I am working on a Windows Forms project. It contains a tab controller with multiple pages and multiple controls on each.
It appears that relatively recently, after some form changes, that each time I build and run the solution the form resizes/shrinks.
So if I set the size of the form height to 768, once I click 'Start' to build and run it, I can actually catch a glimpse of it resizing itself during the process and then the form loads 21 pixels shorter than the height value it was at build for.
If I then keep building and running my project, the form will decrease by 21 pixels each time, making it smaller and smaller with every build.
We think it might have been introduced when we added the 'DataGridView' controller to one of the tabs, but we have yet to prove if that's the case.
Is there a reason why this would be happening, and what could be doing this?
Why would it resize itself during build run time?
This is an annoying bug, and I have suffered similar behavior myself. However, there maybe a couple of workarounds, however be warned though, these may or may not help and sound a little hacky.
Solution 1
If your control isn't docked, docking may help.
Solution 2
You might be able to change your DPI settings to eliminate the problem, i.e.:
Display Properties → Settings tab → Advanced. In the the Advanced dialog I changed the "DPI Settings" from Large (120 dpi) to Normal (96 dpi).
Solution 3
This is maybe due to AutoScaleMode-property. Your forms may have been designed with a different DPI or font settings than you have now in Windows display settings. Try setting the AutoScaleMode-property to None in your form and offending controls, and they won't be automatically re-sized anymore.
The Problem
Apparently there is a bug in Visual Studio 2015. It is not calculating the Size properly when certain circumstances are met. In my case I was using the following...
(Name): Form1
AutoScaleMode: Font
AutoSizeMode: GrowOnly
DoubleBuffered: True
Font: Verdana, 8.25pt
FormBorderStyle: FixedDialog
Icon: (Icon)
MaximizeBox: False
MinimizeBox: False
MinimumSize: 600, 170
Size: 600, 170
StartPosition: CenterParent
Text: MyTitle
Now... If you close this form and open it back up the Size is still exactly the same (600, 170). If you change the following property...
ControlBox: False
Then you closes the form and open it back up you will notice the Size has now been changed to (610, 203).
My guess is that the bug is not accounting for two things. One would be the form title bar HEIGHT. The other would be the title bar icon WIDTH. This would be the offset of a WIDTH of 10 pixels and a HEIGHT of 33 pixels.
The Solution
Well you actually have three workarounds. One would be to offset the MinimumSize. Another would be to actually show the ControlBox. The last one would be to fix the issue in code by setting the ControlBox property after the form is initialized.
Offsetting The MinimumSize:
So the first option would be to offset what you want the MinimumSize to be by (w:10, h:33). So for example, If you want the MinimumSize to be (600, 170) then you need to set it to (590, 137). That would actually produce the size you expect to see.
Showing the ControlBox:
Simply change the following property...
ControlBox: True
Correcting the issue with code:
You will need to change the following property at design-time...
ControlBox: True
Then you will need to set the ControlBox property to False after the form is initialized.
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.ControlBox = false;
}
This Works for me,
on form designer.
Copy the values of your form size.
Past it in both Minimum and Maximum Size property.
Enjoy
I had the same problem. My solution:
My PC's system is Windows 10. The resolution of the monitor was 125%, and I set it to 100%. Then I set the size of the form, not changed.
You can see the resolution settings in this picture:
In Turkish "Scale" is "Ölçekle". There are resolution options on the bottom ("ölçekle ve düzenle").
I figured it out!
If you click on the form in "Design View" → "Properties" → "MinimizeBox"
and change "True" to "False".
OK, so first in response to Saruman's suggested solutions..
None of the controllers in the application where had docked values. A good few were anchored, but none appeared docked. I docked a couple of the main containers I could find, and it didn't seem to make much difference. Admittedly I didn't dock every single controller, but I then moved onto solution 2...
I wasn't sure where to find the DPI settings. Whether somewhere in Visual Studio, or on my machine. So I moved onto proposed solution 3...
On the Form initialize, I added 'this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.None;'. This then seemed to automatically place it above a 'this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(11264,730)' method, which piqued my interest.
With a little further debugging, it appears that when the application builds and intializes, the 'this.ClientSize' property is already set at a very low, more or less, '230x200'. I am not sure where this value comes from, but I wonder if it has anything to do with the initial resizing before it then tries to set it again to something bigger...
Regardless, I came across another suggestion to possibly double check my form's minimum width and height properties, and noticed they were set to 0x0, I'm assuming by default.
So I set the minimum values to be the same as my form's size value, and on subsequent builds it appears to be keeping its size now! Or at least, it isn't shrinking any more from what I can tell.
I'm not sure if setting the minimum form size is an acceptable solution for this bizarre behaviour, but so far it seems to be keeping the application size consistent on each build we do, which is a relief at the moment.
If any one has further knowledge on the ClientSize property and if I am right to be concerned about its initial low size, would be great to hear it. :)
Upgrading to .NET framework 4.7+ will resolve the issue of text being cropped. Furthermore if that isn't applicable add the following line to the app.config file
<System.Windows.Forms.ApplicationConfigurationSection>
<add key="DpiAwareness" value="PerMonitorV2" />
<add key="EnableWindowsFormsHighDpiAutoResizing" value="false" />
</System.Windows.Forms.ApplicationConfigurationSection>
This will disable the scaling performed by windows thus the application size won't change. For more details visit Auto Scaling in Windows Forms
Faced the same problem. Fixed it by changing 'AutoSizeMode' to 'GrowOnly'
If you are experiencing this issue in Visual Studio 2019, a simple fix is to set the AutoSize property of your form to True, and then to place a small, invisible control, such as a Panel, in your form at the extreme lower-right of the form. Size the panel to something like 20,20.
When the form automatically resizes upon running, Windows will calculate the form size to include all of your form's controls, which will include the small Panel you've placed in the lower-right.
I think that this is the simplest, easiest approach to have your forms sized appropriately without fighting Windows automatic scaling.
And we have a late contribution (if someone, like me, ends up here with a problem similar to mine) :)
My problem proved to be a shortcoming in VS. Having a "high dots per inch" (HDPI) monitor as my main screen was what caused my problem. Having different zooms on different monitors messes things up for VS. Running the executable on other machines (sometimes) shrunk the form so that (roughly) the bottom quarter wasn't visible.
Read about it here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/designers/disable-dpi-awareness?view=vs-2019
But in short - here are the three suggested solutions:
Restart Visual Studio as a DPI-unaware process
Add a registry entry
set HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers to the path to the devenv.exe (for VS 2019 normally C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe)
Set your display scaling setting to 100%
The first is the suggested solution in the article, but that messed up other things in the Form editor for me, so I ended up turning down the resolution and setting the zoom to 100% for all monitors.
I have just come across this problem setting up a form in Visual Basic in VS2008. I found the solution was to leave the form’s minimum size property at 0, 0 at design time and set it with code in the formload sub.
Related
I have been developing winform applications for a long time and I've never noticed something very simple, almost basic so I went back to the basics, I made a big form with a button on the extreme and I noticed that the size of the form changes completely when run:
design
run
As you can see the form size gets smaller and the button is hidden.
The properties are the default ones AutoSize false and AutoScaleMode Font.
This question is similar to this but unfortunately the answer there is not useful since the recommendation is the default.
Note: This is automatically solved when my notebook gets connected to another display
Below are some steps you can try if one of them can solve your issue:
If the problem occurs only when you connecting with other monitor, try to change the settings when connecting, does this happens to other PCs too? Or try to use another PC or install a VM (Virtual Machine) to run it there.
Check your DPI settings, for example in Windows 7, is that Smaller - 100% (default), or Medium - 125%, or Larger - 150%?
Try to set Form's property AutoScaleMode to Dpi or Font for each case.
If the problem still persists, try to create the sample form with the help from Creating a DPI-Aware Application.
I once tried to use FlowLayoutPanel control to arrange some identical elements such as buttons, pictureboxes. If possible, try to use it when applicable.
Last one, try WPF instead, it seems complicated at first, but you will get used to it soon and find out interesting things that Winforms doesn't have. You can arrange control to a grid (similar to a table), then put your controls to each cell with no problem. My suggestion if you plan to learn from ABC: WPF Tutorial.
Leave comment if you need more help, I will come back to see if any further I can provide. Because I've come into this obstacle when creating an app before :)
Set button "Anchor" (Right*, bottom) in property window
I know there will be folks who will vote this question down or ask for close. But if there is any kind of information or code I can provide you to know more about my program I will let you know. So please keep reading and see if you have had a similar problem.
I am running a Win7 64bit with .Net Framework ver 4.5.
I have created a Winform application. And to create my form elements I have taken advantage of a library called Metroframework that gives the program a metro look and feel. It contains some standard controls and as well as user controls that inherit from the original Form class. This is the opening view of my program.
However, for some strange reason, when I came to install my program on two other computers (one running Win7 and the other Win8), I noticed that some of my form elements have changed their location and some have just disappeared or just have been displaced. This has frightened me knowing the amount of time I have spent to put this elements in place.
Everything looks fine on my own computer both in dev environment and after building my application in release version. At first I thought this is a screen resolution problem on the other two devices, but that was not the case either. And even if it was, why should this happen?
Can anyone please help me solve this problem? I will share any part of my code you need. But I really have no idea where the source of this problem is!
The main influence on the layout variations on different machines is theForm.AutoScaleModeproperty.
In theory the default setting should work fine but I found that sometimes it is best to switch it off completely, that is going from Dpi or Font to None..
MSDN explains a little about the intended effect.
BTW: The is also a ContainerControl.AutoScaleMode property, so you could choose different modes for some parts of your forms as described here:
The AutoScaleMode property specifies the current automatic scaling
mode of this control. Scaling by Font is useful if you want to have a
control or form stretch or shrink according to the size of the fonts
in the operating system, and should be used when the absolute size of
the control or form does not matter. Scaling by Dpi is useful when you
want to size a control or form relative to the screen. For example,
you may want to use dots per inch (DPI) scaling on a control
displaying a chart or other graphic so that it always occupies a
certain percentage of the screen.
To remain true to the pixel-precise layout use:
this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.None;
The last value in the AutoScaleMode enumeration is Inherited which most often would be chosen for nested containers.
Update: The choice of ContainerControlsis rather limited:
System.Windows.Forms.Form
System.Windows.Forms.PropertyGrid
System.Windows.Forms.SplitContainer
System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripContainer
System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripPanel
System.Windows.Forms.UpDownBase
System.Windows.Forms.UserControl
Maybe the most useful is the UserControl. Note that it doesn't expose the AutoScale property in its instances but only in the class definition. Also note that you can't add controls to an instance in the desiger, but you could assemble them in maybe a Panel and then set a UserControl (with AutoScale=Font) to be the Panel's Parent.. You'll need to allow for some extra space in any case, though..
This question already has answers here:
.Net controls changing size between computers
(3 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
First time i'm developing a Windows Form Application with C# . I'm using Visual Studio 2012.
My form's size = 1096x508. Also i set Minimum Size and Maximum Size properties to 1096x508 .
This is screenshot of my app ,
But when i execute this app on another computer, result like this :
As you see, red line (at bottom of app) invisible. Because applciation's height is 508 px (as expected) on my pc but 416px on other computer. Because of this , red line staying out of Form. So we couldn't see it.
In shortly, my Form's size 1096x508px but it's only 823x416px on another computer. Can you tell me why there are difference? And how can i fix this? There are resolution difference between this screens.
The behaviour of your application on those computers may be caused by different dpi (dot-per-inch) settings of the Windows operating system. In order to check that please compare the actuals values in Windows display settings (100%, 125%, ...).
If you want to have your program independent from dpi settings you may try to work with different panels (control containers). Your status bar could have a fixed with, while the game area is a docked panel (filling the remaining space).
In general, staying independent from actual dpi, is a difficult topic. Most of the time you can work with autosizing controls, but you could run out of space if, say, two labels overlay.
The main issue, as you have already discovered, is that computers with a different DPI setting will cause the controls to scale.
What Hans was suggesting in his linked answer is that you need to re-design your form so when it gets re-size messages it will handle them accordingly.
The main way this is normally handled is setting the Anchor property or the Dock property of a control. By default a control will anchor to the top left corner of it's parent container. When it is told to scale it scales down and to the right. By changing the anchor point to be the bottom only it will make your bottom control move up instead of moving down off of the boundaries of the parent.
I've rewritten a toolbar that sits at the top of the user's screen. It works, but for some reason, though the app consists of just a form with a Fill-Docked ToolStrip, I cannot get it to stay at the size I specify. It's supposed to be the size of the Windows titlebar, as designed in Visual Studio, but as soon as I run it, it's grown in height by five or six pixels. Everything is set rigidly, the Form and ToolStrip are set to AutoSize=FALSE and I've specified the size in pixels the form should be. I cannot work out what is resizing the form at runtime; the ToolStrip is Docked on Fill mode so it should not cause the form to grow. It all looks perfect in the GUI builder, and I copied most of the configuration from the old VB.Net toolbar it will replace. Can anyone help?
Just a wild guess, but have you tried changing the AutoScaleMode property of the Form to something other than Font?
Haven't found an answer but I'll make sure this is closed. I turned the form transparent and it accomplished what I needed. Still unsure why the form expanded when run.
I have created a panel in c# application that holds rows of 5 textboxes.
Textboxes are added to panel dynamically. It is 500 pixels in width and each textbox is 100 pixels wide.
First textbox is at x-position 0, second at 100, third at 200 and so on.
So the 5 textboxes should fill the panel horizontally. These are shown correctly at my computer but at another computer these textboxes appear as if their width is reduced and they do not extend to end of the panel. They leave blank space at the end of panel.
Can anyone tell me why is this difference in display of textboxes?
There could be a few different reasons for this. Depending on if you are using WinForms (which I am assuming) or WPF. There is a system DPI that can be changed in windows. Windows Vista and 7 take advantage of this more. The other issue could be with the windows themes (play with the handicap themes). How to check your system DPI
I think that the problem is in displaying textboxes in computers with diferent Windows themes.
With Classic windows controls it compute space in different way than when themes are turned on on computer.
Couple things to try, make sure the AutoSize property is set to false on the Panel and the Textboxes. Also, make sure the PreferredSize is also set.
I was having a similar problem, and found this link:
C# WinForms messed up control positions?
where changing my main form's AutoScaleMode attribute from Font to None or Inherit solved the problem (NB: changing to Dpi did not solve it).