Get the (resource) ID from hWnd

Question

In ResourceHacker, when you open an executable (windows), you can see identifiers associated with dialogs. Does anyone have an idea from where they come? I mean, how can I d

Answer 1

The GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_ID) returns the identifier of a control in a dialog, but it cannot be used for the dialog itself, because dialogs simply don't have identifiers.

The identifiers associated with dialogs are actually used to refer to the resource blob itself, not to the window. They are used to create the dialog (see CreateDialog().

Once the dialog is created there is no connection to the original template or to that identifier. Actually there is no use for that ID, the dialog is simply identified by its HWND. Note that you can create several different dialog using the same dialog resource.

These identifiers are assigned (usually) sequentially by the resource editor, or manually if you create the resources by hand.

For more insight on the topic you can read about the CreateDialogIndirect() function, that creates a dialog without using a resouce.