Windows utility to render which key I am pressing on-screen

Question

I'm giving training to a large group of people remotely and will be covering a number of application shortcut keys.

I've seen MousePose's on-screen display of keystrokes; is there a similar product for Windows?

The other features of MousePose (fancy mouse pointers, etc.) aren't really useful to me, just the OSD of key presses.

Answer 1

KeyPosé is a free alternative to MousePosé for Windows. You can see it in action in the screencast.

Here is a sample screenshot:

Answer 2

I highly recommend Carnac. It's a free project hosted on GitHub.

A keyboard logging and presentation utility for presentations, screencasts, and to help you become a better keyboard user.

It's nicely executed, nicely designed and also open sourced on GitHub.

Find a fork release with fixes and visualization of the mouse input here: https://github.com/bfritscher/carnac/releases/tag/v3-beta

Answer 3

I would like to share my tool -- keycastow.

https://brookhong.github.io/2014/04/28/keycast-on-windows.html

Answer 4

I've written an AutoHotkey_L script for this purpose.

To run it, use AutoHotkey_L (direct dl), it's FOSS. Also, with AutoHotkey you can compile script to EXE (simply Ahk2Exe.exe /inDisplayPressedKeyOnScreen.ahk/outDisplayPressedKeyOnScreen.exe ).

It can display pressed keys OSD-like or standard Tool-tip near mouse cursor. Also, it displays mouse button clicks and wheel scrolling.

(note that frame & blurring is done for illustration purposes, the script itself only displays text w/o any disturbances)

Heres's the script (copy and paste to notepad, save as DisplayPressedKeysOnScreen.ahk):

#NoEnv
#SingleInstance force
#InstallKeybdHook

Global KeyStates, MouseState, ClickCount, IdleDelay, LargeDisplay

IdleDelay=3000

LargeDisplay=1
; 0 = Tooltip near mouse pointer
; 1 = Big pane at screen bottom

If LargeDisplay
{
;Initializing GUI
;modded func originated from http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/8190-osd-function/

SysGet Monitor, Monitor

GUIx := MonitorLeft
GUIw := MonitorRight - MonitorLeft
GUIh := (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * GUIw * 0.00003
If (GUIh > ((MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.3))
    GUIh := (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.3

opacity=230
fname="Tahoma"
fsize:=GUIh * 0.65 ; really, pixel = 0.75 point, but with 0.75 lowercase letter with lower part (like "g") get cut
fcolor=cccccc
bcolor=222222
fformat="600"

Gui +LastFound +AlwaysOnTop +ToolWindow -Caption
Gui Margin, 0, 0 ;pixels of space to leave at the left/right and top/bottom sides of the window when auto-positioning.
Gui Color, ffffff ;changes background color
Gui Font, s%fsize% w%fformat%, %fname%

;    0x80 = SS_NOPREFIX -> Ampersand (&) is shown instead of underline one letter for Alt+letter navigation
Gui Add, Text, c%bcolor% Center +0x80 w%GUIw% h%GUIh% BackgroundTrans VblkOsdCtrlName, tesT test test
Gui Add, Text, c%fcolor% Center +0x80 w%GUIw% h%GUIh% BackgroundTrans VblkOsdCtrlName2 xp-3 yp-3 , tesT test test

WinSet ExStyle, +0x20 ; WS_EX_TRANSPARENT -> mouse klickthrough
WinSet TransColor, ffffff %opacity%
}


TrayTip %A_ScriptName%, To Exit`, press the Right Windows logo key.

Loop
{
Input SingleKey, L1 V M I B, {LControl}{RControl}{LAlt}{RAlt}{LShift}{RShift}{LWin}{AppsKey}{F1}{F2}{F3}{F4}{F5}{F6}{F7}{F8}{F9}{F10}{F11}{F12}{Left}{Right}{Up}{Down}{Home}{End}{PgUp}{PgDn}{Del}{Ins}{BS}{Capslock}{Numlock}{PrintScreen}{Pause}
GetKeyStates()

;    IfInString ErrorLevel, EndKey
;   CollectedText .= (CollectedText =="" ? "" : " + " ) . SubStr(ErrorLevel, 8)
If SingleKey
{
    SingleKeyText=
    If (SingleKey==Chr(27))
    SingleKeyText=Esc
    Else If (SingleKey==Chr(32))
    SingleKeyText=Space

    If (GetKeyState("LControl", "P") || GetKeyState("RControl", "P"))
    {
    If (SingleKey==Chr(10) && EnterPressed)
        SingleKeyText=Enter
    Else If (SingleKey >= Chr(1) && SingleKey <= Chr(26)) ; With "M" in Input, Ctrl-A through Ctrl-Z correspond to Chr(1) through Chr(26)
        SingleKeyText := Chr(Asc("A")-1+Asc(SingleKey))
    } Else {
    If (SingleKey==Chr(10))
        SingleKeyText=Enter
    }

    If Not SingleKeyText
    SingleKeyText:=SingleKey
    ShowKeys(KeyStates . SingleKeyText)
;    . (MouseState ? "`n" . MouseState : "")
    EnterPressed=0
    GoSub ClearMouseState
} Else {
    ShowKeys(SubStr(KeyStates, 1, -3) . (MouseState ? " + " . MouseState : ""))
}
SetTimer TooltipOff, % -IdleDelay
}

RWin::
ExitApp

~*Enter::
EnterPressed=1
return

~*LButton::
~*RButton::
~*MButton::
~*XButton1::
~*XButton2::
MouseState := "Mouse " . SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 3) . " Pressed"
MouseTooltip()
return

~*WheelDown::
~*WheelUp::
~*WheelLeft::
~*WheelRight::
MouseState := "Mouse " . SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 3)
MouseTooltip()
return

~*LButton Up::
~*RButton Up::
~*MButton Up::
~*XButton1 Up::
~*XButton2 Up::
;    MsgBox %A_PriorHotkey%`n%A_ThisHotkey%
If (A_PriorHotkey == SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 1, -3) && A_TimeSincePriorHotkey < 200)
{
    ClickCount++
    Suffix := " Clicked " . ClickCount . "x"
} Else {
    ClickCount:=0
    Suffix := " Released"
}
MouseState := "Mouse " . SubStr(A_ThisHotkey, 3, -3) . Suffix
MouseTooltip()
return

MouseTooltip(){
GetKeyStates()
ShowKeys(KeyStates . MouseState)
SetTimer ClearMouseState,  % -IdleDelay
SetTimer TooltipOff, % -IdleDelay
}

ClearMouseState:
MouseState=
ClickCount=0
return
TooltipOff:
If LargeDisplay
    Gui Hide
Else
    Tooltip
return

GetKeyStates() {
KeyStates := ""
    . ( GetKeyState("LControl", "P") ? "LControl + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("RControl", "P") ? "RControl + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("LAlt", "P") ? "LAlt + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("RAlt", "P") ? "RAlt + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("LShift", "P") ? "LShift + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("RShift", "P") ? "RShift + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("LWin", "P") ? "LWin + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("AppsKey", "P") ? "AppsKey + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F1", "P") ? "F1 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F2", "P") ? "F2 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F3", "P") ? "F3 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F4", "P") ? "F4 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F5", "P") ? "F5 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F6", "P") ? "F6 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F7", "P") ? "F7 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F8", "P") ? "F8 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F9", "P") ? "F9 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F10", "P") ? "F10 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F11", "P") ? "F11 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("F12", "P") ? "F12 + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Left", "P") ? "Left + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Right", "P") ? "Right + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Up", "P") ? "Up + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Down", "P") ? "Down + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Home", "P") ? "Home + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("End", "P") ? "End + " : "" )x
    . ( GetKeyState("PgUp", "P") ? "PgUp + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("PgDn", "P") ? "PgDn + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Del", "P") ? "Del + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Ins", "P") ? "Ins + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("BS", "P") ? "BS + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Capslock", "P") ? "Capslock + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Numlock", "P") ? "Numlock + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("PrintScreen", "P") ? "PrintScreen + " : "" )
    . ( GetKeyState("Pause", "P") ? "Pause + " : "" )
}

ShowKeys(text) {
If LargeDisplay
{
    Global blkOsdCtrlName, blkOsdCtrlName2, MonitorLeft, MonitorRight, MonitorBottom, MonitorTop, GUIx, GUIy, GUIh

    CoordMode Mouse, Screen
    MouseGetPos MouseX, MouseY

    If ((!GUIy) || (MouseX >= MonitorLeft && MouseX <= MonitorRight && MouseY >= GUIy && MouseY <= (GUIy+GUIh)) ) {
    If (MouseY < (MonitorTop + (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) / 2) )
        GUIy := MonitorBottom - (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.2
    Else
        GUIy := MonitorTop + (MonitorBottom - MonitorTop) * 0.2
    }

    GuiControl Text, blkOsdCtrlName, %text%
    GuiControl Text, blkOsdCtrlName2, %text%

    Gui, Show, x%GUIx% y%GUIy% NoActivate
} Else {
    Tooltip % text
}
}

Answer 5

You can use the on screen keyboard to show key presses that comes with windows. When you type on your physical keyboard the on screen one highlights said key.

Answer 6

PointerFocus can display your keystrokes.

Answer 7

Presentation Pointer is a best alternative to MousePosé for Windows. It provides Pointer Effect, Mouse Clicks Effect, Keystrokes and even allows you to draw freely on the screen but not lock the screen. That's really an advantage of the program.

Answer 8

I have written a small Windows app called QiPress. It has controls to change the look-n-feel, display or ignore certain key-groups, even add static text (your own name or company name for example). Positioning is possible by disabling click-through and click-dragging the pop-up. There are other features which you probably may not require, but it covers mostly what you want.

Answer 9

You can use PassMark KeyboardTest (Free 30 day evaluation, then US$24.00 to purchase.)

FYI:

• A similar question was asked on SO: How to display pressed keyboard shortcuts on screen during presentations or screencasts
• A similar question was asked for OS X: https://apple.stackexchange.com/q/62168/20338
• A related question was asked on software recommendations (the OP asks the program to display the keys the user is currently pressing while using other programs. It should show all the keys pressed, and as soon as the user releases a key - it should disappear.): Utility to display on screen the currently pressed keys