Microsoft KB Archive/184297

= How To Create a Form That Always Stays on Top =

Article ID: 184297

Article Last Modified on 7/15/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q184297



SUMMARY
Microsoft Visual Basic does not offer a property or method to make a form the topmost window. This behavior can be achieved using the SetWindowPos Win32 API.

This article demonstrates how to set a form as the topmost window using the SetWindowPos Win32 API.



MORE INFORMATION
The sample code below uses a function called SetTopMostWindow. The SetTopMostWindow function sets a window as a topmost Window or as a normal Window, based on the two parameters, hwnd and Topmost, passed to it.

The hwnd parameter specifies the handle of the window to be set as topmost or as normal.

The Topmost parameter specifies whether to set the form as topmost or as normal. If the value is true, the function sets the form to always remain on top. If the value is false, the function sets the form as a normal window.

Step-by-Step Example
 Start a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is created by default. Add two command buttons (Command1 and Command2) to Form1. Set the caption property of Command1 to "Always on top." Set the caption property of Command2 to "Normal."  Put the following code in the Form1 Declaration section: Option Explicit

Private Sub Command1_Click Dim lR As Long lR = SetTopMostWindow(Form1.hwnd, True) End Sub

Private Sub Command2_Click Dim lR As Long lR = SetTopMostWindow(Form1.hwnd, False) End Sub

 On the Project menu, click Add Module, to add a new module to the project.  Add the following code to the new module: Option Explicit Public Const SWP_NOMOVE = 2 Public Const SWP_NOSIZE = 1 Public Const FLAGS = SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE Public Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1 Public Const HWND_NOTOPMOST = -2

Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowPos" _ (ByVal hwnd As Long, _           ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Long, _            ByVal x As Long, _            ByVal y As Long, _            ByVal cx As Long, _            ByVal cy As Long, _            ByVal wFlags As Long  ) As Long

Public Function SetTopMostWindow(hwnd As Long, Topmost As Boolean) _ As Long

If Topmost = True Then 'Make the window topmost SetTopMostWindow = SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, _              0, FLAGS) Else SetTopMostWindow = SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_NOTOPMOST, 0, 0, _              0, 0,FLAGS) SetTopMostWindow = False End If     End Function

NOTE: In the above sample code, an underscore (_) at the end of a line is used as a line-continuation character.

</li> Press F5 to run the project.</li></ol>

If you click the "Always on top" command button, your form becomes the topmost window and remains on top of every window; you cannot move any other window on top of it. If you click the "Normal" button, the form behaves normally (you can move other windows on top of it).

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