Onscreen keyboard Windows

[Sver]

'onscreen keyboard 


C:\Windows\System32\osk.exe  doesn't work with RUN

but you can make a shortcut, then    (name:   Onscreen keyboard   )

run "explorer Onscreen keyboard.lnk"


[tsh73]

Disclaimer:
I officially do not know what I am doing while calling API.
Use at your own discretion.

Some googling - stack overflow -
stackoverflow.com/questions/50510093/using-windows-10-on-screen-keyboard-in-qt-app/50510526#50510526
Relevant quote:

Edit: It has come to my attention that launching OSK requires a little finesse. You can do it like this:

#include <shellapi.h>

void *was;
Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection (&was);
ShellExecuteA (NULL, "open", "osk.exe", NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
Wow64RevertWow64FsRedirection (was);
The Wow64... calls are only needed in a 32 bit app, and you need to link with shell32.lib.

So. Apparently LB is 32 bit, but Windows nowadays 64.

So this snippet works for me (but I do not know what harm Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection could cause)
'#include <shellapi.h>

'void *was;
'Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection (&was);
'ShellExecuteA (NULL, "open", "osk.exe", NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
'Wow64RevertWow64FsRedirection (was);

'run "osk.exe"

'was$=string$(4000); 'buf


'Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection (&was);
CallDLL #Kernel32, "Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection", was$ as ptr, ret as ulong
print "ret=", ret


'ShellExecuteA (NULL, "open", "osk.exe", NULL, NULL, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
showWindow = 1
CallDLL #shell32, "ShellExecuteA",_
0 as ulong, "open" as ptr,_
"osk.exe" as ptr, 0 as ulong,_
0 as ulong, showWindow as long, ret as ulong

print "ret2=", ret

       
'Wow64RevertWow64FsRedirection (was);
'
CallDLL #Kernel32, "Wow64RevertWow64FsRedirection", was$ as ptr, ret as ulong
print "ret3=", ret


[Brandon Parker]

Unless you explicitly open the kernel32.dll as "#Kernel32" in your code, you will have to change the handle to "#kernel32" for the calls to the redirect functions to work.

For the Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection and Wow64DisableWow64FsRedirection functions, I would use a "long" as their return type.


Other than that, it looks like it works as intended and is a great use for the two functions since I think it has been some time since the 32-bit version of osk.exe was in the SysWOW directory.


{:0)

Brandon Parker

[meerkat]

I'm using Run Basic. There are lots of Virtual keyboard interfaces available. For example:Virtual Keyboard
I prefer to use a Javascript interface since it's easy to create your own keyboard actions via program control.

[xxgeek]

Nov 27, 2023 3:44:36 GMT -5 Sver said:

'onscreen keyboard 


C:\Windows\System32\osk.exe  doesn't work with RUN

but you can make a shortcut, then    (name:   Onscreen keyboard   )

run "explorer Onscreen keyboard.lnk"


It works!
Thanks

Been looking for a good way to open the Onscreen Keyboard in code.


   'Make Desktop Shortcut to OnScreen Keyboard and RUN it  -  using VB Script
   'Does NOT leave the shortcut behind after opening Onscreen KeyBoard
   'by xxgeek
   'Nov 2023
   'an example to use in code to create desktop shorcuts
   nomainwin
   filepath$ = "c:\Windows\System32\osk.exe"  'or use the filedialog line above to choose
   nameOffile$ = "Onscreen Keyboard"  ' Give the Shorcut a Desired Name
   call MDS  'call sub MakeDesktopShortcut(MDS) to write a VB Script that creates the shortcut
   run "explorer ";nameOffile$;".lnk"  'opens the file with asscociated program
   kill DefaultDir$;"\desktopShortcut.vbs"
   end

   'write/run a vbs script to create a desktop shortcut to selected file and open it in an asscociated program.
sub MDS
   q$=chr$(34)
   global filepath$, nameOffile$
   desktopShortcut$ = "desktopShortcut.vbs"
   open desktopShortcut$ for output as #1
   #1 "Set Shell = CreateObject(";q$;"WScript.Shell";q$;")"
   #1 "DesktopPath = Shell.SpecialFolders(";q$;"Desktop";q$;")"
   #1 "Set link = Shell.CreateShortcut(DesktopPath & ";q$;"\";nameOffile$;".lnk";q$;")"
   #1 "link.Description = ";q$;"Shortcut to  ";filepath$;q$
   #1 "link.TargetPath = ";q$;filepath$;q$
   #1 "link.Save"
   #1 "Set link = nothing"
   #1 "Set Shell = nothing"
   close #1
   run "wscript ";desktopShortcut$
   call pause 500
end sub

'sub to  create pauses in program
sub pause mil
   t=time$("ms")+mil
   while time$("ms")<t
       scan
   wend
end sub


[Chris Iverson]

The SysNative special folder is supposed to be able to do this, but it doesn't seem to work quite right in LB. Or maybe it's an issue with the system? I can't get it to work properly in C, either.

The SysNative special folder is exactly that: a non-existent folder that signals to the Wow64 redirection layer that you're trying to access the actual 64-bit executables in C:\Windows\System32. It ONLY works if you're running as a 32-bit process under Wow64. It won't work if you're running it on 32-bit Windows, or if a 64-bit process tries to use it.

run "C:\Windows\SysNative\osk.exe"

This doesn't work, but from my understanding of the SysNative folder, it should.

However, you CAN use the SysNative special folder to invoke the 64-bit command prompt, and launch the OSK from there.

run "C:\Windows\SysNative\cmd.exe /c start osk.exe"

(I use "start" so that the CMD window disappears)

The SysNative folder definitely works for other things, so I don't know why it doesn't work for OSK.

[tsh73]

This solution
run "C:\Windows\SysNative\cmd.exe /c start osk.exe"
is really nice.

Does it work for Win 11?

[xxgeek]

Well that sure beats writing and running a VB Script, thanks for posting Chris. Something I have not heard mentioned before.

It opens the door to many other 64 bit programs in System32.

[Sver]

Thanks all ! 

Hide the cmd window.


run "C:\Windows\SysNative\cmd.exe /c start osk.exe" ,HIDE