Child window created by CreateEx() overlapped by sibling windows - c++

I tried to create a child window using:
CreateWindowEx( NULL, NULL, "MyChild", WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_BORDER, 300, 300, 400, 200, hParentWnd, NULL, NULL );
where the parent HWND hParentWnd has many other child windows already. However, this created a child window hiding behind all the siblings. Windows Spy++ shows that it is on top (first) of the z-order among the child windows of hParentWnd. I have tried all different win32 commands including SetWindowPos(), BringWindowToTop(), SetForegroundWindow(), SetFocus(), SetActiveWindow(), SendMessage(WM_ACTIVATE, 0, 0), etc., but none brings it from behind the siblings. When I replaced WS_CHILD by WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW in the CreateWindowEx() command, the created non-child window has no problem showing as the topmost foreground active window. So what must I do to get the child window to the top from behind the siblings?
Thanks a million.
z/0


It is quite explicit in the MSDN article for CreateWindowEx():
If the created window is a child window, its default position is at the bottom of the Z-order. If the created window is a top-level window, its default position is at the top of the Z-order.
You'll need to move it to the top of the Z-order with SetWindowPos().

Related

Win32 programming child window does not have exit button

Hi I am writing a Win32 Windows program. I created a child window with the following command
case ID_VIEW_CARVIEW:
carViewHwnd = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_TOPMOST, L"Edit", L"Edit",
WS_VISIBLE | WS_POPUP | WS_CAPTION | WS_BORDER,
000, 00, 656, 519, hWnd, (HMENU)NULL, GetModuleHandle(NULL), NULL);
SetWindowLongPtr(carViewHwnd, GWLP_WNDPROC, (LONG_PTR)CarViewWndProc);
However, this child windows has two problems:
It does not have a "close" button on the top right.
It always stay on top of all windows on my desktop top.
How can I change it?

It does not have a "close" button on the top right.
You need set WS_SYSMENU flag for dwStyle parameter to have a window menu on its title bar.
It always stay on top of all windows on my desktop top.
Because you define WS_EX_TOPMOST style: "The window should be placed above all non-topmost windows and should stay above them, even when the window is deactivated."

MFC - Minimize main MDI window only

I have main MDI window and have custom CWnd derived window which I create dynamically run-time. I want to keep that window on the screen even when main MDI window is minimized but I dont want to have top-most window. I have tried use WS_EX_CONTROLPARENT | WS_EX_APPWINDOW styles, set parent to NULL and set owner to GetDesktopWindow() but nothing works.
Any ideas how I should do that?

When window is minimized, it takes down with it all of its child and owned windows.
This code creates a regular (not topmost) window which is not hidden when the main frame is minimized:
HWND hWnd = ::CreateWindow(L"button", L"test", WS_CAPTION|WS_VISIBLE,
100, 100, 200, 200, GetDesktopWindow(), 0, 0, 0);

C++ Destroying a child window

I'm have a problem closing my child window, and would greatly appreciate some directions on how to solve my problem.
I use the following code to create the window, which succesfully creates and shows the child window.
hwndComboBoxLang = CreateWindow(WC_COMBOBOX, TEXT(""),
CBS_DROPDOWN | CBS_HASSTRINGS | WS_CHILD | WS_OVERLAPPED | WS_VISIBLE ,
xpos, ypos, nwidth, nheight, hwnd, NULL, hThisInstance,
NULL);
And this to destroy the window:
DestroyWindow(DW.hwndComboBoxLang);
The function is being reached, as I have tested it out by succesfully destroying the "child" window when the WS_CHILD parameter is removed, and succesfully used the function on the parent window. I am also unable to succesfully use the ShowWindow(DW.hwndComboBoxLang, SW_HIDE); function on the child window.
I have not registered the child window, as I assume its derived from the registered parent class therefore this is not nessecary, is this assumption wrong? Is the child window created but is the handle pointing towards nothing?
Can you point me in the right direction on how to correctly close a child window?
Thank you in advance,

List Control SetFocus Redraw Error on a Tab Control

Environment: Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio Feature Pack, MFC Dialog App, Windows XP, New Common Controls.
I'm having a problem with a list control that happens to be on a tab control.
To reproduce the problem simply create a dialog based app. Place a tab control on that dialog, then put a list control onto that tab control. You don't need to add any code to the project. Just build and run. Set the focus to the list view and then either minimize the dialog or bring another window in front of it.
Now bring the dialog back to the foreground, the list will not draw itself correctly.
One thing I have tried is handle the set focus event for the list control, but left it with an empty method body, ie...
void CMyListControl::OnSetFocus(CWnd* window)
{
// Default();
}
Then the redraw problem goes away, however now you can not select items within the list. Uncommenting the call to Default makes the problem come back.
If I move the list off of the tab the problem goes away. If I set the focus to another control on the tab or dialog, the problem goes away. This is a weird one.
In fact, if you watch closely you can see the list drawing itself and then being obscured by the tab control.

I know it's late but I had them same problem today. You need to set ListView's parent to Tab control.
hWndTab = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE, WC_TABCONTROL, NULL,
WS_CHILD | WS_TABSTOP | WS_VISIBLE,
0, 0, 0, 0, hWnd, (HMENU) IDC_TAB, hInstance, NULL);
hWndList = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE, WC_LISTVIEW, NULL,
WS_CHILD | WS_TABSTOP | WS_VISIBLE | LVS_REPORT,
0, 0, 0, 0, hWndTab, (HMENU) IDC_LIST, hInstance, NULL);
Note parent window handler for hWndList: hWndTab. Or you can use SetParent.

Win32: Bring a window to top

I have a Windows program which has two 2 windows in it:
hwnd (main interface)
hwnd2 (toplevel window, no parent, created by hwnd)
When I double click on hwnd, I need hwnd2 to pop up and show some data, so I use this function to bring hwnd2 to top:
BringWindowToTop(hwnd2);
hwnd2 is brought to top, but there is one thing odd. When I click on hwnd2 again, hwnd (main interface) pops itself up again automatically.
I tried to use the following function to solve this problem, but non of them works.
SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_BOTTOM, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE);
//doesn't work
BringWindowToTop(hwnd2); //This is the function brings hwnd2 to top
SetForegroundWindow(hwnd2); //doesn't work
SetWindowPos(hwnd2, HWND_TOP, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE);
//doesn't work
SetWindowPos(hwnd2, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE);
// hwnd2 "always" on top, not what I want
SetActiveWindow(hwnd2); // doesn't work too (for replying to Magnus Skog, thanks)
SwitchToThisWindow(hwnd2, TRUE);// got the same problem with BringWindowToTop function
SwitchToThisWindow(hwnd2, FALSE);
How could I solve this problem?
Thanks in advance.
(for replying to aJ, hwnd2 doesn't have parent because it needs to be a toplevel window so it can be in front/back of other windows)
(hwnd2 is a media player which is composed of several windows, one of the windows is for video dispaly, two other trackbar controls for progress bar and volume bar, one Toolbar control for control panel.)
(There is one this might help, no matter which window I click on hwnd2, hwnd pops up automatically as loong as "the mouse is on top of hwnd in Z-order", including menu bar and non-client area, etc.)
(This media player is writen in Direct Show. I use IVideoWindow::put_Owner to put video window as the video owner, Direct Show internally creates a sub-video window as a child of the video window. Except for this sub-video window which I can't see the source code, I don't see any thing suspicious in hwnd2.)
I found the reason, which is because of Direct Show. I use multithread to execute it, and then the problem's solved. But...why??
This problem can be resolved by using PostMessage (rather than SendMessage).

try this，it is said coming from M$
HWND hCurWnd = ::GetForegroundWindow();
DWORD dwMyID = ::GetCurrentThreadId();
DWORD dwCurID = ::GetWindowThreadProcessId(hCurWnd, NULL);
::AttachThreadInput(dwCurID, dwMyID, TRUE);
::SetWindowPos(m_hWnd, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE);
::SetWindowPos(m_hWnd, HWND_NOTOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_SHOWWINDOW | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE);
::SetForegroundWindow(m_hWnd);
::SetFocus(m_hWnd);
::SetActiveWindow(m_hWnd);
::AttachThreadInput(dwCurID, dwMyID, FALSE);
In order to bring a window to top, you should get your window handle,thread handle, the windows thread handle who is in foreground
then we attach our thread to foreground window thread and get input by AttachThreadInput, then we set our window z order
to topmost and then restore its z order to normal, call SetForegroundWindow,SetFocus,SetActiveWindow to make sure our window is brought to top and is active and have focus
then deattach the input queue from the old foreground window thread, make our thread the only one who capture the input events
So why should We call AttachThreadInput, it is because
SetFocus sets the keyboard focus to the specified window. The window must be
attached to the calling thread's message queue.
What does AttachThreadInput do?
The AttachThreadInput function can be used to allow a set of threads
to share the same input state. By sharing input state, the threads
share their concept of the active window. By doing this, one thread
can always activate another thread's window. This function is also
useful for sharing focus state, mouse capture state, keyboard state,
and window Z-order state among windows created by different threads
whose input state is shared.
We use SetWindowPos to bring the windows to topmost and show the window if the window is hidding by using SWP_HIDEWINDOW
SetWindowPos function changes the size, position, and Z order of a
child, pop-up, or top-level window. These windows are ordered
according to their appearance on the screen. The topmost window
receives the highest rank and is the first window in the Z order
If your problem is your window is also minimized , you should add one line code to the end
ShowWindow(m_hWnd, SW_RESTORE);

Both work great:
::SetForegroundWindow(wnd)
or
::SetWindowPos(m_hWnd, // handle to window
HWND_TOPMOST, // placement-order handle
0, // horizontal position
0, // vertical position
0, // width
0, // height
SWP_SHOWWINDOW|SWP_NOSIZE|SWP_NOMOVE// window-positioning options
);
But remember that the last one sets the window always on top.

After many tries and errors.I found following solution to this problem:
SendMessage(hwnd, WM_SYSCOMMAND, SC_RESTORE, 0); // restore the minimize window
SetForegroundWindow(hwnd);
SetActiveWindow(hwnd);
SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_TOP, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_SHOWWINDOW | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE);
//redraw to prevent the window blank.
RedrawWindow(hwnd, NULL, 0, RDW_FRAME | RDW_INVALIDATE | RDW_ALLCHILDREN );
The hwnd is your windows HWND . Please do not just copy and paste. You also need use GetLastError to check api error after every api call.
I have confirm following result on my win7:
Can restore minimize window and no error return.
If the window already top, the window title will blink and no error return.
If the window has closed, it will return the error "0x578 Invalid window handle."
It can bring the window to the top on all not top-most window and no error return.(For example it will behind the top-most taskmanager)
It do not make the window top-most. The user can make other window on top of it.

SwitchToThisWindow works best for me.

Have you tried SetActiveWindow()?

This will restore an app if minimized and bring it to the front:
ShowWindow(hWnd, SW_SHOW);
SetForegroundWindow(hWnd);

//work great!
Var
WndHandle:HWND;
begin
WndHandle :=FindWindowEx(0,0,nil,'Calculator');
PostMessage(WndHandle,WM_SHOWWINDOW,SW_RESTORE,0);
SetForegroundWindow(WndHandle);
end;