HOWTO: Programmatically Undock Using the Keyboard Buffer

• Microsoft Win32 Device Driver Kit (DDK) Windows 95
• Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit (SDK)

SUMMARY

Windows 95 does not support a direct API to programmatically undock a laptop computer. However, you can undock the laptop by sending the appropriate keystroke sequence for the machine to the keyboard buffer.

MORE INFORMATION

From a VxD, you can use VKD_Force_Keys to force scan codes into the keyboard buffer just as if they had been typed on the physical keyboard. These keys are processed in the context of the focus virtual machine.

From an application, you can use the keybd_event function to synthesize the appropriate keystrokes to undock a laptop. The code below sends a CTRL ESC sequence:

      #include <windows.h>

      main()
      {
          keybd_event( VK_CONTROL,0x9d, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY | 0, 0);
          keybd_event( VK_ESCAPE,0x81, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY | 0, 0 );
          keybd_event( VK_ESCAPE,0x81, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY |
   KEYEVENTF_KEYUP,0 );
          keybd_event( VK_CONTROL,0x9d, KEYEVENTF_EXTENDEDKEY |
   KEYEVENTF_KEYUP, 0 );
      } 

REFERENCES

See the Windows 95 DDK for more information on VKD_Force_Keys. See the Win32 SDK for more information on keybd_event.

Keywords          : 
Version           : 4.0
Platform          : NT WINDOWS 
Issue type        : 

Last Reviewed: March 3, 1999