Attribute VB_Name = "Q103644"

' Differences Between hInstance on Win 3.1 and Windows NT

'
' PSS ID Number: Q103644
' -------------------------------------------------------------------------
' The information in this article applies to:
'
' - Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with:
'
' - Microsoft Windows NT versions 3.5 and 3.51
' - Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.0
' -------------------------------------------------------------------------
'
' SUMMARY
' =======
'
' In Microsoft Windows version 3.1, an instance handle can be used to
' uniquely identify the instance of an application because instance handles
' are unique within the scope of an address space. Because each instance of
' an application runs in its own address space on Windows NT, instance
' handles cannot be used to uniquely identify an instance of an application
' running on the system. This article explains why, and some alternative
' calls that might assist in uniquely identifying an application instance on
' Windows NT.
'
' MORE Information
' ================
'
' Although the concepts for an instance handle are similar on Windows NT and
' Windows 3.1, the results you see regarding them might be very different
' from what you expect.
'
' With Windows 3.1, when you start several instances of the same application,
' they all share the same address space. You have multiple instances of the
' same code segment; however, each of these instances has a unique data
' segment associated with it. Using an instance handle (hInstance) is a way
' to uniquely identify these different instances and data segments in the
' address space.
'
' Instance handles are unique to the address space. On Windows NT, when
' looking at the value of the instance handle, or the value returned from
' GetWindowLong(hWnd, GWL_HINSTANCE), a developer coming from a Windows 3.1
' background might be surprised to see that most of the windows on the
' desktop return the same value. This is because the return value is the
' hInstance for the instance of the application, which is running it its own
' address space. (An interesting side note: The hInstance value is the base
' address where the application's module was able to load; either the default
' address or the fixed up address.)
'
' On Windows NT, running several instances of the same application causes the
' instances to start and run in their own separate address space. To
' emphasize the difference: multiple instances of the same application on
' Windows 3.1 run in the same address space; in Windows NT, each instance has
' its own, separate address space. Using an instance handle to uniquely
' identify an application instance, as is possible on Windows 3.1, does not
' apply in Windows NT. (Another interesting side note: Remember that even if
' there are multiple instances of an application, if they are able to load at
' their default virtual address spaces, the virtual address pages of the
' different applications ' executable code will map to the same physical
' memory pages.)
'
' In Windows NT, instance handles are not unique in the global scope of the
' system; however, window handles, thread IDs, and process IDs are. Here are
' some calls that may assist in alternative methods to uniquely identify
' instance of applications on Windows NT:
'
' - GetWindowThreadProcessID() retrieves the identifier of the thread
' that created the given window and, optionally, the identifier of
' the process that created the window.
'
' - OpenProcess() returns a handle to a process specified by a process
' ID.
'
' - GetCurrentProcessID() returns the calling process's ID.
'
' - EnumThreadWindows() returns all of the windows associated with a
' thread.
'
' - The FindWindow() function retrieves the handle of the top-level
' window specified by class name and window name.
'
' - To enumerate all of the processes on the system, you can query the
' Registry using RegQueryValueEx() with key HKEY_PERFORMANCE_DATA,
' and the Registry database index associated with the database string
' "Process".
'
' For further details on using these calls, please see the Win32 SDK help
' file.
'
' Additional reference words: 3.10 3.50 3.51 4.00 95
' KBCategory: kbui
' KBSubcategory: UsrMisc