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How do I force my app to come to the front and take focus?

Answer 1

A:

doesn't ShowWindow(youwindow,SW_SHOWNORMAL) work? -don

Don Dickinson 2009-03-27 02:50:39

Haven't tried it, but I'm guessing that it's no more effective than BringWindowToTop(). (See my comment on Mitch Wheat's reply.)

RobH 2009-03-27 18:04:25

Answer 2

A:

BringWindowToTop

Mitch Wheat 2009-03-27 02:52:10

Tried it. Doesn't work.

RobH 2009-03-27 16:42:45

Answer 3

A:

You will find that BringWindowToTop or SetForegroundWindow have requirements that must be met before the window will actually be forced to the front over all other windows (applications). If these aren't met, Windows will only flash the application's icon in the taskbar. This article presents a way around that but as 1800 INFORMATION points out, it is not recommended. I guess you'll just have to accept it.

Arnold Spence 2009-03-27 03:05:49

Don't do this. Raymond Chen explains why this often causes your app to hang: http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2008/08/01/8795860.aspx

1800 INFORMATION 2009-03-27 03:16:43

Thanks. I've edited my answer.

Arnold Spence 2009-03-27 03:23:35

Answer 4

+4 A:

You can't steal focus. Period.

See this Old New Thing article:

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/02/20/9435239.aspx

Andrew Medico 2009-03-27 03:17:19

Thank you, I was looking for this article as the answer to this question. Please everyone that reads this, internalise it and fix the virus meme that tries to steal foreground activation. But my app is special! Your app is user hostile. Don't do it!

1800 INFORMATION 2009-03-27 03:26:24

I agree and although in all likely hood this applies to the author, he (or somebody else) may have a good reason to need this functionality (closed system, private or home computer only). Make a recommendation on usage but don't hide the information.

Arnold Spence 2009-03-27 03:34:26

I hope that Microsoft will - some day - finally fix all focus-stealing once and for all. Programmers doing focus-stealing should be sent to Siberia. Naked.

snemarch 2009-03-27 07:45:34

My reason for stealing focus is that the user just launched the application, it launches a window that does get focus, that window goes away, and the app launches another window, which doesn't get focus. That leaves the user scratching his head if I don't fix that.

RobH 2009-03-27 16:46:35

That article is of no use to me, because I'm not running a second instance of the same application. My application (or, rather, the MSI calls that my application is calling) is launching a window and then closing it, and my app then launches its main window. It's not taking focus, but it should.

RobH 2009-03-27 18:01:55

It sounds like it applies *exactly* to your situation. You have process A launching process B and you want process B to get focus. The solution, as the article explains, is that process A must *give* process B focus - process B can't take focus by itself.

Andrew Medico 2009-03-27 22:36:55

No, my program calls MSI functions that end up opening a progress window (which gets focus). The last MSI function call closes the window, and my app then opens its main window (which doesn't get focus). It's all happening in the same process.

RobH 2009-03-30 17:24:47

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How do I force my app to come to the front and take focus?

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