WebDriver - Key commands in Internet Explorer - selenium

Question

I'm using Selenium 2.28 & IE8 on WinXP32. I need to be able to send the following keyboard command to my webpage: ALT + k
The following works perfectly in Chrome & Firefox17:
- Chrome:
Actions builder = new Actions(driver);
builder.sendKeys(Keys.ALT, "k").build().perform();
- Firefox 17 (requires extra command key for same effect):
Actions builder = new Actions(driver);
builder.sendKeys(Keys.SHIFT, Keys.ALT, "k").build().perform();
I've tried all of the following in IE without success :
- builder.sendKeys(Keys.ALT, "k").build().perform();
- builder.sendKeys(Keys.ALT, Keys.SHIFT, "k").build().perform();
- builder.sendKeys(Keys.chord(Keys.ALT, "k")).build().perform();
- builder.sendKeys(Keys.chord(Keys.SHIFT, Keys.ALT, "k")).build().perform();
- builder.keyDown(Keys.ALT).sendKeys("k").build().perform();
- builder.keyDown(Keys.ALT).sendKeys("k").keyUp(Keys.ALT).build().perform();
- builder.keyDown(Keys.SHIFT).keyDown(Keys.ALT).sendKeys("k").build().perform();
- builder.keyDown(Keys.SHIFT).keyDown(Keys.ALT).sendKeys("k").keyUp(Keys.ALT).keyUp(Keys.SHIFT).build().perform();
Any suggestion on how to achieve what I want?

Answer 1

I've had to resort to using a Robot to do it for Internet Explorer:
import java.awt.Robot
...
Robot robot;
try {
robot = new Robot();
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_ALT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_K);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_K);
robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_ALT);
}catch (AWTException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
I would prefer to do it just using Selenium APIs, but this workaround will suffice until that is possible.

Answer 2

The current driver (2.45) with default options uses PostMessage which is unreliable for simulating modifier keys [1] [2]. If you set the IE option "RequireWindowFocus" to true then the driver will use SendInput instead which will work.
If using C#, you would create the driver like this:
var options = new InternetExplorerOptions();
options.RequireWindowFocus = true;
var driver = new InternetExplorerDriver(options);
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/05/30/423202.aspx
PostMessage WM_KEYDOWN send multiply keys?

Answer 3

To rephrase daw's answer for Java, this is the only way I've found to send keys such as Control to IE:
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = DesiredCapabilities.internetExplorer();
capabilities.setCapability(InternetExplorerDriver.REQUIRE_WINDOW_FOCUS, true);
WebDriver driver = new InternetExplorerDriver(capabilities);
This has the side effect of IEDriver taking over your mouse.