Question

Is there a way to programmatically open and show the Windows 7 on-screen keyboard using .NET? I’ve found two potential solutions but neither work. My app is WPF/.NET 4.

The first approach is from the two following links, but they require the on-screen keyboard to already be open as they use the FindWindow Win32 call:

http://hot-virtual-keyboard.com/development/q1/
Finding the class name of the On-Screen Keyboard?

The other route I’ve tried was this (Show up the On Screen keyboard if the user sets the focus on a textfield. WPF with .Net 4 Client profile):

Process.Start("osk.exe");

But this call just fails with a message box that says “Could not start On-Screen Keyboard”.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

What platform do you compile your application for? If it’s set to x86 that might cause that error if your system is 64 bit.

Edit: Just found this question which might be helpful if this is actually the cause.