Windows setFocus, target window does not capture keyboard input - c++

Question

i'm coding a wrapper for a CMD window (and potentially any shell), which purpose is to keep a shell instance always opened out of a screen's border. Moving the mouse to the border of the screen would cause the window moving down. (the window is a topmost window).
The point is to have a terminal always accessible as process (not taking space in the taskbar) and which hides when not being used.
One useful feature would be to force the focus on that window, so that, once it starts moving in your screen you can directly start typing without clicking on it to give it focus.
I'm coding all of that in c++ within visual studio with sfml support (that program itself has many sfml graphic windows, and that prompt is the only non-graphic one). Sfml in the code relative to that wrapper is only used to get mouse coordinates, in the form of sf::Mouse::getPosition().x/y.
When i run the program from within visual studio, whether in debug or in release mode, it all works fine. I can focus some other window, do stuff there, and as soon as i move the mouse in the position which makes the prompt window move in the screen, if i start typing without clicking on the actual page, the prompt will actually start capturing keyboard input as intended.
However, if i run the program as a stand-alone executable, this behaviour is no longer achieved. It appears the prompt does get focus indeed, since the "typing cursor" is there, but the window does not capture the actual keyboard input, which is weird.
Relevant code is as follows:
//create terminal window beg
STARTUPINFO prompt_startupinfo;
PROCESS_INFORMATION prompt_processinfo;
HWND prompt_window;
Win::spawn_prompt(&prompt_startupinfo, &prompt_processinfo, &prompt_window);
//always on bottom
SetWindowPos(prompt_window, HWND_TOP, 0, -PROMPT_HEIGHT + 2, Screen::get_width(), PROMPT_HEIGHT, SWP_SHOWWINDOW);
SetWindowLong(prompt_window, GWL_EXSTYLE, WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW);
SetWindowLong(prompt_window, GWL_STYLE, WS_POPUP | WS_VISIBLE);
//create terminal window end
bool outside = false;
bool exiting = false;
while (IsWindow(prompt_window))
{
//Console move beg
int my = sf::Mouse::getPosition().y;
int mx = sf::Mouse::getPosition().x;
RECT rect;
GetWindowRect(prompt_window, &rect);
int wy = rect.bottom;
if ((my <= wy + 1) and not exiting)
{
if ((not outside) or (mx < 32))
{
if (wy < PROMPT_HEIGHT)
{
wy += WINDOW_SPEED * 4;
outside = false;
if (wy > PROMPT_HEIGHT)
{
wy = PROMPT_HEIGHT;
}
}
SetForegroundWindow(prompt_window);
}
}
else if (wy > 0)
{
wy -= WINDOW_SPEED * 4;
exiting = true;
if (wy <= 0)
{
wy = 0;
outside = true;
exiting = false;
}
}
SetWindowPos(prompt_window, 0, 0, wy - PROMPT_HEIGHT, 0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE);
//Console move end
Sleep(1000 / 60);
}
As a quick note, when running from within visual studio, the desired behaviour is achieved by just having the SetForegroundWindow(prompt_window); call, no even need for SetFocus(prompt_window);
Just for the sake of completion here is the Win::spawn_prompt function:
HWND Win::find_main_window(unsigned long process_id)
{
handle_data data;
data.process_id = process_id;
data.best_handle = 0;
EnumWindows(enum_windows_callback, (LPARAM)&data);
return data.best_handle;
}
BOOL CALLBACK Win::enum_windows_callback(HWND handle, LPARAM lParam)
{
handle_data& data = *(handle_data*)lParam;
unsigned long process_id = 0;
GetWindowThreadProcessId(handle, &process_id);
if (data.process_id != process_id || !is_main_window(handle))
{
return TRUE;
}
data.best_handle = handle;
return FALSE;
}
BOOL Win::is_main_window(HWND handle)
{
return GetWindow(handle, GW_OWNER) == (HWND)0 && IsWindowVisible(handle);
}
bool Win::spawn_prompt(STARTUPINFO* prompt_startupinfo, PROCESS_INFORMATION* prompt_processinfo, HWND* prompt_window)
{
// additional information
STARTUPINFO si;
PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
pi.hProcess;
// set the size of the structures
ZeroMemory(&si, sizeof(si));
si.cb = sizeof(si);
ZeroMemory(&pi, sizeof(pi));
// start the program up
CreateProcess(L"C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe", // the path
L"", // Command line
NULL, // Process handle not inheritable
NULL, // Thread handle not inheritable
FALSE, // Set handle inheritance to FALSE
0, // No creation flags
NULL, // Use parent's environment block
NULL, // Use parent's starting directory
&si, // Pointer to STARTUPINFO structure
&pi // Pointer to PROCESS_INFORMATION structure (removed extra parentheses)
);
Sleep(1000);
HWND pw = Win::find_main_window(pi.dwProcessId);
*prompt_startupinfo = si;
*prompt_processinfo = pi;
*prompt_window = pw;
return false;
}

Answer 1

Ok i solved the problem.
Since that "set focus" event should have been triggered only when user's mouse was in a certain position, the most immediate workaround i could think of was simulating a click in that position.
Thanks for the hints #Daniel Sęk,
I'd still appreciate a more clean and less workaround-ish solution, so any further hint would be appreciated.
EDIT:
despite the window being topmost, sometimes the currently focused window still sits over the cmd window, and if that focused window is at the coordinates where i simulate the click, it captures that click making mentioned solution not always reliable.