How do you set an HBITMAP object as the wallpaper? I am taking the screenshot of the desktop using BitBlt, so i have the screenshot as a HBITMAP object. Now i can save the object to a bmp file and the set it as wallpaper using SystemParametersInfo, SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER.
But i am checking if there is a direct way to set the bitmap object as a wallpaper. Any API or something?
It needs to be an actual file (Think about reboots etc)
If you are trying to mimic UAC, this is not the way to do it. If you want to mimic UAC, just create a window the size of the screen and draw the bitmap there (To mimic the actual security feature, you should put this window and your "UAC dialog" on a separate desktop that does not allow hooks, the CreateDesktop() API should get you started)
Related
It is possible in xlib put bitmap directly on desktop (Default Root Window) ?.
I need insert my bitmap on the desktop and move it.
Only on the desktop does not create a new window and insert there.
Thanks for response,
tango
It's been a long time since I've had to deal with Win32 menus. I need to add some PNG icons to a Win32 context popup menu. Naturally, I want to preserve PNG transparency and all the per-pixel-alpha in the process. Is this possible?
I was thinking on using SetMenuItemBitmaps. Is that the way to go?
I imported my PNGs as "PNG" resources but I can't seem to load them neither with LoadBitmap nor with LoadImage. I found some suggestions about using Gdi+ but obviously I won't be drawing the menu - the system will.
There seems to be a way to get a HBITMAP from a Gdi+ Bitmap but it looks as if all the alpha is getting lost in the process. AFAIK, a HBITMAP can happily host alpha information.
You need GDI+ to load a PNG. Then you need to create a 32-bit alpha bitmap of the correct size, create a Graphics on the bitmap, and use DrawImage to copy the PNG to the bitmap. That gives you a bitmap with an alpha channel.
Something like this:
Image* pimgSrc = Image::FromFile("MyIcon.png"L, FALSE);
Bitmap* pbmpImage = new Bitmap(
iWidth, iHeight,
PixelFormat32bppARGB
);
Graphics* pgraphics = Graphics::FromImage(bmpImage))
{
// This draws the PNG onto the bitmap, scaling it if necessary.
// You may want to set the scaling quality
graphics->DrawImage(
imageSrc,
Rectangle(0,0, bmpImage.Width, bmpImage.Height),
Rectangle(0,0, imgSrc.Width, imgSrc.Height),
GraphicsUnitPixel
);
}
// You can now get the HBITMAP from the Bitmap object and use it.
// Don't forget to delete the graphics, image and bitmap when done.
Perhaps you could use icon instead?
Here are my reasons for using icons instead of PNGs:
The Win32 API has good support icons, and it relatively much easier to draw icons, since GDI+ is not required.
Icons also support 8-bit transparency (just like PNGs).
Icons can be any size in pixels (just like PNGs).
Icons can easily be embedded in the executable as a resource.
Icons can be edited via Visual Studio.
To load an icon from a resource or a file use:
LoadImage()
To draw the icon, use:
DrawIcon() or DrawIconEx()
I would like a win32 program that takes the desktop and acts like it is shattering glass and in the end would put the pieces back together is there way reference on Doing this kind of effect with C++?
I wrote a program (unfortunately now lost) to do something like this a few years ago.
The desktop image can be retrieved by creating a DC for the screen, creating a compatible bitmap, then using BitBlt to copy the screen contents into the bitmap. Then use GetDIBits to get the pixels from this bitmap in a known format.
This link doesn't do exactly that, but it demonstrates the principle, albeit using MFC. I couldn't find a Win32-specific example:
http://www.flounder.com/screencapture.htm
For the shattering effect, best to use Direct3D or OpenGL. (Further details are up to you.) Create a texture using the bitmap data saved earlier.
By way of window for associating with OpenGL or D3D, create a borderless window that fills the entire screen and doesn't do painting or background erasing. This will prevent any flicker when switching from the desktop image to the copy of the desktop image being used to draw.
(If using D3D, you'll also find GetMonitorInfo useful in conjunction with IDirect3D9::GetAdapterMonitor and friends, as you'll need to create a separate device for each monitor and you'll therefore need to know which portion of the desktop corresponds to that device.)
How Would I go about placing text on the windows desktop? I've been told that GetDesktopWindow() is what I need but I need an example.
I'm assuming your ultimate goal is displaying some sort of status information on the desktop.
You will have to do either:
Inject a DLL into Explorer's process and subclass the desktop window (the SysListView32 at the bottom of the Progman window's hierarchy) to paint your text directly onto it.
Create a nonactivatable window whose background is painted using PaintDesktop and paint your text on it.
First solution is the most intrusive, and quite hard to code, so I would not recommend it.
Second solution allows the most flexibility. No "undocumented" or reliance on a specific implementation of Explorer, or even of just having Explorer as a shell.
In order to prevent a window from being brought to the top when clicked, you can use the extended window style WS_EX_NOACTIVATE on Windows 2000 and up. On downlevel systems, you can handle the WM_MOUSEACTIVATE message and return MA_NOACTIVATE.
You can get away with the PaintDesktop call if you need true transparency by using layered windows, but the concept stays the same. I wrote another answer detailing how to properly do layered windows with alpha using GDI+.
Why not just draw the text in the desktop wallpaper image file?
This solution would be feasible if you don't have to update the information too often and if you have a wallpaper image.
One can easily use CImage class to load the wallpaper image, CImage::GetDC() to obtain a device context to draw into, then save the new image, and finally update the desktop wallpaper to the new image.
i haven't tried but i assume you could do the following:
use GetDesktopWindow to retrieve the handle of the desktop window
use SetWindowLong to point the windows message handler to your own procedure
in your proc, process the WM_PAINT message (or whatever) and draw what you need.
in your proc, call the original message handler (as returned by SetWindowLong).
not 100% sure it will work, but seems like it should as this is the normal way to subclass a window.
-don
If your intent is to produce something like the Sidebar, you probably just want to create one or more layered windows. That will also allow you to process mouse clicks and other normal sources of input, and if you supply the alpha channel information, Windows will make sure that your window is drawn properly at all times. If you don't want the window to be interactive, use appropriate styles (such as WS_EX_NOACTIVATE) like Koro suggests.
I'm creating a non-intrusive popup window to notify the user when processing a time-consuming operation. At the moment I'm setting its transparency by calling SetLayeredWindowAttributes which gives me a reasonable result:
alt text http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/3144/transparentn.jpg
However I'd like the text and close button to appear opaque (it doesn't quite look right with white text) while keeping the background transparent - is there a way of doing this?
In order to do "proper" alpha in a layered window you need to supply the window manager with a PARGB bitmap by a call to UpdateLayeredWindow.
The cleanest way to achieve this that I know of is the following:
Create a GDI+ Bitmap object with the PixelFormat32bppPARGB pixel format.
Create a Graphics object to draw in this Bitmap object.
Do all your drawing into this object using GDI+.
Destroy the Graphics object created in step 2.
Call the GetHBITMAP method on the Bitmap object to get a Windows HBITMAP.
Destroy the Bitmap object.
Create a memory DC using CreateCompatibleDC and select the HBITMAP from step 5 into it.
Call UpdateLayeredWindow using the memory DC as a source.
Select previous bitmap and delete the memory DC.
Destroy the HBITMAP created in step 5.
This method should allow you to control the alpha channel of everything that is drawn: transparent for the background, opaque for the text and button.
Also, since you are going to be outputting text, I recommend that you call SystemParametersInfo to get the default antialiasing setting (SPI_GETFONTSMOOTHING), and then the SetTextRenderingHint on the Graphics object to set the antialiasing type to the same type that is configured by the user, for a nicer look.
I suspect you'll need two top level windows rather than one - one that has the alpha blend and a second that is display above the first with the opaque text and button but with a transparent background. To accomplish this with a single window you'll need to use the UpdateLayeredWindow API call, but using this will cause your buttons to not redraw when they are interacted with (hover highlights, focus etc.)
It is possible that if this application is for Vista only there is a new API call that you can use, but I do not believe it is available in XP or earlier.
I can't say for sure, you'll need to try it, but since everything is a window, you could try setting the layered attributes for your button to make it opaque.
As for the text, you may be able to put that in its own frame with a set background and foreground color, and modify its layered attributes to make the background color transparent...
But since these are child windows and not the top-level window, I really don't know that it'll work.