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Shell.Windows method

Applies to: desktop apps only

Creates and returns a ShellWindows object. This object represents a collection of all of the open windows that belong to the Shell.

Syntax

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retVal = Shell.Windows()

Parameters

This method has no parameters.

Return value

Type: IDispatch**

An object reference to the ShellWindows object.

Examples

The following example uses Windows to retrieve the ShellWindows object and display a count of the number of items that it contains. Proper usage is shown for JScript, VBScript, and Visual Basic.

JScript:

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<script language="JScript">
    function fnShellWindowsJ()
    {
        var objShell = new ActiveXObject("shell.application");
        var objShellWindows;
        
        objShellWindows = objShell.Windows();

        if (objShellWindows != null)
        {
            var Shell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
            Shell.Popup(objShellWindows.Count);
        }
    }
</script>

VBScript:

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<script language="VBScript">
    function fnShellWindowsVBS()
        dim objShell
        dim objShellWindows
        
        set objShell = CreateObject("shell.application")
        set objShellWindows = objShell.Windows

        if (not objShellWindows is nothing) then
            WScript.Echo objShellWindows.Count
        end if

        set objShellWindows = nothing
        set objShell = nothing
    end function
 </script>

Visual Basic:

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Private Sub fnShellWindowsVB()
    Dim objShell        As Shell
    Dim objShellWindows As ShellWindows
    
    Set objShell = New Shell
    Set objShellWindows = objShell.Windows

    If (Not objShellWindows Is Nothing) Then
        Debug.Print objShellWindows.Count
    End If

    Set objShellWindows = Nothing
    Set objShell = Nothing
End Sub

Requirements

Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server
Header	Shldisp.h
IDL	Shldisp.idl
DLL	Shell32.dll (version 4.71 or later)

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Build date: 3/7/2012

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FAQ

Errors in Examples

In the 6th line of the examples (5th line in the Visual Basic example), objshell.Shell_Windows should be objShell.Windows. (In addition to Windows instead of Shell_Windows, note the capital "S" in objShell. JScript is case-sensitive.) Also, if the script is not running inside of a web browser, alert will not work. In VBScript, WScript.Echo can be used instead. In JScript, the following can be used instead:

var Shell = new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell");
Shell.Popup(objShellWindows.Count);

History

5/12/2011
Victor S from Sogeti

5/12/2011
Victor S from Sogeti

Windows Method sample using PowerShell

# get-shellwindows.ps1
# MSDN Sample to get help
# Thomas Lee - tfl@psp.co.uk

# First get shell object
$Shell = new-object -com Shell.Application

# Now get open windows
$windows = $Shell.windows()

# Display details
"There are {0} open windows on this system" -f $windows.count
$i=1
foreach ($window in $windows) {
"Window {0} - title={1}, path={2}" -f $i++, $window.locationname, $window.path
}

This script produces the following output on my Server 2008 workstation:

PS C:\Users\tfl> 
C:\foo\get-shellwindows.ps1
There are 3 open windows on this system
Window 1 - title=Dave Edmunds - Getinge 2000 - FM, path=C:\Windows\
Window 2 - title=1982-05-07 Once Upon A Time.flac, path=C:\Windows\
Window 3 - title=template, path=C:\Windows\

History

6/30/2008
Thomas Lee