Possible to capture mouse click on form AND on any control?

[rciprogrammer]

Hi

Is it possible to capture a mouse click anywhere on a form (both on the form itself and on any control) without putting code in each control?

I want to reset a timer/timeout when the user hits a key (which I have working no problem w/ a combo of

1. Keypreview turned on

Public Sub New()

        ' This call is required by the Windows Form Designer.
        InitializeComponent()

        ' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call.
        Me.KeyPreview = True

    End Sub

2. Capturing KeyDown event

Private Sub Login_Key(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles MyBase.KeyDown
        MsgBox("key")
    End Sub

I can capture the mouse click on the form by using the mousedown event, but then I would also have to put code inside each control on the form to capture the mouse clicks there.

Private Sub SMKiosk_Login_MouseClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles Me.MouseClick
        MsgBox("mouse click")
    End Sub

Any ideas on how to do this?

Thanks,
Scott

[Oxiegen]

Have a look at this discussion: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=358556

[rciprogrammer]

Have a look at this discussion: http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=358556

Thanks for the reply. I did see that while I was searching but I though a timer (basically a continuous loop, right?) would use up a bunch of resources where an event (if it existed) wouldn't really use up any.

If that's the only way to do it fine, but if an event-type solution is out there I would prefer that.

This would also force me to put a timer on every page, no? Or is there a way to have it in one place (on main form perhaps)?

Thanks,
Scott

[rciprogrammer]

Thanks Oxiegen. I tried this method for capturing the mouse clicks and it seems to work great.

One problem related to the keyboard capture. Keypress and keydown events do not seem to capture keys like tab or enter. Anybody know why?

Here is my code:

Private Sub Form1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles Me.KeyDown
        MsgBox("keydown")
    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_KeyPress(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyPressEventArgs) Handles Me.KeyPress
        MsgBox("keypress")
    End Sub

[Oxiegen]

In your Form1_KeyDown you can use the e variable and perform some checks on which keys were pressed.

Private Sub Form1_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.KeyEventArgs) Handles Me.KeyDown
   If e.KeyCode = Keys.Enter Then
      '' Works with both the standard Enter key and the keypad Enter.
      MsgBox("It's the Enter key")
   ElseIf e.KeyCode = Keys.Tab Then
      MsgBox("It's the Tab key")
   End If
End Sub

And if