Cannot for the life of me get win32 tooltips working

[Sfpiano]

void CreateToolTipForRect(HWND hwndParent)
{
	INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX ic;
 ic.dwSize = sizeof(INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX);
 ic.dwICC = ICC_TAB_CLASSES;
 InitCommonControlsEx(&ic);

    // Create a ToolTip.
    HWND hwndTT = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_TOPMOST,
        TOOLTIPS_CLASS, NULL,
        WS_POPUP | TTS_NOPREFIX | TTS_ALWAYSTIP,		
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        hwndParent, NULL, hInst,NULL);

    SetWindowPos(hwndTT, HWND_TOPMOST,
        0, 0, 0, 0,
        SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);

    // Set up "tool" information.
    // In this case, the "tool" is the entire parent window.
    TOOLINFO ti = { 0 };
    ti.cbSize = sizeof(TOOLINFO);
    ti.uFlags = TTF_SUBCLASS;
    ti.hwnd = hwndParent;
    ti.hinst = hInst;
    ti.lpszText = TEXT("This is your ToolTip string.");;
    GetClientRect (hwndParent, &ti.rect);

    // Associate the ToolTip with the "tool" window.
    SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ADDTOOL, 0, (LPARAM) (LPTOOLINFO) &ti);	
	SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ACTIVATE, true, NULL);
}

That function is directly from msdn. I pass it my main hwnd after I create the main window. Yet no tooltips ever appear. I feel like there's some message I'm not handling/sending but I haven't been able to figure out what.

[BobS0327]

#pragma comment(lib, "user32.lib")
#pragma comment(lib, "comctl32.lib")

#include <windows.h>
#include <commctrl.h>

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);
void CreateToolTipForRect(HWND hwndParent);

HINSTANCE hInst;

int WINAPI WinMain( HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
			LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow )
{
  MSG  msg ;    
  WNDCLASS wc = {0};
  wc.lpszClassName = "Tooltip" ;
  wc.hInstance     = hInstance ;
  wc.hbrBackground = GetSysColorBrush(COLOR_3DFACE);
  wc.lpfnWndProc   = WndProc ;
  wc.hCursor       = LoadCursor(0, IDC_ARROW);

  hInst = hInstance;
  
  RegisterClass(&wc);
  CreateWindow( wc.lpszClassName, "Tooltip",
                WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW | WS_VISIBLE,
                100, 100, 200, 150, 0, 0, hInstance, 0);  

  while( GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0)) {
    TranslateMessage(&msg);
    DispatchMessage(&msg);
  }
  return (int) msg.wParam;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc( HWND hwnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam )
{
  switch(msg)  
  {
    case WM_CREATE:
	     CreateToolTipForRect(hwnd);
        break;
    case WM_DESTROY:
        PostQuitMessage(0);
        break;
  }
  return DefWindowProc(hwnd, msg, wParam, lParam);
}

void CreateToolTipForRect(HWND hwndParent)
{
	INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX ic;
 ic.dwSize = sizeof(INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX);
 ic.dwICC = ICC_TAB_CLASSES;
 InitCommonControlsEx(&ic);
    // Create a ToolTip.
    HWND hwndTT = CreateWindowEx(WS_EX_TOPMOST,
        TOOLTIPS_CLASS, NULL,
        WS_POPUP | TTS_NOPREFIX | TTS_ALWAYSTIP,		
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
        hwndParent, NULL, hInst,NULL);
    SetWindowPos(hwndTT, HWND_TOPMOST,
        0, 0, 0, 0,
        SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE | SWP_NOACTIVATE);
    // Set up "tool" information.
    // In this case, the "tool" is the entire parent window.
    TOOLINFO ti = { 0 };
    ti.cbSize = sizeof(TOOLINFO);
    ti.uFlags = TTF_SUBCLASS;
    ti.hwnd = hwndParent;
    ti.hinst = hInst;
    ti.lpszText = TEXT("This is your ToolTip string.");;
    GetClientRect (hwndParent, &ti.rect);
    // Associate the ToolTip with the "tool" window.
    SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ADDTOOL, 0, (LPARAM) (LPTOOLINFO) &ti);	
	SendMessage(hwndTT, TTM_ACTIVATE, true, NULL);
}

[Sfpiano]

Still no tooltip.

[novacain]

Shouldn't the hInst be NULL?

I think if the hInst is valid, the lpszText member is used as a resource ID (for a string in the exe).

Check the returns.

[Elysia]

Tooltips can be tricky. But there are 3rd party implementations that can take care of that.
But you failed to mention if you're writing C or C++?
I know of one particular implementation I use, but it's C++.

[Viper187]

I'd be interested to know how to get them working properly in C/API. I know I tried and failed a while back working from the MSDN example.

[idelovski]

I think there are two kinds of tooltips. One are connected to other controls and others are related to arbitrary rectangles. If I remember correctly, I quickly gave up when I tried these second type tooltips, so now I use only tooltips attached to other controls.

Anyway, Raymond Chen had several articles about quirks with tooltips. They should help you:
- Coding in-place tooltips
- Using custom-draw in tooltips to adjust the font
- Multiplexing multiple tools into one in a tooltip
- Generating tooltip text dynamically
- Why can't I display a tooltip for a disabled window?

[Alex31]

I'd be interested to know how to get them working properly in C/API. I know I tried and failed a while back working from the MSDN example.

Tooltips work obviously fine in C & Win32 api.
All C PSDK samples work perfectly, even those which are 13 years old..
Their source code in comctl32.dll is in pure C code in v5 and in C++ in v6.