For UI elements in other frameworks, such as the web, or UWP, or Qt, there might be other rules. It just so happens that the native Windows controls allow to use the “&” character for an accelerator shortcut. Well, there’s no “&” character in your screenshot. That’s why the GetWindowText tool can’t grab text from many places, such as the taskbar, the browser, and modern apps such as Windows Calculator. Right, that’s because both Microsoft Inspect and Textify use the UI Automation API, while GetWindowText uses the native API. I used Microsoft Inspect and it indeed cannot see the “&” character, but this program, GetWindowText, can extract the “&” character Textify extracts the text as ‘SHOW COMMANDS CONTAINING:’ minus the “&” character.īTW, The above is from the super useful search tool called Everything.

I am asking about extracting the full text, including the “&” character from text that is embedded in a program, like this: Textify can capture the “&” character if it is separated from a word, that is, if there is at least 1 space between the “&” character and another letter/word.

I also think there is some confusion about what I was asking for, and what “Ted” was asking for in his post:

Hello again! I took a look at the page you asked me to view, and I used Microsoft Inspect Object v7.2, and it indeed cannot see the “&” character, but this program, GetWindowText, can extract the “&” character from words.