Following on from the answer @tymes provided, here is a quick console app which demonstrates opening the keyboard and changing various settings (C#).:
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using Microsoft.Win32;
namespace CSharpTesting
{
class Program
{
/// <summary>
/// The different layout types on the virtual keyboard.
/// </summary>
public enum KeyboardLayoutMode
{
Default,
ThumbLayout,
Handwriting
}
/// <summary>
/// The registry key which holds the keyboard settings.
/// </summary>
private static readonly RegistryKey registryKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey("Software\\Microsoft\\TabletTip\\1.7");
static void Main(string[] args)
{
SetKeyboardDockedMode(true);
SetKeyboardLayoutMode(KeyboardLayoutMode.ThumbLayout);
ShowKeyboard(true);
}
/// <summary>
/// Shows the onscreen keyboard.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="killExistingProcess">If true, kill any existing TabTip.exe process.</param>
public static void ShowKeyboard(bool killExistingProcess)
{
if (killExistingProcess)
{
// If the user presses the close button on the keyboard then TabTip.exe will still run in the background. If we have made registry
// changes to the keyboard settings, they don't take effect until the process is started again so killing this ensures the keyboard
// will open with our new settings.
foreach (var process in Process.GetProcessesByName("TabTip"))
{
process.Kill();
}
}
string onScreenKeyboardPath = @"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\TabTip.exe";
Process.Start(onScreenKeyboardPath);
}
/// <summary>
/// Sets if the keyboard is in docked or floating mode.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="isDocked">If true set to docked, if false set to floating.</param>
private static void SetKeyboardDockedMode(bool isDocked)
{
registryKey.SetValue("EdgeTargetDockedState", Convert.ToInt32(isDocked), RegistryValueKind.DWord);
}
/// <summary>
/// Changes the layout mode of the keyboard.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="mode">The layout mode to use.</param>
private static void SetKeyboardLayoutMode(KeyboardLayoutMode mode)
{
switch (mode)
{
case KeyboardLayoutMode.Handwriting:
registryKey.SetValue("KeyboardLayoutPreference", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
registryKey.SetValue("LastUsedModalityWasHandwriting", 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
break;
case KeyboardLayoutMode.ThumbLayout:
registryKey.SetValue("KeyboardLayoutPreference", 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
registryKey.SetValue("LastUsedModalityWasHandwriting", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
// 0 = small, 1 = medium, 2 = large
registryKey.SetValue("ThumbKeyboardSizePreference", 2, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
break;
default:
registryKey.SetValue("KeyboardLayoutPreference", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
registryKey.SetValue("LastUsedModalityWasHandwriting", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
break;
}
}
}
}
