[Windows Phone] Simulate the hard key on Emulator

Post author: Hunter Tran
Post link: <a href="https://huntertran.github.io/blog/2013/09/26/windows-phone-simulate-the-hard-key-on-emulator/" title="[Windows Phone] Simulate the hard key on Emulator">https://huntertran.github.io/blog/2013/09/26/windows-phone-simulate-the-hard-key-on-emulator/
Copyright Notice: All articles in this blog are licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"> BY-NC-SA unless stating additionally.

Posted on 2013-09-26 Edited on 2026-08-15 In CSharp , Windows Phone Disqus:

The Windows Phone SDK ships with a handy virtual machine: the Windows Phone Emulator.

But it has one annoying thing. How do you “press” the hard keys, other than the three default ones — Back, Start and Search?

There is a way, and it is already built in

The Windows Phone SDK already has plenty of shortcuts built in so you can simulate the hard keys. Here is the list

Key	Hard key on the phone	What it means on the phone
F1	Back	Same as the back key. You can press and hold it
F2	Start	Same as the Start key. Can be held too
F3	Search
F6	Camera Half	Presses the Camera key halfway. Used to focus
F7	Camera Full	Presses the Camera key all the way, used to take the picture
F9	Volume Up
F10	Volume Down
F12	Power	The power key. Press it to turn the screen off/on
ESC	Back	Same as F1
PAUSE/BREAK	Toggle Keyboard	Enables/hides the hardware keyboard. (Don’t confuse it with the on-screen keyboard)
PAGE UP	Keyboard Up	Use the on-screen keyboard
PAGE DOWN	Keyboard Down	Use the computer keyboard instead of the on-screen keyboard