EnableMenuItem function (winuser.h)

Article
10/13/2021

Enables, disables, or grays the specified menu item.

Syntax

BOOL EnableMenuItem(
  [in] HMENU hMenu,
  [in] UINT  uIDEnableItem,
  [in] UINT  uEnable
);

Parameters

[in] hMenu

Type: HMENU

A handle to the menu.

[in] uIDEnableItem

Type: UINT

The menu item to be enabled, disabled, or grayed, as determined by the uEnable parameter. This parameter specifies an item in a menu bar, menu, or submenu.

[in] uEnable

Type: UINT

Controls the interpretation of the uIDEnableItem parameter and indicate whether the menu item is enabled, disabled, or grayed. This parameter must be a combination of the following values.

Value	Meaning
MF_BYCOMMAND 0x00000000L	Indicates that uIDEnableItem gives the identifier of the menu item. If neither the MF_BYCOMMAND nor MF_BYPOSITION flag is specified, the MF_BYCOMMAND flag is the default flag.
MF_BYPOSITION 0x00000400L	Indicates that uIDEnableItem gives the zero-based relative position of the menu item.
MF_DISABLED 0x00000002L	Indicates that the menu item is disabled, but not grayed, so it cannot be selected.
MF_ENABLED 0x00000000L	Indicates that the menu item is enabled and restored from a grayed state so that it can be selected.
MF_GRAYED 0x00000001L	Indicates that the menu item is disabled and grayed so that it cannot be selected.

Return value

Type: BOOL

The return value specifies the previous state of the menu item (it is either MF_DISABLED, MF_ENABLED, or MF_GRAYED). If the menu item does not exist, the return value is -1.

Remarks

An application must use the MF_BYPOSITION flag to specify the correct menu handle. If the menu handle to the menu bar is specified, the top-level menu item (an item in the menu bar) is affected. To set the state of an item in a drop-down menu or submenu by position, an application must specify a handle to the drop-down menu or submenu.

When an application specifies the MF_BYCOMMAND flag, the system checks all items that open submenus in the menu identified by the specified menu handle. Therefore, unless duplicate menu items are present, specifying the menu handle to the menu bar is sufficient.

The InsertMenu, InsertMenuItem, LoadMenuIndirect, ModifyMenu, and SetMenuItemInfo functions can also set the state (enabled, disabled, or grayed) of a menu item.

When you change a window menu, the menu bar is not immediately updated. To force the update, call DrawMenuBar.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Windows 2000 Professional [desktop apps only]
Minimum supported server	Windows 2000 Server [desktop apps only]
Target Platform	Windows
Header	winuser.h (include Windows.h)
Library	User32.lib
DLL	User32.dll
API set	ext-ms-win-ntuser-menu-l1-1-0 (introduced in Windows 8)