How can I tell if a window has focus? (Win32 API)

windows winapi hwnd
Daniel Jennings picture Daniel Jennings · Jan 21, 2009 · Viewed 58.7k times · Source

Using the Win32 API (in C, but that's inconsequential), how can I tell if a given window (identified by HWND) has focus?

I'm hooking an application watching for an event, and when that event occurs I want to check if the application already has focus. If it doesn't, I want to flash the window until they give focus to it.

Alternately, does the FlashWindowEx struct flag FLASHW_TIMERNOFG that flashes until the window has focus just not flash if the window already has focus?

I cannot test this now since I am not in my development environment, but I was under the impression that it would flash anyways, which is what I'm trying to avoid.

Also, if it matters, the application uses DirectX in this window.

Answer

gkrogers picture gkrogers · Jan 21, 2009

GetActiveWindow will return the top-level window that is associated with the input focus. GetFocus will return the handle of the window that has the input focus.

This article might help:
http://www.microsoft.com/msj/0397/Win32/Win320397.aspx

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