Question

I have a form with a single text box on it. No other controls. Whenever I type the ‘Enter’ key or the ‘Esc’ key, the form functions as I desire; but I hear that horrible Windows error sound. The code looks similar to the following…

public class EntryForm: Form
{
  public EntryForm()
  {
  }

  private void EntryTextBox_KeyUp(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
  {
    if(e.KeyCode == Keys.Enter)
    {
      // do some stuff
      Hide(); // I've also used DialogResult = DialogResult.OK here
      e.Handled = true;
    }
    else if(e.KeyCode == Keys.Escape)
    {
      Hide(); // I've also used DialogResult = DialogResult.Cancel here
      e.Handled = true;
    }
  }
}

I can ‘hack’ it and make the noise stop by adding the following code to the form’s constructor.

AcceptButton = new Button();
CancelButton = new Button();

As I stated this causes the sound to not play, but I think this is bad form; especially since I don’t need a button on the form.

Anyone know why this is the behavior and if there is a cleaner way to stop the error sound from playing?

Answer 1

There’s a more “correct” fix, one that works regardless of how many controls you have and follows the Windows Forms design model. Paste this code into your form:

protected override bool ProcessCmdKey(ref Message msg, Keys keyData) {
  if (keyData == Keys.Escape || keyData == Keys.Enter) {
    this.Hide();
    return true;
  }
  return base.ProcessCmdKey(ref msg, keyData);
}