[jr2]

Though you guys might find this (quoted in full below) useful.  Although, if you implement it, then it'd be nice if you assigned a key to be able to minimize FS2, as it is extremely handy to be able to do so... it's just a pain in the butt when you do it by accident.  XD


Disabling Shortcut Keys in Games

By Jason Sandlin, Software Development Lead

XNA Developer Connection (XDC)

December 2004

This document describes how to temporarily disable keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft® Windows® to prevent disruption of game play for full screen games. The SHIFT key and the CTRL key are often used as fire or run buttons in games. Accidentally pressing the Windows key (located near these keys) can cause the user to suddenly jump out of the application, ruining the game experience. Simply using the SHIFT key as a game button can inadvertently execute the StickyKeys shortcut which may display a warning dialog. To avoid these issues, you should disable these keys when running in full-screen mode, and either enable the keys back to their default handlers when running in windowed mode or exit the application.

This article describes how to do the following:

    * Disable the Windows Key with a Keyboard Hook
    * Disable the Accessibility Shortcut Keys

Disable the Windows Key with a Keyboard Hook

Use a low-level keyboard hook to filter out the Windows key from being processed. The low-level keyboard hook shown in Example 1 remains in effect even if a user minimizes the window or switches to another application. This means that you must be careful to ensure that the Windows key is not disabled when the application is deactivated. The code in Example 1 does this by handling the WM_ACTIVATEAPP message.

Note    This method works on Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows. This method also works with least-privileged user accounts (also known as limited-user accounts).

This method is used by DXUT and is illustrated in the following code example.

Example 1. Using a low-level keyboard hook to disable the Windows key

HHOOK g_hKeyboardHook;
BOOL g_bFullscreen;
 
INT WINAPI WinMain( HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPSTR, int )
{
    // Initialization
    g_hKeyboardHook = SetWindowsHookEx( WH_KEYBOARD_LL,  LowLevelKeyboardProc, GetModuleHandle(NULL), 0 );
 
    //
    // main application code here
    //
 
    // Cleanup before shutdown
    UnhookWindowsHookEx( g_hKeyboardHook );
}
 
 
LRESULT CALLBACK LowLevelKeyboardProc( int nCode, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam )
{
    if (nCode < 0 || nCode != HC_ACTION )  // do not process message
        return CallNextHookEx( g_hKeyboardHook, nCode, wParam, lParam);
 
    bool bEatKeystroke = false;
    KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT* p = (KBDLLHOOKSTRUCT*)lParam;
    switch (wParam)
    {
        case WM_KEYDOWN: 
        case WM_KEYUP:   
        {
            bEatKeystroke = (g_bFullscreen && g_bWindowActive && ((p->vkCode == VK_LWIN) || (p->vkCode == VK_RWIN)));
            break;
        }
    }
 
    if( bEatKeystroke )
        return 1;
    else
        return CallNextHookEx( g_hKeyboardHook, nCode, wParam, lParam );
}
 
 
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc( HWND hWnd, UINT uMsg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam )
{
    switch( uMsg )
    {
       case WM_ACTIVATEAPP:
            // g_bWindowActive is used to control if the Windows key is filtered by the keyboard hook or not.
            if( wParam == TRUE )
                g_bWindowActive  = true;           
            else
                g_bWindowActive  = false;           
            break;
    }
}

Disable the Accessibility Shortcut Keys

Windows includes accessibility features such as StickyKeys, FilterKeys, and ToggleKeys (see Windows Accessability). Each of these serves a different purpose; StickyKeys for example, is designed for people who have difficulty holding down two or more keys simultaneously. Each of these accessibility features also has a keyboard shortcut that allows the feature to be turned on or off. For example, the StickyKeys shortcut is triggered by pressing the SHIFT key five times. If the SHIFT key is also used in the game, the user could accidentally trigger this shortcut during game play. When the shortcut is triggered, Windows (by default) presents a warning in a dialog box, which would cause Windows to minimize a game running in full-screen mode. This, of course, can have a drastic effect on game play.

The accessibility features are required for some customers and do not themselves interfere with full-screen games; therefore, you should not change the accessibility settings. However, because the shortcuts for accessibility features can disrupt game play if triggered accidentally, you should turn off an accessibility shortcut only when that feature is not enabled by calling SystemParametersInfo.

An accessibility shortcut that is turned off by SystemParametersInfo remains turned off even after the application has exited. This means that you must restore the settings before exiting the application. Because it is possible for the application to fail to exit correctly, you should write these settings to persistent storage so that they can be restored when the application is run again. You could also use an exception handler to restore these settings if a crash occurs.

To turn off these shortcuts, you need to:

   1. Capture the current accessibility settings before disabling them.
   2. Disable the accessibility shortcut when the application goes into full-screen mode if the accessibility feature is off.
   3. Restore the accessibility settings when the application goes into windowed mode or exits.

This method is used in DXUT, and is illustrated in the following code example.

Note    This method works when running on a limited user account.

Example 2. Disabling accessibility shortcut keys

STICKYKEYS g_StartupStickyKeys = {sizeof(STICKYKEYS), 0};
TOGGLEKEYS g_StartupToggleKeys = {sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), 0};
FILTERKEYS g_StartupFilterKeys = {sizeof(FILTERKEYS), 0};   
 
 
INT WINAPI WinMain( HINSTANCE, HINSTANCE, LPSTR, int )
{
    // Save the current sticky/toggle/filter key settings so they can be restored them later
    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETSTICKYKEYS, sizeof(STICKYKEYS), &g_StartupStickyKeys, 0);
    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETTOGGLEKEYS, sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), &g_StartupToggleKeys, 0);
    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETFILTERKEYS, sizeof(FILTERKEYS), &g_StartupFilterKeys, 0);
 
    // Disable when full screen
    AllowAccessibilityShortcutKeys( true );
 
    // Restore back when going to windowed or shutting down
    AllowAccessibilityShortcutKeys( false );
}
 
 
void AllowAccessibilityShortcutKeys( bool bAllowKeys )
{
    if( bAllowKeys )
    {
        // Restore StickyKeys/etc to original state and enable Windows key     
        STICKYKEYS sk = g_StartupStickyKeys;
        TOGGLEKEYS tk = g_StartupToggleKeys;
        FILTERKEYS fk = g_StartupFilterKeys;
       
        SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSTICKYKEYS, sizeof(STICKYKEYS), &g_StartupStickyKeys, 0);
        SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETTOGGLEKEYS, sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), &g_StartupToggleKeys, 0);
        SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFILTERKEYS, sizeof(FILTERKEYS), &g_StartupFilterKeys, 0);
    }
    else
    {
        // Disable StickyKeys/etc shortcuts but if the accessibility feature is on,
        // then leave the settings alone as its probably being usefully used
 
        STICKYKEYS skOff = g_StartupStickyKeys;
        if( (skOff.dwFlags & SKF_STICKYKEYSON) == 0 )
        {
            // Disable the hotkey and the confirmation
            skOff.dwFlags &= ~SKF_HOTKEYACTIVE;
            skOff.dwFlags &= ~SKF_CONFIRMHOTKEY;
 
            SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETSTICKYKEYS, sizeof(STICKYKEYS), &skOff, 0);
        }
 
        TOGGLEKEYS tkOff = g_StartupToggleKeys;
        if( (tkOff.dwFlags & TKF_TOGGLEKEYSON) == 0 )
        {
            // Disable the hotkey and the confirmation
            tkOff.dwFlags &= ~TKF_HOTKEYACTIVE;
            tkOff.dwFlags &= ~TKF_CONFIRMHOTKEY;
 
            SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETTOGGLEKEYS, sizeof(TOGGLEKEYS), &tkOff, 0);
        }
 
        FILTERKEYS fkOff = g_StartupFilterKeys;
        if( (fkOff.dwFlags & FKF_FILTERKEYSON) == 0 )
        {
            // Disable the hotkey and the confirmation
            fkOff.dwFlags &= ~FKF_HOTKEYACTIVE;
            fkOff.dwFlags &= ~FKF_CONFIRMHOTKEY;
 
            SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETFILTERKEYS, sizeof(FILTERKEYS), &fkOff, 0);
        }
    }
}

[phreak]

you could have just linked the article.

[Goober5000]

Neato.  This would be a very good SCP patch.

[jr2]

you could have just linked the article.

I did:

Though you guys might find this (quoted in full below) useful.  Although, if you implement it, then it'd be nice if you assigned a key to be able to minimize FS2, as it is extremely handy to be able to do so... it's just a pain in the butt when you do it by accident.  XD

[WMCoolmon]

He means that you didn't have to quote it in your post after you had already linked it.

[Goober5000]

Eh, leave him alone.  Quoting the article is good; it means we don't need to click on his link to find out what the article says.  Quoting a linked article is fairly common on the internets.

EDIT: Okay, I spent some time checking this out and was finally able to add the Windows key, which I think is the most important thing here.  It's not perfect, nor does it do everything in the article, but it should solve 99% of problems.

[jr2]

... So, did you manage to get the Windows key to be able to be mapped to something useful?  XD  *runs*

[Goober5000]

I unmapped it.  I didn't map it to anything new.

[jr2]

I meant, unmap it from showing the Desktop, and allow it to be used, for example, as another modifier besides Shift or Alt... prolly impossible; I was only joking.  XD

[Grizzly]

Ihatethiskey is also an usefull program.. but its shareware.