I have a Windows console application written in C++ and want to hide/remove the complete title bar of the console window, including the close, min/max controls etc. I searched a lot but didn't found anything useful yet.
I inquire the console HWND with GetConsoleWindow and tried to change the console window style with SetWindowLong by removing the WS_CAPTION flag, but this seems to have no effect at all:
HWND hwnd = GetConsoleWindow();
LONG style = GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_STYLE);
style &= ~(WS_BORDER|WS_CAPTION|WS_THICKFRAME);
SetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_STYLE, style);
SetWindowPos( hwnd, NULL, 0,0,0,0,
SWP_NOSIZE|SWP_NOMOVE|SWP_NOZORDER|SWP_NOACTIVATE
|SWP_FRAMECHANGED );
I also tried GetSystemMenu/RemoveMenu but this seems only to disable controls like the close button.
You can't. Generally the hWnd of a console window is not guaranteed to be suitable for all window handle operations as, for example, documented here.
You could try a complex solution involving hiding the console window (this is possible), and then setup a window (without the controls) that forwards appropriate events back and forth from the real console window. In particular GDI events to draw the console window contents in your fake console window, and interact with the scrollbar (which in turn adjusts the console...).
This solution is pretty far out, and quite technical.
You can use SetWindowLongPtr(hWnd, GWL_STYLE, WS_POPUP); , which will remove the caption/titlebar and the borders.
Warning: This does introduce a few glitches that I don't know how to fix (I guess they're cached borders?), but at least it does produce the effect that you want.
I think I would write/use two programs. One console program doing the work and a second program being a controllable console window running the first one. Most probably there are already existing console programs out there and some can be started without title bar? Or find an open source one and modify it.
Related
I've spent many hours on google and haven't found any relevent results on this particular subject.
I have an application I am wanting to be minimized when the user clicks on it in the taskbar (if it's not already minimized). The problem seems to be related to the fact the window is borderless. When I set it to have a border, it minimizes just fine when clicking it in the taskbar, without any code intervention. But I need the window borderless because I'm making a "custom border" using the client area.
tl;dr how do I check if the current application is being clicked in the taskbar?
Many thanks!
Samuel
There is no need to tinker with the taskbar.
Just make sure you have the WS_MINIMIZEBOX|WS_MAXIMIZEBOX styles set for your window. Otherwise your window won't handle WM_SYSCOMMAND with a wParam of SC_MINIMIZE and SC_RESTORE.
Some resource editors like the one in Visual Studio make it impossible to set WS_MINIMIZEBOX|WS_MAXIMIZEBOX when you remove the standard window border. You may programmatically add the styles back like this:
DWORD style = GetWindowLong( hwnd, GWL_STYLE );
SetWindowLong( hwnd, GWL_STYLE, style | WS_MINIMIZEBOX | WS_MAXIMIZEBOX );
I need to create a window that acts like "normal" one, but without maximize button, and sizing border.
Searching through Internet, and studying MSDN, I have learned that natively achieving both is impossible.
There is no window style that does both ( I can disable maximize button, but that is not my aim; as for removing resizing options, I have found suitable window styles in the documentation ).
The closest description would be the dialogbox frame behavior ( no sizing border ), but with extra minimize button.
QUESTION:
Is there a way to achieve my goal some other way?
If yes, can you please provide links to tutorials or code examples? This would be the first time for me to do such a thing and could use all the help I could get?
An important note: I have found this example while searching for a solution, but it will not help me because I target Windows XP onwards.
Creating a window as below will give you a non-sizeable window with a title bar, a minimize button and an exit button.
dwStyle = WS_SYSMENU | WS_CAPTION | WS_MINIMIZEBOX;
hWnd = CreateWindow(szAppName, szTitle, dwStyle,
CW_USEDEFAULT, 0, CW_USEDEFAULT, 0,
NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms632679%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms632600%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
I suppose you are creating the window using CreateWindowEx. Then, if you omit both WS_MAXIMIZEBOX and WS_MINIMIZEBOX flags (the dwStyle parameter), the window will have only the close button (no minimize/maximize) buttons. If you ommit just WS_MAXIMIZEBOX, Windows draw the maximize box disabled to keep the graphics layout consistent for all windows. There is no way to change this behavior, and it can change in different versions of Windows (Win3.1, for instance, didn't draw the maximize button at all when the flags were set as mentioned.)
Resizable border is disabled by setting other frame than WS_THICKFRAME (ie. WS_BORDER or WS_EX_DLGMODALFRAME in the dwExStyle parameter).
You can also control the user sizing/moving of your window by intercepting messages WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING, WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED, WM_ENTERSIZEMOVE, WM_EXITSIZEMOVE, WM_SIZING and WM_MOVING.
In theory, you can also completly change the appearance of the non-client area of the window, but it's hardly worth the effort, and it's questionable whether it's a good idea to fight with the default graphic layout of the operating system when all the developers and user are used to it and content with it. (In other words: if you don't want your window to be maximized, just omit the WS_MAXIMIZEBOX flag and leave it on the operating system how to realize this particular decision.)
I'm pretty sure it is documented on MSDN that the window style you want to OMIT is WS_THICKFRAME, since the Window Styles page says that a thick frame is a sizing frame.
I have created a window using the WS_EX_NOACTIVATE flag and it works great as far as not taking focus when you click the window. However when I drag the window or try to resize it, it doesn't redraw the window as your are moving and resizing it, only at the very end once you release the mouse button. Is there a way around this? I would like to see the window as I am resizing it. I have searched many documents, but I still don't find the resolution...
If you need a window that doesn't take focus when clicked, but can still be interacted with, you need to handle the WM_MOUSEACTIVATE, and return MA_NOACTIVATE.
Additional information and fully working sample code has been published by Raymond Chen. See How can I have a window that rejects activation but still receives pointer input?
It's a Windows bug. You need to call SetWindowPos(hwnd, 0, x, y, width, height, 0) on WM_MOVING. The coordinates to set are given to you in lParam which is a RECT*.
Note that doing this will activate the owned window and deactivate the owner, which is not what you want (and SWP_NOACTIVATE has no effect either).
To avoid that, you need to set WS_CHILD on the owned window. But set it after you created the window, via SetWindowLong(), otherwise your owned window will get clipped, like any child window.
And, as you probably already figured out, this only works for windows with WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW ex style. I wasn't able to make the owned window stay deactivated with any other style combination that doesn't include WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW.
That's winapi for you :(
I tried to implement a switch-to-fullscreen mode for an ActiveX control. This currently works by removing and hiding the parent window and changing my control's placement and position.
However, I have a problem with switching between applications while the control is in fullscreen mode. If I switch to another application and then click on my window area (not in the taskbar), it seems to not be activated. You can see in the taskbar, that another application still has the highlight and on the main screen, my window is partly hidden behind the taskbar unless it has the focus.
I process the WM_LBUTTONDOWN window message to detect if my window is clicked. And I already tried to call the following WINAPI functions:
::ShowWindow(m_hWnd, SW_RESTORE);
::SwitchToThisWindow(m_hWnd, FALSE);
::SetForegroundWindow(m_hWnd);
::SetActiveWindow(m_hWnd);
::SetFocus(m_hWnd);
::BringWindowToTop(m_hWnd);
::SetWindowPos(m_hWnd, HWND_TOP, m_monitorInfo.rcMonitor.left, m_monitorInfo.rcMonitor.top, m_monitorInfo.rcMonitor.right, m_monitorInfo.rcMonitor.bottom, SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_SHOWWINDOW); // SWP_NOACTIVATE, SWP_NOOWNERZORDER
I also tried to use ::SetWindowLongW(m_hWnd, GWL_STYLE, WS_VISIBLE); which surprisingly gave my window the focus back. But it then suddenly disappeared when trying to switch back from fullscreen mode again.
I have no idea why there are so many different functions that for me seem all to do roughly the same. But it doesn't matter as none of them worked anyway.
What is the/one correct way to behave my control correctly?
Windows might be getting a bit confused because you're filling the screen with a child window, but you want it to behave like a top-level (overlapped) window. The host application is probably not getting activated because you've hidden its window.
You might do better to create a new top-level full-screen window for full-screen mode. If this is owned by the top-level window that (ultimately) hosts your control then your new window will always be above it, so you don't need to hide the existing window. Activation should just work. In short, you want your window to behave like a pop-up modal dialog.
Adobe's flash player seems to do something similar. Full-screen playback is in a window of class ShockwaveFlashFullScreen.
I am creating a program that displays a popup at certain times (just like some chat clients for example) on which the user can click. However, I do not want to take away the focus from the current application.
The way I'm doing it now is by using a HWND with WS_POPUPWINDOW and minimizing and then restoring the window. However, this steals the focus from the current application. Setting foreground or hiding and showing a window did not make it appear on the foreground. I would like to be able to keep using a HWND so I can use other elements in this window, but I have no idea how to give it foreground without stealing focus.
I use win32 and c++.
To show without activating:
ShowWindow(hwnd, SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE);
To raise without activating:
SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_TOP, 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_NOMOVE|SWP_NOSIZE|SWP_NOACTIVATE);
Unfortunately this is not working for me. The window is created with CreateWindowExA and is showed using ShowWindow(hwnd, SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE) however the keyboard focus is still stolen from the window which has the focus at the moment of the creation. (The window is created with layered and trasparent attributes by using SetWindowLong() and SetLayeredWindowAttributes() ).
PS: The window which has the focus is not parent of the new created window.
Solved: It worked when I removed the SetForegroundWindow call. This function cause the window passed as parameter to be activated.