I'm looking for a solution to an issue caused by an active directory policy. I use a development desktop PC however that sits under my desk in the office. That PC has a policy on it that puts it to sleep if no keyboard / mouse activity is detected for 4 hours. This is common in my case as I use remote desktop to connect to the machine rather than physically sitting at it.
I've done the logical thing and spoken to IT about getting the PC put into a differnt OU with the policy removed but they haven't acted on this yet and it is really causing me issues. (Easy if you are in the office but a pain if you are working from home!)
So I wondered if there was a simple script I could run that would press the caps lock key twice every 3 hours - but in a way that would be seen by the PC as a physical key press rather than just a script running.
Alternatively I could look into making a usb thumdrive that acts as a keyboard but I think I'd run into security issues there!
Regards
The link of where this information was extracted
The Send Keys method simulates real key strokes.
Here's an example from the same website.
Sub CommentAddOrEdit()
Dim cmt As Comment
Set cmt = ActiveCell.Comment
If cmt Is Nothing Then
ActiveCell.AddComment text:=""
End If
SendKeys "+{F2}"
End Sub
Also it comes with a nice table that translates every key in your keyboard, for the caps lock as you wanted it would be :
{CAPSLOCK}.
I have just found something ready to use:
http://www.symantec.com/connect/downloads/readynosleepexe-prevents-screensaver-and-pc-locking
It does not exactly do what you are asking for, but helps to solve your initial problem.
It moves your cursor side to side by a couple of pixels.
Following the link you could find a zip with .exe and source file in it.
The source file can be changed ( for example, to change the timeout ) and recompiled by this tool:
https://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/intro/compiler.htm
This .exe has an icon in the tray to provide a way to stop it ( or you can just kill the process from the process manager ). it also needs less than 1 MB of RAM.
Related
as the title indicates I need help with the on-screen keyboard properties.
I have to configure a script, which I will deploy through SCCM in 30 terminals, and I need to make the keyboard go on screen as soon as I start the pc.
I have already solved this by adding this key to the registry
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run Clavier_Visuel = "C:\Windows\System32\osk.exe"
The problem is that I can't find a place to set the parameters of the keyboard: Remove the X to close it, display the PAD number, set the language to French and make it fit the screen.
This can be done manually, but that's not the goal.
Another point is that different users will be logged into the computers, so I can't set the condition to single user, but it should be general for all.
If you can help me it would be great, since I have not found anything useful so far, a greeting!
I am seeking a possibility to always trigger a second application whenever another application gets started (ideally: right before the latter gets started but probably more or less "at the same time" will suffice).
The issue at hand is, that our company's IT folks for some to me unexplicable reason insist on constantly "adjusting" some Windows registry entries. One of those entries is the flag to memorize the passwords for the mail servers that Outlook keeps polling. Having to re-enter these passwords over and over again is driving me nuts and so meanwhile I also figured out which entries I have to revert to stop this nonsense. I thus now have a .reg file that I always "apply" to the registry right before starting Outlook and that helps me to maintain mental health.
But it is of course tedious to always have to click TWO icons in sequence, when opening my mail app. (Outlook). So, while I could certainly replace all Outlook "shortcuts" with shortcuts to a script file first applying the registry patch and only then starting Outlook I was wondering whether there wouldn't be a more elegant solution.
My question thus: is there an option or tool (e.g. in Windows' task-scheduler) to trigger the start of an application 'B' whenever a specific application 'A' gets is (or is about to be) started?
I've got two keyboards attached to my computer. A normal full-size keyboard and a numeric keypad. I want to "remap" the keys on the numeric keypad, but leave the full keyboard alone. So, when the user presses "5" on the keypad it would get remapped to the "Media Play" key, but if the same "5" was pressed on the keypad of the full keyboard, I'd get a "5". In essence, I want to turn that seperate numeric keypad into a media control device.
Unfortunately I'm not sure how to make this work. There is a "Raw Input" feature of Windows which allows to distinguish between keyboards, but that only allows to read the keys - not remap them. There are keyboard hooks (low level and high level) which can remap the keystrokes, but they don't distinguish between keyboards.
Can I make a combination of the two methods work? For that I'd have to be sure that the raw input message is processed before the keyboard hook kicks in. Is that so?
Also, I've read that Windows for some reason does not allow to use Raw Input and Keyboard Hooks in the same process. I could work around that by making 2 different processes, but that becomes more fragile because of communication latency (keyboard hooks have very limited time in which they must complete their work).
Is this doable at all?
In the end it turned out I needed a custom keyboard driver to accomplish this. Fortunately I found one ready for taking - Interception. The app is ready and works perfectly. :)
I wanted to expand on the answer by Vilx as I've revisited this post several times, and I've only just managed to remap my second keyboard so the keys act uniquely. This is done using Interception and Intercept together, and it's the only working solution that I've managed to get working so far.
I'm also looking into using a raspberry pi to remap a second keyboard. Although early days, I think it it's achievable: Plug keyboard into Pi, plug Pi into PC and write script to turn input keycodes into customized output commands / keycodes. Will update when I have tested.
My working Intercept solution is completely based on a Github tutorial by TaranVH which details the process the best so far. I've copied his solution below with some amends of my own.
DOWNLOADING INTERCEPTION:
Navigate to this page: https://github.com/oblitum/Interception
Click on "download the latest release."
Click on Interception.zip to download it.
Unzip the file to a folder on your computer - I recommend using a folder location that won't ever move. I put my Interception folder into C:\Program Files\ and I'll be using this location in my examples.
INSTALLING INTERCEPTION:
Open a terminal as administrator and type cd "C:\Program Files\Interception\command line installer"
Hit Enter
Now, type in the following line of text exactly as shown:
install-interception.exe /install
Hit Enter
Once the program installs sucessfully, you still must restart your computer in order to complete the installation.
(If you ever want to UNinstall interception, watch this): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hn18vv--sFY
INSTALLING INTERCEPT - (This is different from intercepTION!)
Download Kamaz's intercept.exe zip from one of these locations:
http://octopup.org/img/code/interception/intercept.zip
https://github.com/TaranVH/2nd-keyboard/blob/master/Intercept/intercept.exe
Unzip it if it's a .zip file and locate intercept.exe
To keep these files all in one place, I moved intercept.exe into C:\Program Files\Interception\
Reboot your system.
SETTING UP INTERCEPT
Plug in your second keyboard and ensure that it is working normally.
Go to where you saved intercept.exe and double click to open.
Intercept will open as a terminal, and from there you should have basic instructions to start remapping your keyboard.
Type a to add a key.
On the SECONDARY keyboard, press the Q key once. (this is the key that you are remapping)
You will be prompted with Enter combo for this trigger, end with ESC.
Carefully execute the following keystrokes (it doesn't matter which keyboard): Win + E (That is: hold down the windows key while pressing the letter E. I've found you need to do this quickly and accurately, if you hold down too long, extra keypresses are added)
When I did it, this was shown in the terminal: [Left Windows]↓ [E]↓ [E]↑ [Left Windows]↑
Press Esc and you will be prompted to label the script
I labelled mine Q->WinE so I knew what it was doing.
Press Enter to accept the label
Press S to save the filter, or C to cancel if you made a mistake.
Add more filters or close the terminal.
USING INTERCEPT
Now you've set up a custom key command, you need to apply the filter to use it.
Open up intercept.exe
Press Y to apply the filters, you will get confirmation that the filters have been activated.
Now, when you press Q on your second keyboard, Intercept will change the command to Win+E which will open File Explorer.
Caveat:
Please read TaranVH githubs page on this https://github.com/TaranVH/2nd-keyboard/tree/master/Intercept as it provides some further details and troubleshooting.
Please take care to follow the instructions very exactly as there's very little error handling in this process
In this article http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/remap-keyboard.htm is explained how to remap keys of a keyboard. Hope that helps.
One of my programs seems to be changing the Display Properties > Appearance > Effects > Show window contents while dragging setting to off every few hours.
I'm not sure exactly which program, or when it happens. I have a number of programs that seem like likely culprits - wallpaper rotators, software for multiple monitors, multiple virual desktops and switching, and a few others.
I am just thinking to create a little batch script to run periodically and set the setting back to on.
Does anyone know how to do this in windows? I'm using xp pro sp3.
Thanks!
The best option is to do this programmatically using the supported API. i haven't tested this, but it should do the trick:
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDRAGFULLWINDOWS,
TRUE,
NULL,
SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE | SPIF_SENDCHANGE)
You can use SPI_GETDRAGFULLWINDOWS to see if the the bit has been flipped to avoid unnecessarily triggering a WM_SETTINGCHANGE.
You can use RegMon to find the program that keeps changing your settings. Maybe that's a better start than hacking around it.
There is a simple and effective solution to this problem. In Notepad type the following lines :
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "DragFullWindows"="1"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\DragFullWindows] "CheckedValue"=dword:00000001 "UncheckedValue"=dword:00000001
Save the file as "Show Window Contents.reg" Double clicking this file and restarting will cure the problem permanently. Post a message if you find this useful.
Aravind Banerjee
It seems the registry setting which controls that preference is HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\DragFullWindows. You can read more about it here. However, trying it on my own computer does not register the change right away, so a batch script won't do it. You'll probably have to write a program to manipulate it using SystemParametersInfo(). You can pass it the SPI_SETDRAGFULLWINDOWS parameter. Here's a page explaining it more. Here's a page showing how to call it, albeit not for the same parameter.
I suspect it's kept in the registry - maybe [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] - "DragFullWindows"?
It would be easy to flip the registry setting back to "1" every hour or so with a batch file.
I am currently working on a program to immediately clear the list of previously-run-commands which appears in the Windows Start -> Run dialog. The procedure for clearing this list by removing the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU key is well documented; however, before these changes take effect, it seems to be necessary to do one of the following:
Restart the computer
Select Start -> Shut down, and then select Cancel.
Neither of these is ideal for the task I am trying to accomplish: #1 is extremely disruptive to the user, and #2 appears to require additional user interaction.
Does anyone know how to immediately (and programmatically) force a reload of this information without requiring any user interaction, while also minimizing disruption of the user's other activities? I would like for the user's Run history to be cleared out immediately after executing my program, without requiring any further action on their part (such as using the "Shut Down" -> "Cancel" trick in #2 above) or forcing a reboot.
Or, to approach the problem from a different angle: When clicking Start -> Shut Down -> Cancel, Windows Explorer reloads the RunMUI key. Is there a way to force a similar reload without having the user select Shut Down and then Cancel?
Things I have already tried:
Monitoring the explorer.exe status using procmon while selecting Shutdown and then Cancel. I see Explorer writing to the RunMRU key, but have not been able to determine what triggers this.
Numerous Google searches along the lines of "reload runmru without reboot". Most results still recommend method #1 above, although a few suggest #2.
Limited MSDN API examination. The RegFlushKey call appears promising, but I haven't ever used it before, so I don't know if it will apply to registry information cached by different processes.
Any suggestions or other information would be greatly appreciated.
Have you tried ccleaner?
http://www.ccleaner.com/
Not a full answer to your question, but I did find a third way to trigger the clearing of the run command from this article in PC Mag.
Killing explorer.exe and then restarting it will also clear the run list after the registry modification.
I have a nasty hack for you. Show the window programatically, hide it immediately (programatically) and click cancel on it (well, you guessed, programmatically).
You might try looking for the icon cache flush API, or other ones, I wouldn't be too suprised if they had side effects like the one you are looking for.
I've seen instances where it actually works, even the F5 key doesn't work? Try this, ctrl>alt>delete then go to task manager, processes tab...end explorer.exe. Then click on file new task and type explorer.exe, then check...does that work?
Windows XP
Right click on the taskbar
Properties menu option
Start Menu tab
Customize button
Programs pane
Clear List
Click on OK
This calls a Windows API function that refreshes the explorere.exe taskbar process and also clears the list (no need for registry edits).
As far as I know, it relies on the explorer.exe process that hosts the start menu/taskbar/desktop being closed and reopened. There is no "clean" way to do this that I am aware of.
If you really need to do this without user interaction, you need to close all explorer.exe processes and relaunch one.
Here's a rudimentary C# program to do that;
using System.Diagnostics;
Process[] procs = Process.GetProcessesByName("explorer");
foreach (Process proc in procs)
{
proc.Kill();
}
Process.Start("explorer.exe");
Note that this will close all "Windows Explorer" windows open, and may or may not open an additional "Windows Explorer" afterwards.
I just tested that on Windows XP 32bit, and it did indeed clear the Run command cache.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ RunMRU\