Important:
This is retired content. This content is outdated and is no longer being maintained. It is provided as a courtesy for individuals who are still using these technologies. This content may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist.
A version of this page is also available for
4/8/2010

This function changes the text of the specified window's title bar, if it has one. If the specified window is a control, the text of the control is changed.

Syntax 

BOOL SetWindowText( 
  HWND 
hWnd, 
  LPCTSTR 
lpString 
);

Parameters

hWnd

[in] Handle to the window or control whose text is to be changed.

lpString

[in] Long pointer to a null-terminated string to be used as the new title or control text.

Return Value

Nonzero indicates success. Zero indicates failure. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

If the target window is owned by the current process, SetWindowTextcauses a WM_SETTEXTmessage to be sent to the specified window or control. If the control is a list box control created with the WS_CAPTION style, however, SetWindowTextsets the text for the control, not for the list box entries.

The SetWindowTextfunction does not expand tab characters (ASCII code 0x09). Tab characters are displayed as vertical bar (|) characters.

Calling SetWindowTextwith any amount of text will cause the control to initialize to UNICODE. Calling SetWindowTextwith empty text will not cause the control to initialize to UNICODE.

Requirements

Header winuser.h
Windows Embedded CE Windows CE 1.0 and later
Windows Mobile Windows Mobile Version 5.0 and later

See Also