Restore a minimized window of another application

Question

I\'m adding some code to an app that will launch another app if it isn\'t already running, or if it is, bring it to the front. This requires a small amount of interop/WinAPI

Answer 1

Working code using FindWindow method:

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string className, string windowTitle);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, ShowWindowEnum flags);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern int SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hwnd);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
static extern bool GetWindowPlacement(IntPtr hWnd, ref Windowplacement lpwndpl);

private enum ShowWindowEnum
{
    Hide = 0,
    ShowNormal = 1, ShowMinimized = 2, ShowMaximized = 3,
    Maximize = 3, ShowNormalNoActivate = 4, Show = 5,
    Minimize = 6, ShowMinNoActivate = 7, ShowNoActivate = 8,
    Restore = 9, ShowDefault = 10, ForceMinimized = 11
};

private struct Windowplacement
{
    public int length;
    public int flags;
    public int showCmd;
    public System.Drawing.Point ptMinPosition;
    public System.Drawing.Point ptMaxPosition;
    public System.Drawing.Rectangle rcNormalPosition;
}

private void BringWindowToFront()
{
    IntPtr wdwIntPtr = FindWindow(null, "Put_your_window_title_here");

    //get the hWnd of the process
    Windowplacement placement = new Windowplacement();
    GetWindowPlacement(wdwIntPtr, ref placement);

    // Check if window is minimized
    if (placement.showCmd == 2)
    {
        //the window is hidden so we restore it
        ShowWindow(wdwIntPtr, ShowWindowEnum.Restore);
    }

    //set user's focus to the window
    SetForegroundWindow(wdwIntPtr);
}

You can use it by calling BringWindowToFront().

I always have one instance of the application running so if you can have several open instances simultaneously you might want to slightly change the logic.