Keys

If you're looking for a keyboard monitor, where you'll be able to monitor keyboard inputs although you're application is not the active one, you'll be needing global hooks. AFAIK, there's no easy function in .net for these.

This article is about Global System Hooks in .Net. You could filter it to use only keyboard hooks instead.

Otherwise, if you're monitoring keyboard activity within your application (winform) only, then a simple Keypress event would do it for you.

Hope this helps

Regards,
Jan

Something like this?

using System;

using System.Collections;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Data;

using System.Drawing;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace SleepOnKeyStrokes

{

public partial class Form1 : Form

{

 

   #region Dynamic Link Library Imports

   

   [DllImport("user32.dll")]

   private static extern int RegisterHotKey(IntPtr hwnd, int id, int fsModifiers, int vk);

 

   [DllImport("user32.dll")]

   private static extern int UnregisterHotKey(IntPtr hwnd, int id);

 

   #endregion

 

   #region Modifier Constants and Variables

 

   // Constants for modifier keys

   private const int USE_ALT = 1;

   private const int USE_CTRL = 2;

   private const int USE_SHIFT = 4;

   private const int USE_WIN = 8;

 

   // Hot key ID tracker

   short mHotKeyId = 0;

 

   #endregion

 

 

 

   public Form1()

   {

      InitializeComponent();

 

      // Setup ALT+F7- Sleep for three seconds

      RegisterGlobalHotKey(Keys.F7, USE_ALT);

   }

 

 

   private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

   {

      Application.Exit();

   }

 

   private void RegisterGlobalHotKey(Keys hotkey, int modifiers)

   {

      try

      {

         // increment the hot key value - we are just identifying

         // them with a sequential number since we have multiples

         mHotKeyId++;

 

         if (mHotKeyId > 0)

         {

            // register the hot key combination

            if (RegisterHotKey(this.Handle, mHotKeyId, modifiers, Convert.ToInt16(hotkey)) == 0)

            {

               // tell the user which combination failed to register -

               // this is useful to you, not an end user; the end user

               // should never see this application run

               MessageBox.Show("Error: " + mHotKeyId.ToString() + " - " +

               Marshal.GetLastWin32Error().ToString(),

               "Hot Key Registration");

            }

         }

      }

      catch

      {

         // clean up if hotkey registration failed -

         // nothing works if it fails

         UnregisterGlobalHotKey();

      }

   }

 

   private void UnregisterGlobalHotKey()

   {

         // loop through each hotkey id and

         // disable it

         for (int i = 0; i < mHotKeyId; i++)

         {

            UnregisterHotKey(this.Handle, i);

         }

      }

 

   protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)

   {

      base.WndProc(ref m);

      // if the message matches,

      // disregard it

      const int WM_HOTKEY = 0x312;

      if (m.Msg == WM_HOTKEY)

      {

         System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000);

         MessageBox.Show("Wake");

      }

   }

 

   private void Form1_FormClosed(object sender, FormClosedEventArgs e)

   {

      // unregister the hot keys or they will survive the application exit

      UnregisterGlobalHotKey();

      }

   }

 

}