IGraphicsCaptureItemInterop::CreateForMonitor fails on Windows 11 build 26100 update .7623 but works on .3775

Question

IGraphicsCaptureItemInterop::CreateForMonitor fails on Windows 11 build 26100 update .7623 but works on .3775

Cohen, Benny [BWIIL] 0

I have a Win32 app using Windows.Graphics.Capture to capture both monitors and individual windows. On my dev machine (Windows 11 build 26100 update .3775) everything works fine, but on the target machine (Windows 11 build 26100 update .7623) calls to IGraphicsCaptureItemInterop::CreateForMonitor fail.

Observed behavior:

Dev: CreateForMonitor succeeds and returns valid GraphicsCaptureItem.

Target: CreateForMonitor returns E_INVALIDARG.

Questions:

Were there any changes to CreateForMonitor between build .3775 and build .7623 that might require different permissions or handling?

Can GraphicsCaptureItem.TryCreateFromDisplayId(DisplayId) be used instead of CreateForMonitor together with Microsoft.UI.Interop::GetDisplayIdFromMonitor in a regular Win32 .exe (non-UWP) application?

Michael Le (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 11,085 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-03T09:26:31.86+00:00

Hello @Cohen, Benny [BWIIL] ,

It's been a while since we last heard from you. Hope things are going well.

If you're still interested or have any questions, feel free to reach out whenever it works best for you.

1 answer

Your answer

Michael Le (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 11,085 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-03T09:26:31.86+00:00

Hello @Cohen, Benny [BWIIL] ,

It's been a while since we last heard from you. Hope things are going well.

If you're still interested or have any questions, feel free to reach out whenever it works best for you.

Answer 1

Jack Dang (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 15,205 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Cohen, Benny [BWIIL],

Thanks for reaching out.

There are no publicly documented breaking changes to IGraphicsCaptureItemInterop::CreateForMonitor between build 26100.3775 and .7623. However, since CreateForMonitor relies on a raw HMONITOR, stricter validation in newer builds could potentially result in E_INVALIDARG if the handle is considered invalid or not aligned with the current display topology.

As a supported alternative, you can use the ID-based approach with GraphicsCaptureItem.TryCreateFromDisplayId(DisplayId) (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/uwp/api/windows.graphics.capture.graphicscaptureitem.trycreatefromdisplayid?view=winrt-26100) together with Microsoft.UI.Interop::GetDisplayIdFromMonitor (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-app-sdk/api/win32/microsoft.ui.interop/nf-microsoft-ui-interop-getdisplayidfrommonitor), or the .NET wrapper Microsoft.UI.Win32Interop.GetDisplayIdFromMonitor (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/apps/api-reference/cs-interop-apis/microsoft.ui/microsoft.ui.win32interop). These APIs are officially documented and supported for Win32 applications.

While the documentation does not state that this replaces CreateForMonitor, using DisplayId avoids relying directly on HMONITOR and aligns with the newer display identification model.

Hope this helps! If my answer was helpful - kindly follow the instructions here so others with the same problem can benefit as well.

Alex Chashka 20 Reputation points

2026-02-17T06:24:17.0333333+00:00

Hi @Jack Dang (WICLOUD CORPORATION)
It is unclear from the documentation only how one is supposed to use Microsoft.UI.Interop::GetDisplayIdFromMonitor along with GraphicsCaptureItem.TryCreateFromDisplayId(DisplayId), at least not without ugly manual type wrapping, because (if not anything else) of the namespace mismatch for DisplayID. Microsoft.UI.Interop as a whole doesn't seem to work naturally with regular executables.

Could you please point us to a minimal example of a regular executable (not packaged etc.) that uses the above calls?

Alex Chashka 20

We also used this short test app:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
#include <iomanip>
#include <vector>
#include <winrt/Windows.Foundation.h>
#include <winrt/Windows.Graphics.Capture.h>
#include <winrt/Windows.Graphics.h>
#include <windows.graphics.capture.interop.h>
using namespace winrt;
using namespace Windows::Graphics::Capture;
using namespace Windows::Graphics;
std::vector<HMONITOR> g_monitors;
BOOL CALLBACK MonitorEnumProc(HMONITOR hMonitor, HDC, LPRECT lprcMonitor, LPARAM)
{
    g_monitors.push_back(hMonitor);
    MONITORINFOEX info = {};
    info.cbSize = sizeof(info);
    if (GetMonitorInfo(hMonitor, &info))
    {
        std::wcout << L"Found Monitor: " << info.szDevice
            << L" (" << (lprcMonitor->right - lprcMonitor->left)
            << L"x" << (lprcMonitor->bottom - lprcMonitor->top)
            << L")" << std::endl;
    }
    return TRUE;
}
bool TestCreateCaptureItemForMonitor(HMONITOR hMonitor)
{
    try
    {
        auto activation_factory = winrt::get_activation_factory<GraphicsCaptureItem>();
        auto interop_factory = activation_factory.as<IGraphicsCaptureItemInterop>();
        winrt::com_ptr<ABI::Windows::Graphics::Capture::IGraphicsCaptureItem> itemInterop;
        HRESULT hr = interop_factory->CreateForMonitor(
            hMonitor,
            winrt::guid_of<ABI::Windows::Graphics::Capture::IGraphicsCaptureItem>(),
            itemInterop.put_void()
        );
        std::wcout << L"  CreateForMonitor returned: 0x"
            << std::hex << std::setw(8) << std::setfill(L'0') << hr << std::dec << std::endl;
        if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
        {
            std::wcout << L"  [SUCCESS]" << std::endl;
            
            if (itemInterop)
            {
                GraphicsCaptureItem item = nullptr;
                winrt::copy_from_abi(item, itemInterop.get());
                
                if (item)
                {
                    auto size = item.Size();
                    std::wcout << L"    Size: " << size.Width << L"x" << size.Height << std::endl;
                }
            }
            return true;
        }
        else
        {
            if (hr == E_INVALIDARG) std::wcout << L"    Error: E_INVALIDARG" << std::endl;
            else if (hr == E_ACCESSDENIED) std::wcout << L"    Error: E_ACCESSDENIED" << std::endl;
            else std::wcout << L"    Error: HRESULT 0x" 
                << std::hex << std::setw(8) << std::setfill(L'0') << hr << std::dec << std::endl;
            return false;
        }
    }
    catch (const winrt::hresult_error& ex)
    {
        std::wcout << L"  [EXCEPTION] " << ex.message().c_str()
            << L" (0x" << std::hex << static_cast<uint32_t>(ex.code()) << std::dec << L")" << std::endl;
        return false;
    }
}
int main()
{
    std::wcout << L"Monitor Capture Test Application" << std::endl;
    std::wcout << L"=================================" << std::endl;
    try
    {
        winrt::init_apartment(winrt::apartment_type::single_threaded);
        std::wcout << L"\n--- GDI Monitor Enumeration  ---" << std::endl;
        g_monitors.clear();
        EnumDisplayMonitors(nullptr, nullptr, MonitorEnumProc, 0);
        std::wcout << L"Found " << g_monitors.size() << L" monitor(s)\n" << std::endl;
        for (size_t i = 0; i < g_monitors.size(); i++)
        {
            std::wcout << L"Testing Monitor #" << (i + 1)
                << L" HMONITOR=" << g_monitors[i] << std::endl;
            
            std::wcout << L"\nMethod 1: CreateForMonitor" << std::endl;
            TestCreateCaptureItemForMonitor(g_monitors[i]);
            std::wcout << std::endl;
        }
        winrt::uninit_apartment();
    }
    catch (const winrt::hresult_error& ex)
    {
        std::wcout << L"Fatal winrt::hresult_error: "
            << ex.message().c_str()
            << L" (0x" << std::hex << static_cast<uint32_t>(ex.code()) << std::dec << L")" << std::endl;
    }
    catch (const std::exception& ex)
    {
        std::wcout << L"Fatal std::exception: " << ex.what() << std::endl;
    }
    std::wcout << L"\nPress Enter to exit..." << std::endl;
    std::cin.get();
}

on dev it yields:

Monitor Capture Test Application
=================================
--- GDI Monitor Enumeration  ---
Found Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1 (1920x1200)
Found Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY2 (1920x1200)
Found 2 monitor(s)
Testing Monitor #1 HMONITOR=0000000000020001
Method 1: CreateForMonitor
  CreateForMonitor returned: 0x00000000
  [SUCCESS]
    Size: 1920x1200
Testing Monitor #2 HMONITOR=000000000001006D
Method 1: CreateForMonitor
  CreateForMonitor returned: 0x00000000
  [SUCCESS]
    Size: 1920x1200
Press Enter to exit...

and on target:

Monitor Capture Test Application
=================================
--- GDI Monitor Enumeration  ---
Found Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY1 (1920x1200)
Found Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY2 (1920x1200)
Found Monitor: \\.\DISPLAY3 (1920x1200)
Found 3 monitor(s)
Testing Monitor #1 HMONITOR=0000000000010052
Method 1: CreateForMonitor
  CreateForMonitor returned: 0x80070057
    Error: E_INVALIDARG
Testing Monitor #2 HMONITOR=0000000000020001
Method 1: CreateForMonitor
  CreateForMonitor returned: 0x80070057
    Error: E_INVALIDARG
Testing Monitor #3 HMONITOR=0000000000010054
Method 1: CreateForMonitor
  CreateForMonitor returned: 0x80070057
    Error: E_INVALIDARG
Press Enter to exit...

We'd appreciate any idea what this discrepancy could be related to.

Jack Dang (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 15,205 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-18T08:51:28.9666667+00:00

Hi @Alex Chashka,

I'm currently running some tests on my end, for both virtual machines and physical machines running build 26100.7623. I will get back to you when I have more information.
Jack Dang (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 15,205 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-26T03:27:45.91+00:00

Hi @Alex Chashka,

I ran the same CreateForMonitor test independently on builds 26100.7623, 26200.7630, and 26200.7840 - it returns S_OK and produces a valid GraphicsCaptureItem on all three - I wasn't able to reproduce the E_INVALIDARG on those builds. I see what you mean about the target machine returning E_INVALIDARG for every monitor, which makes me think the issue might be specific to that machine's configuration rather than the build number itself.

A few things worth checking on the target machine specifically: whether the session is running over RDP or a remote connection (which blocks CreateForMonitor regardless of build), whether the GPU driver is up to date, and whether the process is running with any unusual privilege or integrity level. CreateForMonitor internally validates the HMONITOR against the current display topology, and anything that puts the session in a non-interactive state - including some remote access tools - can cause it to reject otherwise valid handles.

On the TryCreateFromDisplayId question: I looked into this more deeply, and the DisplayId.Value field is not a straightforward packing of the adapter LUID and target ID from QueryDisplayConfig. I tested every arithmetic combination of those fields (six permutations) and all returned null. The value is an opaque internal token produced by the Windows display manager, and it doesn't have a documented structure that can be reverse-engineered from the public APIs.

I suppose another way to obtain the correct value without headers is to call Windowing_GetDisplayIdFromMonitor from Microsoft.WindowsAppRuntime.dll after initializing the bootstrap. ABI::Microsoft::UI::DisplayId and Windows::Graphics::DisplayId are binary-compatible - both are struct { uint64_t Value; } - so the value should transfer directly. The bootstrapper documentation for unpackaged apps is here.

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IGraphicsCaptureItemInterop::CreateForMonitor fails on Windows 11 build 26100 update .7623 but works on .3775

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