vb.net how to simulate keydown and keyup of keyboard

Question

i want to find out how can i simulate a keydown and keyup. Like i want my program to hold on ctrl button for 5second then release it. I done this using autohotkey and it was pretty easy, but i want to make a gui for that. here is my sample code from autohotkey and i hope someone can translate this to vb.net or help me for keydown and keyup.

INSERT::
    Sendinput, {LControl Down}
    Sleep 2000
    Sendinput, {LControl Up}
Return

in the code above, when i press the INSERT button it will hold the left control button for 2seconds then release it.

Answer 1

you may use the keybd_event function:

Private Declare Sub keybd_event Lib "user32.dll" (ByVal bVk As Byte, ByVal bScan As Byte, _
ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal dwExtraInfo As Long)

You may find some references here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms646304%28v=vs.85%29.aspx