DetectHiddenWindows

Determines whether invisible windows are "seen" by the script.

DetectHiddenWindows "On|Off"

Parameters

On|Off

On or 1 (true): Hidden windows are detected.

Off or 0 (false): This is the default. Hidden windows are not detected, except by the WinShow function.

Remarks

Turning on DetectHiddenWindows can make scripting harder in some cases since some hidden system windows might accidentally match the title or text of another window you're trying to work with. So most scripts should leave this setting turned off. However, turning it on may be useful if you wish to work with hidden windows directly without first using WinShow to unhide them.

All windowing functions except WinShow are affected by this setting, including WinActivate, WinActive, WinWait and WinExist. By contrast, WinShow will always unhide a hidden window even if hidden windows are not being detected.

Turning on DetectHiddenWindows is not necessary when accessing a control or child window via the ahk_id method or as the last-found-window. It is also not necessary when accessing GUI windows via the +LastFound option.

The built-in variable A_DetectHiddenWindows contains the current setting (On or Off).

Every newly launched thread (such as a hotkey, custom menu item, or timed subroutine) starts off fresh with the default setting for this function. That default may be changed by using this function in the auto-execute section (top part of the script).

Related

DetectHiddenText

Example

DetectHiddenWindows True