PRB: Confusing Return Values from DDE topic WWW_ListWindows

ID: Q191508

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Explorer (Programming) versions 4.0, 4.01, 4.01 SP1, 5.0

SYMPTOMS

Sending the DDE topic WWW_ListWindows to IExplore (Internet Explorer) returns an array of DWORDS containing a sequence of integers 1-n, not the HWNDs of windows opened by the Browser as implied in the documentation.

CAUSE

What is being returned is a sequence corresponding to the number of instances of the Browser that are currently opened. For instance, if three instances of Internet Explorer are running, then the WWW_ListWindows topic will return, to the caller, an array of DWORD's containing the integers 1, 2, 3.

RESOLUTION

The WWW_ListWindows topic can only be used to determine the number of instances of the browser that are running. To determine the windows owned for each instance, an API call such as FindWindows() must be used. General information on finding and enumerating windows is available in the MSDN article "Win32 Window Hierarchy and Styles" by Kyle Marsh.

REFERENCES

MSDN article "Win32 Window Hierarchy and Styles" by Kyle Marsh 1993. For additional information about , please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q160957 Dynamic Data Exchange Support in Microsoft Internet Explorer

Additional query words:


Keywords          : kbDDE kbIE400 kbIE401 kbIE401sp1 kbIE500 
Version           : 
Platform          : 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 7, 1999