I am developing a security and kiosk library in my framework. The problem here is I have the proper methods and routines to disable various features of the Windows Shell. The main feature I am discussing here is the Windows Taskbar.
I have properly disabled, and hid the Windows Taskbar. The problem is that the WorkingArea of the Window's desktop is not updated by ShowWindow/EnableWindow calls to the Taskbar, and still leaves the reserved space for the Taskbar on the desktop.
After reading almost all the topics regarding this, I am dissappointed. I am not looking to simply make my program "Full Screen", "Top Most", those are not acceptable answers. I am actually looking to either unregister the Taskbar as an AppBar, or update the WorkingArea. Any other solution is not what I am looking for as they are just "workarounds" and not actually resolutions.
Any links, whitepapers, or code samples/guidance is appreciated.
You are going to have to be more flexible if you want a solution. The only odds you'll have for a 'perfect' solution is SHAppBarMessage with ABM_REMOVE. The odds aren't good, especially on Win7. I don't want to try this myself, I like my taskbar :)
Related
For a while now I have attempted to get into UI design with WPF. My main goal is to create a good-looking application in a borderless window, like for example:
I made this example using the MetroUI framework. While this framework does the trick on borderless window functionality, it also does way too much for my tastes, custom controls, skins, animations, etc. I just want a borderless window and decide everything else myself.
I've searched stackoverflow a lot, and tried a fair amount of frameworks, but nothing seems to suit my needs.
Basically, I would like to have a borderless window with FULL windows functionality (drag to sides to pin, only show shadow if operating system settings has it on, etc etc).
Putting WindowStyle to None but keeping AllowsTransparency at False in order to preserve the original window chrome makes most if not all of the functionality I am seeking for work. However, the obvious problem here is: the window chrome is still there.
This looks like this:
To finally ask my question:
Can we keep all the current functionality that this window chrome provides, but somehow make it invisible (yet keep the dropshadow it provides) ? I can live without the dropshadow but it would be a nice bonus.
Or to ask a more broad question: is there any framework / pre-made project, that simply ONLY handles making a borderless window work properly and no other additional controls, skinning, ... ?
The more time I put into this the more it seems making borderless windows with WPF is simply incredibly clunky and I am getting rather unmotivated on my entire project because of this.
Thank you
See my answer on the following thread, it pretty much sums up all the window issues at once. Hope it helps!
WPF Borderless Window issues: Aero Snap & Maximizing
I want to have some code run when the user tells Windows to show the desktop, such as when the user presses Win+D. I am having issues finding what that event is. I tried using spy++, but couldn't find what I was looking for, and the documentation for things like this seem poor or nonexistent.
Specifically what I want to do is avoid hiding the window because I'm making a desktop overlay program, and having this as the desktop is precisely the purpose of the program. If there is an alternative to handling the Windows event to accomplish this, I would be fine with that. I saw This answer, but unfortunately it doesn't work on Windows 10, which I need to support, along with 7 and 8.
When I set focus on a text box, on a forms load event in Windows Mobile 5.0, the Windows tool bar appears even though my form is maximized.
When I do not set the focus on the text box the form opens maximized. I do not want the windows tool bar appearing.
How do I prevent this from happening?
TThe start bar in WinMo is actually not part of your app - it is a separate process managed by the Shell and it really wants to always be on top. Trying to get your app above it goes against the design goals of WinMo (though it's a common thing to want to do).
I'd recommend doing some searching and reading on "kiosk mode" to garner what knowledge you can from others who have been down this road, but what you're seeing is that the StartBar is getting set topmost.
Raffaelle Limosani has a pretty decent blog entry that covers kiosk mode, so it's a good place to start (take a look at the other blogs he links to as well).
The toolbar at the top is actually a separate window, and it has a habit of appearing when not wanted over top of a full-screen ("kiosk" mode) app. For example, if you ShowDialog a second full-screen window from the first, the Start window flickers up for a split second before going away.
The only way I ever found of dealing with it was to hack into the API and actually make the Start window hidden while my application was open. This is a big potential problem, because if your app crashes without making the Start window visible again, it will stay invisible until you reset the device (or run you app again successfully).
I'd advice against doing this unless you absolutely have to. As ctacke points out, this would be an example of an app not playing nicely with Windows Mobile.
Assume i have an empty form 100px by 100px at 0,0 coordinates on the screen. It has no border style. Is there any way to have this positioned BEHIND the desktop icons?
I would assume this would involve the process Progman because thats what contains the desktop icons. But no matter what i try... getting window handles and changing parents etc, i cant seem to get the window to appear behind the icons.
Any ideas?
Essentially you want to draw on the desktop wallpaper. The desktop hierarchy looks like this:
"Program Manager" Progman
"" SHELLDLL_DefView
"FolderView" SysListView32
It's the SysListView32 that actually draws the desktop icons, so that's what you have to hook. And you can't just stick your form on top of it; you have to grab a WindowDC to that handle and draw on the DC.
It can be done - it has been done, but you're going to be using a lot of interop. Forget about doing this with a traditional Winforms Form. I don't think I've even seen it done in C#, although somebody did it in python, if that helps. I'm not a python coder myself, but the code is pretty short and easy to understand.
There is a solution to this problem, at least for Windows 8. I postet it in form of an article on CodeProject, so you can read about it here:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/856020/Draw-behind-Desktop-Icons-in-Windows
This works for simple drawing, windows forms, wpf, directx, etc. The solution presented in that article is only for Windows 8.
Google-fu led me to this MSDN forum question:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winformsdesigner/thread/c61d0705-d9ec-436a-b0a6-6ffa0ecec0cc
And this is a blog post regard the major pitfalls with using GetDesktopWindow() or dealing with the desktop handle (as per your other question: C# Position Window On Desktop)
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/02/24/79212.aspx
You also don't want to pass GetDesktopWindow() as your hwndParent. If you create a child window whose parent is GetDesktopWindow(), your window is now glued to the desktop window. If your window then calls something like MessageBox(), well that's a modal dialog, and then the rules above kick in and the desktop gets disabled and the machine is toast.
Anyway, I suspect that it probably CAN be done, but whether you should is another question.
I'm sure others have run into this problem too...
I often watch videos in a small VLC window while working on other tasks, but no matter where the window is placed, I eventually need to access something in the GUI behind it, and have to manually reposition the video window first.
This could be solved by having the VLC window snap to another corner whenever the mouse pointer is moved over it. I haven't found an app that does this, so would like to write one. What technologies could I use to do this? Cross platform might be harder... so what if just on Windows?
I'd prefer something in C# (or Python), but am willing to learn something new if need be.
Here is a windows only solution. You dont need to actually put the mouse over the window. All you need to do is Find the window using its name and send WM_MOVE. I dont know the name of the window which VLC uses. You could use Spy++ to find its name.
This is a bit OOT, but in Windows 7, shaking the active window will hide others to reveal the desktop (and so will clicking/hovering the rightmost taskbar button). Instead of hiding/moving vlc, you could just temporarily reveal the whole desktop. Shaking the active window again brings everything back.