Solved Need help from a batch script guru

glasskuter · Sep 20, 2023

I know diddly squat about creating a bat file. Here's what I need. I want a bat file I can schedule to run at startup that will:

open On Screen Keyboard
activate scroll lock
close OSK

My keyboard has no scroll lock key. No mouse I try will reverse scroll without me opening OSK and activating scroll lock every time.

TM21 · Sep 20, 2023

I do write DOS Batch Files, but I have no idea how to do what you've outlined.
However, we do have members on his forum with such a talent. Stay tuned!
Y'all have a great day now, Y'hear?
TM

garlin · Sep 20, 2023

I'm sure there's many keyboard input tools, but NirSoft's nircmd can do "nircmd sendkey scroll press"

iko22 · Sep 20, 2023

Put start "On-Screen Keyboard" osk.exe into a BAT file will start the On-Screen Keyboard, the title between the "" is optional.
The OSK will wait for a User Input as normal.

Fabler2 · Sep 20, 2023

I just asked Bing chat......

the answer goes on but have no idea if good or not

garlin · Sep 20, 2023

Bing's programming IQ is still below the Superuser or Stack Exchange level

For SendKeys to work, you need pick a target window.

Code:

start osk

$wshell = New-Object -ComObject wscript.shell;
$null = $wshell.AppActivate('On-Screen Keyboard')
Start-Sleep 1

$wshell.SendKeys('{SCROLLLOCK}')

glasskuter · Sep 20, 2023

Thanks for the tip @Fabler2. I've never used Bing Chat before. I've always hated Bing as a search engine and just never tired Chat, but I can see it is promising. I tried it's suggestion. The bat file opened OSK , then closed OSK but the keyboard key never activated. At least I have a starting point to try to figure out why.

glasskuter · Sep 20, 2023

@garlin That command opens OSK but nothing else.

garlin · Sep 20, 2023

Sometimes you have to play around with the Start-Sleep delay (in seconds).

The major drawback of SendKeys is the WScript function has to latch on to an active window. Depending on how long it takes to launch OSK, then you must Activate (attach to) the named window, before even sending the key. If this takes too long, the key is sent too early.

But padding out the time delay makes the script take longer to work. That's why nircmd is better. It's just stuffing character codes into the keyboard driver.

Ben Myers · Sep 20, 2023

powershell "$wsh= new-object -comobject Wscript.shell;$wsh.sendkeys('{SCROLLLOCK}')"
seems to work for me at a command prompt, even without the on-screen keyboard and it doesn't even have to be an admin prompt. You need an application that uses scroll lock to see the change. Please remember that it is a toggle switch, like caps lock, so if it seems to be off, run the command line again to turn it on.

Ben

glasskuter · Sep 20, 2023

@Ben Myers YES!!!! That did it. Thank you so much.

Ben Myers · Sep 20, 2023

@Fabler2 helped a little. Well, maybe a lot.

Ben

glasskuter · Sep 20, 2023

Then thank Mr @Fabler2 as well. I wish I understood more about bat commands. I've tried to learn but I have some kind of mental block against it. I struggle with html too.
In this case, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" seems to apply.

Fabler2 · Sep 21, 2023

glasskuter said:
Then thank Mr @Fabler2 as well. I wish I understood more about bat commands. I've tried to learn but I have some kind of mental block against it. I struggle with html too.
In this case, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" seems to apply.

I've had a few successes with Bing chat with scripts. If the first query only partially works you can "converse" with it to try and alter the script to get it to work. It's ideal for someone like me who hasn't a clue about these things and gives me at least a chance to get a "simple" working script.
The disadvantage of Bing Chat is you have to use Edge and if you've removed it then it's not available.
Advantage of Chat is it uses GPT-4. Only GPT-3.5 is available freely.

LesFerch · Sep 21, 2023

@glasskuter Did you try the excellent suggestion provided by @garlin?

That is, download nircmd and run this command:

nircmd sendkey scroll press

That works for me and is clearly a better solution than VBScript sendkeys.

P.S. In those situations where sendkeys cannot be avoided, there's no need to wrap VBScript code inside batch files and PowerShell scripts. That's just unnecessary overhead and unnecessary console windows. Just create a VBS script and run that directly. But note that VBScript (or its cousin JScript) have very limited windows automation capabilities. The stars of that show are AutoIt and AutoHotKey.

glasskuter · Sep 22, 2023

LesFerch said:
Did you try the excellent suggestion provided by @garlin?

I did try @garlin suggestion...but didn't do it right the first time. I put nircmd at root of C: I made a shortcut on my desktop with target of "C:\nircmd.exe\sendkey scroll press" and it worked great manually.
I tried to make a vbs script to run it automatically at boot but never could get it to work that way. As I mentioned, me and scripts don't gee-haw very well.
After I got it to work @Ben Myers way, I used @Fabler2 suggestion and asked Bing Chat which gave me the right command to get nircmd to work in the vbs script.
LOL this simple issue has required a real group effort. Thank y'all so much. Thank Bing Chat, too.

PS: I think I'm gonna like this Chat thingie. I may never have to ask y'all another question. (Will you miss me?)
Heck if it ever catches on, this artificial intelligence stuff may put this forum out of business.

LesFerch · Sep 22, 2023

glasskuter said:
which gave me the right command to get nircmd to work in the vbs script.

I don't see the need for a script. Why not just put nircmd sendkey scroll press in a shortcut and then put that shortcut in your Startup folder (%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)?

iko22 · Sep 23, 2023

I wonder which is the quickest to execute, nircmd or powershell script? Might be worth trying both out to see if there any performance overhead in one over the other.

LesFerch · Sep 23, 2023

iko22 said:
I wonder which is the quickest to execute, nircmd or powershell script? Might be worth trying both out to see if there any performance overhead in one over the other.

Nircmd by far.

Expanding on this answer...

NirSoft utilities are written in C and C++. They are very small and efficient. A PowerShell script that does absolutely nothing will still take far longer to execute than nircmd sendkey scroll press because the overhead to spin up a PowerShell session is much more than starting a compiled Exe.

From a fresh login, we're talking about something like 20ms vs 200ms. But Windows and PowerShell are clever at caching stuff, so a PowerShell script is not always 10 tens slower. If a script completes in a reasonable time for your purposes, then it's fine. If it takes too long, then it's worth looking at ways to optimize it.

From a human point of view, 20ms vs 200ms is insignificant, so either solution is fine in this case. These sorts of differences may matter when a lot of work is being done in a loop, but it does depend a lot on what gets cached.

For a pure scripting solution, a VBS script containing the one line CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SendKeys "{SCROLLLOCK}" will do the job more efficiently than calling that same code from within PowerShell (something like 30ms vs 200ms).

Ghot · Sep 23, 2023

glasskuter said:
I think I'm gonna like this Chat thingie. I may never have to ask y'all another question. (Will you miss me?)
Heck if it ever catches on, this artificial intelligence stuff may put this forum out of business.

Going over to the dark side, eh?

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