See if a key was presssed

Sucharek

Hi, I have a problem. I need to "watch" to keyboard, to see, if whatever key was pressed globally, not just in the app, but globally.
Is this possible? I have this, but it only picks up keys like shift, alt, caps lock, f keys, but not letters or numbers:

void MainWindow::keyPressEvent(QKeyEvent *event) //included in .h file under the private category
{
    if (event->KeyPress) {
        qDebug() << "key";
    }
}

JonB

@Sucharek said in See if a key was presssed:

I have this, but it only picks up...
if (event->KeyPress) {

Who knows, since I don't see any such QKeyEvent member variable?

not just in the app, but globally.

Is this possible?

I hope not! You want to monitor the keyboard no matter which application has focus? Isn't that how keystroke stealers work? :) Maybe it's possible, but I would have thought it would be down to the windowing system having some native way of doing it? Like Windows has e.g. How to use System-Wide Hotkeys in your Qt application, but that's for like some special key combination registered with the OS, not what you are asking for.

Sucharek

Hi @JonB, never thought about the keystore thing :o
I'm making a screen on time program and I'm counting active and passive time. For the passive time, I need to detect mouse movement and the keyboard. I guess I'll need to stick with the mouse.
Thanks for the help.

JonB

@Sucharek said in See if a key was presssed:

a screen on time program

I'm afraid I don't know what that is?

active and passive time

Active & passive time in your app, or overall usage of PC by user?

Anything to do with another program, or even a different window in your own app, is not going to be MainWindow:: anything.

Sucharek

Well, when the app is running, it counts the time, so I guess in the app.

JonB

@Sucharek
I'm getting confused. I think you need to be very specific about what key presses you are looking for, or have to look for:

Those to one window in your app?
Those to any window in your app?
Those to completely separate windows belonging to other applications?

Sucharek

The ones that are completely separate windows belonging to other applications, so the 3rd option you listed.

JonB

@Sucharek
Then like I said I do not think Qt offers anything for that, and I do not know if the Windows OS/windowing system even allows it from a normal program (e.g. not the device driver, and excluding specialist software like "keyloggers").

hskoglund

Hi, for listening to keystrokes regardless of which program or window they end up in, there are a couple of Win32 API:s you can use from a normal (unprivileged) program, for example: SetWindowsHookExW()

JonB

@hskoglund said in See if a key was presssed:

you can use from a normal (unprivileged) program, for example: SetWindowsHookExW()

Wow! So without any warning or elevated privilege, any Windows program I install could be logging all keystrokes I make in any application? Nice.

hskoglund

Yes, it's been around since Windows 3.0, there's an older forum discussion here
I posted an example program there, see if I can get the link to gitlab working again...

JonB

@hskoglund
Indeed! There is a blow-by-blow discussion in https://0x00sec.org/t/windows-keylogging-part-i/99

Scary how easy Windows makes it!

hskoglund

As I remember it, those API:s were initially designed for training/teaching how to use a computer (not for spying on you!) for example the acronym CBT you'll see in the docs stands for Computer Base Training :-)

J.Hilk

@hskoglund the root to hell is paved with good intentions....

but this is also the reason, why anti-cheat software from games has to be so terrible invasive on the Operating System.

Sucharek

Hi all, thanks for your replies, but I think I'm gonna have to stick with only the mouse movement. If I get this right, it won't work on Linux, so that's a bad thing.
Edit: Messing with Windows APIs is something I have no idea how to do and it would take days for me to learn it. The mouse is probably the only way.
Thanks again for your answers.

JonB

@Sucharek
I never knew why you needed to track key presses to other applications. And I hope Linux doesn't allow it anyway! :)

I don't know whether it helps, but you can (I believe) track focus changes/activate/deactivate windows in your app. Which I think would accompany going typing keys into another application. Maybe you could investigate those?

Sucharek

Ok, I maybe I'll take a look at that. Thanks.