Question

I have developed a Windows Forms application which is used on a touchscreen computer. Is it possible to display a keyboard when the user clicks on an input box (textbox)? And how can i do that ?

Answer 1

Are you aware Windows has an on screen keyboard?

In Windows 7 it is All Programs > Accesseries > Ease Of Access > On Screen Keyboard.

You can write you own if you want, but I use the Windows one all the time when I do not feel like picking up the keyboard.

You can create a shortcut to it:

The location is %windir%\system32\osk.exe

So to launch it, in the TextBox_Click event (or whatever event you want to fire)

// Should work, I have not tested it.
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(“c:\Windows\System32\osk.exe”);

Just an update: On my machine at work I got an error trying to run that code (I built it as a test) and I had to copy the osk.exe to another directory and then launch it and it worked.

    /// <summary>
    /// Test to show launching on screen board (osk.exe).
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="sender"></param>
    /// <param name="e"></param>
    private void textBox1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        try
        {
            Process.Start(@"c:\Temp\OSK.exe");
        }
        catch (Exception error)
        {
            string err = error.ToString();
        }
    }

And this code worked.