Create a modeless dialog box that starts inactivated (MFC)

user_17186336 0
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I want to make a modeless dialog box that shows itself without being activated.
I tried

m_ReminderDialog = new CReminderDialog();
m_ReminderDialog->Create(CReminderDialog::IDD, GetDesktopWindow());

with the dialog template

IDD_REMINDER DIALOGEX 0, 0, 318, 269
STYLE DS_SETFONT | WS_MINIMIZEBOX | WS_POPUP | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CAPTION | WS_SYSMENU | WS_THICKFRAME 
EXSTYLE WS_EX_TOPMOST | WS_EX_NOACTIVATE | WS_EX_APPWINDOW
...

But it still comes up activated.
I tried making a window directly, not in MFC and using CreateWindowEx, with

WS_EX_NOACTIVATE | WS_EX_APPWINDOW

That worked. The window comes up inactive, but it can be activated by clicking on the taskbar button.
I read that the call to Create activates the window. Is that true, and if so is there a way to create the modeless dialog box that doesn't override WS_EX_NOACTIVATE?

mfc c++
2 Answers

Remove WS_VISIBLE style from your template, then add (after Create()):

m_ReminderDialog->ShowWindow(SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE);

Reference info: ShowWindow.

user_43941690

It turns out that the code I posted does create the dialog box, without giving it the input focus.
I just thought it had the input focus, for two reasons -

  • The title bar on the dialog isn't grayed out
  • When I tried CreateWindowEx in a separate program, using that same WS_EX_NOACTIVATE flag, it could only be activated by clicking on the taskbar button. So WS_EX_NOACTIVATE acts differently when used in the dialog template than it does when calling CreateWindowEx.

I tried the code as written, with a call to Sleep before creating the dialog window, so I had time to set focus to a text document. Then I waited until the dialog box was created.

After the dialog box was created, I was able to keep typing into the text document, so the dialog box did not have input focus. I was also able to put the dialog box on top of other windows with a couple calls to SetWindowPos, still without giving it the input focus.

However, WS_EX_NOACTIVATE does not work when DS_SETFOREGROUND is also used in the dialog template. Not surprisingly.

user_171863360
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