Thread: Is it possible to send keystrokes to a background window?

So I have basic java knowledge from 1st year of college and I wrote a program recently that sends keystrokes with the Robot class. Now I would like it to do the same but to send it to a window that isnt my active one.. Ive searched and from what Ive found it seems like you cant do that in java, I need another language like C# (whick sux for me since i dont know any other then java).. Is this true? If not how would i send something to notepad for example while it is not the active window?

Intercepting or "hearing" the keystrokes has to be done by the currently active or focused window, but once received, the keystrokes can be forwarded to any other program object. Write a simple example to accomplish what you've described, and if you have problems with it, post it and ask for help.

Originally Posted by GregBrannon

Intercepting or "hearing" the keystrokes has to be done by the currently active or focused window, but once received, the keystrokes can be forwarded to any other program object. Write a simple example to accomplish what you've described, and if you have problems with it, post it and ask for help.

Well sure, this is how my whole code works, it just sends code to active window. Now if anyone would be able to make this code be sent to notepad (for example) while its in the background it would blow my mind.

	    public static void main(String[] args) throws AWTException,IOException {
 
			    Robot robot = new Robot();
 
			  robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_N);
			  robot.delay(100);
			  robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_N);
 
			}