OBS, so I made this post where I made two AutoIT .exe files - one for start recording, and one for stop recording, but you could use them for start and stop streaming too.

I use them and it works great.

Antonio Leaños

Hey I used this and it works just fine, but I want to use the start /wait timeout command to give some space in between a couple key presses but it just ignores them and say "access denied" does anyone know why is that?
Thanks

Russ

@Antonio-Leaños, when I tried a command like this, it worked for me.

start /min /wait timeout 5 & calc

It waited 5 seconds, then ran calculator.

Does that work for you? If not, can you tell me what command you're trying?

Teo castrejon escamilla

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

wscript c:\scripts\space.vbs

does it work on mac?

Russ

@teo-castrejon-escamilla , no. On Mac you could use applescript.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/36943/how-do-i-automate-a-key-press-in-applescript