MONITORINFO

MONITORINFO is a data structure used in the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is part of the Win32 API and is employed to retrieve information about a display monitor. The structure contains details about the monitor's geometry, including its bounding rectangle and the area available for displaying windows.

The MONITORINFO structure is typically used in conjunction with functions like GetMonitorInfo, which takes a handle to a monitor and a pointer to a MONITORINFO structure as arguments. Upon successful execution, GetMonitorInfo populates the MONITORINFO structure with the relevant data. This information is crucial for applications that need to adapt their display or window placement to the user's screen configuration.

Specifically, MONITORINFO includes a member called rcMonitor, which defines the entire rectangle of the monitor, including the taskbar if it is displayed. Another member, rcWork, defines the portion of the monitor that is usable for displaying windows, excluding areas occupied by system elements like the taskbar or docked toolbars. The structure also contains a dwFlags member, which can indicate if the monitor is the primary display device. Understanding and utilizing MONITORINFO allows developers to create more robust and user-friendly applications that correctly interact with the available screen space across different monitor setups.