How to bring up the Windows 8 on-screen keyboard in a desktop app

Question

I have a fullscreen DirectX desktop app, and would like to display the on-screen keyboard when the user taps a textbox in my game. Is there a way to do this while in fullscreen mode?

Land

Is there any way to hide the keyboard? – Murmurous

Answer 1

Executing osk.exe will pop up the more old-fashioned on-screen keyboard. The Windows 8 touch keyboard will pop up by executing

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\TabTip.exe

I just figured that out, since I'm working on a fullscreen desktop app that is running on a tablet PC without keyboard attached.

Severin.

Infra

Was looking for a better way of doing it, but this seems to be the only reasonable method that actually works. – Land

And how do you hide it? – Murmurous

Answer 2

Same answer as Severin Stampler but in order to find the correct path from c# I use:

var path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonProgramFiles) + @"\Microsoft Shared\ink\TabTip.exe";

if (!File.Exists(path))
{
   // older windows versions
   path = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System) + @"\osk.exe";
}

Harp

When you're running a 32bit application, TabTip.exe won't be found on a 64bit system. GetFolderPath will give you the "Program Files (x86)" folder, the tabTip.exe in there is called "TabTip32.exe" – Fug

Answer 3

If it is a desktop app, you might need to invoke ShellExecute for osk.exe.

If it is a Metro application, then you cannot invoke the SIP from the app itself. As per the MSDN docs:

This means that applications cannot programmatically invoke the touch keyboard via manipulation of focus. Big culprits here in the past have been webpages—many of them set focus by default in

Ra

Answer 4

You can show the Windows 8 touch keyboard quite easily:

http://brianlagunas.com/showing-windows-8-touch-keyboard-wpf/

Cabasset