microsoft
[WinUI3] No way to handle access keys in island app
Describe the bug
We are currently implementing a xaml island app similar to the sample here, which has a WinUI navigation view embedded in an MFC window.
The issue is that the WinUI content needs to have keyboard focus to handle the alt keypress and display the access keys and if we shift focus when detecting the keypress in PreTranslateMessage, it is too late and the WM_SYSKEYDOWN event is missed by WinUI.
It seems at the moment that WinUI needs to detect both WM_SYSKEYDOWN and WM_SYSKEYUP for this to work but it only actually responds on the key up event. Would it be possible to make it only require the key up event as a workaround for this use case?
Steps to reproduce the bug
Run the attached app. After clicking either Win32 button, it is no longer possible to display the access keys for the navigation view by pressing the alt key
Expected behavior
Access keys may be used regardless of what element has focus.
Screenshots
No response
NuGet package version
None
Packaging type
Unpackaged
Windows version
Windows 11 version 24H2 (26100, June 2025 Update)
IDE
Visual Studio 2022
Additional context
No response
