How to create a window without focus all the time?

[chinanoahli]

I need to create a window(only for Windows) just like MS Windows build in screen keyboard.
It can keep itself on top(this is easy, using Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint will work), and it will never takes focus.

I tried Qt::WA_ShowWithoutActivating, Qt::WindowDoesNotAcceptFocus and Qt::NoFocus, but none of them works.

Thanks.

[SamurayH]

I don't think you can achieve your goal using Qt flags. Since you only want to support Windows, then what you're looking for is WS_EX_NOACTIVATE.

Here's a quick example:

#include "myvirtualkeyboard.h"

#include <Windows.h>

MyVirtualKeyboard::MyVirtualKeyboard(QWidget *parent) : QWidget(parent)
{
    // Add WS_EX_NOACTIVATE and WS_EX_TOPMOST to the default extended style
    HWND hWnd =  (HWND)winId();
    LONG_PTR exStyle = GetWindowLongPtr(hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE);
    SetWindowLongPtr(hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, exStyle | WS_EX_NOACTIVATE | WS_EX_TOPMOST);
     // ...
}

This will give you the exact behavior of the on-screen keyboard. However, if you want to use this keyboard with other windows in the same process (e.g. same Qt app) too, then you still need an extra step.