Programmatically open On-Screen Keyboard in UWP

9
votes

Is it possible in UWP to force it to open the On Screen Keyboard (osk.exe)?

For example, in C# it is possible using System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("osk.exe");

Doing the above in UWP results in compile error saying there is no Process namespace.

I know that in Tablet mode, if I programmatically focus on a TextBox, it will show up the OnScreen keyboard.

But is it possible when in Desktop mode?

1
c#uwpon-screen-keyboard
Possible duplicate of How to execute Process commands (or similar) using a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) App? – Jay Gould
first of all, in tabletmode touchkeybord appears, not on-screen one. (Yes there is two of them) – ad1Dima
Oh I see, is there a way for touchkeyboard to appear in desktop mode? – Water
Hi Jay, I followed the link you gave and used BrokeredComponents. Worked for our app, thanks. – Water

1 Answers

6
votes

Is there a way for touchkeyboard to appear in desktop mode?

Ref the document in Keyboard interactions

Depending on the device, the touch keyboard appears when a text field or other editable text control gets focus, or when the user manually enables it through the Notification Center:
touch keyboard icon in the notification center

Note The user might have to go to the Tablet mode screen in Settings > System and turn on "Make Windows more touch-friendly when using your device as a tablet" to enable the automatic appearance of the touch keyboard.

So the touch keyboard can appear automatically in tablet mode when users sets the input focus to a text control by using touch input. However, this won't happen in desktop mode and in UWP, there is no API to open it programmatically by now.

To show touch keyboard in desktop mode, we need the user manually enables it by clicking touch keyboard button and users can see this button by checking "Show touch keyboard button" in taskbar.
enter image description here

You are welcome to submit a request for this feature through UserVoice and Windows Feedback Hub app.