VB Simulate a key press

Question

In my program, I want to simulate the pressing of the MediaPlayPause key. Just as a note, I do not want to check to see if the key is down or pressed, I want to press the key via my program.

I have tried SendKeys.Send but the special keys are limited to {Enter} and {Tab}, etc.

Answer 1

Ok, I ported the c# code from this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/7182076/2000557

I don't know VB.Net, but it wasn't too hard to copy over using this guide: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/172wfck9.aspx

Anyway, I put a button on the form with a click event.

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Public Class Form1

    'this constant represents the hex value for the key to send to user32.dll
    Const APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE = &HE0000
    'this constant represents which command. Sort of like the function in user32.dll we are calling.
    Const WM_APPCOMMAND = &H319

    'this declares the user32.dll call to SendMessageW we are making
    Declare Auto Function SendMessageW Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SendMessageW" (
    ByVal hWnd As Integer,
    ByVal Msg As Integer,
    ByVal wParam As Integer,
    ByVal lParam As Integer) As Integer

    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        'call the SendMessage function with the current window handle, the command we want to use, same handle, and the button we want to press
        SendMessageW(Handle, WM_APPCOMMAND, Handle, APPCOMMAND_MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE)
    End Sub
End Class

I tested it by opening WMplayer, and the button play/paused the music I had. Let me know if you need any other help. Here's a reference if you want to implement other keys: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms646275(v=vs.85).aspx