Close windows in reverse order of creation - autoit

Question

I have a program with a main window and multiple other windows and want to use autoit to close these windows. The main window however refuses to close if other windows of the program are open and creates a warning message.
To avoid this, I want to close the other windows first.
Because of the way the program is written, the windows are NOT in a parent-child relationship, so I cannot use "EnumChildWindows" in "user32.dll".
So my other option would be to obtain the order or time the windows were created at, and close them in reversed order. Is there any way to do this?

Answer 1

You can try to get it by the process. The function below will return the z-order of the windows, as far as I know, without you tracking the "creation time" of the windows themselves from within your own code, you won't get a solution that can do that.
#include <WinAPIProc.au3>
#include <WinAPISys.au3>
#region - Example
Global $gahWnd[3]
For $i = 0 To 2
$gahWnd[$i] = GUICreate("Example " & $i)
GUISetState(#SW_SHOW, $gahWnd[$i])
Next
Global $gaExample = _WinGetByProc(#AutoItPID)
If #error Then Exit 2
Sleep(3000) ; so you can at least see the windows were created
; windows are returned in the "last z-order"
; so they'll be returned "Example 2, Example 1, Example 0"
; This makes it easy to close all but the first one
; use -1 to keep the first window created
For $i = 1 To $gaExample[0] - 1
ConsoleWrite("Closing: " & $gaExample[$i] & ":" & WinGetTitle($gaExample[$i]) & #CRLF)
WinClose($gaExample[$i])
Next
Global $gaMsg
While 1
$gaMsg = GUIGetMsg(1)
Switch $gaMsg[1]
Case $gahWnd[0]
Switch $gaMsg[0]
Case -3
Exit
EndSwitch
Case $gahWnd[1]
Switch $gaMsg[0]
Case -3
GUIDelete($gahWnd[1])
EndSwitch
Case $gahWnd[2]
Switch $gaMsg[0]
Case -3
GUIDelete($gahWnd[2])
EndSwitch
EndSwitch
WEnd
#EndRegion - Example
; pass the exe or the process id
Func _WinGetByProc($vExe)
; will return pid if exe name sent or validate if pid is sent
Local $iPID = ProcessExists($vExe)
If Not ProcessExists($iPID) Then
Return SetError(1, 0, 0)
EndIf
; enum desktop window only (top-level-windows)
Local $ahWnds = _WinAPI_EnumDesktopWindows(_WinAPI_GetThreadDesktop( _
_WinAPI_GetCurrentThreadId()))
If #error Or Not IsArray($ahWnds) Then
Return SetError(2, 0, 0)
EndIf
Local $aExeContainer[11], $iDim
For $iwnd = 1 To $ahWnds[0][0]
; compare windows pid with our pid
If (WinGetProcess(HWnd($ahWnds[$iwnd][0])) = $iPID) Then
$iDim += 1
; sanity check, be sure the array has the right number of indexes
If (Mod($iDim, 10) = 0) Then
ReDim $aExeContainer[$iDim + 10]
EndIf
$aExeContainer[$iDim] = HWnd($ahWnds[$iwnd][0])
EndIf
Next
; if there were no matches return
If Not $iDim Then
Return SetError(3, 0, 0)
EndIf
; trim array and set number found in the zero index
ReDim $aExeContainer[$iDim + 1]
$aExeContainer[0] = $iDim
Return $aExeContainer
EndFunc