Ctrl-Alt-Del, how to send from a program

Dave Briccetti

unread,

Oct 18, 2003, 11:56:50 PM10/18/03

to

Hi. I'd like to know how to have a program trigger what would
occur if the user pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del. I can get the SendInput
API function to insert all sorts of key combinations, but not
Ctrl-Alt-Del. I believe it can be done, as remote control
programs do it. Thanks in advance!

Dave Briccetti
Lafayette, California
www.davebsoft.com

Raymond Chen

unread,

Oct 19, 2003, 2:57:04 AM10/19/03

to

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/objects/ishelldispatch4/windowssecurity.asp

Dave Briccetti

unread,

Oct 23, 2003, 3:27:14 PM10/23/03

to

Raymond Chen wrote:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/objects/ishelldispatch4/windowssecurity.asp

Thanks! That looks like just what I want. I don't know how to get an
IShellDispatch4 in C++, but I found some code online somewhere. Should
something like this work?

IShellDispatch4 *pShell;
CoInitialize(NULL);

HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_Shell, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
IID_IShellDispatch, (void**)&pShell);

pShell->WindowsSecurity();

It compiles and runs (on XP), but doesn't bring up the Windows
Task Manager. Does anyone see a problem or have a working sample?
Thanks.

Dave Briccetti

unread,

Oct 26, 2003, 11:27:51 AM10/26/03

to

More info on the problem. I tried this VB code:

Dim objShell
objShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
objShell.WindowsSecurity()
objShell.FindFiles()

FindFiles brings up the search application, but WindowsSecurity does
nothing that I can see.

Searching for WindowsSecurity on MSDN and via Google web and groups
gives me very, very little.

Can someone help, or tell me another way to trigger the effect of
Ctrl-Alt-Delete? How do PC Anywhere and similar programs do this?

Thanks.

Dave Briccetti

Raymond Chen

unread,

Oct 26, 2003, 2:34:24 PM10/26/03

to

Sorry it isn't working. I haven't had time to investigate.

PC Anywhere installs a custom keyboard driver.

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 16:27:51 GMT, Dave Briccetti

K_Lee

unread,

Oct 27, 2003, 9:40:43 AM10/27/03

to

Dave Briccetti <da...@davebsoft.com> wrote in message news:<3F920B95...@davebsoft.com>...

Here's how VNC (opensource remote control software) does it:

http://www.slink-software.com/W/SrcDoc_Top/vnc-3.3.7/vnc-3.3.7-winsrc.sdoc/N_5

http://www.slink-software.com/W/SL_TopGetSL/vnc-3.3.7/vnc-3.3.7-winsrc.slk/ID_SimulateCtrlAltDelThreadFn/FILE_winvnc/winvnc/vncservice.cpp/L_400/LN_397#L_394

Dave Briccetti

unread,

Oct 27, 2003, 12:03:45 PM10/27/03

to

Thanks very much. (That's a cool way of presenting the source, BTW.)

I looked at the VNC source before, but was concerned about the comments
containing "oh dear," "kludge" and the like. That's why I'm hoping
Raymond Chen or someone can come through with an elegant, supported
solution.

Is it possible that the VCN folks researched this Ctrl-Alt-Delete area
thoroughly and what they came up with was just the best that can be done?

Dave

K_Lee

unread,

Oct 29, 2003, 9:49:59 AM10/29/03

to

Dave Briccetti <da...@davebsoft.com> wrote in message news:<3F9D50...@davebsoft.com>...

Thanks for the comments.

I trust the VCN folks more than 98% of programmers in the world by the
work they did.