[RESOLVED] [2005] Process.MainWindowTitle

[Pickles89]

Hi Guys,

I have an issue using Process.MainWindowTitle,Process.MainWindowHandle on some older VB6 applications.

After Process.Start I use Process.MainWindowTitle to display in a listbox.
The MainWindowTitle returned is not the Window Title but in fact the Project name of the VB6 exe. ??

I also store the MainWindowHandle to use the ShowWindow and SetForeGroundWindow API's.

It would appear that the ShowWindow API does not work, but the SetForegroundWindow does. ie: if the VB6 app is minimized, showwindow does not restore, if it is NOT minimized setforewgroundwindow sets it to the foreground.

The exact same code does work correctly for any other .net exe or notepad, only on these vb6 programs I am having a problem.

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

(The code is pretty straight forward, hence i haven't bothered to post it.)

Cheers

[Negative0]

Are you running the actual vb exe or are you running the app from the vb6 ide?

[Pickles89]

Its the actual compiled vb6 exe.

Cheers

[Negative0]

Do you have the code to the apps? Are they doing anything weird with windows messages?

If you post your code, I can test it out on some vb6 apps I have on my machine.

[Pickles89]

I have the source to all apps, certainly nothing weird with Windows messaging.

Below is the code.
The process is passed into the tag property of a button.

            Dim mvk As New Process
            Dim sTitle As String = ""
            Dim I As Integer = 0

            With mvk
                .EnableRaisingEvents = True
                .StartInfo.FileName = "c:\projects\test\app.exe"
                AddHandler mvk.Exited, AddressOf ProcessExit
                .Start()
            End With

            sTitle = mvk.MainWindowTitle

            Do Until sTitle <> ""
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500)
                mvk.Refresh()
                sTitle = mvk.MainWindowTitle
                I += 1
                If I = 20 Then sTitle = "Error"
            Loop

    Private SW_SHOWNORMAL As Integer = &H1
    <Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32", EntryPoint:="ShowWindow")> _
    Private Shared Function ShowWindow(ByVal hwnd As IntPtr, ByVal nCmdShow As Integer) As Integer
    End Function
    <Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32", EntryPoint:="SetForegroundWindow")> _
    Private Shared Function SetForegroundWindow(ByVal hwnd As IntPtr) As Integer
    End Function


'The button click event below.

Dim myProc As Process = DirectCast(myButton.Tag, Process)
myProc.Refresh()

ShowWindow(myProc.MainWindowHandle, SW_SHOWNORMAL)
SetForegroundWindow(myProc.MainWindowHandle)

I'll be interested in what see what happens.

Cheers

[Pickles89]

Anyone have any suggestions?

[Negative0]

I am seeing the same behavior that you are. I have been trying with postmessage and other API tricks, but I can't get the main window to show.

[Negative0]

I am making some progress here. It looks like Process.MainWindowHandle is returing the a different value than what it should.

I launched the app and then used Spy++ to find the window and it gave me a different window handle than what showed up in the MainWindowHandle. I called ShowWindow with that handle and it restored the window properly.

[Negative0]

After doing quite a bit of digging, this is what appears to be happening:

Process.MainWindowHandle is returning the ThunderRT6Main window. From what I understand, that is a hidden window that all vb6 apps have. For some reason when we pass our windows messages to that window, it is not getting passed to the ThunderRT6Form window, which is the actual window on the screen.

So what seems to be working for me is, using GetWindow with the GW_HWNDPREV, which will retreive the window above the passed window in the z-order.

    Declare Auto Function GetWindow Lib "user32.dll" ( _
   ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal uCmd As UInt32) As IntPtr

    Const GW_HWNDPREV As Integer = 3

    Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click

        Dim vb6Window As IntPtr = GetWindow(mvk.MainWindowHandle, GW_HWNDPREV)
        ShowWindow(vb6Window, SW_SHOWNORMAL)
    End Sub

Try it out and let me know if it works.

[Pickles89]

Excellent, it works.
Kudos to you Negative.

Thankyou very much for your help.