FIX: ActiveForm Returns Wrong Form (174212)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation Edition for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Learning Edition for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Professional Edition for Windows 5.0
  • Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise Edition for Windows 5.0
This article was previously published under Q174212

SYMPTOMS

When the ActiveForm property of the Screen object is queried, the wrong form is returned as the active form. This behavior occurs after setting the enabled property of a Command button on another form to False. The second form is listed as the active form, when the form with the calling code is actually the active form.

RESOLUTION

To work around this problem, insert the following line of code immediately after the code that sets the enabled property of the button: 
   Me.SetFocus

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 Basic 6.0.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior occurs only the first time the enabled property of the button is set to False. During subsequent attempts or if the button's enabled property is initially False, the problem does not occur.

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

  1. Create a new "Standard EXE" project in Visual Basic 5.0.
  2. Add an MDI form to the project.
  3. Add a standard form to the project.
  4. Set the MDI Child property of Form1 and Form2 to True.
  5. Place a Command button on Form1. Set its caption to "Disable."
  6. Insert the following code into the Click event of this button: 
          Form2.Command1.Enabled = False
      'Me.SetFocus         'Uncomment to Workaround this Problem
      MsgBox Screen.ActiveForm.Name
  7. Add a second Command button to Form1. Set its caption to "Enable."
  8. Insert the following code into the Click event of this button: 
          Form2.Command1.Enabled = True
  9. Add a Command button to Form2.
  10. Add the following code to the Load event of the MDI form: 
          Form1.Show
      Form2.Show
      MDIForm1.Arrange 1
  11. Run the project, and then click the button labeled "Disable." Note that the message box displays "Form2" when the active form is actually Form1.
  12. Click the button labeled "Enable," and then click the button labeled "Disable" one more time. Note that this time, "Form1" is now correctly returned as the active form.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:12/10/2003
Keywords:kbbug kbfix KB174212
©2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.