Send keyboard strokes to an RemoteApp application within an Remote Desktop session with Winforms C#

[ObelixNL]

I want to send keyboard keys to an RemoteApp application. I am using C# with the Windows API.

The code example works when I am using Windows 10 Desktop with an RemoteApp application. The application appears in the foreground and the shortcut code CTRL + SHIFT + O is executed in the application.

When I start the same application on a Windows Server 2012 / 2016 Remote Desktop server in an RDS session it will set the window to the foreground but the application is not receiving the shortcut.

On a Windows 2019 Server with Remote Desktop it works great, however with versions 2012 and 2016 it doesn’t work.

I’ve also tried the following:
SendMessage and PostMessage with the handle and WM_KEYDOWN / WM_KEYUP.

Example:

Class.WinAPI.PostMessage(handle,WM_KEYDOWN,0x11,0);
Class.WinAPI.PostMessage(handle,WM_KEYDOWN,0x10,0);
Class.WinAPI.PostMessage(handle,WM_KEYDOWN,0x4F,0);
Class.WinAPI.PostMessage(handle,WM_KEYUP,0x11,0);
Class.WinAPI.PostMessage(handle,WM_KEYUP,0x10,0);
Class.WinAPI.PostMessage(handle,WM_KEYUP,0x4F,0);

Example SendInput:

var sim = new InputSimulator();
// send with ModifiedKeyStroke
sim.Keyboard.ModifiedKeyStroke(
new[] { VirtualKeyCode.LCONTROL, VirtualKeyCode.LSHIFT, VirtualKeyCode.VK_O },
VirtualKeyCode.VK_L
);

Thread.Sleep(2500);
// send with KeyPress
sim.Keyboard.KeyPress(new[] { VirtualKeyCode.LCONTROL, VirtualKeyCode.LSHIFT, VirtualKeyCode.VK_O });




Example focus application:

foreach (KeyValuePair<IntPtr, string> window in OpenWindowGetter.GetOpenWindows())
{
IntPtr handle = window.Key;
string title = window.Value;
if (title.ToLower().Contains(“ApplicationName”))
{
Class.WinAPI.SetForegroundWindow(handle);
Thread.Sleep(1);
SendKeys.SendWait("^+O");
Thread.Sleep(1);
SendKeys.Flush();
}
}

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