Running in back until summoned.

This has got to be a stupid question, but here's what I'm doing. A parent process gives control to a child process and minimises itself. As the child process runs (which is not limited to programs I have any control over) I want the parent process to look out for, say, the F12 key. Gotta be easy but I'm a tad lost.. help please. :)

Just to clarify, the part I'm stuck on is the minimized application being able to intercept F12 and react even though the focus is on some other program.

Thanks.
-Justin

use the board search for "key logger" or "keyboard hook"

Also, if you want to maximise - send your window a WM_SYSCOMMAND message and set wParam to SC_MINIMIZE

Thanks for the direction. :)