FIX: MDI Child Form Does Not Become Active

Last reviewed: December 18, 1997
Article ID: Q171808

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation, Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 5.0

SYMPTOMS

MDI child forms with UserControls on them may not receive focus when the UserControls' constituent controls are selected.

CAUSE

Windows MDI child activation is based on the MDI client window getting the WM_PARENTNOTIFY message, which is being suppressed.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This bug has been fixed in Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2.

For more information on the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q170365
   TITLE     : INFO: Visual Studio 97 Service Packs - What, Where, and Why

For a list of the Visual Basic 5.0 bugs that were fixed in the Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q171554
   TITLE     : INFO: Visual Basic 5.0 Fixes in Visual Studio 97
               Service Pack 2

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

In Visual Basic, create a new ActiveX control project. UserControl1 is created by default.
Add a CommandButton control to the UserControl and close the UserControl's design window.
Select File | Add Project to add a Standard Exe project. Form1 is created by default.
Select Project | Add MDI Form to add a MDI form. MDIForm1 is created by default.
Select Project | Add Form to add a regular form. Form2 is created by default.
Change the MDIChild property on both Form1 and Form2 to TRUE.
Add UserControl1 to Form1.

In the form_load event of Form1, place the following code:

      Private Sub Form_Load()
                Me.Show
                Form2.Show
            End Sub

Run the Project.
Size Form2 so that you can see Form1 (and the UserControl on it) in
```
    the background.
```

Click the CommandButton on the UserControl while Form2 has the focus.

    Note that the button presses but Form1 does not get the focus as it
    should.

Click the UserControl in an area other than where the CommandButton is.
```
    Note that Form1 now gets the focus.
```

Keywords          : vb5all VBKBAX VBKBComp VBKBCtrl VS97FixlistSP3 VS97FixlistSP2 VB5FixlistSP2
Version           : 5.0
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbbug
Solution Type     : kbfix kbservicepack

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Last reviewed: December 18, 1997
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