How To Create a Topmost or Floating Window in Visual Basic

You can create a "floating" window such as that used for the Microsoft Windows version 3.1 Clock by using the SetWindowPos Windows API call.

A floating (or Topmost) window is a window that remains constantly above all other windows, even when it is not active. Examples of floating windows are the Find dialog box in WRITE.EXE, and CLOCK.EXE (when Always on Top is selected from the Control menu).


NOTE: Visual Basic forms that are TopMost Windows when they are in either Normal or Maximized positions will lose the Topmost setting when the Visual Basic program is Minimized. Visual Basic destroys the old window and creates a new one with the Icon in the Window. Therefore, in order for TopMost to stay in effect, the user needs to reset TopMost in the Resize event.

There are two methods to produce windows that "hover" or "float," one of which is possible in Visual Basic for Windows. This method is described below:

Use the following declarations:

To set the form XXXX to TOPMOST, use the following code:

success% = SetWindowPos (XXXX.hWnd, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, FLAGS) REM success% <> 0 When Successful

To reset the form XXXX to NON-TOPMOST, use the following code:

success% = SetWindowPos (XXXX.hWnd, HWND_NOTOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, FLAGS) REM success% <> 0 When Successful

NOTE: This attribute was introduced in Windows, version 3.1, so remember to make a GetVersion() API call to determine whether the application is running under Windows, version 3.1.

"Page 892 of Microsoft Windows 3.1 Programmer's Reference, Volume 2, Functions,"