Creating window frame without maximize button and without resizing options?

Question

I need to create a window that acts like "normal" one, but without maximize button, and sizing border.

Searching through Internet, and studying MSDN, I have learned that natively achieving both is impossible.

There is no window style that does both ( I can disable maximize button, but that is not my aim; as for removing resizing options, I have found suitable window styles in the documentation ).

The closest description would be the dialogbox frame behavior ( no sizing border ), but with extra minimize button.

QUESTION:

Is there a way to achieve my goal some other way?

If yes, can you please provide links to tutorials or code examples? This would be the first time for me to do such a thing and could use all the help I could get?

An important note: I have found this example while searching for a solution, but it will not help me because I target Windows XP onwards.

Answer 1

Creating a window as below will give you a non-sizeable window with a title bar, a minimize button and an exit button.

dwStyle = WS_SYSMENU | WS_CAPTION | WS_MINIMIZEBOX;
hWnd = CreateWindow(szAppName, szTitle, dwStyle,
    CW_USEDEFAULT, 0,  CW_USEDEFAULT, 0,
    NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms632679%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms632600%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Answer 2

I suppose you are creating the window using CreateWindowEx. Then, if you omit both WS_MAXIMIZEBOX and WS_MINIMIZEBOX flags (the dwStyle parameter), the window will have only the close button (no minimize/maximize) buttons. If you ommit just WS_MAXIMIZEBOX, Windows draw the maximize box disabled to keep the graphics layout consistent for all windows. There is no way to change this behavior, and it can change in different versions of Windows (Win3.1, for instance, didn't draw the maximize button at all when the flags were set as mentioned.)

Resizable border is disabled by setting other frame than WS_THICKFRAME (ie. WS_BORDER or WS_EX_DLGMODALFRAME in the dwExStyle parameter).

You can also control the user sizing/moving of your window by intercepting messages WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING, WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED, WM_ENTERSIZEMOVE, WM_EXITSIZEMOVE, WM_SIZING and WM_MOVING.

In theory, you can also completly change the appearance of the non-client area of the window, but it's hardly worth the effort, and it's questionable whether it's a good idea to fight with the default graphic layout of the operating system when all the developers and user are used to it and content with it. (In other words: if you don't want your window to be maximized, just omit the WS_MAXIMIZEBOX flag and leave it on the operating system how to realize this particular decision.)

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure it is documented on MSDN that the window style you want to OMIT is WS_THICKFRAME, since the Window Styles page says that a thick frame is a sizing frame.