Home/ Questions/Q 8165237
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-06T19:29:23+00:00

I’m trying to send a ALT-S to a dialog prompt for saving a file

  • 0

I’m trying to send a ALT-S to a dialog prompt for saving a file using PostMessage : 

PostMessage(h, WM_KEYDOWN, VK_MENU, 0);
PostMessage(h, WM_KEYDOWN, ord('S'), 0);
PostMessage(h, WM_KEYUP, ord('S'), 0);
PostMessage(h, WM_KEYUP, VK_MENU, 0);

But it does not work. It sends the two keys, but it’s as if the ALT condition is not recognised by the dialog box, and handled as a normal S character.

I’ve done a LOT of reading, including this (which produces an error), it seems I need to do something in the lparam to indicate ALT is depressed. Some sources say 0x20000000 but this does not work either.

SendInput, keybd_event, etc will not work for me, since the dialog box will not be in focus.

I’m quite stumped would appreciate some insight.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    By far the easiest way to press a button on another form is to send a WM_COMMAND message rather than faking input. Faking input is a tricky business and can often fail to do what you desire.

    Send the WM_COMMAND to the top level window. Pass notification code BN_CLICKED as wParam and the buttons ID as lParam.

    You can use FindWindow or EnumWindows to obtain the handle of the top-level window. A program like Spy++ would enable you to find out the ID of the target button.

    • 0