Allways on bottom (behind) flag

[Azvareth]

Hi (again - still newly registered)...

I am an old time Amiga 500 user, without "real" hardware as it is now... And I likely would not get any (seen the prices on A4k on e-bay?)

Anyway despite of that, I am in the progress of building a complete transparant PC system with Win7 that use WinUAE as Shell and autoboots in to my AmigaOS system.

Is it possible that you "may" someday when you feel bored with to much requests and stuff, implement a a flag for WinUAE so the window allways stay on bottom ? I "think" if one makes the windows parent to desktop it will stay behind all other windows but I am not sure, just something I read when searching for Pascal

Anyways this humble request comes from the fact that I use WinUAE as shell and use aminet winlaunch to run "some" host applcations like explorer, opera and such, Win7 is themed to look like AmigaOS so it blends in nicely except for the windows falling behind winUAE and must be brought to front with ALT+TAB, it is not a big deal but it would be nice if something like this also would be available in the misc pane just like "always on top".


Anyways thanks for a master piece of software

Suggested Example for Delphi found on: http://www.delphifaq.com/faq/delphi/...GUI/f499.shtml

dont know the innerworkings of CreateParams or anything...


procedure TForm.CreateParams(var Params: TCreateParams);
begin { comment TForm.CreateParams }
inherited CreateParams(Params);
if Assigned(Application.MainForm) then
begin
Params.WndParent := GetDesktopWindow;
Params.Style := WS_CHILD
end; { comment Assigned(Application.MainForm) }
end; { comment TForm.CreateParams }

[Toni Wilen]

Is that actually supported or just some weird Windows side-effect that accidentally works and causes some other side-effects?

I don't support any hacks.

[Azvareth]

I think it is "widely" used for applications that "behave" like a "replacement" for Windows default desktop manager, but I am not "sure"...

Let me do some more research... Perhaps it is possible to do a small "standalone" hack that target WinUAE (or any window) and change it's behaviour (subclassing?) (a bit like the promotion utilities on Amiga)

I have done this once or twice earlier (in pascal) for a "childproof" program launcher (shell replacer) I did back when Win 7 was new, I do not know if this method is supported nowdays, or if it is something Microsft do not wish devs do.

//Thanks

[Azvareth]

so...

I Did some research

this Autoit script makes WinUAE (could be applied on any Window) the bottommost Window and all other windows will stay in front...

It is not perfect but, yea!

It seems to be valid as it is built into the Windows API itself.

Note, this info is only provided as I said I was going to do some investigation of it.

It also removes WinUAE from Windows Taskbar (activity bar), I guess it depends on who owns what. This works for me though as I do not run progman (Explorer) as an shell on my target system...

I must state that I have not tested this on my target system yet, only my main system that IS running Explorer, so I do not know if progman is even started if the shell is replaced.

Script provided for Autoit, if someone else like to have a WinUAE always at bottom and from time to time run some window app on top, you will need to install Autoit though.

#include <WinAPISysWin.au3>

Local $hChild = WinGetHandle ("[CLASS:AmigaPowah]")
If @error Then
	MsgBox($MB_OK, "No WinUAE running", "could not find WinUAE, is it running?")
Else
	Local $hParent = WinGetHandle('[CLASS:Progman;TITLE:Program Manager]')
	_WinAPI_SetParent ( $hChild, $hParent )
EndIf