How Keyboard Data Gets Translated

 Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
Article ID: Q104316
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with: 

        - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51
    - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0

Keyboard input is acquired by the keyboard driver, which in turn produces a scan code. This scan code is passed on to the locale-specific Win32 subsystem keyboard driver. This locale-specific driver then converts the scan code to a virtual key and a Unicode character. The Win32 subsystem then passes on this information to the application.

All messages in the Win32 application programming interface (API) that present textual information to a window procedure depend upon how the window registered its class. For example, if RegisterClassW() was called, then Unicode is presented; if RegisterClassA() was called, then ANSI is presented. The conversion of the text is handled by the Window Manager. This allows an ANSI application to send textual information to a Unicode application.

Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 4.00 95
KBCategory: kbui
KBSubcategory: UsrInp

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1995
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