Develop Reference

Convert List of Windows.System.Virtualkey to String

I'm creating an application which will capture a string from an USB attached scanner. I don't want a text box on the form I'm capturing the data on so I've added a handler to the KeyDown event of the window. There is a specific sequence of key presses I can look for to start capturing the data, however, what I can capture is a list of Virtualkeys. That would include LeftShift, v for 'V'
I'm looking for a way to take the array of Virtualkeys and convert that to a string.
Or if you can suggest another way to catpure the text, maybe hidden textbox?
UPDATE
I've positioned a textbox off window and was able to maintain keyboard focus on it so I could capture the data from the barcode scanner.

You can get info whether any VirtualKey is pressed using this:
bool isPressed = Window.Current.CoreWindow.GetKeyState(VirtualKey).HasFlag(CoreVirtualKeyStates.Down);
AFAIK this is the best way of getting to know whether more keys are pressed at the same time.

How to make Sendkeys only send when a valid input is selected?

I have a program with a timer which sends the message "Test" each second via sendkeys, and I have it setup to where it will sendkeys 5 times, then disable the timer!
But I'm wondering if there is a way to only make it send the message if a valid input for it is selected, because it keeps trying to sendkeys when I don't have an input selected(EG: Notepad), and that is not really the desired result!

Not sure I fully understand your situation, but you can check to see if the active control is what you expect it to be by calling
If Screen.ActiveControl.Name <> "MyControl> Then ...
End If
before the SendKeys is executed. You can also set the focus to a control you need it to be focused to with:
Me!YourControlName.SetFocus

Why do Enter and Space keys behave differently for buttons?

As far as I know, these are the only keys that react when a button has focus.
Pressing Enter instantly 'clicks' the button, even if you keep it the key down. (So the 'click' happens on KeyDown).
Pressing Space acts more like a normal mouse click; holding it down doesn't activate the Click event, but it does once you release it. (So the 'click' happens on KeyUp or KeyPressed.)
Why the difference? I'd like a good article on the subject or simply a logical explanation as to why those two keys have different behavior. Surely there's an explanation out there!

I can't find any articles explaining this and it's a really good question. I personally think that it's for functionality purposes
Enter Key the classic AcceptButton acts like a FullClick (Click/ClickReleased) that's why if you hold it you will have the effect of clicking multiple times.
Space however is a SingleClick (No click release until you release the key) so it can accomplish task where only a Click is required without a ClickRelease and actions where only the selection of a control is required to activate it. Like the CheckBox or RadioButtons which can't be activate with the Enter but can be activated with the Space like if you click on it.
In conclusion, the Space would be the official MouseClick since it has the same effects of a MouseClick uppon pressing or releasing. Enter would be sort of a shortcut for a One click full click. All, of course, in the idea of giving more possibilities to the keyboard itself.

You're seeing two different behaviors, which aren't associated except that they both deal with keyboard events on a winform.
Enter is special because it's the keypress to activate the acceptButton of a form. In fact, you missed another key that can affect buttons: Esc is the cancelButton, and will throw events as well.
As PhaDaPhunk explained, Space is a MouseClick for any component that accepts a MouseClick, but I haven't found a detailed explanation for it. I'd assume it's the default behavior of all controls. The Microsoft guide to accessibility seems to imply that is so in their section on keyboard-based navigation
Incidentally, this Microsoft support knowledge base entry seems to show that the spacebar implementation went from Button.Click to Button.MouseClick. Perhaps that's the reason for it's different behavior.

This functionality seems to have been removed in Big Sur. I came here looking for how I could get it back. It can be very efficient to click enter to proceed or spacebar usually to cancel, to pick the two primary options on most dialog buttons.

How Do I Emulate a Keystroke In C# WPF Application?

Inside the application there is an if statement. It checks a string variable kai if the variable equals to 1 i want it to react as if i pressed the right arrow on my keyboard. Can you help me with that? Thanks.

Actually you might want to think about using Commands for that. If you think about what you want to achieve it is to trigger something after the Key-Press. If you use a Command for that you can directly trigger it without going via the programmatic key pressing stuff. Also you can still trigger the command via a keypress (InputGesture).
You can find out more about Commands here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.input.icommand.aspx

maybe like this:
SendKey.Send({rigth});
set focus to the control you want to input before.
And you ave to declare
Using System.Windows.Form

Is there a way to press or fireup the keys in key board using c# code?

I want the 'Alt' to be pressed by code. It is like firing key-press event with key 'Alt' by the code, not hitting it manually. The need is, I have set 'ShortCut keys for menu, but it (the single underline on key letter) is not visible to the user unless he presses 'alt'. So i need to make the Alt be pressed by default.
Is there a way to 'press' or 'fireup' the keys in key board using c# code?

Check out the System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys class.
You can use the static Send method to send keystrokes to the active window. If you're trying to send keystrokes to another window, you'll need to use the Windows API to activate the other window first.

If you have any control over the operating system on which the program is being deployed, apparently you can force the underlined shortcut letter to always be displayed by going to Control Panel -> Display -> Appearance -> Effects -> Hide underlined letters for keyboard navigation.
(http://www.chinhdo.com/20080902/underlined-letters-windows/)

here is a complete article on use of SendKeys on codeproject

Here is how you simulate input (both mouse and keyboard).
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171548.aspx
If you look at the System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys class you will see that it provides you with what you want.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.sendkeys.aspx