How to Close a Window in WPF on a escape key

Option 1

Use Button.IsCancel property.

<Button Name="btnCancel" IsCancel="true" Click="OnClickCancel">Cancel</Button>

When you set the IsCancel property of a button to true, you create a Button that is registered with the AccessKeyManager. The button is then activated when a user presses the ESC key.

However, this works properly only for Dialogs.

Option2

You add a handler to PreviewKeyDown on the window if you want to close windows on Esc press.

public MainWindow(){    InitializeComponent();    this.PreviewKeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(HandleEsc);}private void HandleEsc(object sender, KeyEventArgs e){    if (e.Key == Key.Escape)        Close();}

Here is a button-less solution that is clean and more MVVM-ish. Add the following XAML into your dialog/window:

<Window.InputBindings>  <KeyBinding Command="ApplicationCommands.Close" Key="Esc" /></Window.InputBindings><Window.CommandBindings>  <CommandBinding Command="ApplicationCommands.Close" Executed="CloseCommandBinding_Executed" /></Window.CommandBindings>

and handle the event in the code-behind:

private void CloseCommandBinding_Executed(object sender, System.Windows.Input.ExecutedRoutedEventArgs e){  if (MessageBox.Show("Close?", "Close", MessageBoxButton.YesNo, MessageBoxImage.Question) == MessageBoxResult.Yes)    this.Close();}

One line to put after InitializeComponent():

 PreviewKeyDown += (s,e) => { if (e.Key == Key.Escape) Close() ;};

Please note that this kind of code behind does not break MVVM pattern since this is UI related and you don't access any viewmodel data. The alternative is to use attached properties which will require more code.