Blinking Carets shown in multiple authentication windows.

Question

Hi,
My application pops up an authentication window (with username and password field) when the system comes out of sleep. Sometimes, the caret is displayed even if the pop-up window is inactive (ie not in focus) and when I type on the keyboard, characters go
to a different window (like IM). This may result in user typing his password in IM unknowingly (ofcourse if he is not  paying attention)
I have also observed this when a network-share authentication window pops up. Example, when I am searching the "start" menu, a network-share authentication window pops up and the caret is displayed in the search-bar and also the popup window. The
problem is not specific to my application.
As far as I know, only one caret should be displayed (i.e only by the active window with focus). Is this a bug in windows?
Regards,
Kunal

Answer 1

Hi Kunal,
As per the documentation of CreateCaret(), windows provides one caret for one windows message queue. It's the applications responsibility to show the caret only when its window is active or in focus. Please see the below link:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms648399(v=vs.85).aspx
In your case, you should check if your window has focus or is active. A combination of GetFocus() and GetActiveWindow() should do the trick.
Hope that helps.
(Please mark as answer if it resolves your query. Please upvote if this post is helpful.)
Regards,
Rajesh