Find a window

[abdul]

How do get the hwnd of a window like notepad, internet explorer (even if the programs are not running)

Actually, I want to change the menu of ie. So I need the hwnd of ie even if it is running at that time or not.

[unformed]

To find a window call:

hwnd=FindWindow(class, title);

the class and/or the title has to match exactly; you can leave one of them NULL if you don't know or if it changes (ie: Notepad title).
The Notepad class is 'Notepad'; the IE class is 'IEFrame'. You can use Spy++ to find any window's handle or title.

To find a window with a string within its title, use the following code:

HWND FindWindowLike(const char szClass[], const char szTitle[])
{

	if( !(szTitle || szClass) )
		return NULL;

	HWND hwnd;
	char buffer[255];
	
	HWND hParent = GetDesktopWindow();

	hwnd = GetWindow(GetWindow(hParent, GW_CHILD), GW_HWNDFIRST);

	while(hwnd)
	{
		if(szClass)
		{
			GetClassName(hwnd, buffer, 255);
			if(strstr(buffer, szClass))
				return hwnd;
		}
		if(szTitle)
		{
			SendMessage(hwnd, WM_GETTEXT, 255, (LPARAM) buffer);
			if(strstr(buffer, szTitle))
				return hwnd;
		}
		hwnd = GetWindow(hwnd, GW_HWNDNEXT);
	}

	return hwnd;
}

Just call FindWindowLike(class, title). Leave either NULL if you don't know it, or don't want to use it as criteria.

--------
You can not find the handle of a window that doesn't exist. If you want to modify the IE menu (efficiently), you'll need to write a plugin for IE. I don't have code available right now, but it is fully explained in MSDN, though I forget what the interface is called.

Hope that helps...

[abdul]

Thanks!

I will try to play around with ie

[Chris]

If you don't know the class, you still can get the window handle by passing a NULL into the lpClassName and the window name into the lpWindowName like below:

    fhWnd = FindWindow(NULL, "Untitled - Notepad");
    if (fhWnd != NULL)
        SetForegroundWindow(fhWnd);