Global hotkey in console application

What you can do is Create a hidden window in your Console application which is used to handle the hotkey notification and raise an event.

The code HERE demonstrates the principal. HERE is an article on handling messages in a Console application, using this you should be able to enhance HotKeyManager to run in a Console Application.

The following update to the HotKeyManager creates a background thread which runs the message loop and handles the windows messages.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Threading;

namespace ConsoleHotKey
{
  public static class HotKeyManager
  {
    public static event EventHandler<HotKeyEventArgs> HotKeyPressed;

    public static int RegisterHotKey(Keys key, KeyModifiers modifiers)
    {
      _windowReadyEvent.WaitOne();
      int id = System.Threading.Interlocked.Increment(ref _id);
      _wnd.Invoke(new RegisterHotKeyDelegate(RegisterHotKeyInternal), _hwnd, id, (uint)modifiers, (uint)key);
      return id;
    }

    public static void UnregisterHotKey(int id)
    {
      _wnd.Invoke(new UnRegisterHotKeyDelegate(UnRegisterHotKeyInternal), _hwnd, id);
    }

    delegate void RegisterHotKeyDelegate(IntPtr hwnd, int id, uint modifiers, uint key);
    delegate void UnRegisterHotKeyDelegate(IntPtr hwnd, int id);

    private static void RegisterHotKeyInternal(IntPtr hwnd, int id, uint modifiers, uint key)
    {      
      RegisterHotKey(hwnd, id, modifiers, key);      
    }

    private static void UnRegisterHotKeyInternal(IntPtr hwnd, int id)
    {
      UnregisterHotKey(_hwnd, id);
    }    

    private static void OnHotKeyPressed(HotKeyEventArgs e)
    {
      if (HotKeyManager.HotKeyPressed != null)
      {
        HotKeyManager.HotKeyPressed(null, e);
      }
    }

    private static volatile MessageWindow _wnd;
    private static volatile IntPtr _hwnd;
    private static ManualResetEvent _windowReadyEvent = new ManualResetEvent(false);
    static HotKeyManager()
    {
      Thread messageLoop = new Thread(delegate()
        {
          Application.Run(new MessageWindow());
        });
      messageLoop.Name = "MessageLoopThread";
      messageLoop.IsBackground = true;
      messageLoop.Start();      
    }

    private class MessageWindow : Form
    {
      public MessageWindow()
      {
        _wnd = this;
        _hwnd = this.Handle;
        _windowReadyEvent.Set();
      }

      protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
      {
        if (m.Msg == WM_HOTKEY)
        {
          HotKeyEventArgs e = new HotKeyEventArgs(m.LParam);
          HotKeyManager.OnHotKeyPressed(e);
        }

        base.WndProc(ref m);
      }

      protected override void SetVisibleCore(bool value)
      {
        // Ensure the window never becomes visible
        base.SetVisibleCore(false);
      }

      private const int WM_HOTKEY = 0x312;
    }

    [DllImport("user32", SetLastError=true)]
    private static extern bool RegisterHotKey(IntPtr hWnd, int id, uint fsModifiers, uint vk);

    [DllImport("user32", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern bool UnregisterHotKey(IntPtr hWnd, int id);

    private static int _id = 0;
  }


  public class HotKeyEventArgs : EventArgs
  {
    public readonly Keys Key;
    public readonly KeyModifiers Modifiers;

    public HotKeyEventArgs(Keys key, KeyModifiers modifiers)
    {
      this.Key = key;
      this.Modifiers = modifiers;
    }

    public HotKeyEventArgs(IntPtr hotKeyParam)
    {
      uint param = (uint)hotKeyParam.ToInt64();
      Key = (Keys)((param & 0xffff0000) >> 16);
      Modifiers = (KeyModifiers)(param & 0x0000ffff);
    }
  }

  [Flags]
  public enum KeyModifiers
  {
    Alt = 1,
    Control = 2,
    Shift = 4,
    Windows = 8,
    NoRepeat = 0x4000
  }
}

Here is an example of using HotKeyManager from a Console application

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace ConsoleHotKey
{
  class Program
  {
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      HotKeyManager.RegisterHotKey(Keys.A, KeyModifiers.Alt);
      HotKeyManager.HotKeyPressed += new EventHandler<HotKeyEventArgs>(HotKeyManager_HotKeyPressed);
      Console.ReadLine();      
    }

    static void HotKeyManager_HotKeyPressed(object sender, HotKeyEventArgs e)
    {
      Console.WriteLine("Hit me!");
    }
  }
}