I want to provide an option with a media player I'm working on for the media keys to work even when it's minimized. What's the best way to capture and process those key events in C# without having focus? Is it even possible?
I don't think that there is an easy way to do this but this (Using Window Messages to Implement Global System Hooks in C#) project may help. I added below code
_GlobalHooks.Keyboard.KeyboardEvent += (w, l) =>
{
this.LblMouse.Text = "KEY: " + w.ToInt32().ToString("X8") + " " + l.ToInt32().ToString("X8");
};
_GlobalHooks.Keyboard.Start();
to the constructor of Form1 of GlobalHookTest and was able to monitor all the keyboard events.
You can do that but only with some global hooking - for source code and details see
EDIT:
BEWARE that some Media Keys get translated into APP_COMMAND
Windows messages - so you should think about hooking those too.
IF you want to make your mediaplayer automagically start on the press of a (media) key see the links here.
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