Take a screenshot behind window in C# WinForm - c#

I'm working on an app in c# windows forms, I have a form called Form1 with a button, and after click this button the idea is to take a screenshoot of everything behind it except the Form1 itself (without minimizing Form1).
Any idea or suggestion?
Thank you!

If you want a solution without hiding, moving, minimizing etc., you need the following approach:
EnumWindows() to iterate all windows. This will give you the windows top to bottom.
Don't forget to exclude your own window
Exclude windows that are invisible. Check out GetWindowLongPtr with GWL_STYLE and compare against WS_VISIBLE
GetWindowRect() to get their size
PrintWindow() to get a bitmap of the window, no matter whether it's in the background
Create a bitmap with the size of the VirtualScreen
Paint the windows in reverse order (bottom to top) using DrawImage()
I found that this is quite fast (514 ms on a 2560x1440 screen with 20 visible windows to draw).
Limitations:
since it sends a WM_PRINT message to the application, you can not capture applications that are "not responding"
For me, Firefox does not render well. It's missing page contents.
For me, control panel content appears black, although it's there when getting a screenshot of the whole screen.

you can use hard code. Actually light shot and other tools working such as. When you click to screenshot button you may close the form window after the event and reopen it. it is the basic way of solution...
Please check this way: How can i capture the screen without the Form?

Related

Dynamic form with resizing in C# .net

As a learning project in C# .net I am re-creating a Gnome 3 plugin for seeing who of the streamers you follow on Twitch is live. I have the settings form done, I am now working on the interface that is viewed from a click on the taskbar.
This is a rough image of what I want the interface to look like. When two or more streamers are live the interface would add another block and resize the form vertically similar to the menu for selecting a Wifi network in Windows.
What would be the best way for me to complete this?
My current thought is to maybe create a custom control and just place those inside a FlowLayoutPanel with some kind of code to change the vertical size of the form to match the added entries. Maybe this can be done without a custom control and be done with code inside a FlowLayoutPanel? I'm not too sure.
Ideally I would also have a click event in the panel for each streamer so I could then open a browser to their channel. A slight highlight would also be a plus (maybe change the background colour based on mouse hover).
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Getting Pixel Values "Under" Current Window

I'm trying to make, essentially, a screen capture program, that captures the pixel values under the current window. (I'm working in C#, in Visual Studio 2015.) However, for various reasons, the window itself needs to be opaque (for filters and such). How can I best achieve this?
It is possible to find the window below yours and get a screenshot of it even if it is hidden with the method: PrintWindow (see PInvoke.net as well)
See Copying content from a hidden or clipped window in XP?
It is very simple to do in Winforms. Just set the form's Opacity value to 99%. Now Graphics.CopyFromScreen() will not see your window anymore.
Except when the window underneath yours is also a layered window, then it also won't be visible to CopyFromScreen() for the same reason. Then you have to set Opacity to 0, copy and set it back to 0.99. Very quick, probably good enough for what you want to do.

C# launch form when images fully loaded

I'm making C# application design with images, but when I launch it, I see loading images (~1sec), so how to make simple loader, when images (background, logo, etc..) fully loads, to show my app? I know it's possible but I don't know how to. Thanks so much!
This sounds like standard behaviour. The controls get painted one by one in z-order and if one is slow the rest may appear to flicker.
You could try double buffering the whole form as shown here:
How to fix the flickering in User controls
Alternatively you could suspend the layout while everything is drawn and resume it afterwards:
How do I suspend painting for a control and its children?

Windows Form app that takes up the top area of a screen?

I'm trying to create a windows form app that "owns" the top area of a screen. Think of it as just a rectangular form width = screen size and height = 20px or so. The app would always be on top and would be borderless (i.e. FormBorderStyle=none). The questionable part, for example, if a user maximizes a window like chrome or some other application, it should treat the bottom of this windows form app as the top of the screen. This way since the form app is always on top, it doesn't cover up any of the maximized application's window.
Any clues on how to do this.. can it be done with windows forms? The only questionable part is how to "own" a portion of the screen.
Let me know if clarification is needed. Thanks in advanced.
What you need is to set the Screen.WorkingArea which is readonly you should use PInvoke to achieve this you can find your answer in this thread
To get the working area of the display you can use Screen.WorkingArea property

C# Autohide form

I've a winforms app that "docks" to the taskbar
I'd like to autohide the form and make it appear only when the mouse goes near/over the form
any suggestions ?
Install a global hook onto the mouse-move event and check to see if it is within the form boundaries. Should work even with the form hidden. If not just store the location as a rectangle and check against that.
Code for a simple and handy global hook implementation can be found at:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/globalhook.aspx
I've used this method to create "hotspot" functionality to a user desktop.
I'm not sure it is exactly answering your question, but there is a sample of this on Codeplex...
http://remoteaccessmonitor.codeplex.com/
Browse the source code and check out the MinimizeToTray.cs file - it has examples of pop up messages when hiding and I think its default behaviour is to re-appear on click (although I imagine this could be changed).
You could.
Poll mouse coords until it's within a certain radius of your app.
Position an invisible, always-on-top form above the docked app and have it fire a MouseEnter event.
That's all I can think of really. Either.

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