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4/8/2010

The keyboard is an important means of user input on most mobile devices. A hardware–independent keyboard model enables devices to support a variety of keyboards. The OEM usually determines the keyboard layout for a specified device. Microsoft provides recommended keyboard layouts for many locales and languages at this Microsoft site .

A device with an integrated alphanumeric hardware keyboard is recommended to set the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shell\HasKeyboard registry key to a value of 1.

In This Section

Keyboard Reference

Provides an explanation of the programming elements available for interacting with a keyboard.

Receiving Keyboard Input

Describes how to work with keyboard input, including displaying special characters, hot keys, and multithreading.

Keys and Key Codes for Windows Mobile

Provides descriptions of all of the virtual key codes and mappings supported for Windows Mobile.

In addition, the following small topics are listed under the topic Keys and Key Codes for Windows Mobile.

Chorded FN Button

Describes the how the keyboard driver should support the MENU accelerator key.

D-pad Virtual Key Code Support

Describes the virtual key codes used by the d–pad and rocker.

Menu Button and Start Button

Describes the keys used to display the start menu and context menus.

Smart Auto-Deploy

Describes how to hide the Software Input Panel (SIP) if a hardware keyboard is in use. This optimizes use of the device's display.

SmartMinimize Button

Describes how to use hardware buttons to minimize a foreground dialog.

Sticky Modifier Keys

Describes how modifier keys such as shift or Fn can be used without having to press multiple keys at once.

Related Sections

Software-based Input Panel

Provides information on the Software-based Input Panel which enables target devices that do not have a keyboard to simulate keyboard input by using an input method (IM).

Soft Keys

Describes the soft keys and virtual keys enabled by Windows Mobile.