SetFocus to a hidden window without revealing the window

deMute · Post by **deMute** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:50 pm

Hi,

How do I focus on a hidden window without that window becoming visible? I've read th post here which almost does what I'm looking for:
http://www.mjtnet.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... hidewindow
but this method for hiding the winodw takes long enough that it is noticable to the user.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Post by **Marcus Tettmar** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:10 pm

That's not possible. Focus means making the window able to accept keyboard input. Therefore a focused window must be visible.

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:24 pm

Technically Marcus is correct but as a practical matter if the windows transparency is set to "1", the window is technically visible but still does not show up on the screen.

HERE is a sample of doing exactly that. Setting the window's transparency/opacity to one then setting focus to the window.

deMute · Post by **deMute** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:38 pm

Thanks for your response but I already have code which makes the window hidden and allows me to send input to it (based on the post I mentioned):

Code: Select all

Let>HWND_TOPMOST=-1
Let>HWND_NOTOPMOST=-2
Let>HWND_BOTTOM=1
Let>SWP_NOSIZE=1
Let>SWP_NOMOVE=2
Let>SWP_NOACTIVATE=16
Let>SWP_SHOWWINDOW=64
Let>SWP_HIDEWINDOW=128
Let>Flags={%SWP_HIDEWINDOW% Or %SWP_NOACTIVATE% Or %SWP_NOSIZE% Or %SWP_NOMOVE%}

GetWindowHandle>Settings*,winhandle
LibFunc>User32,SetWindowPos,swpr,winhandle,HWND_BOTTOM,0,0,0,0,Flags

wait>1

Press ALT
	  Send Character/Text>f
Release ALT

My problem is not that I can't make a hidden window accept input. My problem is that I can't make the window hidden fast enough.

deMute · Post by **deMute** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:40 pm

Thanks a lot JRL. This sounds like exactly what I need }:o) I'll give it a try.

JRL · Post by **JRL** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:42 pm

but this method for hiding the winodw takes long enough that it is noticable to the user.

The method I mentioned HERE will not be noticeable to the user.

deMute · Post by **deMute** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:11 pm

Wow, thanks again JRL! That works even better than I imagined possible. That's a very very nice trick indeed