Completely Remove Window Title Bar (Caption) Buttons Without Removing WS_SYSMENU

>>I need some way of hooking the mouse event when it right clicks on the window's taskbar button to display a popup menu
>>I need to still have the window menu

No need to hook mouse..... for titleless dialog/window just add WS_SYSMENU style on 'PreSubclassWindow()' handler.....

Something like this :

void CMyDlg::PreSubclassWindow()
{
 // TODO: Add your specialized code here and/or call the base class
 
// Attach a system menu to this window
 LONG lStyle = GetWindowLong( this->GetSafeHwnd(), GWL_STYLE );

 SetWindowLong( this->GetSafeHwnd(), GWL_STYLE, lStyle | WS_SYSMENU );

 CDialog::PreSubclassWindow();
}

This will invoke system menu when you right click on window's taskbar button .

-MAHESH

Thanks Mahesh, but it seems what you are describing is a dialog window with no title bar? I still need to have a title bar and caption, just no buttons on it.

Let me know if I'm wrong with what I think you are describing.

Thanks man!

Brandon

You should be able to remove the maximise and minimise buttons without a problem.  The close button ('x') is linked with the WM_SYSMENU as you have found out.

Howwever you could disable it - put this into the OnCreate of the main frame (after the base class has been called)

      CMenu* pSysMenu = GetSystemMenu(FALSE);
      if (pSysMenu != NULL)
      {
            pSysMenu->RemoveMenu(SC_CLOSE,MF_BYCOMMAND);
      }

Just drawing over the buttons in response to an NCPAINT might hide them - but it probably would not stop the user action of a user clicking on them.  You would have to disable it as well.

Well, what happens is when you paint over the disabled close button is; it'll hide it completly, but when the user right clicks on the task bar button to display the window menu it the draws the disabled close button above the NCPAINT drawing. Then the only way to get ride of it is to minimize the window and restore it. I find it weird that moving the close button off screen does not cause it to be removed though...

If we know the close button is not drawn in WM_NCPAINT, then where the heck is it drawn?

The best solution would be to get rid of it entirely! But then there is no window menu!

My first comment will disable the 'x' (unfortunately still visible) but still leave the windows menu (right click support). If you need a close command on the menu then add your own menu item and perform the closing when that is selected.

As to where it come from - that may not be part of MFC, it could be deep in windows itself.

Hmm... I think you are right about it being deep inside windows. Because I cannot figure out how to stop it from drawing itself.

>>My first comment will disable the 'x' (unfortunately still visible) but still leave the windows menu (right click support). If you need a close command on the menu then add your own menu item and perform the closing when that is selected.

This would work for any normal circumstances, the problem is these are not normal circumstances haha! I need the 'x' to be gone completly, not just disabled.

I wish we had somone who wrote the win32 api on experts-exchange... maybe they would know how to get rid of it!

If it is disabled then you should be able to paint it over.  (You don't have to stop windows acting upon a mouse click on it).

You will probably have to trap quite a few events for the repainting to work properly.  

I see what you're saying and hopefully you know what other events to trap, because like I said, when I paint over it, everything looks good, untill the user right clicks on the task bar button. At that point windows redraws the disabled close button over my WM_NCPAINT paintings.

This is begining to make me sad... But thanks for still giving it a shot Andy!

You could remove the caption bar  (ModifyStyle) in the OnCreate.
The window will look odd but the system menu is still in place for the 'button' on the windows task bar.

Now you ought to be able to modify the non-client area  to provide your own space for drawing a caption bar in the non-client paint.  

That should give you what you want.

Set your dialogframe property to None

Sorry its not dialogframe but
Border property to NONE

Then the problem I get is I have no border. I need to handle sizing the window, ect...

If you remove the caption bar you get a border, just no caption with the buttons on it.  The frame is still there and can be resized.  Make space for the 'caption' and then draw your own caption.

Hi Andy,
That was actually the way I had attempted it to begin with and had a CTitleBar derived from a CWnd as my title bar control. I can't exactly remember why, as it was 4 months ago, but I ended up giving up on that as a solution. I suppose I'll give that a try again.

One more thing though (because I think it might be easier), If I hook the mouse do you know if there is a way to detect when the user right clicks over the taskbar button of a window? I really think this would be the easiest solution, rather than rewriting all my title bar code. It really makes me wonder how other programmers have created their own windows skins.

Let me know if you know how that can be done!

Thanks again!

Brandon

>> I am talking about drawing in the non-client area yourself.  I don't think you can have a child window appearing outside of the client area.

Yeah, but the problem there is that you would have no nonclient area except the border, would you?

But that just gave me an idea!... If I removed the caption and then changed the client area on WM_NCCALCSIZE that would alow me to alocate some space for the nonclient caption that I need to draw! I really think this could work... I'm already modifying the client area a little as it is in WM_NCCALCSIZE...

Hey thanks again Andy, and hey no hard feelings about me using unathorized lanuguage on the board, alight? Haha, thanks again mate!

Brandon