How to bring other app window to front without activating it?

c++ windows winapi z-order
SathOkh picture SathOkh · Mar 10, 2011 · Viewed 7.1k times · Source

I want to bring to front a window(from other application). Currently I'm using:

::SetWindowPos(hwnd, GetForegroundWindow(), 0, 0, 0, 0, SWP_ASYNCWINDOWPOS | SWP_NOACTIVATE | SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE);

It works fine, but in some (unknown to me) cases, it makes the window always on top. According to MSDN, I should use HWND_NOTOPMOST in the place of GetForegroundWindow() but it doesn't work—the window stays under other (not always on top) windows.

How can I bring a window to the front without activating it?

Answer

Sertac Akyuz picture Sertac Akyuz · Mar 10, 2011

The other application's window can be made temporarily 'top-most' to bring it to front without activating it, first by specifying HWND_TOPMOST as 'hWndInsertAfter' in a SetWindowPos call and then by specifying HWND_NOTOPMOST in a second call (both calls with SWP_NOACTIVATE in 'uFlags'). If there's a risk of removing the top-most style of a window which is already top-most as a consequence of the operation, the WS_EX_TOPMOST ex-style can be tested beforehand with a call to GetWindowLong[Ptr].

If there's a particular window that the other application's window need to be in front (as opposed to being in front of all windows), that window's owner can be set, again temporarily, to the window it needs to be in front. GetWindowLong[Ptr] with GWL_HWNDPARENT can be used to store the window's original owner, then a call to SetWindowLong[Ptr] to set the temporary owner, followed by a call to SetWindowPos with HWND_TOP, and then restoring the original owner with again SetWindowLong[Ptr].

Related questions

How do I call ::CreateProcess in c++ to launch a Windows executable?

Looking for an example that: Launches an EXE Waits for the EXE to finish. Properly closes all the handles when the executable finishes.

Read More
How to read a value from the Windows registry

Given the key for some registry value (e.g. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\blah\blah\blah\foo) how can I: Safely determine that such a key exists. Programmatically (i.e. with code) get its value. I have absolutely no intention of …

Read More
How to get main window handle from process id?

How to get main window handle from process id? I want to bring this window to the front. It works well in "Process Explorer".

Read More