WinSet - Syntax & Usage | AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey

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WinSet

Makes a variety of changes to the specified window, such as "always on top" and transparency.

WinSet, SubCommand, Value , WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

Parameters

SubCommand, Value
These are dependent upon each other and their usage is described below.
WinTitle
A window title or other criteria identifying the target window. See WinTitle.
WinText
If present, this parameter must be a substring from a single text element of the target window (as revealed by the included Window Spy utility). Hidden text elements are detected if DetectHiddenText is ON.
ExcludeTitle
Windows whose titles include this value will not be considered.
ExcludeText
Windows whose text include this value will not be considered.

Sub-commands

For SubCommand, specify one of the following:

  • AlwaysOnTop: Makes a window stay on top of all other windows.
  • Bottom: Sends a window to the bottom of stack; that is, beneath all other windows.
  • Top: Brings a window to the top of the stack without explicitly activating it.
  • Disable: Disables a window.
  • Enable: Enables a window.
  • Redraw: Redraws a window.
  • Style: Changes the style of a window.
  • ExStyle: Changes the extended style of a window.
  • Region: Changes the shape of a window to be the specified rectangle, ellipse, or polygon.
  • Transparent: Makes a window semi-transparent.
  • TransColor: Makes all pixels of the chosen color invisible inside the target window.

AlwaysOnTop

Makes a window stay on top of all other windows.

WinSet, AlwaysOnTop , OnOffToggle, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

For OnOffToggle, specify On turn on the setting, Off to turn it off, or Toggle to set it to the opposite of its current state. If OnOffToggle is blank or omitted, it defaults to Toggle. The word Topmost can be used in place of AlwaysOnTop.

[v1.1.30+]: The decimal values 1, 0 and -1 may be used in place of On, Off and Toggle, respectively.

Bottom

Sends a window to the bottom of stack; that is, beneath all other windows.

WinSet, Bottom ,, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

The effect is similar to pressing Alt+Esc.

Top

Brings a window to the top of the stack without explicitly activating it.

WinSet, Top ,, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

However, the system default settings will probably cause it to activate in most cases. In addition, this sub-command may have no effect due to the operating system's protection against applications that try to steal focus from the user (it may depend on factors such as what type of window is currently active and what the user is currently doing). One possible work-around is to make the window briefly AlwaysOnTop, then turn off AlwaysOnTop.

Disable

Disables a window.

WinSet, Disable ,, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

When a window is disabled, the user cannot move it or interact with its controls. In addition, disabled windows are omitted from the alt-tab list.

Enable

Enables a window.

WinSet, Enable ,, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

Redraw

Redraws a window.

WinSet, Redraw ,, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

This sub-command attempts to update the appearance/contents of a window by informing the OS that the window's rectangle needs to be redrawn. If this approach does not work for a particular window, try WinMove. If that does not work, try WinHide in combination with WinShow.

Style

Changes the style of a window.

WinSet, Style, N , WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

If the first character of N is a plus or minus sign, the style(s) in N are added or removed, respectively. If the first character is a caret (^), the style(s) in N are each toggled to the opposite state. If the first character is a digit, the window's style is overwritten completely; that is, it becomes N.

ErrorLevel is set to 1 upon failure and 0 upon success. Failure occurs if the target window is not found or the style is not allowed to be applied.

After applying certain style changes to a visible window, it might be necessary to redraw the window using the Redraw sub-command above. Finally, the styles table lists some of the common style numbers. For example:

WinSet, Style, -0xC00000, A  ; Remove the active window's title bar (WS_CAPTION).

ExStyle

Changes the extended style of a window.

WinSet, ExStyle, N , WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

See the Style sub-command for details. For example:

WinSet, ExStyle, ^0x80, WinTitle ; Toggle the WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW attribute, which removes/adds the window from the alt-tab list.

Region

Changes the shape of a window to be the specified rectangle, ellipse, or polygon.

WinSet, Region , Options, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

If the Options parameter is blank or omitted, the window is restored to its original/default display area. Otherwise, one or more of the following options can be specified, each separated from the others with space(s):

Wn: Width of rectangle or ellipse. For example: w200.

Hn: Height of rectangle or ellipse. For example: h200.

X-Y: Each of these is a pair of X/Y coordinates. For example, 200-0 would use 200 for the X coordinate and 0 for the Y.

E: Makes the region an ellipse rather than a rectangle. This option is valid only when W and H are present.

R[w-h]: Makes the region a rectangle with rounded corners. For example, R30-30 would use a 30x30 ellipse for each corner. If w-h is omitted, 30-30 is used. R is valid only when W and H are present.

Rectangle or ellipse: If the W and H options are present, the new display area will be a rectangle whose upper left corner is specified by the first (and only) pair of X-Y coordinates. However, if the E option is also present, the new display area will be an ellipse rather than a rectangle. For example: WinSet, Region, 50-0 W200 H250 E, WinTitle.

Polygon: When the W and H options are absent, the new display area will be a polygon determined by multiple pairs of X-Y coordinates (each pair of coordinates is a point inside the window relative to its upper left corner). For example, if three pairs of coordinates are specified, the new display area will be a triangle in most cases. The order of the coordinate pairs with respect to each other is sometimes important. In addition, the word Wind maybe be present in Options to use the winding method instead of the alternating method to determine the polygon's region.

ErrorLevel is set to 1 upon failure and 0 upon success. Failure occurs when: 1) the target window does not exist; 2) one or more Options are invalid; 3) more than 2000 pairs of coordinates were specified; or 4) the specified region is invalid or could not be applied to the target window.

See example #5 and example #6 at the bottom of this page for how to use this sub-command.

Transparent

Makes a window semi-transparent.

WinSet, Transparent , N, WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

Specify for N a number between 0 and 255 to indicate the degree of transparency: 0 makes the window invisible while 255 makes it opaque.

The word Off may be specified to completely turn off transparency for a window. This is functionally identical to WinSet, TransColor, Off, WinTitle. Specifying Off is different than specifying 255 because it may improve performance and reduce usage of system resources.

For example, to make the task bar transparent, use WinSet, Transparent, 150, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd. Similarly, to make the classic Start Menu transparent, see example #3. To make the Start Menu's submenus transparent, also include the script from example #4.

Setting the transparency level to 255 before using Off might avoid window redrawing problems such as a black background. If the window still fails to be redrawn correctly, see Redraw for a possible workaround.

[v1.1.24.05+]: This sub-command also works with a window that lacks a caption (title bar) and lacks the always-on-top property.

TransColor

Makes all pixels of the chosen color invisible inside the target window.

WinSet, TransColor, Color , WinTitle, WinText, ExcludeTitle, ExcludeText

This allows the contents of the window behind it to show through. If the user clicks on an invisible pixel, the click will "fall through" to the window behind it. Specify for Color a color name or RGB value (see the color chart for guidance, or use PixelGetColor in its RGB mode). To additionally make the visible part of the window partially transparent, append a space (not a comma) followed by the transparency level (0-255). For example: WinSet, TransColor, EEAA99 150, WinTitle.

The word Off may be specified to completely turn off transparency for a window. This is functionally identical to WinSet, Transparent, Off, WinTitle. Specifying Off is different than specifying 255 because it may improve performance and reduce usage of system resources.

TransColor is often used to create on-screen displays and other visual effects. There is an example of an on-screen display at the bottom of the Gui page.

Setting the transparency level to 255 before using Off might avoid window redrawing problems such as a black background. If the window still fails to be redrawn correctly, see Redraw for a possible workaround.

To change a window's existing TransColor, it may be necessary to turn off transparency before making the change.

[v1.1.24.05+]: This sub-command also works with a window that lacks a caption (title bar) and lacks the always-on-top property.

Remarks

ErrorLevel is not changed by this command except where indicated above.

Although transparency is supported on Windows 2000/XP or later, retrieving the current transparency settings of a window is possible only on Windows XP or later (via WinGet).

A script's SplashText window can be made non-AlwaysOnTop via:

WinSet, AlwaysOnTop, Off, My Splash Window Title

Window titles and text are case sensitive. Hidden windows are not detected unless DetectHiddenWindows has been turned on.

Related

WinGet, WinHide, WinSetTitle, WinMove, WinActivate, Control

Examples

Example #1: Miscellaneous

WinSet, Transparent, 200, Untitled - Notepad ; Make the window a little bit transparent.
WinSet, TransColor, White, Untitled - Notepad ; Make all white pixels invisible.
WinSet, AlwaysOnTop, Toggle, Calculator ; Toggle the always-on-top status of Calculator.

Example #2

Here are some hotkeys that demonstrate the effects of the sub-commands Transparent and TransColor. NOTE: If you press one of the hotkeys while the mouse cursor is hovering over a pixel that is invisible as a result of TransColor, the window visible beneath that pixel will be acted upon instead! Also, Win+G will have an effect only on Windows XP or later because retrieval of transparency settings is not supported by Windows 2000:

#t::  ; Press Win+T to make the color under the mouse cursor invisible.
MouseGetPos, MouseX, MouseY, MouseWin
PixelGetColor, MouseRGB, %MouseX%, %MouseY%, RGB
; It seems necessary to turn off any existing transparency first:
WinSet, TransColor, Off, ahk_id %MouseWin%
WinSet, TransColor, %MouseRGB% 220, ahk_id %MouseWin%
return

#o::  ; Press Win+O to turn off transparency for the window under the mouse.
MouseGetPos,,, MouseWin
WinSet, TransColor, Off, ahk_id %MouseWin%
return

#g::  ; Press Win+G to show the current settings of the window under the mouse.
MouseGetPos,,, MouseWin
WinGet, Transparent, Transparent, ahk_id %MouseWin%
WinGet, TransColor, TransColor, ahk_id %MouseWin%
ToolTip Translucency:`t%Transparent%`nTransColor:`t%TransColor%
return

Example #3

Makes the classic Start Menu transparent (to additionally make the Start Menu's submenus transparent, see example #4):

DetectHiddenWindows, On
WinSet, Transparent, 150, ahk_class BaseBar

Example #4

To make all or selected menus on the entire system transparent, keep a script such as the following always running. Note that although such a script cannot make its own menus transparent, it can make those of other scripts transparent:

#Persistent
SetTimer, WatchForMenu, 5
return  ; End of auto-execute section.

WatchForMenu:
DetectHiddenWindows, On  ; Might allow detection of menu sooner.
if WinExist("ahk_class #32768")
    WinSet, Transparent, 150  ; Uses the window found by the above line.
return

Example #5

Various examples for the Region sub-command:

WinSet, Region, 50-0 W200 H250, ahk_class Notepad  ; Make all parts of Notepad outside this rectangle invisible.
WinSet, Region, 50-0 W200 H250 R40-40, ahk_class Notepad  ; Same as above but with corners rounded to 40x40.
WinSet, Region, 50-0 W200 H250 E, ahk_class Notepad  ; An ellipse instead of a rectangle.
WinSet, Region, 50-0 250-0 150-250, ahk_class Notepad  ; A triangle with apex pointing down.
WinSet, Region,, ahk_class Notepad ; Restore the window to its original/default display area.

Example #6

Here is a region with a more complex area. It creates a see-through rectangular hole inside Notepad (or any other window). There are two rectangles specified below: an outer and an inner. Each rectangle consists of 5 pairs of X/Y coordinates because the first pair is repeated at the end to "close off" each rectangle:

WinSet, Region, 0-0 300-0 300-300 0-300 0-0   100-100 200-100 200-200 100-200 100-100, ahk_class Notepad
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