Hosting WPF app inside non-WPF app using WIn32 SetParent()

Question

I have a WPF application that I want to look like it is hosted inside another - non-WPF - application. In real life this non-WPF app is an ActiveX inside Internet Explorer, but for the sake of illustrating the problem I use a simple Windows Forms app.

I use the Windows API function SetParent, which there are dozens of threads on already. However, I cannot find anything written on my exact problem: A small region on the right and bottom of the WPF app is not painted inside the non-WPF app's window.

The WPF window running by itself:

The WPF window with WinForm app's window as parent:

I don't experience the problem if a swap the WPF app with a WinForms app or a plain Win32 app (like Notepad).

The WinForm code looks like this:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Start process
        var psi = new ProcessStartInfo("c:\\wpfapp\\wpfapp\\bin\\Debug\\wpfapp.exe");
        psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
        _process = Process.Start(psi);

        // Sleep until new process is ready
        Thread.Sleep(1000);

        // Set new process's parent to this window
        SetParent(_process.MainWindowHandle, this.Handle);

        // Remove WS_POPUP and add WS_CHILD window style to child window
        const int GWL_STYLE = -16;
        const long WS_POPUP = 0x80000000;
        const long WS_CHILD = 0x40000000;
        long style = GetWindowLong(_process.MainWindowHandle, GWL_STYLE);
        style = (style & ~(WS_POPUP)) | WS_CHILD;
        SetWindowLong(_process.MainWindowHandle, GWL_STYLE, style);

        // Move and resize child window to fit into parent's
        MoveWindow(_process.MainWindowHandle, 0, 0, this.Width, this.Height, true);
    }

Note: I'm aware that this use of SetParent is not necessarily a recommended practice, but I want to and need to find out how to do it this way, so please let me :)

Answer 1

I found a workaround that works fairly well: Call MoveWindow before SetParent:

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     // Start process            
     var psi = new ProcessStartInfo("C:\\WpfApp\\WpfApp.exe");
     psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal;
     _process = Process.Start(psi);

     // Sleep until new process is ready
     Thread.Sleep(3000);

     // Move and resize child window to fit into parent's
     Rectangle rect;
     GetClientRect(this.Handle, out rect);
     MoveWindow(_process.MainWindowHandle, 0, 0, rect.Right - rect.Left, rect.Bottom - rect.Top, true);

     // Set new process's parent to this window
     SetParent(_process.MainWindowHandle, this.Handle);

     // Remove WS_POPUP and add WS_CHILD window style to child window
     long style = GetWindowLong(_process.MainWindowHandle, GWL_STYLE);
     style = (style & ~(WS_POPUP) & ~(WS_CAPTION)) & ~(WS_THICKFRAME) | WS_CHILD;
     SetWindowLong(_process.MainWindowHandle, GWL_STYLE, style);
}           

In the SizeChanged event handler, I take the child out of the parent, call MoveWindow and move it back into the parent. To reduce flickering, I hide the window while doing these operations:

private void Form1_SizeChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
     ShowWindow(_process.MainWindowHandle, SW_HIDE);

     var ptr = new IntPtr();
     SetParent(_process.MainWindowHandle, ptr);

     Rectangle rect;
     GetClientRect(this.Handle, out rect);

     MoveWindow(_process.MainWindowHandle, 0, 0, rect.Right - rect.Left, rect.Bottom - rect.Top, true);            
     SetParent(_process.MainWindowHandle, this.Handle);
     ShowWindow(_process.MainWindowHandle, SW_SHOW);
}

it doesn't explain why MoveWindow doesn't work after SetParent, but it solves my problem, so I will mark this as the answer unless something better comes up.

Answer 2

You probably should resize your WPF window so that it fits into the client area of its new parent window:

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public struct RECT
{
    public int Left;
    public int Top;
    public int Right;
    public int Bottom;
}

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool GetClientRect(IntPtr hWnd, out RECT lpRect);

// Move and resize child window to fit into parent's client area.
RECT rc = new RECT();
GetClientRect(this.Handle, out rc);
MoveWindow(_process.MainWindowHandle, 0, 0, rc.Right - rc.Left,
    rc.Bottom - rc.Top, true)

Answer 3

I used a Form / UserControl with a Panel. Then I used the Panel as the new parent and set the new position and size of the panel with SetWindowPos to the child window.

NOTE: MS recommends to use SetWindowPos after using SetWindowLong (or SetWindowLongPtr) to activate the new styles.