Call a method when specific key combination is pressed anywhere in the app, as long as application is currently focused window

Question

My objective is to allow users of my app to bringup what I'm calling my debug console by pressing CTRL + F11 on their keyboard.

Simply put, I need to call a ToggleDebug(); method, which will enable my debug tracing code and display the window. I'd like for my application to do this at any point when CTRL + F11 is pressed, regardless of where the user currently has focus the cursor as long as my application is the currently focused window.

My app is deployed through Click Once -- so its a partial trust type environment.

In an old VB6 app, I had been using a wend loop with call to DoEvents() and a windows API call... needless to say, I'm hoping there is a better way now.

Answer 1

You can handle the PreviewKeyDown event of your window.

public MainWindow()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    this.PreviewKeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(MainWindow_PreviewKeyDown);
}

void MainWindow_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if ((e.Key == Key.F11) && (Keyboard.Modifiers == ModifierKeys.Control))
    { 

    }
}

Answer 2

I would just add a PreviewKeyDown event to your primary window of your application. It's the easiest thing to do.

void primaryWindow_PreviewKeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Key == Key.F11 && Keyboard.Modifiers == ModifierKeys.Control)
    {
        //do something...
    }
}