Read Bar Code Data Behind The Scenes?

I have an Argox Barcode Scanner with a USB port, which inputs data like a keyboard wedge. I've tried scanning barcodes with it with notepad open, and it just dumps the values as plain-text into notepad on a new line every time.

I am creating an application which controls some custom electronics, and displays data on-screen at the same time. This application does not have any user-input on the entire form, except for a button which when clicked, takes the user to a login-form, and then onward to an admin control panel to change the way the program behaves. Everything is going to be set up on a PC which behaves like a kiosk, which means there will be no windows interaction by the user, and he will not be allowed any kind of usage on the machine even if he tries to use his keyboard/mouse all he can, except for reading data presented on-screen as interfaced with our custom electronics, or to use the mouse to press the button which invokes the login screen.

Now in this situation, I need to work in a barcode scanner behind the scenes. What I need to do is a user scans a barcode using the reader, and the scanning of the barcode should trigger some code in the background (which does some checking against a database, and then activates something in our electronics, and so on). After the user scans the barcode using the scanner, there is still supposed to be no user-interaction with the program itself.

how I might accomplish this? I have already thought of using a hidden text-box on the form, but that sounds like a temporary work-around rather than a professional solution. Not to mention if the user were to accidentally click anywhere on-screen with the mouse, or click on the login button, it would take focus away from the hidden text-box, and bringing focus back to it each time programatically is quite a task.