How to

get active window handle and title

Home » Windows » Win32 » How to get active window handle and title

Published: 7. February 2012 | Updated: 7. February 2012
License: Microsoft Public License (MS-PL)
Categories: Windows » Win32, Windows
Tags: C# UI Win32 Windows

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Import namespaces

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

External methods

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();

[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
private static extern int GetWindowText(IntPtr hWnd, StringBuilder lpString, int nMaxCount);

Code

// get handle
IntPtr handle = GetForegroundWindow();

// get title
const int count = 512;
var text = new StringBuilder(count);

if (GetWindowText(handle, text, count) > 0)
{
    Console.WriteLine(text.ToString());
}