views:

35

answers:

3

How would I draw outside the client area of a window, and on the title bar. I know it can be done, but I am unsure of how to implement this effectively. Think google chrome, where the tabs are on the title bar.

+2  A: 

When Windows asks you to draw the portion of the window that is outside your client area, it will send you an WM_NCPAINT message. Handle that message and draw whatever you want the non-client portion of your window to be. See the page I linked for an example of how to get a device context you can draw upon.

Jim Brissom
hmm, it seems to really mess up the drawing (mostly the menu). Is there something I'm missing? (I copied the example into my winProc and made it draw a rectangle.)
Alexander Rafferty
+1  A: 

It may be worth mentioning WM_NCHITTEST also, if you plan on customizing where non-client elements are located.

tenfour
+1  A: 

Drawing a custom window caption DrawCaption

Dave18