Handling Messages in Console Apps/DLLs in C++ Win32

Question

I would like to have the ability to process Win32 messages in a console app and/or inside a standalone DLL.

I have been able to do it in .NET with the following article and it works great in C# inside a console app and standalone DLL
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163417.aspx

Is there a way to do the equivalent with C/C++ Win32 APIs? I have tried doing RegisterClassEx(...) and CreateWindow(...) even passing in HWND_MESSAGE to hWndParent but the trouble is that after the "invisible" window is created messages are not being processed probably due to the lack of a message pump.

Where would the message pump go if you had a DLL entry point? I have tried creating another thread in a DLL and put while(GetMesage(..)) there but that did not work either.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You need a message pump yes. The window also has thread affinity so it needs to be created on the same thread that you're running the message pump on. The basic approach is sound, if you include more code it may become clear what the problem is.