Visual C++ and MFC Programming 2nd Edition

Visual C++ and MFC Fundamentals Chapter 12: Dialog-Based Windows

WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW: A tool window is a parent object mostly used to float, like a

toolbar, on a frame of another window. It has a short title bar that displays its caption. It

can neither be minimized nor maximized but it can be equipped with a circumstantial

system menu:

To create a tool window, when designing the dialog box, check the Tool Window check

box or set it to True. This can also be applied by adding the WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW

extended style:

IDD_SCHOOL_SURVEY DIALOGEX 0, 0, 340, 268

STYLE WS_CAPTION | WS_SYSMENU | WS_POPUP | DS_MODALFRAME

EXSTYLE WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW

CAPTION “School Survey – For Teachers Only”

FONT 8, “MS Shell Dlg”, 400, 0, 0x1

If you want the user to be able to resize the tool window by dragging its borders or

corners, at design time, set its Border value to Resizing or create it with the

WS_THICKFRAME style. If you do not want the user to be able to resize the tool

window, at design time, set its Border to either Thin or Dialog Frame. In the resource file,

you can also do this by creating it with the WS_CAPTION and WS_SYSMENU style:

INT WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,

LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)

{

HWND hWnd;

MSG Msg;

WNDCLASSEX WndClsEx;

...

RegisterClassEx(&WndClsEx);

hWnd = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW,

ClsName,

WndName,

WS_CAPTION | WS_SYSMENU,

.. .,
);
}

WS_EX_APPWINDOW: As mentioned already, a window without the system

Minimize button cannot be minimized. This, of course, is the same for a tool window.

Also, by default, a tool window does not display a button on the taskbar. If you are

creating a window that will depend on a main window such as a frame, you should keep