How can I get the child windows of a window given its HWND?

Question

I have the handle for a given window. How can I enumerate its child windows?

Answer 1

Using:

internal delegate int WindowEnumProc(IntPtr hwnd, IntPtr lparam);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
internal static extern bool EnumChildWindows(IntPtr hwnd, WindowEnumProc func, IntPtr lParam);

you will get callbacks on the function you pass in.

Answer 2

Use EnumChildWindows, with p/invoke. Here's an interesting link about some of it's behavior: http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2007/01/16/1478717.aspx

If you don't know the handle of the window, but only it's title, you'll need to use EnumWindows. http://pinvoke.net/default.aspx/user32/EnumWindows.html

Answer 3

Here is a managed alternative to EnumWindows, but you will still need to use EnumChildWindows to find the handle of the child window.

foreach (Process process in Process.GetProcesses())
{
   if (process.MainWindowTitle == "Title to find")
   {
      IntPtr handle = process.MainWindowHandle;

      // Use EnumChildWindows on handle ...
   }
}

Answer 4

I've found the best solution to be Managed WindowsAPI. It had a CrossHair control that could be used to select a window(not part of the question), and a method AllChildWindows to get all child windows which likely wrapped the EnumChildWindows function. Better not to reinvent the wheel.