I am working on a program that starts several other c# WPF applications and checks wether there are errors (using .NET Automation Services / UITesting).
One of the requirements of it is to take a screenshot of the main window and to put it into a word document. I alread got it working quite fine when it´s one application at a time (using code from this site: http://www.developerfusion.com/code/4630/capture-a-screen-shot/) , but as soon as i am using parallelism (say, checking 5 applications in a parallel manner), i am running into the problem that the screenshots of the windows may be overlapped by other windows that just popped up or that are always brought to the front (e.g. splash screens). Bringing the window to the front does not really help.
There was an older similar thread not directly regarding to WPF applications, and sadly, without a clear solution: Taking screenshot of a partially hidden window in a programmatic way
Is there a way to get a "clean" screenshot, may be with the use of the windows AutomationElement instance?
Related
I’m developing a screen saver in C# .NET4.0 on VS2010 which needs to do a fair bit of processing before it actually shows screens (fairly complex database access). This is fine because the user is unaware that this processing is going on and then the full screen forms kick in when everything is ready. That is, unless we are running on Windows 8.
Searching on the Microsoft Community (http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-desktop/bubbles-screensaver-has-black-background/e0807324-5ca6-4abe-b6ba-716848b41ff5?page=4) reveals that a design change was made in Windows 8 that prevents screensavers from drawing over an image of the desktop. Any screensaver that previously drew over the desktop will instead draw over a plain background using your chosen “metro” background colour. Experimenting reveals that this background kicks in immediately the .scr file launches i.e. before any forms can be displayed. Hence tricks like displaying forms minimised or with 0% opacity don’t work because this simply reveals the plain background underneath.
The best I’ve been able to come up with is to display full screen plain black forms as first action when my code starts i.e. before any database processing or other screen construction takes place. Why try to replace a plain screen with another plain screen? Well, because the default Windows background colour seems to be blue. That’s blue as in BSOD blue which looks kind of alarming when it kicks in. So the best I can do for a Windows 8 user experience is a quick flicker of blue followed by 3-4 seconds of plain black before screens are populated with something meaningful.
This new behaviour from Microsoft is apparently “by design”. The fact that it doesn’t manifest itself in Preview mode is apparently an error which one supposes MS will tidy up later.
So my question is does anyone know any way around this so that I can continue to have the desktop showing until screensaver forms are ready to kick in?
I struggled quite a lot with a similar problem regarding this awkward design decision in win8.
I the end had to compromise but my search continues for a a bullet proof solution, when I have time.
Now what I ended up with is running a batch file after the monitoring system starts and have thread detect idle time and run that batch again.
#start /wait Bubbles.scr /s & rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation
What this does is:
starts screensaver preview in fullscreen (this works in win8) and waits
on user action lock screen is show and user prompted for password
As I said it's a compromise until a find something better. Hope it helps
Updated to win10; try to use that cool scr and found same issue;
Try to trick ms restriction and found only one very long solution:
enable logging of screensaver invoked events;
here instruction via gpedit: https://superuser.com/questions/538146/run-a-batch-cmd-upon-screensaver
now you will able to start other comand or app when screensaver starting;
goto C:\Windows\System32
copy Bubbles.scr and rename to Bubbles.exe
then config task to run C:\Windows\System32\Bubbles.exe with argument /s (administration->taskcheduler)
use some windows screensaver and config to use 1 min or more; (or use 'runsarver' with empty options from upper link or create your own empty.exe and rename to .scr and install with right menu, etc)
Found cool app to customize hidden screensaver features: http://winaero.com/download.php?view.8
(work with small bugs but work as needed under win10)
All work fine one cons checkbox to lock PC must be unchecked;
If needed create own app to run Bubbles and on exit lock PC or bat file as above, etc;
hope people will have fun with my solution :)
I have a winform within a remote desktop application that is built dynamically with a container panel for a toolbar with large (regular) buttons. The application is writen in C# and .NET 4.0. The application is viewed as it should only if I do not maximize the window (meaning restored view is fine).
Now, after RDP login - within most client computers - the application looks fine (even when we maximize and restoring). Within low resolution client computers (800x600), the buttons on the toolbar are not displayed in the right position (such as in the 1024x768 clients).
I used double buffering and it didn't help... the problem may or may not be depended on the screen resolution (it can be memory issue or something). It is not a problem of localization layout.
The following image shows the Fine and Bad states: http://imgur.com/gO4UJ,v7O9K
What can I do to resolve this issue?
OK, so in case anybody gets to this kind of case, this is the thing that made the issue:
In the form, there was an empty repaint override. The programmer that created the form was overriding the repaint with an empty method (don't know why, I guess I'll ask my team for the business logic).
How did I reproduce it in the development environment? Following Albin Sunnanbo's note, I ran the RDP application in minimized version during initialization, and I noticed that it occurs with large resolution clients also in this use case... So, I know repaint occurs while performing a window resize - and this made me suspicious about the method...
==> On a side note, I guess this is why inheritance is so bad, and going on to WPF is better. It took me 3 days to understand why this issue occurred.
I'm working on a .NET 4 WPF application, and just the other day, came across a very peculiar bug. I have three Windows 7 Pro machines involved: laptop (1366x768), desktop (1680x1050, multi-monitor), and the remote machine (resolution unknown). Our application is installed on the remote machine.
Consider the following events: I remote desktop into the remote machine from my laptop, start our application, and launch a particular feature (an mdi child) within the application. If I connect to the same remote session from my desktop (thus closing the session on my laptop), this feature within my application becomes completely unusable. By unusable, I mean combo box drop downs are showing in the top/left corner (much like what's described here), other controls aren't laid out correctly, and some controls don't even show at all. Mouse coordinates appear to be off in that clicking certain controls no longer invokes the appropriate actions. It's the strangest thing I've ever seen.
If I close the application and launch a new instance on my desktop, things work great. Also, it only seems to happen when I launch the feature on my laptop, then move to the desktop. Never the other way around.
I wish I could show some code, but I don't really even know where to start or what to show. I can say that it only happens on certain features. Some features handle the resolution change perfectly.
Has anyone else seen these types of symptoms? Or know what could cause them or how they could be fixed?
This is a little embarrassing. After a few hours of "process of elimination", I found that another developer had added some unmanaged code to automatically maximize the window. The approach they followed is documented here. This approach does not work through remote desktop sessions. Lol.
Is it possible to run applications on the Windows Desktop? I mean... that it can only be seen in the system tray, and it should be able to run alongside the desktop.
I have no idea how to code it, please help me. I'm kind of new to these things, I am supposed to create something like a "Stardock Fence".
I have seen some examples, but they seem buggy, any strong alternative I could use?
Process.Start() can be used to start a windows application/console app from another win application. There are parameters that allow you to optionally hide the UI as well.
You want your application's windows to be always-on-bottom. In other words, your UI will always appear to be beneath any other open window and just above the Desktop's icons.
To accomplish that, see these related questions.
Once you have a window always on the bottom of the z-order, you'll probably want to remove the non-client window chrome (titlebar/min/max/close buttons) so that your UI can look like a more integrated part of the Desktop. There's plenty of examples around; Googling is left as an exercise for the reader.
Not entirely sure what you mean by background. I expect you mean a Windows Service which is a project type in visual studio, or you might (less likely) mean running a background thread.
Actually, if you want it in the system-tray, you don't want it entirely in the background.
If it was to be fully "in the background", then your best bet is to have it as a service.
System tray icons need a window, but you can just make it non-visible and non-taskbar and that's fine.
A common combo is a service that does the actual heavy-lifting, and a hidden-window application with a systray icon that reports on the service's status (possibly making that same window visible when further interaction is needed).
You want to run your application in the background? Is it on a windows machine? If so then you want to look into running your application as a windows service. Here's an msdn link:
Introduction to Windows Services
There's examples in the article I think - if not it's a good starting point. You can configure services to start automatically on startup of the machine etc. Your application will then run in the background.
Basically you craete your application as normal and then host it in a windows service rather than say a console app or a winforms app.
I am trying to do my winform application dock and follow another application, like IE or word. My full plan is run the program underground and then this specific application is running, my winform will maximize and dock, will follow if moved, minimize if this application is minimized.
Can you guys show me some ideas about how to do it?
thanks
You will have to get the messages send to the other application and analyze them. Here are some resources on window system hooks on MSDN and in the MSDN Magazin. So you will have to use good old P/Invoke because there is no managed API.
Hooks can work; however, both the programs you mention (IE & Word) provide APIs that allow you to customize the user interface. I would first look there. BTW, Due to IE's restricted environment your going to have a lot of trouble getting the standard hook APIs to work.