Show a Form without stealing focus? - c#

I'm using a Form to show notifications (it appears at the bottom right of the screen), but when I show this form it steals the focus from the main Form. Is there a way to show this "notification" form without stealing focus?

Hmmm, isn't simply overriding Form.ShowWithoutActivation enough?
protected override bool ShowWithoutActivation
{
get { return true; }
}
And if you don't want the user to click this notification window either, you can override CreateParams:
protected override CreateParams CreateParams
{
get
{
CreateParams baseParams = base.CreateParams;
const int WS_EX_NOACTIVATE = 0x08000000;
const int WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW = 0x00000080;
baseParams.ExStyle |= ( int )( WS_EX_NOACTIVATE | WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW );
return baseParams;
}
}

Stolen from PInvoke.net's ShowWindow method:
private const int SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4;
private const int HWND_TOPMOST = -1;
private const uint SWP_NOACTIVATE = 0x0010;
[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetWindowPos")]
static extern bool SetWindowPos(
int hWnd, // Window handle
int hWndInsertAfter, // Placement-order handle
int X, // Horizontal position
int Y, // Vertical position
int cx, // Width
int cy, // Height
uint uFlags); // Window positioning flags
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);
static void ShowInactiveTopmost(Form frm)
{
ShowWindow(frm.Handle, SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE);
SetWindowPos(frm.Handle.ToInt32(), HWND_TOPMOST,
frm.Left, frm.Top, frm.Width, frm.Height,
SWP_NOACTIVATE);
}
(Alex Lyman answered this, I'm just expanding it by directly pasting the code. Someone with edit rights can copy it over there and delete this for all I care ;) )

This is what worked for me. It provides TopMost but without focus-stealing.
protected override bool ShowWithoutActivation
{
get { return true; }
}
private const int WS_EX_TOPMOST = 0x00000008;
protected override CreateParams CreateParams
{
get
{
CreateParams createParams = base.CreateParams;
createParams.ExStyle |= WS_EX_TOPMOST;
return createParams;
}
}
Remember to omit setting TopMost in Visual Studio designer, or elsewhere.
This is stolen, err, borrowed, from here (click on Workarounds):
https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/401311/showwithoutactivation-is-not-supported-with-topmost

If you're willing to use Win32 P/Invoke, then you can use the ShowWindow method (the first code sample does exactly what you want).

Doing this seems like a hack, but it seems to work:
this.TopMost = true; // as a result the form gets thrown to the front
this.TopMost = false; // but we don't actually want our form to always be on top
Edit: Note, this merely raises an already created form without stealing focus.

The sample code from pinvoke.net in Alex Lyman/TheSoftwareJedi's answers will make the window a "topmost" window, meaning that you can't put it behind normal windows after it's popped up. Given Matias's description of what he wants to use this for, that could be what he wants. But if you want the user to be able to put your window behind other windows after you've popped it up, just use HWND_TOP (0) instead of HWND_TOPMOST (-1) in the sample.

In WPF you can solve it like this:
In the window put these attributes:
<Window
x:Class="myApplication.winNotification"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Title="Notification Popup" Width="300" SizeToContent="Height"
WindowStyle="None" AllowsTransparency="True" Background="Transparent" ShowInTaskbar="False" Topmost="True" Focusable="False" ShowActivated="False" >
</Window>
The last one attribute is the one you need ShowActivated="False".

I have something similar, and I simply show the notification form and then do
this.Focus();
to bring the focus back on the main form.

Create and start the notification Form in a separate thread and reset the focus back to your main form after the Form opens. Have the notification Form provide an OnFormOpened event that is fired from the Form.Shown event. Something like this:
private void StartNotfication()
{
Thread th = new Thread(new ThreadStart(delegate
{
NotificationForm frm = new NotificationForm();
frm.OnFormOpen += NotificationOpened;
frm.ShowDialog();
}));
th.Name = "NotificationForm";
th.Start();
}
private void NotificationOpened()
{
this.Focus(); // Put focus back on the original calling Form
}
You can also keep a handle to your NotifcationForm object around so that it can be programmatically closed by the main Form (frm.Close()).
Some details are missing, but hopefully this will get you going in the right direction.

This works well.
See: OpenIcon - MSDN and SetForegroundWindow - MSDN
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool OpenIcon(IntPtr hWnd);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);
public static void ActivateInstance()
{
IntPtr hWnd = IntPtr hWnd = Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainWindowHandle;
// Restore the program.
bool result = OpenIcon(hWnd);
// Activate the application.
result = SetForegroundWindow(hWnd);
// End the current instance of the application.
//System.Environment.Exit(0);
}

You might want to consider what kind of notification you would like to display.
If it's absolutely critical to let the user know about some event, using Messagebox.Show would be the recommended way, due to its nature to block any other events to the main window, until the user confirms it. Be aware of pop-up blindness, though.
If it's less than critical, you might want to use an alternative way to display notifications, such as a toolbar on the bottom of the window. You wrote, that you display notifications on the bottom-right of the screen - the standard way to do this would be using a balloon tip with the combination of a system tray icon.

You can handle it by logic alone too, although I have to admit that the suggestions above where you end up with a BringToFront method without actually stealing focus is the most elegant one.
Anyhow, I ran into this and solved it by using a DateTime property to not allow further BringToFront calls if calls were made already recently.
Assume a core class, 'Core', which handles for example three forms, 'Form1, 2, and 3'. Each form needs a DateTime property and an Activate event that call Core to bring windows to front:
internal static DateTime LastBringToFrontTime { get; set; }
private void Form1_Activated(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var eventTime = DateTime.Now;
if ((eventTime - LastBringToFrontTime).TotalMilliseconds > 500)
Core.BringAllToFront(this);
LastBringToFrontTime = eventTime;
}
And then create the work in the Core Class:
internal static void BringAllToFront(Form inForm)
{
Form1.BringToFront();
Form2.BringToFront();
Form3.BringToFront();
inForm.Focus();
}
On a side note, if you want to restore a minimized window to its original state (not maximized), use:
inForm.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
Again, I know this is just a patch solution in the lack of a BringToFrontWithoutFocus. It is meant as a suggestion if you want to avoid the DLL file.

I don't know if this is considered as necro-posting, but this is what I did since I couln't get it working with user32's "ShowWindow" and "SetWindowPos" methods. And no, overriding "ShowWithoutActivation" doesn't work in this case since the new window should be always-on-top.
Anyway, I created a helper method that takes a form as parameter; when called, it shows the form, brings it to the front and makes it TopMost without stealing the focus of the current window (apparently it does, but the user won't notice).
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetForegroundWindow();
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);
public static void ShowTopmostNoFocus(Form f)
{
IntPtr activeWin = GetForegroundWindow();
f.Show();
f.BringToFront();
f.TopMost = true;
if (activeWin.ToInt32() > 0)
{
SetForegroundWindow(activeWin);
}
}

I know it may sound stupid, but this worked:
this.TopMost = true;
this.TopMost = false;
this.TopMost = true;
this.SendToBack();

I needed to do this with my window TopMost. I implemented the PInvoke method above but found that my Load event wasn't getting called like Talha above. I finally succeeded. Maybe this will help someone. Here is my solution:
form.Visible = false;
form.TopMost = false;
ShowWindow(form.Handle, ShowNoActivate);
SetWindowPos(form.Handle, HWND_TOPMOST,
form.Left, form.Top, form.Width, form.Height,
NoActivate);
form.Visible = true; //So that Load event happens

You don't need to make it anywhere near as complicated.
a = new Assign_Stock();
a.MdiParent = this.ParentForm;
a.Visible = false; //hide for a bit.
a.Show(); //show the form. Invisible form now at the top.
this.Focus(); //focus on this form. make old form come to the top.
a.Visible = true; //make other form visible now. Behind the main form.

Github Sample
Form.ShowWithoutActivation Property
Add this in your child form class
protected override bool ShowWithoutActivation
{
get { return true; }
}
Working Code
Form2
public partial class Form2 : Form
{
Form3 c;
public Form2()
{
InitializeComponent();
c = new Form3();
}
private void textchanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
c.ResetText(textBox1.Text.ToString());
c.Location = new Point(this.Location.X+150, this.Location.Y);
c .Show();
//removethis
//if mdiparent 2 add this.focus() after show form
c.MdiParent = this.MdiParent;
c.ResetText(textBox1.Text.ToString());
c.Location = new Point(this.Location.X+150, this.Location.Y);
c .Show();
this.Focus();
////-----------------
}
}
Form3
public partial class Form3 : Form
{
public Form3()
{
InitializeComponent();
//ShowWithoutActivation = false;
}
protected override bool ShowWithoutActivation
{
get { return true; }
}
internal void ResetText(string toString)
{
label2.Text = toString;
}
}

When you create a new form using
Form f = new Form();
f.ShowDialog();
it steals focus because your code can't continue executing on the main form until this form is closed.
The exception is by using threading to create a new form then Form.Show(). Make sure the thread is globally visible though, because if you declare it within a function, as soon as your function exits, your thread will end and the form will disappear.

Figured it out: window.WindowState = WindowState.Minimized;.

Related

The AnimateWindow caused my controls border not render. Why? [duplicate]

I have a borderless form and I use the AnimateWindow() method to create animations for opening, closing, etc my Form. I use this code:
[Flags]
enum AnimateWindowFlags
{
AW_HOR_POSITIVE = 0x0000000
AW_HOR_NEGATIVE = 0x00000002,
AW_VER_POSITIVE = 0x00000004,
AW_VER_NEGATIVE = 0x00000008,
AW_CENTER = 0x00000010,
AW_HIDE = 0x00010000,
AW_ACTIVATE = 0x00020000,
AW_SLIDE = 0x00040000,
AW_BLEND = 0x00080000
}
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool AnimateWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int time, AnimateWindowFlags flags);
When it comes to closing the form, this code seems to work:
private void Form1_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
AnimateWindow(this.Handle, 100, AnimateWindowFlags.AW_BLEND | AnimateWindowFlags.AW_HIDE);
}
However, when opening the form with this code:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
AnimateWindow(this.Handle, 100, AnimateWindowFlags.AW_BLEND);
}
Nothing seems to happen. After doing some guesses and tests I figured that using the AnimateWindow() method to make the form fade out works, but using it to make the form fade in doesn't do anything (regardless of the time parameter).
Any ideas?
This is pretty difficult to do correctly, there is an enormous amount of code involved that is very tricky to reason through. The Visible property, set by the Application class for the startup form and the Show() method when you create your own is a very big deal in Winforms. The native window creation is lazy in typical .NET fashion, lots and lots of stuff happens when the ball gets rolling.
The AnimateWindow() call must be injected in between the time the Show() method is called and Winforms gets a chance to pinvoke ShowWindow(). It is the latter call that ruins the animation effect when you try it in OnLoad(), the event fires too late.
You can try this code, paste it into your Form class:
protected override void SetVisibleCore(bool value) {
if (!this.IsHandleCreated) {
NativeMethods.AnimateWindow(this.Handle, 100, AnimateWindowFlags.AW_BLEND);
}
base.SetVisibleCore(value);
}
protected override void OnShown(EventArgs e) {
this.BringToFront();
base.OnShown(e);
}
But I cannot promise it will work in all possible cases and have not tested it extensively. Having to call BringToFront() was already an unpleasant hack. Don't try it on an MDI child form, not likely to come to a good end.

C# WPF Message Only Window [duplicate]

I create a global hot key to show a window by PInvoking RegisterHotKey(). But to do this I need that window's HWND, which doesn't exist until the window is loaded, that means shown for the first time. But I don't want to show the window before I can set the hot key. Is there a way to create a HWND for that window that is invisible to the user?
If you are targeting .NET 4.0 you can make use of the new EnsureHandle method available on the WindowInteropHelper:
public void InitHwnd()
{
var helper = new WindowInteropHelper(this);
helper.EnsureHandle();
}
(thanks to Thomas Levesque for pointing this out.)
If you are targeting an older version of the .NET Framework, the easiest way is to show the window to get to the HWND while setting a few properties to make sure that the window is invisible and doesn't steal focus:
var window = new Window() //make sure the window is invisible
{
Width = 0,
Height = 0,
WindowStyle = WindowStyle.None,
ShowInTaskbar = false,
ShowActivated = false
};
window.Show();
Once you want to show the actual window you can then set the Content, the size and change the style back to a normal window.
You can also change the window into a so called message-only window. As this window type does not support graphical elements it will never be shown. Basically it comes down to calling:
SetParent(hwnd, (IntPtr)HWND_MESSAGE);
Either create a dedicated message window which will always be hidden, or use the real GUI window and change it back to a normal window when you want to display it. See the code below for a more complete example.
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hwnd, IntPtr hwndNewParent);
private const int HWND_MESSAGE = -3;
private IntPtr hwnd;
private IntPtr oldParent;
protected override void OnSourceInitialized(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnSourceInitialized(e);
HwndSource hwndSource = PresentationSource.FromVisual(this) as HwndSource;
if (hwndSource != null)
{
hwnd = hwndSource.Handle;
oldParent = SetParent(hwnd, (IntPtr)HWND_MESSAGE);
Visibility = Visibility.Hidden;
}
}
private void OpenWindowMenuItem_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
SetParent(hwnd, oldParent);
Show();
Activate();
}
For me the solution of setting the width, height to zero and style to none didn't work out, as it still showed a tiny window, with an annoying shadow of what seems to be the border around a 0x0 window (tested on Windows 7). Therefore I'm providing this alternative option.
This is a dirty hack, but it should work, and doesn't have the downsides of changing the opacity :
set the WindowStartupLocation to Manual
set the Top and Left properties to somewhere outside the screen
set ShowInTaskbar to false so that the user doesn't realize there is a new window
Show and Hide the window
You should now be able to retrieve the HWND
EDIT: another option, probably better : set ShowInTaskBar to false and WindowState to Minimized, then show it : it won't be visible at all
I had already posted an answer to that question, but I just found a better solution.
If you just need to make sure that the HWND is created, without actually showing the window, you can do this:
public void InitHwnd()
{
var helper = new WindowInteropHelper(this);
helper.EnsureHandle();
}
(actually the EnsureHandle method wasn't available when the question was posted, it was introduced in .NET 4.0)
I've never tried to do what you are doing, but if you need to show the Window to get the HWND, but don't want to show it, set the Window Opacity to 0. This will also prevent any hit testing from occurring. Then you could have a public method on the Window to change the Opacity to 100 when you want to make it visible.
I know absolutely nothing about WPF, but could you create a message only window using other means (PInvoke for example) to receive the WM_HOTKEY message? If yes, then once you receive the WM_HOTKEY, you could launch the WPF window from there.
I've noticed that the last thing that happens when the window is being initialized, is the change of WindowState, if it differs from normal. So, you can actually make use of it:
public void InitializeWindow(Window window) {
window.Top = Int32.MinValue;
window.Left = Int32.MinValue;
window.Width = 0;
window.Height = 0;
window.ShowActivated = false;
window.ShowInTaskbar = false;
window.Opacity = 0;
window.StateChanged += OnBackgroundStateChanged;
window.WindowStyle = WindowStyle.None;
}
public void ShowWindow(Window window) {
window.Show();
window.WindowState = WindowState.Maximized;
}
protected bool isStateChangeFirst = true;
protected void OnBackgroundStateChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if (isStateChangeFirst) {
isStateChangeFirst = false;
window.Top = 300;
window.Left = 200;
window.Width = 760;
window.Height = 400;
window.WindowState = WindowState.Normal;
window.ShowInTaskbar = true;
window.Opacity = 1;
window.Activate();
}
}
That works fair enough for me. And it does not require working with any handles and stuff, and, more importantly, does not require to have a custom class for a window. Which is great for dynamically loaded XAML. And it is also a great way if you are making a fullscreen app. You do not even need to change its state back to normal or set proper width and height. Just go with
protected bool isStateChangeFirst = true;
protected void OnBackgroundStateChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if (isStateChangeFirst) {
isStateChangeFirst = false;
window.ShowInTaskbar = true;
window.Opacity = 1;
window.Activate();
}
}
And you're done.
And even if I am wrong in my assumption that change of state is last thing done when window is being loaded, you can still change to any other event, it does not really matter.
The WindowInteropHelper class should allow you to get the HWND for the WPF window.
MyWindow win = new MyWindow();
WindowInteropHelper helper = new WindowInteropHelper(win);
IntPtr hwnd = helper.Handle;
MSDN Documentation
Another option in a similar vein to setting the opacity to 0, is to set the size to 0 and set the position to be off the screen. This won't require the AllowsTransparency = True.
Also remember that once you have shown it once you can then hide it and still get the hwnd.
Make the size of the window 0 x 0 px, put ShowInTaskBar to false, show it, then resize it when needed.
I've created extension method for showing invisible window, next Show calls will behave OK.
public static class WindowHelper
{
public static void ShowInvisible(this Window window)
{
// saving original settings
bool needToShowInTaskbar = window.ShowInTaskbar;
WindowState initialWindowState = window.WindowState;
// making window invisible
window.ShowInTaskbar = false;
window.WindowState = WindowState.Minimized;
// showing and hiding window
window.Show();
window.Hide();
// restoring original settings
window.ShowInTaskbar = needToShowInTaskbar;
window.WindowState = initialWindowState;
}
}
Start Wpf Window in Hidden mode:
WpfWindow w = new WpfWindow() { Visibility = Visibility.Hidden };
Start Wpf Window in Visible mode:
WpfWindow w = new WpfWindow();
w.Show();

Form loses ability to be TopMost without activation (on Windows XP only)

I have an background WinForms application, which doesn't show any windows usually. But it shows a form on top most without activation, when occurred some app event. And I have a problem that when users clicks on the form and after this application closes this form and showes another instance of form, then last one shows without top most option (it shows under all opened windows). And I really don't understand why.
I noticed, that problem disappears when I run application with overloaded method:
Application.Run(new TestForm());
But my application is background and so I need to use follow overloaded method:
Application.Run();
And a problem appears again...
I maximally simplified my code to make my problem more clear.
Here is code of my form:
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace winscr
{
public partial class TestForm : Form
{
public TestForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.Load += Form_Load;
}
void Form_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//-1 HWND_BOTTOM Places the window at the bottom of the Z order
//0x0010 SWP_NOACTIVATE Does not activate the window.
//0x0002 SWP_NOMOVE Retains the current position (ignores X and Y parameters).
//0x0001 SWP_NOSIZE Retains the current size (ignores the cx and cy parameters).
//always returns true
bool result = SetWindowPos(this.Handle, new IntPtr(-1), 0, 0, 0, 0, 0x0010 | 0x0002 | 0x0001);
this.Text = result + " " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
}
[DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint = "SetWindowPos")]
protected static extern bool SetWindowPos(
IntPtr hWnd, // window handle
IntPtr hWndInsertAfter, // placement-order handle
int X, // horizontal position
int Y, // vertical position
int cx, // width
int cy, // height
uint uFlags); // window positioning flags
protected override bool ShowWithoutActivation { get { return true; } }
}
}
And code of Program class:
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace winscr
{
static partial class Program
{
static TestForm frm;
[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
//I use timer only for example on stackoverflow. In my real program form appears after particular events
Timer tmr = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer();
tmr.Interval = 2000;
tmr.Tick += new EventHandler(tmr_Tick);
tmr.Enabled = true;
Application.Run();
//Application.Run(new TestForm()); //if I use this overloading, then all works without any bugs
}
static void tmr_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (frm != null)
{
//close previous instance of form
frm.Close();
}
//construct and show new form
frm = new TestForm();
frm.Show();
}
}
}
Here is direct link to the project with this code (you can just run project and try to reproduce problem):
http://hidescreener.com/downloads/?r=form_top_most_tests.zip
And I recorded the video, in which I show this problem:
http://youtu.be/mxJYZE-oMDI
Please, help me to solve this problem. I have trying to solve it for 2 days.
P.S. I found like problem Really annoying bug with TopMost property in Windows Forms but there is no answer...
Updated:
Thanks for the Hans Passant's and King King's comments.
It was found that this problem only occurs in Windows XP.

windows 8 tap and hold event c#

I'm trying to write an application that senses when someone taps and holds something. I am using windows forms. I tried using the mouse down even but it doesn't appear to fire all the time. This is also going to be a multi touch application. I'm going to have two buttons , and the user can tap and hold one button, while they press on the other button. Or Just press one button. I'm not even sure how a windows form app can handle that.
All the examples inhave seen for a windows touch app use xaml. Is this really the only way to capture tap and hold ??
I'm essentially making an onscreen keyboard here, and I don't think that isnpossible WITHOUT windows forms. Correct me if I am wrong here.
Any help or guidance in this is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
If your program is running on Windows 8, you can use the WM_POINTER API to get the input you need. Override WndProc to capture the messages. You will have to do some P/Invoke to get it working, but it's not terribly hard. Here's some incomplete code to get you started, you'll need to add cases for up, down, and update events for each type of pointer you want to track. Keep track of the pointer IDs to process multi touch. To handle the press-and-hold you'll need to track the time yourself from WM_POINTERDOWN to WM_POINTERUP and act accordingly. Hope this helps.
public const int WM_POINTERDOWN = 0x0246;
public const int WM_POINTERUP = 0x0247;
public const int WM_POINTERUPDATE = 0x0245;
public enum POINTER_INPUT_TYPE : int
{
PT_POINTER = 0x00000001,
PT_TOUCH = 0x00000002,
PT_PEN = 0x00000003,
PT_MOUSE = 0x00000004
}
public static uint GET_POINTERID_WPARAM(uint wParam) { return wParam & 0xFFFF; }
[DllImport("User32.dll")]
public static extern bool GetPointerType(uint pPointerID, out POINTER_INPUT_TYPE pPointerType);
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
bool handled = false;
uint pointerID;
POINTER_INPUT_TYPE pointerType;
switch(m.Message)
{
case WM_POINTERDOWN:
pointerID = User32.GET_POINTERID_WPARAM((uint)m.WParam);
if (User32.GetPointerType(pointerID, out pointerType))
{
switch (pointerType)
{
case POINTER_INPUT_TYPE.PT_PEN:
// Stylus Down
handled = true;
break;
case POINTER_INPUT_TYPE.PT_TOUCH:
// Touch down
handled = true;
break;
}
}
break;
}
if (handled)
m.Result = (IntPtr)1;
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
This question has been around for a while and might benefit from a simple approach. You can simulate the "tap and hold" (or click and hold) by measuring the time between the MouseDown event and the Click event (which fires before MouseUp). If the time is greater than some value then you cancel the Click and (perhaps) fire your own TapAndHold event. I have created a test control that anyone can use to try this approach out. Just add a UserControl to your test app (I called mine TestTapAndHold) and then paste in the following:
public partial class TestTapAndHold : UserControl
{
private string showText = "Tap Me";
private DateTime mouseDown;
private const int holdTime = 500;
public TestTapAndHold()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.Paint += drawText;
}
public delegate void OnTapAndHold(EventArgs e);
public event OnTapAndHold TapAndHold;
private void drawText(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
using (var drawBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Black))
{
e.Graphics.DrawString(showText, Font, drawBrush, new Point(5,3));
}
}
protected override void OnClick(EventArgs e)
{
if (DateTime.Now.Subtract(mouseDown).Milliseconds >= holdTime)
{
showText = "Tap Hold";
TapAndHold?.Invoke(e);
} else
{
base.OnClick(e);
showText = "Tapped";
}
Invalidate();
}
private void TestTapAndHold_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
mouseDown = DateTime.Now;
}
}
Build the app and then pop one of the test controls onto a form. You can then add an event handler to your form like:
private void testTapAndHold1_TapAndHold(EventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show("You tapped and Held");
}
This general approach enabled me to add "Tap and Hold" functionality to a Windows Forms app running on a Microsoft Surface 4

How to disable the minimize button in C#?

In my application I need to temporarily gray out the minimize button of the main form. Any ideas how this can be achieved? I don't mind doing p/invokes to Win32 dlls.
Edit: Graying out the minimize button would be the preferred solution, but is there any other way of preventing the form from becoming minimized?
I read your comment in regards to my response and was able to drum up a more complete solution for you. I ran this quickly and it seemed to have the behavior that you wanted. Instead of deriving your winforms from Form, derive from this class:
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;
namespace NoMinimizeTest
{
public class MinimizeControlForm : Form
{
private const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;
private const int SC_MINIMIZE = 0xf020;
protected MinimizeControlForm()
{
AllowMinimize = true;
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if (!AllowMinimize)
{
if (m.Msg == WM_SYSCOMMAND)
{
if (m.WParam.ToInt32() == SC_MINIMIZE)
{
m.Result = IntPtr.Zero;
return;
}
}
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
[Browsable(true)]
[Category("Behavior")]
[Description("Specifies whether to allow the window to minimize when the minimize button and command are enabled.")]
[DefaultValue(true)]
public bool AllowMinimize
{
get;
set;
}
}
}
You could do a bit more if you wanted to be able to decide whether to allow minimizing at the time the click is sent, for instance:
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.ComponentModel;
namespace NoMinimizeTest
{
public class MinimizeControlForm : Form
{
private const int WM_SYSCOMMAND = 0x0112;
private const int SC_MINIMIZE = 0xf020;
protected MinimizeControlForm()
{
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
if (m.Msg == WM_SYSCOMMAND)
{
if (m.WParam.ToInt32() == SC_MINIMIZE && !CheckMinimizingAllowed())
{
m.Result = IntPtr.Zero;
return;
}
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
private bool CheckMinimizingAllowed()
{
CancelEventArgs args = new CancelEventArgs(false);
OnMinimizing(args);
return !args.Cancel;
}
[Browsable(true)]
[Category("Behavior")]
[Description("Allows a listener to prevent a window from being minimized.")]
public event CancelEventHandler Minimizing;
protected virtual void OnMinimizing(CancelEventArgs e)
{
if (Minimizing != null)
Minimizing(this, e);
}
}
}
For more information about this window notification, see the MSDN article about it.
form.MinimizeBox = false;
or if in the form scope
MinimizeBox = false;
Just do MinimizeBox = false; in your form's code.
Put this code in your form's Resize event:
if (this.WindowState == FormWindowState.Minimized)
{
this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
}
This will make your form un-minimizable (DISCLAIMER: I do not advocate altering the standard behavior of windows in this way).
You can also implement handle to the Minimize event to cancel the command
Don't. Don't mess with my windows. They are mine, not yours. It is my computer and if I want to minimize, I should be able to. I can't think of, and have never been given, a good reason for doing this.
Coincoin's answer is correct. MinimizeBox is also available as a property in the designer properties window.
#Kevin: While I appreciate the sentiment, that's not always a valid answer. If the application displays a modal dialog box by creating a new instance of a Form and then calling .ShowDialog() on it, you don't want the user to minimize that Form, because then all input on the main UI thread is blocked until that Form's modal status is satisfied. The user could potentially click on the main form and just get the "ding ding ding" unresponsive sound from Windows and not know what to do.
just set the MinimizeBox property of your form to false.
this will disable the minimize button but other buttons will remain functional.

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