Business
Jobs
  • About Us
  • Solutions
    • Job Postings
      Post your job and receive qualified candidates in 48h.
    • Candidate Assessments
      500+ technical and psychological tests, plus anti-fraud.
    • Headhunting
      Tailor-made executive search from start to finish.
    • Payroll + EOR
      Payroll dispersal and EOR across 15+ LATAM countries.
  • Pricing
  • Jobs

0

258
Views
Using global hotkeys in Powershell

I'm currently making a very basic script that takes a screenshot of the computer every 10 minutes. However, I've now been asked to also add in the option to click a hotkey to activate it manually.

I found this, which essentially helps me some of the way:

Add-Type -TypeDefinition '
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace KeyLogger {
  public static class Program {
    private const int WH_KEYBOARD_LL = 13;
    private const int WM_KEYDOWN = 0x0100;

    private static HookProc hookProc = HookCallback;
    private static IntPtr hookId = IntPtr.Zero;
    private static int keyCode = 0;

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr CallNextHookEx(IntPtr hhk, int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern bool UnhookWindowsHookEx(IntPtr hhk);

    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr SetWindowsHookEx(int idHook, HookProc lpfn, IntPtr hMod, uint dwThreadId);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr GetModuleHandle(string lpModuleName);

    public static int WaitForKey() {

        hookId = SetHook(hookProc);
        Application.Run();
        UnhookWindowsHookEx(hookId);
        return keyCode;

    }

    private static IntPtr SetHook(HookProc hookProc) {
          IntPtr moduleHandle = GetModuleHandle(Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainModule.ModuleName);
          return SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, hookProc, moduleHandle, 0);
    }

    private delegate IntPtr HookProc(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    private static IntPtr HookCallback(int nCode, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam) {
          if (nCode >= 0 && wParam == (IntPtr)WM_KEYDOWN) {
            keyCode = Marshal.ReadInt32(lParam);
            Application.Exit();
      }
      return CallNextHookEx(hookId, nCode, wParam, lParam);
    }
  }
}
' -ReferencedAssemblies System.Windows.Forms

DO
{
    $IsTrue = $true
    while ($IsTrue -eq $true) {        
        $key = [System.Windows.Forms.Keys][KeyLogger.Program]::WaitForKey()
        if ($key -eq "F2") {
            
            #Do something
            
            $IsTrue = $false
        }
    }

} Until ($SomeValue -eq $true)

Problem is, how do I have this work, so that if the key hasn't been pressed in 10 minutes, the script will then execute the remainder of the script? Because as it is right now, it waits until a key has pressed, before going any further.

Thanks in advance!

over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo
1 answers
Answer question

0

you are going to need the following in the while loop. The counter will break out at 10 min

DO
{
#$i makes a timer / counter
    $i = 0
    $IsTrue = $true
    while ($IsTrue -eq $true) {        
        $key = [System.Windows.Forms.Keys][KeyLogger.Program]::WaitForKey()
#at 600 seconds or 10 mins the $i counter will break this loop.
        if ($key -eq "F2" -or $i -eq 600) {
            
            #Do something
            
            $IsTrue = $false
        }

#Sleep waits a second
        Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
#Counter $i adds 1
        $I++
    }

} Until ($SomeValue -eq $true)

The following works for time and F2

#$i makes a timer / counter
$i = 0
$IsTrue = $true
while ($IsTrue -eq $true) {  
    If ([Console]::KeyAvailable -or $i -eq 30) {
        [Console]::ReadKey('F2') | Out-Null
        $IsTrue = $false
    }
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
    #Counter $i adds 1
    $I++
}
over 4 years ago · Santiago Trujillo Report
Answer question
Find remote jobs

Discover the new way to find a job!

Top jobs
Top job categories
Business
Post vacancy Pricing Sales
Legal
Terms and conditions Privacy policy
© 2026 PeakU Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Andres GPT
Show me some job opportunities
There's an error!