First, thank you so much for working-on and refining this very useful component.

I found it via a reference on StackOverflow.  It seems that there are a number of articles on SO that could benefit from a link to this component.

I've run into an issue, and I've seen a few references to the same (or similar?) on your codeproject page, but I can't seem to figure it out.

I'm hooking the keyboard.  I'm looking for a specific key (F10).  When F10 is pressed, I do a bunch of stuff [DoStuff();], including opening a modal form.  Everything works great, with one issue.

The issue is that there is a delay (a second or two or three) when I call DoStuff();. I believe the delay has something to do with your component.

I've tried moving the keyboard hook to a new thread (using various methods (threading and backgroundworker), but when doing so, the KeyDown event doesn't get fired.

I also tried (temporarily to see if it changed the situation) opening the form regularly (not modal), which didn't help.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Can you tell me what operating system and architecture are you using? 

The delay you're talking about - does it cause the mouse to "freeze-up" for those second(s)?

Windows 7, 32 bit.  .NET Framework 3.0, C#

The mouse does not freeze up, just the execution of my app.  When I call DoStuff() (from the KeyDown event), I load a form.  The Form_Load runs right away, but it takes about 3 seconds for the form to appear.

If I disable the keyboard hook and just load the form as usual, it appears immediately.

sPhinX on Codeproject posted a suggestion for you. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/globalhook.aspx?msg=4058815#xx4058815xx

"I think the root cause of delay is the form creation, he said "opening a modal form", I think that he use "new Form", and "ShowModal", I use same code someday ago, so I get a delay too. I try to fix it, at last I solve it. I create a form first and hide it, then show it when the hook key pressed. That's be ok. I wish this can help him." - sPhinX

All,

I was able to reliably reproduce this problem!

Here's how to do it:

Open the MouseKeyboardActivityMonitor.Demo project in Visual Studio.

Add a new form to the project (Ex: FrmTest).

Open TestFormHookListeners.cs (code) and change HookManager_KeyDown to look like this:

        private void HookManager_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
        {
            Log(string.Format("KeyDown \t\t {0}\n", e.KeyCode));

            if (e.KeyCode == Keys.F10)
            {
                FrmTest fTest = new FrmTest();
                fTest.ShowDialog();

            }

        }

Now, when you run the app:

• Click the Keydown checkbox
• Click in the log area
• Type a bunch of stuff
• Press F10
• The modal dialog will load, and it will freeze the screen for about 3 seconds.

See these bug videos - I put a animated gif spinner so you could see freezing:

When trying to load a modal form (.ShowDialog):
https://getbugcam.com/bugvideo/fD00KSkb

When trying to load a non-modal form (.Show):
https://getbugcam.com/bugvideo/9OVLTF1B

So, clearly trying to load a form modally is a problem.  But it's not the only way to cause this freezing.  I removed the modal forms from my more complicated project and it didn't fix the freezing...

Thanks for your hard work on this.  A fix would be really great.

Yarone