Windows 8 Desktop App: Open tabtip.exe to secondary keyboard (for numeric textbox)

Question

We\'re working on a desktop WPF app that runs on Windows 7 tablets and are adding some Surface Pro units with windows 8 to the mix.

We noticed immed

Answer 1

Following on from the answer @tymes provided, here is a quick console app which demonstrates opening the keyboard and changing various settings (C#).:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace CSharpTesting
{
    class Program
    {
        /// 

        /// The different layout types on the virtual keyboard.
        /// 
        public enum KeyboardLayoutMode
        {
            Default,
            ThumbLayout,
            Handwriting
        }

        /// 

        /// The registry key which holds the keyboard settings.
        /// 
        private static readonly RegistryKey registryKey = Microsoft.Win32.Registry.CurrentUser.CreateSubKey("Software\\Microsoft\\TabletTip\\1.7");

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            SetKeyboardDockedMode(true);
            SetKeyboardLayoutMode(KeyboardLayoutMode.ThumbLayout);
            ShowKeyboard(true);
        }

        /// 

        /// Shows the onscreen keyboard.
        /// 
        /// If true, kill any existing TabTip.exe process.
        public static void ShowKeyboard(bool killExistingProcess)
        {
            if (killExistingProcess)
            {
                // If the user presses the close button on the keyboard then TabTip.exe will still run in the background. If we have made registry
                // changes to the keyboard settings, they don't take effect until the process is started again so killing this ensures the keyboard
                // will open with our new settings.
                foreach (var process in Process.GetProcessesByName("TabTip"))
                {
                    process.Kill();
                }
            }

            string onScreenKeyboardPath = @"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ink\TabTip.exe";
            Process.Start(onScreenKeyboardPath);
        }

        /// 

        /// Sets if the keyboard is in docked or floating mode.
        /// 
        /// If true set to docked, if false set to floating.
        private static void SetKeyboardDockedMode(bool isDocked)
        {
            registryKey.SetValue("EdgeTargetDockedState", Convert.ToInt32(isDocked), RegistryValueKind.DWord);
        }

        /// 

        /// Changes the layout mode of the keyboard.
        /// 
        /// The layout mode to use.
        private static void SetKeyboardLayoutMode(KeyboardLayoutMode mode)
        {
            switch (mode)
            {
                case KeyboardLayoutMode.Handwriting:
                    registryKey.SetValue("KeyboardLayoutPreference", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
                    registryKey.SetValue("LastUsedModalityWasHandwriting", 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
                    break;
                case KeyboardLayoutMode.ThumbLayout:
                    registryKey.SetValue("KeyboardLayoutPreference", 1, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
                    registryKey.SetValue("LastUsedModalityWasHandwriting", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
                    // 0 = small, 1 = medium, 2 = large
                    registryKey.SetValue("ThumbKeyboardSizePreference", 2, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
                    break;
                default:
                    registryKey.SetValue("KeyboardLayoutPreference", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
                    registryKey.SetValue("LastUsedModalityWasHandwriting", 0, RegistryValueKind.DWord);
                    break;
            }
        }
    }
}