SendMessageTimeout function (Windows)

Applies to: desktop apps only

Sends the specified message to one or more windows.

Syntax

LRESULT WINAPI SendMessageTimeout(
  __in       HWND hWnd,
  __in       UINT Msg,
  __in       WPARAM wParam,
  __in       LPARAM lParam,
  __in       UINT fuFlags,
  __in       UINT uTimeout,
  __out_opt  PDWORD_PTR lpdwResult
);

Parameters

hWnd [in]

Type: HWND

A handle to the window whose window procedure will receive the message.

If this parameter is HWND_BROADCAST ((HWND)0xffff), the message is sent to all top-level windows in the system, including disabled or invisible unowned windows. The function does not return until each window has timed out. Therefore, the total wait time can be up to the value of uTimeout multiplied by the number of top-level windows.

Msg [in]

Type: UINT

The message to be sent.

For lists of the system-provided messages, see System-Defined Messages.

wParam [in]

Type: WPARAM

Any additional message-specific information.

lParam [in]

Type: LPARAM

Any additional message-specific information.

fuFlags [in]

Type: UINT

The behavior of this function. This parameter can be one or more of the following values.

Value	Meaning
SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG 0x0002	The function returns without waiting for the time-out period to elapse if the receiving thread appears to not respond or "hangs."
SMTO_BLOCK 0x0001	Prevents the calling thread from processing any other requests until the function returns.
SMTO_NORMAL 0x0000	The calling thread is not prevented from processing other requests while waiting for the function to return.
SMTO_NOTIMEOUTIFNOTHUNG 0x0008	The function does not enforce the time-out period as long as the receiving thread is processing messages.
SMTO_ERRORONEXIT 0x0020	The function should return 0 if the receiving window is destroyed or its owning thread dies while the message is being processed.

 

uTimeout [in]

Type: UINT

The duration of the time-out period, in milliseconds. If the message is a broadcast message, each window can use the full time-out period. For example, if you specify a five second time-out period and there are three top-level windows that fail to process the message, you could have up to a 15 second delay.

lpdwResult [out, optional]

Type: PDWORD_PTR

The result of the message processing. The value of this parameter depends on the message that is specified.

Return value

Type:

Type: LRESULT

If the function succeeds, the return value is nonzero. SendMessageTimeout does not provide information about individual windows timing out if HWND_BROADCAST is used.

If the function fails or times out, the return value is 0. To get extended error information, call GetLastError. If GetLastError returns ERROR_TIMEOUT, then the function timed out.

Windows 2000:  If GetLastError returns 0, then the function timed out.

Remarks

The function calls the window procedure for the specified window and, if the specified window belongs to a different thread, does not return until the window procedure has processed the message or the specified time-out period has elapsed. If the window receiving the message belongs to the same queue as the current thread, the window procedure is called directly—the time-out value is ignored.

This function considers that a thread is not responding if it has not called GetMessage or a similar function within five seconds.

The system only does marshalling for system messages (those in the range 0 to (WM_USER-1)). To send other messages (those >= WM_USER) to another process, you must do custom marshalling.

Requirements

See also

Reference

GetMessage

InSendMessage

PostMessage

SendDlgItemMessage

SendMessage

SendMessageCallback

SendNotifyMessage

Conceptual

Messages and Message Queues

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Build date: 2/3/2012