Global media keys don't work when Excel 2013 is active

[romkyns]

My global media keys don't work when Excel 2013 is active. They're fine in pretty much any other application, but Excel 2013 has been swallowing them ever since it came out. I've tested this on my desktop and my laptop, yet can't find anyone at all reporting the same issue.

Basically, I can't use play/pause while editing a spreadsheet in Excel 2013. Does it work for everyone else?

[romkyns]

Anyone?

My media keys don't work in any of the Office 2013 apps. If Outlook is active then Play/Pause won't be seen by MediaMonkey. Other media apps can capture global media keys just fine; it's only MediaMonkey that's affected.

[nohitter151]

http://www.mediamonkey.com/support/inde ... -dont-work

[Peke]

Hi,
You can always force global low level hool with MediaMonkey.ini

[romkyns]

Thanks Peke, that was it! For the record, I had this on two different machines, so if the option is to remain off, perhaps the Office 2013 incompatibility needs to be investigated.

@nohitter151: I don't think that link is relevant to my situation, though it looks like the perfect place to explain the low level hook option.

[nohitter151]

Thanks Peke, that was it! For the record, I had this on two different machines, so if the option is to remain off, perhaps the Office 2013 incompatibility needs to be investigated.

@nohitter151: I don't think that link is relevant to my situation, though it looks like the perfect place to explain the low level hook option.

The low level hook option is described in the support link I posted...

[romkyns]

Oops indeed!

Well, in my defense the paragraph that mentions it starts with "In some cases, where keyboards (or remotes) have their own custom drivers (rather than using the standing Windows Media Controls) , the Multimedia keys on a multimedia keyboard may not work correctly. The solution in those cases is ..." - I know for a fact that my keyboard does not use a custom driver, so I didn't read the rest of the paragraph and skipped to the next one.

In all honesty, that article is in dire need of a rewrite or at least a cleanup/reformatting

Anyway, thanks for your help guys!

[Peke]

Thanks Peke, that was it! For the record, I had this on two different machines, so if the option is to remain off, perhaps the Office 2013 incompatibility needs to be investigated.

It is the strange issue, and it looks like it is MS fauld where using Low Level Hooks are depricated and can trigger False positive on MMW, but needed as foreground apps do not filter actual needed hotkeys but rather handle ALL (MMW is not the one and have global Flag) even it doesn't handle the hotkey while returning HANDLED and correctly written apps like MMW asume it is actually handled.

Example: Ocassionally I use AIMP to Test something while MMW is paused in background and pressing PLAY/PAUSE while AIMP is in Foreground do not start playback in MMW where if Global Key is set and AIMP is not in Foreground it handles command correctly. AIMP also comply with those rules.

I do not have Excel 2013 to test it but common known bug in Chrome is known to do same (not just in MMW) and is documented.

EDIT: Yes that Article should be revised.