This function retrieves the dimensions—widths and heights—of Windows display elements and system configuration settings. All dimensions retrieved by GetSystemMetrics are in pixels. The RAPI version is CeGetSystemMetrics for versions 2.0 and later.
At a Glance
| Header file: | Winuser.h Rapi.h |
| Windows CE versions: | 1.0 and later |
Syntax
int GetSystemMetrics(int nIndex);
Parameters
nIndex
Specifies the system metric or configuration setting to retrieve. All SM_CX* values are widths. All SM_CY* values are heights. The following values are defined.
| Value | Description | |
| SM_ARRANGE | Flags specifying how the system arranged minimized windows. For more information about minimized windows, see the following Remarks section. | |
| SM_CLEANBOOT | Value that specifies how the system was started, as shown in the following table. | |
| 0 | Normal boot | |
| 1 | Fail-safe boot | |
| 2 | Fail-safe with network boot | |
| Fail-safe boot (also called SafeBoot) bypasses the user’s startup files. | ||
| SM_CMONITORS | Windows NT 5.0 and later; Windows 98 and later: Number of display monitors on the desktop. | |
| SM_CMOUSEBUTTONS | Number of buttons on mouse, or zero if no mouse is installed. | |
| SM_CXBORDER, SM_CYBORDER | Width and height, in pixels, of a window border. This is equivalent to the SM_CXEDGE value for windows with the 3-D look. | |
| SM_CXCURSOR, SM_CYCURSOR | Width and height, in pixels, of a cursor. The system cannot create cursors of other sizes. | |
| SM_CXDLGFRAME, SM_CYDLGFRAME | Same as SM_CXFIXEDFRAME and SM_CYFIXEDFRAME. | |
| SM_CXDOUBLECLK, SM_CYDOUBLECLK | Width and height, in pixels, of the rectangle around the location of a first click in a double-click sequence. The second click must occur within this rectangle for the system to consider the two clicks a double-click. (The two clicks must also occur within a specified time.) | |
| SM_CXDRAG, SM_CYDRAG | Width and height, in pixels, of a rectangle centered on a drag point to allow for limited movement of the mouse pointer before a drag operation begins. This allows the user to click and release the mouse button easily without unintentionally starting a drag operation. | |
| SM_CXEDGE, SM_CYEDGE | Dimensions, in pixels, of a 3-D border. These are the 3-D counterparts of SM_CXBORDER and SM_CYBORDER. | |
| SM_CXFIXEDFRAME, SM_CYFIXEDFRAME | Thickness, in pixels, of the frame around the perimeter of a window that has a caption but is not sizable. SM_CXFIXEDFRAME is the width of the horizontal border and SM_CYFIXEDFRAME is the height of the vertical border. | |
| Same as SM_CXDLGFRAME and SM_CYDLGFRAME. | ||
| SM_CXFRAME, SM_CYFRAME | Same as SM_CXSIZEFRAME and SM_CYSIZEFRAME. | |
| SM_CXFULLSCREEN, SM_CYFULLSCREEN | Width and height of the client area for a full-screen window on the primary display monitor. To get the coordinates of the portion of the screen not obscured by the system taskbar or by application desktop toolbars, call the SystemParametersInfo function with the SPI_GETWORKAREA value. | |
| SM_CXHSCROLL, SM_CYHSCROLL | Width, in pixels, of the arrow bitmap on a horizontal scroll bar; and height, in pixels, of a horizontal scroll bar. | |
| SM_CXHTHUMB | Width, in pixels, of the thumb box in a horizontal scroll bar. | |
| SM_CXICON, SM_CYICON | The default width and height, in pixels, of an icon. The LoadIcon function can load only icons of these dimensions. | |
| SM_CXICONSPACING, SM_CYICONSPACING | Dimensions, in pixels, of a grid cell for items in large icon view. Each item fits into a rectangle of this size when arranged. These values are always greater than or equal to SM_CXICON and SM_CYICON. | |
| SM_CXMAXIMIZED, SM_CYMAXIMIZED | Default dimensions, in pixels, of a maximized top-level window on the primary display monitor. | |
| SM_CXMAXTRACK, SM_CYMAXTRACK | Default maximum dimensions, in pixels, of a window that has a caption and sizing borders. This metric refers to the entire desktop. The user cannot drag the window frame to a size larger than these dimensions. | |
| SM_CXMENUCHECK, SM_CYMENUCHECK | Dimensions, in pixels, of the default menu check-mark bitmap. | |
| SM_CXMENUSIZE, SM_CYMENUSIZE | Dimensions, in pixels, of menu bar buttons, such as the child window close button used in the multiple document interface. | |
| SM_CXMIN, SM_CYMIN | Minimum width and height, in pixels, of a window. | |
| SM_CXMINIMIZED, SM_CYMINIMIZED | Dimensions, in pixels, of a normal minimized window. | |
| SM_CXMINSPACING, SM_CYMINSPACING | Dimensions, in pixels, of a grid cell for minimized windows. Each minimized window fits into a rectangle this size when arranged. These values are always greater than or equal to SM_CXMINIMIZED and SM_CYMINIMIZED. | |
| SM_CXMINTRACK, SM_CYMINTRACK | Minimum tracking width and height, in pixels, of a window. The user cannot drag the window frame to a size smaller than these dimensions. | |
| SM_CXSCREEN, SM_CYSCREEN | Width and height, in pixels, of the screen of the primary display monitor. These are the same values you obtain by calling GetDeviceCaps(hdcPrimaryMonitor, HORZRES/VERTRES). | |
| SM_CXSIZE, SM_CYSIZE | Width and height, in pixels, of a button in a window's caption or title bar. | |
| SM_CXSIZEFRAME, SM_CYSIZEFRAME | Thickness, in pixels, of the sizing border around the perimeter of a window that can be resized. SM_CXSIZEFRAME is the width of the horizontal border, and SM_CYSIZEFRAME is the height of the vertical border. | |
| Same as SM_CXFRAME and SM_CYFRAME. | ||
| SM_CXSMICON, SM_CYSMICON | Recommended dimensions, in pixels, of a small icon. Small icons typically appear in window captions and in small icon view. | |
| SM_CXSMSIZE, SM_CYSMSIZE | Dimensions, in pixels, of small caption buttons. | |
| SM_CXVIRTUALSCREEN, SM_CYVIRTUALSCREEN | Windows NT 5.0 and later; Windows 98 and later: Width and height, in pixels, of the virtual screen. The virtual screen is the bounding rectangle of all display monitors. The SM_XVIRTUALSCREEN, SM_YVIRTUALSCREEN metrics are the coordinates of the top left corner of the virtual screen. | |
| SM_CXVSCROLL, SM_CYVSCROLL | Width, in pixels, of a vertical scroll bar; and height, in pixels, of the arrow bitmap on a vertical scroll bar. | |
| SM_CYCAPTION | Height, in pixels, of a normal caption area. | |
| SM_CYKANJIWINDOW | For double-byte character set versions of the system, this is the height, in pixels, of the Kanji window at the bottom of the screen. | |
| SM_CYMENU | Height, in pixels, of a single-line menu bar. | |
| SM_CYSMCAPTION | Height, in pixels, of a small caption. | |
| SM_CYVTHUMB | Height, in pixels, of the thumb box in a vertical scroll bar. | |
| SM_DBCSENABLED | TRUE or nonzero if the double-byte character set (DBCS) version of USER.EXE is installed; FALSE or zero otherwise. | |
| SM_DEBUG | TRUE or nonzero if the debugging version of USER.EXE is installed; FALSE or zero otherwise. | |
| SM_MENUDROPALIGNMENT | TRUE or nonzero if drop-down menus are right-aligned with the corresponding menu-bar item; FALSE or zero if the menus are left-aligned. | |
| SM_MIDEASTENABLED | TRUE if the system is enabled for Hebrew and Arabic languages. | |
| SM_MOUSEPRESENT | TRUE or nonzero if a mouse is installed; FALSE or zero otherwise. | |
| SM_MOUSEWHEELPRESENT | Windows NT 4.0 and later, Windows 98: TRUE or nonzero if a mouse with a wheel is installed; FALSE or zero otherwise. | |
| SM_NETWORK | The least significant bit is set if a network is present; otherwise, it is cleared. The other bits are reserved for future use. | |
| SM_PENWINDOWS | TRUE or nonzero if the Microsoft Windows for Pen computing extensions are installed; FALSE or zero otherwise. | |
| SM_SECURE | TRUE if security is present; FALSE otherwise. | |
| SM_SAMEDISPLAYFORMAT | Windows NT 5.0 and later; Windows 98 and later: TRUE if all the display monitors have the same color format, FALSE otherwise. Note that two displays can have the same bit depth, but different color formats. For example, the red, green, and blue pixels can be encoded with different numbers of bits, or those bits can be located in different places in a pixel’s color value. | |
| SM_SHOWSOUNDS | TRUE or nonzero if the user requires an application to present information visually in situations where it would otherwise present the information only in audible form; FALSE, or zero, otherwise. | |
| SM_SLOWMACHINE | TRUE if the computer has a low-end (slow) processor; FALSE otherwise. | |
| SM_SWAPBUTTON | TRUE or nonzero if the meanings of the left and right mouse buttons are swapped; FALSE or zero otherwise. | |
| SM_XVIRTUALSCREEN, SM_YVIRTUALSCREEN | Windows NT 5.0 and later; Windows 98 and later: Coordinates for the left side and the top of the virtual screen. The virtual screen is the bounding rectangle of all display monitors. The SM_CXVIRTUALSCREEN, SM_CYVIRTUALSCREEN metrics are the width and height of the virtual screen. | |
Return Values
The requested system metric or configuration setting indicates success. Zero indicates failure. The GetLastError function does not provide extended error information.
Windows CE Remarks
Windows CE does not support the following nIndex values:
| SM_ARRANGE | SM_CXMINIMIZED |
| SM_CLEANBOOT | SM_CYMINIMIZED |
| SM_CMETRICS | SM_CXMINSPACING |
| SM_CMOUSEBUTTONS | SM_CYMINSPACING |
| SM_CXCURSOR | SM_CXMINTRACK |
| SM_CYCURSOR | SM_CYMINTRACK |
| SM_CXDRAG | SM_CXSIZE |
| SM_CYDRAG | SM_CYSIZE |
| SM_CXFRAME | SM_CXSIZEFRAME |
| SM_CYFRAME | SM_CYSIZEFRAME |
| SM_CXFULLSCREEN | SM_CXSMSIZE |
| SM_CYFULLSCREEN | SM_CYSMSIZE |
| SM_CXHTHUMB | SM_CYSMCAPTION |
| SM_CYKANJIWINDOW | SM_CYVTHUMB |
| SM_CXMAXIMIZED | SM_DBCSENABLED |
| SM_CYMAXIMIZED | SM_MENUDROPALIGNMENT |
| SM_CXMAXTRACK | SM_MIDEASTENABLED |
| SM_CYMAXTRACK | SM_NETWORK |
| SM_CXMENUCHECK | SM_PENWINDOWS |
| SM_CYMENUCHECK | SM_SECURE |
| SM_CXMENUSIZE | SM_SHOWSOUNDS |
| SM_CYMENUSIZE | SM_SLOWMACHINE |
| SM_CXMIN | SM_SWAPBUTTON |
| SM_CYMIN |
If the Windows CE–based device you are targeting supports a mouse cursor, you can use the SM_CXCURSOR or SM_CYCURSOR values in the nIndex parameter.
Windows CE versions that support mouse cursors include the Iconcurs and Mcursor components rather than the Icon and Cursor components.
When working with RAPI for Windows CE versions 1.0 and 1.01, use the PegGetSystemMetrics function.
Remarks
System metrics may vary from display to display.
The SM_ARRANGE setting specifies how the system arranges minimized windows, and consists of a starting position and a direction. The starting position can be one of the following values.
| Value | Description |
| ARW_BOTTOMLEFT | Start at the lower-left corner of the screen (default position). |
| ARW_BOTTOMRIGHT | Start at the lower-right corner of the screen. Equivalent to ARW_STARTRIGHT. |
| ARW_HIDE | Hide minimized windows by moving them off the visible area of the screen. |
| ARW_TOPLEFT | Start at the upper-left corner of the screen. Equivalent to ARV_STARTTOP. |
| ARW_TOPRIGHT | Start at the upper-right corner of the screen. Equivalent to ARW_STARTTOP | SRW_STARTRIGHT. |
The direction in which to arrange can be one of the following values.
| Value | Description |
| ARW_DOWN | Arrange vertically, top to bottom. |
| ARW_LEFT | Arrange horizontally, left to right. |
| ARW_RIGHT | Arrange horizontally, right to left. |
| ARW_UP | Arrange vertically, bottom to top. |