SetForegroundWindow function
Applies to: desktop apps only
Brings the thread that created the specified window into the foreground and activates the window. Keyboard input is directed to the window, and various visual cues are changed for the user. The system assigns a slightly higher priority to the thread that created the foreground window than it does to other threads.
Syntax
BOOL WINAPI SetForegroundWindow( __in HWND hWnd );
Parameters
- hWnd [in]
-
Type: HWND
A handle to the window that should be activated and brought to the foreground.
Return value
Type:
Type: BOOL
If the window was brought to the foreground, the return value is nonzero.
If the window was not brought to the foreground, the return value is zero.
Remarks
The system restricts which processes can set the foreground window. A process can set the foreground window only if one of the following conditions is true:
- The process is the foreground process.
- The process was started by the foreground process.
- The process received the last input event.
- There is no foreground process.
- The foreground process is being debugged.
- The foreground is not locked (see LockSetForegroundWindow).
- The foreground lock time-out has expired (see SPI_GETFOREGROUNDLOCKTIMEOUT in SystemParametersInfo).
- No menus are active.
An application cannot force a window to the foreground while the user is working with another window. Instead, Windows flashes the taskbar button of the window to notify the user.
A process that can set the foreground window can enable another process to set the foreground window by calling the AllowSetForegroundWindow function. The process specified by dwProcessId loses the ability to set the foreground window the next time the user generates input, unless the input is directed at that process, or the next time a process calls AllowSetForegroundWindow, unless that process is specified.
The foreground process can disable calls to SetForegroundWindow by calling the LockSetForegroundWindow function.
Requirements
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Minimum supported client | Windows 2000 Professional |
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Minimum supported server | Windows 2000 Server |
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Header |
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Library |
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DLL |
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See also
- Reference
- AllowSetForegroundWindow
- GetForegroundWindow
- LockSetForegroundWindow
- SetActiveWindow
- Conceptual
- Windows
- Other Resources
- FlashWindowEx
Send comments about this topic to Microsoft
Build date: 2/3/2012
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
[DllImport("user32", CharSet=CharSet.Ansi, SetLastError=true, ExactSpelling=true)]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hwnd);
In the other hand, if you have access to the Form, is better to use the proper c# function:
http://jorgearimany.blogspot.com/2010/10/win32-setforegroundwindow-equivalent-in.html#more
- 4/22/2009
- dmex
- 8/5/2011
- ARI expert
http://jorgearimany.blogspot.com/2010/10/win32-setforegroundwindow-equivalent-in.html#more
- 8/5/2011
- ARI expert
This API only works for the owner process. For forcing a window that belongs to another process see the function called
ForceForegroundWindow
- 12/30/2009
- Asaf Shelly
- 6/15/2011
- Mod_int67
if(hWnd!=GetFocus()) { if(!SetForegroundWindow(hWnd)) { if( hWnd==GetFocus() ) { throw std::runtime_error("that's really weird!"); } } }
Technically, I wouldn't quite call this an API bug, as the documentation doesn't say anything, one way or another, about whether or not a failed SetForegroundWindow call should change the keyboard focus. But, the behavior is certainly a bit strange.$0$0
- 4/15/2011
- Sven Olsen
- 6/15/2011
- Mod_int67
<DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet:=CharSet.Ansi, SetLastError:=True, ExactSpelling:=True)> _
Public Shared Function SetForegroundWindow(ByVal hwnd As IntPtr) As <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)> Boolean
End Function
Syntax using Declare
Public Declare Ansi Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32.dll" Alias "SetForegroundWindow" (ByVal hwnd As IntPtr) As <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)> Boolean
