WINDOWPLACEMENT's showCmd... always 1? - c++

Question

When I do a get GetWindowPlacement, the WINDOWPLACEMENT::showCmd seems to be always 1, which is SW_SHOWNORMAL.
Does anyone know why is this so and if it is updated? Does anyone know if this variable is maintained by the application itself or by the operating system?
I am running this on Windows 7.
I am using this to achieve the same purpose as mentioned in this thread: I am trying to undo hidden windows that were previously shown without storing the hidden windows in memory (hide/show will be called in different run sessions) or on disk.
void hide(const unsigned int pid){
std::list<HWND> windowList = getWindowbyPID(pid);
for(std::list<HWND>::iterator it = windowList.begin(); it != windowList.end(); it++){
if(IsWindowVisible(*it)){ std::cout << "Hid WIN#" << *it << std::endl; ShowWindow(*it,SW_HIDE); }
}
}
void show(const unsigned int pid){
std::list<HWND> windowList = getWindowbyPID(pid);
for(std::list<HWND>::iterator it = windowList.begin(); it != windowList.end(); it++){
//if(IsWindowVisible(*it)){ ShowWindow(*it,SW_SHOW); }
WINDOWPLACEMENT wp;
wp.length = sizeof(wp);
wp.showCmd = 0; // Just to clear showCmd before reading.
std::cout << *it << std::endl;
std::cout << "BEFORE: " << wp.showCmd << std::endl;
GetWindowPlacement(*it,&wp);
std::cout << "AFTER: " << wp.showCmd << std::endl;
}
}
Output of one example that I did (pid of notepad.exe) after hiding hwnd#00060CD0:
003D0642
BEFORE: 0
AFTER: 1
000B0682
BEFORE: 0
AFTER: 1
00060CD0
BEFORE: 0
AFTER: 1
I am trying to use GetWindowPlacement to differentiate the windows that were always hidden and the windows that were previously shown. It never seems to be 0 even for windows that were always hidden.

Answer 1

There are only three possible values of the showCmd after calling GetWindowPlacement.
From the MSDN documentation on GetWindowPlacement (emphasis mine):
The flags member of WINDOWPLACEMENT retrieved by this function is always zero. If the window identified by the hWnd parameter is maximized, the showCmd member is SW_SHOWMAXIMIZED. If the window is minimized, showCmd is SW_SHOWMINIMIZED. Otherwise, it is SW_SHOWNORMAL.
Therefore, it appears that the window you're asking for placement info on is in a state other than maximized or minimized when you're calling GetWindowPlacement.
I'd suspect what you're actually looking for is IsWindowVisible.