How come I can WM_CLOSE an out-of-process Notepad but can't get it to display a WM_CHAR?

[glyfyx]

In my simple win32 pgm I launch Notepad, CreateProcess("c:\\winnt\\notepad.exe"... then get a handle to it, hwndTarget = FindWindow(NULL, TEXT("Untitled - Notepad")); then close it with no problem, SendMessage(hwndTarget, WM_CLOSE, 0, 0); But if instead of closing it I try to Post/Send it a character to display PostMessage (hwndTarget, WM_CHAR, 'x', 1) ; SendMessage (hwndTarget, WM_CHAR, 'z', 1) ; it doesn't work. So I'm missing something here, but don't know what it is. Thanks for any assistance! glyfyx

[Dr Emmett Brown]

The problem is that you're sending the messages to the main window. Maybe the edit control that processes the chars is a child window of the main. You can find it with spy++. Hope it helps

rotter The metaller programmer

[glyfyx]

Thanks rotter - I believe that's it! I used Spy++ (for the first time!) and found what looks very much like a child window and its handle under Notepad. Now what I have to do is figure out how to obtain the child's handle in my code then send WH_CHAR to it. Big help - thanks! glyfyx