I’m trying to find out if Vista provides a built-in method to check if the desktop is running in full screen mode. For instance, I want to know if the system can tell when a movie or a presentation is being viewed in full screen. I remember coming across something like an IsFullScreenInteractive function before, but I haven’t been able to locate it now. Has anyone seen any similar functionality or workarounds?
Considering my experience with Vista’s API capabilities, I ran into similar challenges when trying to programmatically detect full screen mode. The operating system does not provide a dedicated function to reliably identify when an application is in full screen. I had to resort to examining window properties directly and tracking window messages that indicate style changes. While this workaround offers a degree of success, it is by no means foolproof because full screen behavior varies significantly among applications. Overall, careful use of window styles and periodic monitoring were necessary to approximate full screen detection.
Having worked extensively with the Vista API, I discovered that there is no straightforward or built-in method to determine if the desktop is in full screen mode. Instead, I found that one must monitor window messages and inspect the window style properties to estimate when an application covers the screen completely. This indirect method is not entirely reliable as it depends on how different applications implement full screen functionality. In my experience, achieving acceptable results required careful tuning of repeated checks and handling variations in application behavior.