Is it possible to modify NotifyIcon behavior to AlwaysShow in C#? A code snippet would be greatly appreciated:) Thanks in advance...
Cheers
---edited
One of our clients said quote "it seems necessary to customise icons to always show". What he meant was that he has to do it manually by r-clicking on task bar then click on Properties -> Task Bar -> Customize Notifications and then you can set behavior to Always Show / Always Hide / Hide when inactive for each taskbar icon on the list.
Can you do that programically in C#?
I want to ensure that my NotifyIcon is ALWAYS visible. I'm already setting icon.Visible = true but it looks like it doesn't work for him hence the complaint.
Is there any easy way of setting the behavior by altering [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify] IconsStream registry value?
NotifyIcon icon = ...;
icon.Visible = true;
Edit for updated information: There shouldn't be, and if for some reason it exists, don't use it. That's the user's preference, not yours.
I'm sure it's possible with enough Registry hacking, but not at all recommended. They added the collapsing-notification-area behavior in XP because so many applications were shoving themselves in that space. Much like Start Menu pinning behavior in XP/Vista/7, the lack of a public API means you're supposed to let the user decide that sort of thing.
Related
I've hit a frustrating issue with a software project I'm working on. I've got help set up on various forms such that if I press F1, the application's CHM file is opened.
I want it to always open to the topic related to the current form, however it currently opens to a different location depending on what part of the form is in focus. If some fields are in focus, it opens to the top of the first page of the help document; and if other fields are in focus it will open, correctly, to the page and heading related to the current form.
I have the following designer code for the various forms, and I'm only setting HelpKeyword on the form itself, not any of the form's controls.
this.helpProvider.HelpNamespace = #"Path\To\ChmFile.chm";
this.helpProvider.SetHelpKeyword(this, "TopicName.htm#heading_name");
this.helpProvider.SetHelpNavigator(this, System.Windows.Forms.HelpNavigator.Topic);
From experimentation, I've determined that items with either SetShowHelp(false) or Enabled = false are the only ones that show the correct chm help location. This applies when pressing F1 with them in focus (if they can hold focus), or pressing on them with the "what's this" help cursor.
As an example:
If focus is on the main dialog's first control (a TextBox which has a HelpString, which implicitly sets ShowHelp) and I press F1, I'll get sent to the overall application help page (undesired behaviour).
If focus is on a main dialog TextBox which does not have an associated help string, and I press F1, I'm shown the Dialogs help page, at the heading for the main dialog (desired behaviour).
The only workaround I've found for this so far is to set both HelpTopic and HelpNavigator on every control with a HelpString, but this is very heavy-handed and difficult to maintain.
Clarification
I am intentionally using both the "What's this?" help and the F1 help on the same forms. I will not accept a solution that says to disable "what's this" help for all controls on my form in order to allow the F1 help to work. It is a requirement for this application that interactive controls have a help tooltip, and that each dialog has a help section in the help document.
If there is no way to get these two help features to work together nicely, I will accept an effective workaround that does not sacrifice maintainability as my above workaround does.
It was only after your clarification that I was able to fully understand your question and reproduce the problem. This behavior was not known to me before.
Same undesired behaviour using Visual Studio 2019 on Windows 10 PC - it does not matter if it is coded in the Form_Load event or with the help of the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) in the designer code.
After some hours of experimenting (with the reproduced problem) I hopefully narrowed it down without fully knowing the real reason.
I have done the following steps and thoughts - FYI - experimentally (see special notes in the list below):
The default value of the HelpNavigator enumeration is AssociateIndex. If you accidentally set SetShowHelp = True and a required property is missing, the call to the Index tab may fail, corrupt something and goes to the CHM's home page topic. If you don't have an index tab in your CHM, another problem arises.
I deleted or renamed the file hh.dat several tines to reset all (!) CHM windows on my system to their default settings. Windows will create a new version of hh.dat when you next open any .chm file. You'd find hh.dat at C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\HTML Help. BUT - - no success with the existing problem in the first test phase.
For some more test only (code is not required later) I have tried if the Form3_HelpRequested is triggered. BUT - that did not work in the first test phase.
private void Form1_HelpRequested(object sender, HelpEventArgs hlpevent)
{
// do whatever you're gonna do here
DialogResult dr = MessageBox.Show("HelpRequested on Form1 was fired!\n\nOpen CHM help?","Test case", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo);
switch (dr)
{
case DialogResult.Yes:
// FALSE will also open any associated help file
hlpevent.Handled = false;
break;
case DialogResult.No:
// TRUE will prevent windows from also opening any associated help file
hlpevent.Handled = true;
break;
}
Last as a hard step I deleted the HelpProvider component, have inserted this again and set all properties correctly a second time. NOW - it is working for me. Controls with the property ShowHelp=True now show the assigned topic and controls with the property ShowHelp=False now show the help topic of the form as expected.
You know - this can be a complex step and should be done in a test environment first. Make sure that all properties are set correctly and that the topic is accessible in the CHM via HelpKeyword.
// Tell the HelpProvider what controls to provide help for, and what the help string is.
this.helpProvider1.SetShowHelp(this.cityTextBox, true);
this.helpProvider1.SetHelpNavigator(this.cityTextBox, HelpNavigator.Topic); // make sure to set "Topic"
this.helpProvider1.SetHelpKeyword(this.cityTextBox, #"/Garden/flowers.htm");
this.helpProvider1.SetHelpString(this.cityTextBox, "Enter the city here.");
After giving the city textbox focus and F1 the help viewer window is shown. Using the "What's this" ? button in a second step is resulting in:
tl;dr
The definition of the properties via designer code or program code is more a decision based on personal preferences. I myself prefer to set values in the program code rather than via the controls properties window of Visual Studio.
If you add here all the properties of the controls for the help functionality as code, you can easily comment out for fixing problems. In a form with many controls, it is easier to save parts of the code externally and insert them again later. But as I said - everybody likes it different.
// set F1 help topic for first form
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
helpProvider1.SetHelpNavigator(this, HelpNavigator.Topic);
helpProvider1.SetHelpKeyword(this, #"/HTMLHelp_Examples/Jump_to_anchor.htm#SecondAnchor");
}
BTW - the "What's this?" help for large programs means a high effort and in my experience it is used less and less in help authoring (CHM's). This kind of help has a long history from the times of Visual Basic 6, for example. Today you often find only one help topic for a form or a dialog in which the single controls are explained. The problem you describe then does not appear at all.
FYI - in earlier days a ALIAS and MAP files was required and maybe used today by TopicId. The purpose of the two files is to ease the coordination between developer and help author. The mapping file links an ID to the map number - typically this can be easily created by the developer and passed to the help author. Then the help author creates an alias file linking the IDs to the topic names.
Creating Context-Sensitive Help for Applications
Where to specify topic id in c# windows application
Is it possible for me to either customize the title bar (i.e. change colour) or remove it completely?
Use the Console.Title property
Check out this link for an example Console.Title Property
That's not easy to do. The console window is actually handled by a separate process, conhost.exe. You'd need to persuade that process to change its behaviour which would involve gross hacks.
You can obtain the window handle readily enough and change basic properties of the window, and hope that conhost.exe doesn't change them back. But custom painting of the caption bar would involve injecting code into conhost.exe.
Use the SetConsoleTitle API. With P/Invoke I would guess.
I have a smartdevice project targeting windows mobile 6.
In the top right corner is an X (provided by the controlbox). i have an event on the form_closing that i was hoping would fire when the cross is clicked. But it doesnt :-(
Does anyone know why this event is not firing ???
Thanks :-)
John
Set the MinimizeBox property of your form to false. It's a weird thing about WinMo forms, but the X in the corner is really a minimize button, so it doesn't actually close the form. Setting MinimizeBox to false will replace the X with an OK button, and you'll get the form closing event.
Read this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.form.closing.aspx
There are a number of possible reasons why theis could be happening, but I seriously doubt anyone will be able to guess why in this case, without you letting us see any of your code?
I've some questions .. and I really need your help.
I have an application.
First I display a splash screen, a form, and this splash would call another form.
Problem: When the splash form is displayed, if I then open another application on the top of the splash, and then minimize this newly opened application window, the splash screen becomes white. How do I avoid this? I want my splash to be displayed clearly and not affected by any application.
I'm using a DropDownList but I realized that there is 2 types of it . I found "Dropdown" which makes the text inside the DDL editable, and "DropDownList" which doesn't.
Problem: when I tried to use DropDownList control it doesn't allow me to add a default text while DropDown does so I want a DropDownList control which prevent modifying on the text and allow a default text .. what property should I use?
Can I add "?" which denotes to Help button to the FormBorder (with the minimization, maximization, and close buttons )
Can I change the colour of the Formborder from its default colour (blue) ?
One of my application functionality is to copy files from server to phone into a certain folder in memory card.
Problem : can I determine the free size of the MMC to notify the user if it's full while copying.
3) You have to set the "HelpButton" property of the form to true. However the "?" button is only visible if you deactivate the maximize and minimize buttons by setting "MinimizeBox" and "MaximizeBox" to false.
Here are a few...
1) you need to launch the window in another thread so that your app can do what it needs to do to start. When the startup finishes, signal to the splash screen that it can close itself.
2)
dropDownList.SelectedIndex = 0;
4) I would not recommend doing so. It is based on the system color scheme, which the user sets. I would not like an app to decide for itself which scheme to use.
5) if the MMC shows up as a mapped drive you could use one of these techniques
Once again there is no answer to this guys question.
Yes, do as the other guy said and launch the splash screen in its own thread.
There is only one type of ComboBox in .Net, However there is a property called DropDownStyle which sets its functionality.
Yes, I am clueless on how this one works and never needed it.
Yes you betcha, Its called non-client painting. you can find more info on it here http://www.codeplex.com/CustomerBorderForm/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Painting%20NonClient%20Area&referringTitle=Home
I Need more details on this.
How can I create a Delphi TSpeedButton or SpeedButton in C# 2.0?
Using a Button and setting the TabStop property to false only works when tapping through the form...
If you need (as I did) a button that does not get selected when clicking on it, there is only one way I have found to do it.
The way I did it, was to subclass the Button class and in the constructor calling the SetStyles and thereby setting Selectable to false, like so:
public class ButtonNoFocus : Button
{
public ButtonNoFocus()
: base()
{
base.SetStyle(ControlStyles.Selectable, false);
}
}
This worked out for me, and is perfect if you e.g. have a control-panel with buttons that perform actions to a selected object...
I'm wondering if you want to create a control like a TSpeedButton, or you just need same kind of end result ...
Programming one from scratch is certainly possible, but I'd only tackle that as a learning exercise.
Assuming you want to achieve a similar end result ...
Delphi's TSpeedButton had a differences from the standard TButton that developers found useful - it was flat, didn't take focus, and it consumed fewer resources than a regular button (because it didn't have an underlying Windows Handle).
Which of these are important to you?
If you just want a flat button that doesn't accept focus, use a regular Button with FlatStyle=Flat (or PopUp) and TabStop=false. You can configure a glyph by setting either the Image property, or a combination of ImageList and ImageIndex/ImageKey.
An alternative to this would be to look for an existing button component that comes close to your needs - one place to look might be the Krypton Toolkit (free to use, see http://www.componentfactory.com/toolkit_buttoncontrols.php).
If you're wanting to reduce the number of resources consumed by your application, it's likely you'll get a better return looking elsewhere.
Back in the days of Windows 3.1 (Delphi 1) and Windows 95 (Delphi 2), the number of available handles was strictly limited, with a maximum number available system wide. Today, with Windows XP and Vista, the number of available handles is far far higher, and the number is per process, not system wide. Unless you're creating thousands upon thousands of buttons, you're very unlikely to come anywhere close to running out.
Does this help? Looks like you would have to handle the OnPaint event, and not take focus...
The regular .net 2.0 button supports part of what a TSpeedbutton Does:
The Glyph: Image
Flat : FlatStyle
It does not handle:
Down
Group
These two are related, you could inherit from the button, and ownerdraw it, adding Down and Group features.
Codeproject has an example of ownerdraw buttons.