I followed this tutorial (there's a bit more than what's listed here because in my code I get a window via mouse click) for grabbing a window as a bitmap and then rendering that bitmap in a different window.
My question:
When that window is minimized or hidden (SW_HIDE) my screen capture doesn't work, so is it possible to capture a window when it is minimized or hidden?
The PrintWindow api works well, I use it for capturing thumbnails for hidden windows. Despite the name, it is different than WM_PRINT and WM_PRINTCLIENT, it works with pretty much every window except for Direct X / WPF windows.
I added some code (C#) but after reviewing how I used the code, I realized that the window isn't actually hidden when I capture its bitmap, its just off screen so this may not work for your case. Could you show the window off screen, do a print and then hide it again?
public static Bitmap PrintWindow(IntPtr hwnd)
{
RECT rc;
WinUserApi.GetWindowRect(hwnd, out rc);
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(rc.Width, rc.Height, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
Graphics gfxBmp = Graphics.FromImage(bmp);
IntPtr hdcBitmap = gfxBmp.GetHdc();
bool succeeded = WinUserApi.PrintWindow(hwnd, hdcBitmap, 0);
gfxBmp.ReleaseHdc(hdcBitmap);
if (!succeeded)
{
gfxBmp.FillRectangle(new SolidBrush(Color.Gray), new Rectangle(Point.Empty, bmp.Size));
}
IntPtr hRgn = WinGdiApi.CreateRectRgn(0, 0, 0, 0);
WinUserApi.GetWindowRgn(hwnd, hRgn);
Region region = Region.FromHrgn(hRgn);
if (!region.IsEmpty(gfxBmp))
{
gfxBmp.ExcludeClip(region);
gfxBmp.Clear(Color.Transparent);
}
gfxBmp.Dispose();
return bmp;
}
There are WM_PRINT
and WM_PRINTCLIENT
messages you can send to the window, which cause its contents to be rendered into the HDC
of your choice.
However, these aren't perfect: while the standard Win32 controls handle these correctly, any custom controls in the app might not.
I am trying to get the bitmap of partially hidden controls.
I used code before that did the drawing, but included windows overlapping it. So.. maybe you want to try this.
The WM_PRINTCLIENT should (in my understanding) redraw all inside the control, even if it is not really visible.
const int WM_PRINT = 0x317, WM_PRINTCLIENT = 0x318, PRF_CLIENT = 4,
PRF_CHILDREN = 0x10, PRF_NON_CLIENT = 2,
COMBINED_PRINTFLAGS = PRF_CLIENT | PRF_CHILDREN | PRF_NON_CLIENT;
SendMessage(handle, WM_PRINTCLIENT, (int)hdc, COMBINED_PRINTFLAGS);
//GDIStuff.BitBlt(hdc, 0, 0, width, height, hdcControl, 0, 0, (int)GDIStuff.TernaryRasterOperations.SRCCOPY);
The before code is commented out now. It is based on the code found here: Pocket PC: Draw control to bitmap (accepted answer). It is basically the same as Tim Robinson suggests in this thread.
Also, have a look here
http://www.tcx.be/blog/2004/paint-control-onto-graphics/