Is there a way to open the on-screen keyboard in Windows from Matlab?

The on-screen keyboard for Windows is stored in C:\WINDOWS\system32\osk.exe, but calling

system('C:\WINDOWS\system32\osk.exe')

gives me the output

'C:\WINDOWS\system32\osk.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command, 
operable program or batch file. 

Is there a way to open this from a script? I am working on a deployed app for Windows tablets and will need to open the on-screen keyboard when an edit box is clicked.

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

winopen('C:\WINDOWS\system32\osk.exe')

[Klarissa Ramos]

I've tried that, but it says:

Error using winopen (line 35)
The specified file does not exist.

[Fangjun Jiang]

You need to find the file. The keyboard pops up when I run it.

[Klarissa Ramos]

I tried it with Matlab 2019b and the keyboard popped up like you said. However, for compatibility reasons I have to use Matlab 2015a (32-bit) and that command doesn't work. Do you know of a workaround for this?

[Fangjun Jiang]

Works for me in R14b and R15b. Your error message indicates file osk.exe does not exist.

[Klarissa Ramos]

Why is it not finding the file? I used the same exact command in both versions. Could it be because I'm using a 32-bit version of Matlab?

[Fangjun Jiang]

exist('C:\WINDOWS\system32\osk.exe','file') whould return 2.

[Klarissa Ramos]

Hm, it returned 2 in 2019b, but when I copied and pasted it to 2015a it returned 0. Any idea why it can't find it?

[Fangjun Jiang]

no idea. Try run R15a in admin mode? navigate to folder C:\WINDOWS\system32\ in MATLAB? run exist() and winopen() on some other files, such as winopen('C:\WINDOWS\system32\notepad.exe')?