Active Application

[Skreen]

Is there a way to find out the active application? The reason for this is I use the "AppActivate" method in VB, however I the application I activate is already active, my program freezes.

[Megatron]

Use the GetForegroundWindow function.

Private Declare Function GetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" Alias "GetForegroundWindow" () As Long

Private Sub Command1_Click
    MsgBox "The handle of the active window is: " & GetForegroundWindow
End Sub

[Skreen]

How would you return the "title" of this window using the returned handle from the GetForegroundWindow?

[Sastraxi]

GetWindowText, I'm pretty sure, or GetWindowTitle.

[Matthew Gates]

Use this code.

Private Declare Function GetForegroundWindow _
Lib "user32" () As Long

Private Declare Function GetWindowTextLength _
Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowTextLengthA" (ByVal _
hwnd As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetWindowText Lib "user32" _
Alias "GetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal _
lpString As String, ByVal cch As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetParent Lib "user32" (ByVal _
hwnd As Long) As Long


Private Function GetActiveWindowTitle(ByVal ReturnParent As Boolean) As String
   Dim i As Long
   Dim j As Long

   i = GetForegroundWindow


   If ReturnParent Then
      Do While i <> 0
         j = i
         i = GetParent(i)
      Loop

      i = j
   End If

   GetActiveWindowTitle = GetWindowTitle(i)
End Function


Private Function GetWindowTitle(ByVal hwnd As Long) As String
   Dim l As Long
   Dim s As String

   l = GetWindowTextLength(hwnd)
   s = Space(l + 1)

   GetWindowText hwnd, s, l + 1

   GetWindowTitle = Left$(s, l)
End Function