Under Application

[Nove]

Sorry, I know this sounds pretty impossible, but is there a way I could check to see what windows would be displaying under my application were it not there? Thanks.

[RobDog888]

Yes, but it may take a good amount of code using APIs. You would enumerate
the windows checking the z order position and window areas that would
overlap your apps form. Sounds like a real pain to code.

Why do you want to get what is behind your form? Maybe there is a better solution.
Are you trying to get the desktop display behind your form for some kind of
transparency?

[RhinoBull]

ZOrder may change at any given moment: user may activate or deactivate any window when they want regardless so handle that your app stored a few seconds ago might not be valid any longer.

[RobDog888]

Yes, thats a good point . I kind of think that the poster wants to do something like a transparency thing.

[Nove]

I suppose it would be transparent, is that easier? I don't want the whole form to be transparent though, just the body of the form. So i'd want to keep the title bar and the small bit around the edges that gives it a 3d effect.

[RobDog888]

Here is an example of alpha blending (transparency) for Windows 2000+

Option Explicit
'Add a slider control to your form.
Private Declare Function LoadLibrary Lib "kernel32" Alias "LoadLibraryA" _
(ByVal lpLibFileName As String) As Long
 
Private Declare Function GetProcAddress Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hModule As Long, _
ByVal lpProcName As String) As Long
 
Private Declare Function FreeLibrary Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hLibModule As Long) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
 
Private Declare Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal crKey As Long, ByVal bAlpha As Byte, ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long
 
Private Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Private Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000
Private Const LWA_ALPHA = &H2
 
Public Sub AlphaBlendForm(ByVal lHwnd As Long, ByVal intTranslucenceLevel As Integer)
    If APIExists("SetLayeredWindowAttributes", "User32") Then
        SetWindowLong lHwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, WS_EX_LAYERED
        SetLayeredWindowAttributes lHwnd, 0, intTranslucenceLevel, LWA_ALPHA
    Else
        MsgBox "Your OS does not support Alpha Blending.", vbExclamation, "Alpha Blend"
    End If
End Sub
 
Public Function APIExists(ByVal pstrFunctionName As String, ByVal pstrDllName As String) As Boolean
    Dim lngHandle   As Long
    Dim lngAddr     As Long
    lngHandle = LoadLibrary(pstrDllName)
    If Not (lngHandle = 0) Then
        lngAddr = GetProcAddress(lngHandle, pstrFunctionName)
        FreeLibrary lngHandle
    End If
    APIExists = Not (lngAddr = 0)
End Function
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Slider1.Max = 255
    Slider1.Min = 10
    Slider1.LargeChange = 5
    AlphaBlendForm Me.Hwnd, 255 'MAX VALUE = OPAIC/ MIN VALUE = 0 CAN'T SEE
    Slider1.Value = 255
End Sub
 
Private Sub Slider1_Scroll()
    AlphaBlendForm Me.Hwnd, Slider1.Value
End Sub

[Nove]

I'm on windows 98

[Dmitri K]

yeah on Win 2k and XP it's easy using layers but on win98 there are two ways that I know of. I placed both ways into one function for your choice.

Option Explicit
 
Public Enum iMode
  AlphaBlendingDLL = 1
  msimg32DLL = 2
End Enum
 
Public Type BLENDFUNCTION
    BlendOp As Byte
    BlendFlags As Byte
    SourceConstantAlpha As Byte
    AlphaFormat As Byte
End Type
 
Public Declare Function AlphaBlending Lib "Alphablending.dll" _
              (ByVal destHDC As Long, ByVal XDest As Long, ByVal YDest As Long, _
              ByVal destWidth As Long, ByVal destHeight As Long, ByVal srcHDC As Long, _
              ByVal xSrc As Long, ByVal ySrc As Long, ByVal srcWidth As Long, ByVal srcHeight As Long, ByVal AlphaSource As Long) As Long
 
Public Declare Sub CopyMemory Lib "kernel32" Alias "RtlMoveMemory" (Destination As Any, Source As Any, ByVal Length As Long)
Public Declare Function AlphaBlend Lib "msimg32" (ByVal hDestDC As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal nWidth As Long, ByVal nHeight As Long, ByVal hSrcDC As Long, ByVal xSrc As Long, ByVal ySrc As Long, ByVal WidthSrc As Long, ByVal HeightSrc As Long, ByVal blendFunct As Long) As Boolean
 
Public Sub Blend(Destination As Object, Source As Object, Amount As Integer, in_iMode As iMode)
 
  Dim bl As BLENDFUNCTION
  Dim bl_lng As Long
  
    If in_iMode = AlphaBlendingDLL Then
      AlphaBlending Destination.hDC, -Destination.Left - 1, -Destination.Top - 1, Source.ScaleWidth, Source.ScaleHeight, Source.hDC, 0, 0, Source.ScaleWidth, Source.ScaleHeight, Amount
    ElseIf in_iMode = msimg32DLL Then
      bl.SourceConstantAlpha = Amount
 
      CopyMemory bl_lng, bl, 4
    
      Destination.Cls
      AlphaBlend Destination.hDC, -Destination.Left - 1, -Destination.Top - 1, Source.ScaleWidth, Source.ScaleHeight, _
                 Source.hDC, 0, 0, Source.ScaleWidth, Source.ScaleHeight, bl_lng
    End If
    
    Destination.Refresh
 
End Sub

Use Blend PictureDestination, PictureSource, 120, AlphaBlendingDLL for the 1st method
Use Blend PictureDestination, PictureSource, 120, msimg32DLL for the 2nd method

Make sure all pictureboxes are set to autoredraw and are scaled in pixels. Also you SHOULD have msimg32.dll on your pc, but you might not have Alphablending.dll, so i'll attach it. Put the Alphablending.dll into your system folder. Also source and destination could be a form, not a picturebox but make sure autoredraw is on and form is scaled to pixels.