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getWindowlist() returns titles only, no PIDs or handles

 
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xxhehe
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2026 6:25 am    Post subject: getWindowlist() returns titles only, no PIDs or handles Reply with quote

The celua.txt documentation says getWindowlist() returns a table formatted as {pid, {id, caption}}. But my actual output is a list of window titles, without process IDs or handles. Is this a bug?
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Dark Byte
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2026 7:03 am    Post subject: This post has 1 review(s) Reply with quote

it returns a list of PID's and each pid contains an indexed list of windowtitles.

no handles no, just a pid and an id you can use to traverse the list

e.g: pid 22656 has a list of 8 windownames, pid 25220 has a list of 25 windownames, etc...

this may make it more clear:
Code:

for pid,list in pairs(getWindowList()) do
  printf("processid %x has the following windows:", pid)
  for i=1,#list do
    printf("  %d = %s", i, list[i])
  end
  print("")
end

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xxhehe
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Joined: 11 Mar 2015
Posts: 165

PostPosted: Sun Jul 26, 2026 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dark Byte wrote:
it returns a list of PID's and each pid contains an indexed list of windowtitles.

no handles no, just a pid and an id you can use to traverse the list

e.g: pid 22656 has a list of 8 windownames, pid 25220 has a list of 25 windownames, etc...

this may make it more clear:
Code:

for pid,list in pairs(getWindowList()) do
  printf("processid %x has the following windows:", pid)
  for i=1,#list do
    printf("  %d = %s", i, list[i])
  end
  print("")
end


The celua.txt documentation says getWindowlist() returns a table in the format { PID, { ID, Caption } }. But my actual output is a dictionary keyed by PID, with each value being an array of window title strings.

Test this with:

for pid, list in pairs(getWindowList()) do
printf("processid %x has the following windows:", pid)
for i = 1, #list do
printf(" %d = %s", i, list[i])
end
print("")
end

The result shows only title strings. No ID field is present.

Three questions:

Is this a doc bug, or did the API change?

What does the spec's "id" actually refer to—index position, window handle (HWND), or something else? If it's an index, is it stable across CE versions, and can I use it to retrieve the handle or other properties?

Since I currently can't get handles, class names, or visibility from this API, I maintain a blacklist in my script to filter out irrelevant windows (IME, tray icons, etc.):


local blacklist = {
"Default IME", "MSCTFIME UI", "GDI+ Window", "DDE Window", "MCI","MSCTFIME",
"__wglDummyWindowFodder", "wglDummy", "DummyWindow",
"CTrayNotifyIcon Helper Window",
"TrayNotifyIcon",
"BluetoothNotificationAreaIconWindowClass",
"NvContainerWindowClass",
".NET-BroadcastEventWindow","MediaContextNotificationWindow",
"SystemResourceNotifyWindow","AppBarDetectFullScreen",
"TRAYAGENTWINDOW",
"UDiskVirtualWindow", "Window_tsvulfw_man_window_0","BroadcastListenerWindow","UxdService",
"CalcMsgPumpWnd",
"MS_WebcheckMonitor","DDE Server Window",
"NVOGLDC invisible",
"CiceroUIWndFrame",
"QTrayIconMessageWindow",
"WinEventWindow",
"_WINDOWTOP_INTERNAL_UI_",
"BroadcastListenerWindow",
"com.pot-app.desktop-siw",
"ms_sqlce_se_notify_wndproc",
"次级窗口","Secondary Window",
}



This works, but it's fragile. I have to maintain the blacklist manually and can't distinguish windows with identical titles.

Will you consider extending getWindowlist() to return {title, hwnd} per entry, or adding a separate API like getWindowInfo() for fuller window data?
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