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Hi there I am building a "statistics kiosk" where we will be enumerating through Web Pages, and Excel files, PDF reports and other applications each displaying statistics relevant to our project. I want to overlay some context over each page/screen so that viewers of this "statistics kiosk" have some info about that the data they are looking at is. I have written a function called OverlayWindow which is supposed to create a transparent window which displays some text. The function SEEMS to work BUT The handle returned from CreateGUI is 0 (despite there being NO error or extended information) The window is created but not maintained. In other words it appears but since it is not really maintained it is repainted as other content changes. The result is that the overlay appears BUT as soon as there is a reason for the underlying windows to repaint the overlay starts to "disappear" I have extracted the relevant code and created the most simplistic of samples here. #include <FileConstants.au3> #include <WinAPIFiles.au3> #include <GDIPlus.au3> #include <GUIConstantsEx.au3> #include <WindowsConstants.au3> #include <WinAPISysWin.au3> Opt("GUIOnEventMode", 1) ; Change to OnEvent mode ; #FUNCTION# ==================================================================================================================== ; Name ..........: OverlayWindow ; Description ...: Throws up a child window with transparent background over current window ; ; Parameters : ; $hwndParent parent hwnd ; $rectToHighlight rect to draw (or if null, skip) ; $rectForText rect for textToWrite ; $textToWrite the text to write ; =============================================================================================================================== Func OverlayWindow($hwndParent, $rectToHighlight, $rectForText, $textToWrite) $style = BitOR($WS_CHILD, $WS_CLIPCHILDREN, $WS_CLIPSIBLINGS) $exstyle = BitOR($WS_EX_TOPMOST, $WS_EX_COMPOSITED, $WS_EX_TRANSPARENT) $hGUI = GUICreate("transparent overlay", -1, -1, -1, -1, $style, $exstyle) ConsoleWrite("**** $hGUI: " & $hGUI & @CRLF) ConsoleWrite("**** @error: " & @error & @CRLF) ConsoleWrite("**** @extended: " & @extended & @CRLF) GUISetOnEvent($GUI_EVENT_CLOSE, "OverlayWindow_Exit") GUISetState(@SW_SHOW, $hGUI) $hGraphics = _GDIPlus_GraphicsCreateFromHWND($hGUI) ConsoleWrite("**** $hGraphics : " & $hGraphics & @CRLF) _GDIPlus_GraphicsSetSmoothingMode($hGraphics, $GDIP_SMOOTHINGMODE_HIGHQUALITY) $hPen = _GDIPlus_PenCreate(0xFFFF0000, 4) ; Red If ($rectToHighlight <> Null) Then _GDIPlus_GraphicsDrawRect($hGraphics, $rectToHighlight[0], $rectToHighlight[1], $rectToHighlight[2], $rectToHighlight[3], $hPen) EndIf _GDIPlus_PenDispose($hPen) $hBrush = _GDIPlus_BrushCreateSolid(0xFFFF0000) ; RED $hFormat = _GDIPlus_StringFormatCreate() $hFamily = _GDIPlus_FontFamilyCreate("Arial") $hFont = _GDIPlus_FontCreate($hFamily, 14, 2) $tLayout = _GDIPlus_RectFCreate($rectForText[0], $rectForText[1], $rectForText[2], $rectForText[3]) $aInfo = _GDIPlus_GraphicsMeasureString($hGraphics, $textToWrite, $hFont, $tLayout, $hFormat) _GDIPlus_GraphicsDrawStringEx($hGraphics, $textToWrite, $hFont, $aInfo[0], $hFormat, $hBrush) _GDIPlus_BrushDispose($hBrush) _GDIPlus_StringFormatDispose($hFormat) _GDIPlus_FontFamilyDispose($hFamily) _GDIPlus_FontDispose($hFont) _GDIPlus_GraphicsDispose($hGraphics) Return $hGUI EndFunc Func OverlayWindow_Exit() ConsoleWrite("* * * Exit event called" & @CRLF) EndFunc Func Handle_Esc() $Done = True EndFunc ;----------------------------------------------------------------- ;Main() _GDIPlus_Startup() Global $Done = False Local $rect = [10, 10, 400, 400] Local $rectForText = [15, 15, 380, 380] $hGUI = OverlayWindow(Null, $rect, $rectForText, "This is a test with long text long text and should automatically wrap long text " & @CRLF & "and " & @CRLF & " handle " & @CRLF & "cariage returns and line feeds") HotKeySet ( "{Esc}", Handle_Esc) While Not $Done Sleep(100) WEnd GUIDelete($hGUI) _GDIPlus_Shutdown () Exit 0 I am assuming the since CreateGUI returns 0 that the _GDIPlus_GraphicsCreateFromHWND is simply creating a "graphics context" based on the desktop then and not on my window. And thus - there IS no window (despite no @error nor no @extended data) So I think the issue is in the "styles" of window I am using. If I don't use WS_CHILD (for example I use WS_POPUP) then I get a handle back for my window and the lifetime of the window is what i want but it is not transparent as I want. Setting styles on the window to be transparent (either using extended styles, or using WinSetTrans or _WinAPI_SetBkMode) results in my rectangle and string being transparent - not what I want either. Any suggestions? any and all help is appreciated Thanks!