Delphi in a Nutshell

Name

MainInstance Variable

Syntax

var MainInstance: LongWord;

Description

The MainInstance variable stores the instance handle of the main program (.exe file).

Tips and Tricks

• Any unit in a package can refer to MainInstance to obtain the handle of the main application. Even packages loaded into separate DLLs can use MainInstance.

• A library that does not use the vcl50 package, however, cannot use MainInstance, which is zero in this case.

Example

// The MAINICON resource is stored in the project's resource file,
// which is in the main module. To load the icon resource, you
// must use the main module's instance handle. This function
// loads the MAINICON resource and returns its handle.
function LoadMainIcon: HICON;
begin
  Result := LoadIcon(MainInstance, 'MAINICON');
end;

See Also

FindClassHInstance Function, FindHInstance Function, HInstance Variable, ModuleIsLib Variable, ModuleIsPackage Variable