App Window Bring to Front

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VS.NET2003

How do you bring an application to the front? Not a window of an application (SetWindowPos()), but the whole application?

I won't go into the why, but I have an app. with a dialog that opens a second dialog in a separate thread. I disable the calling dialog that starts this thread so that the thread acts more modal. When the dialog in the thread gets dismissed, I re-enable the calling dialog. What happens, though, is that the calling dialog's application doesn't have focus anymore. I want the calling dialog/application to have focus. I tried using SetWindowPos() but that doesn't work unless you use the wndTopMost flag. But I don't want it to be top most permanently (which is what happens), but just to maintain its focus.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Posted 28-Apr-11 7:10am

Koolski

Updated 28-Apr-11 7:20am

Hans Dietrich

v2

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Hans Dietrich · Answer 1 · 2011-04-28T07:26:00

Solution 1

You could try ::BringWindowToTop(HWND hWnd).

See here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms632673%28v=vs.85%29.aspx[^]

Posted 28-Apr-11 7:26am

Hans Dietrich

Comments

Koolski 28-Apr-11 15:18pm

Unfortunately this doesn't work--from the MSDN, "...BringWindowToTop does not make a window a top-level window."

Hans Dietrich 28-Apr-11 15:26pm

Right, because you said "I don't want it to be top most permanently".

BringWindowToTop() will bring it to the top, without making it a top-most window. Did you try it?

Koolski 28-Apr-11 16:33pm

Yes, I sure did, but it didn't work. Other applications are coming up in front of my original app.

Hans Dietrich 28-Apr-11 16:57pm

I had a similar problem with an MFC app that used the Feature Pack ribbon stuff.

You may have to use SetWindowPos to make it top-most, redraw the window, and then call SetWindowPos again to make it non-top-most.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 2 · 2011-04-28T17:39:00

Solution 2

This is a combination of SetActiveWindows or BringWindowToTop with SetForegroundWindow.

—SA

Posted 28-Apr-11 17:39pm

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Updated 28-Apr-11 17:42pm

v2