Opening a Window Using Its Name

Question

From my MainWindow I am trying to open another window knowing only its name. In my MainWindow ViewModel, I have:

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (lpClassName As String, lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function ShowWindow Lib "user32" (HWND As Long, ncmdShow As Long) As Boolean

Private ReadOnly Property _OpenWindow As New RelayCommand(Of Object)(AddressOf DoOpenWindow)
Public ReadOnly Property OpenWindow As RelayCommand(Of Object)
	Get
		Return _OpenWindow
	End Get
End Property
Private Sub DoOpenWindow(obj As Object)
	Dim WinName As String = CStr(obj)
	Dim XhWnd As Long = FindWindow(WinName, WinName)
	Debug.WriteLine(XhWnd)
	Dim x As Boolean = ShowWindow(XhWnd, 5)
	Debug.WriteLine(x)
End Sub

For testing purposes the Class, Name and Title of the window to be opened are all set to "NewWindow". The first Debug statement returns 0 so the function FindWindow is not working. Where is the error?

Additional questions:

1. Since this is a 64 bit application, is the use of 32 bit functions an issue?
2. More broadly, is there a better way to do this? I have been unable to find one.

Answer 1

This is a sample of opening a window by specifying its class name.

Imports System.Reflection

Private Sub DoOpenWindow(className As String)
    For Each type In Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetTypes()
        If type.IsSubclassOf(GetType(Window)) AndAlso type.Name = className Then
            Dim window = CType(Activator.CreateInstance(type), Window)
            window.Show()
            Exit For
        End If
    Next
End Sub