STARTUPINFOW structure (processthreadsapi.h)
Specifies the window station, desktop, standard handles, and appearance of the main window for a process at creation time.
Syntax
typedef struct _STARTUPINFOW {
DWORD cb;
LPWSTR lpReserved;
LPWSTR lpDesktop;
LPWSTR lpTitle;
DWORD dwX;
DWORD dwY;
DWORD dwXSize;
DWORD dwYSize;
DWORD dwXCountChars;
DWORD dwYCountChars;
DWORD dwFillAttribute;
DWORD dwFlags;
WORD wShowWindow;
WORD cbReserved2;
LPBYTE lpReserved2;
HANDLE hStdInput;
HANDLE hStdOutput;
HANDLE hStdError;
} STARTUPINFOW, *LPSTARTUPINFOW;
Members
cb
The size of the structure, in bytes.
lpReserved
Reserved; must be NULL.
lpDesktop
The name of the desktop, or the name of both the desktop and window station for this process. A backslash in the string indicates that the string includes both the desktop and window station names.
For more information, see Thread Connection to a Desktop.
lpTitle
For console processes, this is the title displayed in the title bar if a new console window is created. If NULL, the name of the executable file is used as the window title instead. This parameter must be NULL for GUI or console processes that do not create a new console window.
dwX
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USEPOSITION, this member is the x offset of the upper left corner of a window if a new window is created, in pixels. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
The offset is from the upper left corner of the screen. For GUI processes, the specified position is used the first time the new process calls CreateWindow to create an overlapped window if the x parameter of CreateWindow is CW_USEDEFAULT.
dwY
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USEPOSITION, this member is the y offset of the upper left corner of a window if a new window is created, in pixels. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
The offset is from the upper left corner of the screen. For GUI processes, the specified position is used the first time the new process calls CreateWindow to create an overlapped window if the y parameter of CreateWindow is CW_USEDEFAULT.
dwXSize
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USESIZE, this member is the width of the window if a new window is created, in pixels. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
For GUI processes, this is used only the first time the new process calls CreateWindow to create an overlapped window if the nWidth parameter of CreateWindow is CW_USEDEFAULT.
dwYSize
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USESIZE, this member is the height of the window if a new window is created, in pixels. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
For GUI processes, this is used only the first time the new process calls CreateWindow to create an overlapped window if the nHeight parameter of CreateWindow is CW_USEDEFAULT.
dwXCountChars
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USECOUNTCHARS, if a new console window is created in a console process, this member specifies the screen buffer width, in character columns. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
dwYCountChars
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USECOUNTCHARS, if a new console window is created in a console process, this member specifies the screen buffer height, in character rows. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
dwFillAttribute
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USEFILLATTRIBUTE, this member is the initial text and background colors if a new console window is created in a console application. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
This value can be any combination of the following values: FOREGROUND_BLUE, FOREGROUND_GREEN, FOREGROUND_RED, FOREGROUND_INTENSITY, BACKGROUND_BLUE, BACKGROUND_GREEN, BACKGROUND_RED, and BACKGROUND_INTENSITY. For example, the following combination of values produces red text on a white background:
FOREGROUND_RED| BACKGROUND_RED| BACKGROUND_GREEN| BACKGROUND_BLUE
dwFlags
A bitfield that determines whether certain STARTUPINFO members are used when the process creates a window. This member can be one or more of the following values.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
|
Indicates that the cursor is in feedback mode for two seconds after
CreateProcess is called. The Working in Background cursor is displayed (see the Pointers tab in the Mouse control panel utility).
If during those two seconds the process makes the first GUI call, the system gives five more seconds to the process. If during those five seconds the process shows a window, the system gives five more seconds to the process to finish drawing the window. The system turns the feedback cursor off after the first call to GetMessage, regardless of whether the process is drawing. |
|
Indicates that the feedback cursor is forced off while the process is starting. The Normal Select cursor is displayed. |
|
Indicates that any windows created by the process cannot be pinned on the taskbar.
This flag must be combined with STARTF_TITLEISAPPID. |
|
Indicates that the process should be run in full-screen mode, rather than in windowed mode.
This flag is only valid for console applications running on an x86 computer. |
|
The lpTitle member contains an AppUserModelID. This identifier controls how the taskbar and Start menu present the application, and enables it to be associated with the correct shortcuts and Jump Lists. Generally, applications will use the SetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID and GetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID functions instead of setting this flag. For more information, see Application User Model IDs.
If STARTF_PREVENTPINNING is used, application windows cannot be pinned on the taskbar. The use of any AppUserModelID-related window properties by the application overrides this setting for that window only. This flag cannot be used with STARTF_TITLEISLINKNAME. |
|
The lpTitle member contains the path of the shortcut file (.lnk) that the user invoked to start this process. This is typically set by the shell when a .lnk file pointing to the launched application is invoked. Most applications will not need to set this value.
This flag cannot be used with STARTF_TITLEISAPPID. |
|
The command line came from an untrusted source. For more information, see Remarks. |
|
The dwXCountChars and dwYCountChars members contain additional information. |
|
The dwFillAttribute member contains additional information. |
|
The hStdInput member contains additional information.
This flag cannot be used with STARTF_USESTDHANDLES. |
|
The dwX and dwY members contain additional information. |
|
The wShowWindow member contains additional information. |
|
The dwXSize and dwYSize members contain additional information. |
|
The hStdInput, hStdOutput, and hStdError members contain additional information.
If this flag is specified when calling one of the process creation functions, the handles must be inheritable and the function's bInheritHandles parameter must be set to TRUE. For more information, see Handle Inheritance. If this flag is specified when calling the GetStartupInfo function, these members are either the handle value specified during process creation or INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE. Handles must be closed with CloseHandle when they are no longer needed. This flag cannot be used with STARTF_USEHOTKEY. |
wShowWindow
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW, this member can be any of the values that can be specified in the nCmdShow parameter for the ShowWindow function, except for SW_SHOWDEFAULT. Otherwise, this member is ignored.
For GUI processes, the first time ShowWindow is called, its nCmdShow parameter is ignored wShowWindow specifies the default value. In subsequent calls to ShowWindow, the wShowWindow member is used if the nCmdShow parameter of ShowWindow is set to SW_SHOWDEFAULT.
cbReserved2
Reserved for use by the C Run-time; must be zero.
lpReserved2
Reserved for use by the C Run-time; must be NULL.
hStdInput
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USESTDHANDLES, this member is the standard input handle for the process. If STARTF_USESTDHANDLES is not specified, the default for standard input is the keyboard buffer.
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USEHOTKEY, this member specifies a hotkey value that is sent as the wParam parameter of a WM_SETHOTKEY message to the first eligible top-level window created by the application that owns the process. If the window is created with the WS_POPUP window style, it is not eligible unless the WS_EX_APPWINDOW extended window style is also set. For more information, see CreateWindowEx.
Otherwise, this member is ignored.
hStdOutput
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USESTDHANDLES, this member is the standard output handle for the process. Otherwise, this member is ignored and the default for standard output is the console window's buffer.
If a process is launched from the taskbar or jump list, the system sets hStdOutput to a handle to the monitor that contains the taskbar or jump list used to launch the process. For more information, see Remarks.Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003: This behavior was introduced in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012.
hStdError
If dwFlags specifies STARTF_USESTDHANDLES, this member is the standard error handle for the process. Otherwise, this member is ignored and the default for standard error is the console window's buffer.
Remarks
For graphical user interface (GUI) processes, this information affects the first window created by the CreateWindow function and shown by the ShowWindow function. For console processes, this information affects the console window if a new console is created for the process. A process can use the GetStartupInfo function to retrieve the STARTUPINFO structure specified when the process was created.
If a GUI process is being started and neither STARTF_FORCEONFEEDBACK or STARTF_FORCEOFFFEEDBACK is specified, the process feedback cursor is used. A GUI process is one whose subsystem is specified as "windows."
If a process is launched from the taskbar or jump list, the system sets GetStartupInfo to retrieve the STARTUPINFO structure and check that hStdOutput is set. If so, use GetMonitorInfo to check whether hStdOutput is a valid monitor handle (HMONITOR). The process can then use the handle to position its windows.
If the STARTF_UNTRUSTEDSOURCE flag is specified, the application should be aware that the command line is untrusted. If this flag is set, applications should disable potentially dangerous features such as macros, downloaded content, and automatic printing. This flag is optional. Applications that call CreateProcess are encouraged to set this flag when launching a program with untrusted command line arguments (e.g. those provided by web content) so that the newly created process can apply appropriate policy.
The STARTF_UNTRUSTEDSOURCE flag is supported starting in Windows Vista, but it is not defined in the SDK header files prior to the Windows 10 SDK. To use the flag in versions prior to Windows 10, you can define it manually in your program.
Examples
The following code example shows the use of StartUpInfoW.
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <tchar.h>
void _tmain( int argc, TCHAR *argv[] )
{
STARTUPINFO si;
PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
ZeroMemory( &si, sizeof(si) );
si.cb = sizeof(si);
ZeroMemory( &pi, sizeof(pi) );
if( argc != 2 )
{
printf("Usage: %s [cmdline]\n", argv[0]);
return;
}
// Start the child process.
if( !CreateProcess( NULL, // No module name (use command line)
argv[1], // Command line
NULL, // Process handle not inheritable
NULL, // Thread handle not inheritable
FALSE, // Set handle inheritance to FALSE
0, // No creation flags
NULL, // Use parent's environment block
NULL, // Use parent's starting directory
&si, // Pointer to STARTUPINFO structure
&pi ) // Pointer to PROCESS_INFORMATION structure
)
{
printf( "CreateProcess failed (%d).\n", GetLastError() );
return;
}
// Wait until child process exits.
WaitForSingleObject( pi.hProcess, INFINITE );
// Close process and thread handles.
CloseHandle( pi.hProcess );
CloseHandle( pi.hThread );
}
For more information about this example, see Creating Processes.
Note
The processthreadsapi.h header defines STARTUPINFO as an alias that automatically selects the ANSI or Unicode version of this function based on the definition of the UNICODE preprocessor constant. Mixing usage of the encoding-neutral alias with code that is not encoding-neutral can lead to mismatches that result in compilation or runtime errors. For more information, see Conventions for Function Prototypes.
Requirements
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum supported client | Windows XP [desktop apps only] |
| Minimum supported server | Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps only] |
| Header | processthreadsapi.h (include Windows.h on Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2) |