The EnableWindow function enables or disables mouse and keyboard input to the specified window or control. When input is disabled, the window does not receive input such as mouse clicks and key presses. When input is enabled, the window receives all input.

Syntax

    BOOL EnableWindow(
        HWND hWnd,
        BOOL bEnable
    );

Parameters

• hWnd Handle to the window to be enabled or disabled.
• bEnable Specifies whether to enable or disable the window. If this parameter is TRUE, the window is enabled. If the parameter is FALSE, the window is disabled.

Return Value
If the window was previously disabled, the return value is nonzero.

If the window was not previously disabled, the return value is zero.

Remarks
If the window is being disabled, the system sends a WM_CANCELMODE message. If the enabled state of a window is changing, the system sends a WM_ENABLE message after the WM_CANCELMODE message. (These messages are sent before EnableWindow returns.) If a window is already disabled, its child windows are implicitly disabled, although they are not sent a WM_ENABLE message.

A window must be enabled before it can be activated. For example, if an application is displaying a modeless dialog box and has disabled its main window, the application must enable the main window before destroying the dialog box. Otherwise, another window will receive the keyboard focus and be activated. If a child window is disabled, it is ignored when the system tries to determine which window should receive mouse messages.

By default, a window is enabled when it is created. To create a window that is initially disabled, an application can specify the WS_DISABLED style in the CreateWindow or CreateWindowEx function. After a window has been created, an application can use EnableWindow to enable or disable the window.

An application can use this function to enable or disable a control in a dialog box. A disabled control cannot receive the keyboard focus, nor can a user gain access to it.

Windows 95/98/Me: Although EnableWindow exists on Windows 95/98/Me, it is supported by the Microsoft Layer for Unicode to provide more consistent windowing behavior across all Windows operating systems. To use this, you must add certain files to your application, as outlined in Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 95/98/Me Systems .

Function Information

• Minimum DLL Version user32.dll
• Header Declared in Winuser.h, include Windows.h
• Import library User32.lib
• Minimum operating systems Windows 95, Windows NT 3.1