SetParent Issues & what is "WindowsFormsParkingWindow"

[James C. Papp]

I'm developing a control under dotnet which allows any UserControl to act
like a popup (Think comboboxes with custom drop-down dialogs). My problem
is that for the popup to work as expected, I need it to have a native window
(by this I mean one created outside of the framework, through
CreateWindowEx) that is owned by the parent control (a dotnet control) doing
the "popup-ing" (there are good reasons for this, but for me to explain them
all would make this post way too long, however, feel free to ask if needed).
More precisely, the UserControl is contained within this native window
"container" which is owned by the dotnet parent control.

This seems like it would be very easy but under dotnet it has become
unbelievably frustrating. No matter what I do, the parent of my native
container window is never owned by the .NET control handle I provide, it is
somehow intercepted/modified and redirected to being owned by this
mysterious window called WindowsFormsParkingWindow. This happened even if
I create the window from scratch using the SDK CreateWindowEx and assign the
parent before creation. SetParent does not work either (even though the
function returns no error), no mater what dotnet window handle I pass to it,
my control is still owned by "WindowsFormsParkingWindow." What in the world
is going on here? What is this mysterious "WindowsFormsParkingWindow?"
Technical information would be most helpful! Please if anyone could shed
some light on what dotnet is doing behind the scenes, please do so. Any
help would be greatly appreciated.
Development is down under MC++, and C#

Thanks,
James C. Papp
Guy Carpenter, Inc.
(Note: My e-mail will block all incoming e-mail messages unless prior
arrangements are made.)

[James C. Papp]

Never mind, from a KB document I found this:

"The owner of a WS_POPUP-style window is set according to the hWndParent
parameter specified in the call to CreateWindow that created the pop-up
window. If hWndParent specifies a nonchild window, the hWndParent window
becomes the owner of the new pop-up window. Otherwise, the first nonchild
ancestor of hWndParent becomes the owner of the new pop-up window. When the
owner window is destroyed, Windows automatically destroys the pop up. Note
that modal dialog boxes work slightly differently. If hWndParent is a child
window, then the owner window is the first nonchild ancestor that does not
have an owner (its top-level ancestor)."

This explains the behavior I'm seeing - nothing to do with dotnet at all!

James.

"James C. Papp" <jp...@ellorasoft.com> wrote in message
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