Trapping Sleep/Power/Wake up Key

How can i trap the Power/Sleep/Wake up key, The key code for all these key is 255 (Got from Key down event of the form)

Actually i want to execute an exe when ever the user press these key. Can any one let me know how to do this????

Do we have to use any API to trap the Key pressed???

Guys/gals Its urgent, do come up with u r views and ideas.

Playing this back to you:

You want to trap the ASCII 255 (wake up) character anytime it is sent to the system and then decide to do something with it.. It doesn't matter which program had/has the focus.

Your only choice is a system-wide hook. These can be implemented only as a .dll They monitor ALL user I/O to the system. There are some .dll's you can get at:

www.desaware.com - they make a keyboard/mouse hook program that traps all of the i/o

I do not know of any free versions. Try a www.google.com search

It is possible to do it even in VB.


Module code

VB Code:

Option Explicit
Public Type KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT
    vkCode As Long
    scanCode As Long
    flags As Long
    time As Long
    dwExtraInfo As Long
End Type
Public Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (Destination As Any, Source As Any, ByVal Length As Long)
Public Declare Function GetKeyState Lib "user32" (ByVal nVirtKey As Long) As Integer
Public Declare Function SetWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowsHookExA" (ByVal idHook As Long, ByVal lpfn As Long, ByVal hmod As Long, ByVal dwThreadId As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function CallNextHookEx Lib "user32" (ByVal hHook As Long, ByVal nCode As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
Public Declare Function UnhookWindowsHookEx Lib "user32" (ByVal hHook As Long) As Long
Public Const HC_ACTION = 0
Public Const WM_KEYDOWN = &H100
Public Const WM_KEYUP = &H101
Public Const WM_SYSKEYDOWN = &H104
Public Const WM_SYSKEYUP = &H105
 
Public Const WH_KEYBOARD_LL = 13
Public Const LLKHF_ALTDOWN = &H20
 
 
Dim m_udtKEYBOARDHOOK As KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT
 
Public Function KeyboardProc(ByVal nCode As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, ByVal lParam As Long) As Long
    
    If (nCode = HC_ACTION) Then
        If wParam = WM_KEYDOWN Or wParam = WM_SYSKEYDOWN Or wParam = WM_KEYUP Or wParam = WM_SYSKEYUP Then
            CopyMemory m_udtKEYBOARDHOOK, ByVal lParam, Len(m_udtKEYBOARDHOOK)
            'change this to call your actual EXE, otherwise it will crash
            If .vkCode = 255 Then Shell "C:\YourProgram.exe", vbNormalFocus
        End If
    End If
    
    KeyboardProc = CallNextHookEx(0, nCode, wParam, ByVal lParam)
End Function

Form code

VB Code:

Dim m_lngKeyboad As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    m_lngKeyboad = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, AddressOf KeyboardProc, App.hInstance, 0)
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
    If m_lngKeyboad <> 0 Then UnhookWindowsHookEx m_lngKeyboad
End Sub

Note Do not close the application while in IDE, but press X in the form's title bar. If you close it by pressing END button in IDE you wont be able to hook it again without restarting the IDE.