The correct way of getting the parent window

Question

The MSDN says the following about the GetParent function:

To obtain the parent window and not the owner, instead of using GetParent, use GetAncestor with the GA_PARENT flag.

But when calling GetAncestor(hWnd, GA_PARENT); for a window that doesn't have a parent, it returns the desktop window, while GetParent returns NULL.

So what is the correct way of getting a parent (and not the owner), and getting NULL if there are none?

Of course I could check whether GetAncestor returns the desktop window, but that seems like a hack to me.

Answer 1

Updated in the year 2020 considering the latest Win32 documentation:

HWND GetRealParent(HWND hWnd)
{
    HWND hWndOwner;

    // To obtain a window's owner window, instead of using GetParent,
    // use GetWindow with the GW_OWNER flag.

    if (NULL != (hWndOwner = GetWindow(hWnd, GW_OWNER)))
        return hWndOwner;

    // Obtain the parent window and not the owner
    return GetAncestor(hWnd, GA_PARENT);
}

Answer 2

Here's what I came up with:

//
// Returns the real parent window
// Same as GetParent(), but doesn't return the owner
//
HWND GetRealParent(HWND hWnd)
{
    HWND hParent;

    hParent = GetAncestor(hWnd, GA_PARENT);
    if(!hParent || hParent == GetDesktopWindow())
        return NULL;

    return hParent;
}