We are creating an application(must be UWP for Microsoft app store). The application will remain running and we want to “hide” the UI from the desktop after they log in (not in taskbar). We want to put it somewhere where they can see the status of the application and/or logout (like a VPN or Anti-virus app shows status).
We have investigated using systray (non existent in uwp), quick actions tray (seems to be for system applications), notifications (show status there, but user can remove it—looking for something like the Action Center buttons for Wifi). Our goal is to have an application running, but out of the way, with access to the status and logout functionality. What is the Microsoft approved way? If there is no such approved way, how have you solved this?
At this point, that's not supported in UWP.
You can however publish WPF applications to the Microsoft Store using Desktop Bridge. I haven't touch it, but I've seen a few apps in the store running more elevated access than UWP and you may have the ability to control the visibility of the application's icon (ie taskbar/systemtray).
Give it a try and let us know if it works.
You're right, but there are some workarounds that can be used:
1. USING THE DISMISSED EVENT to show the notification again if user dismissed it.
2. UWP APP WITH SYSTRAY EXTENSION
As explained in this blogpost, you can add a component that will create the tray icon.
Related
I'm launch my app when the user logs in to Windows. I have the appropriate Extension (StartupTask class) set in Package.appxmanifest, and I can get the app to launch when I log in to Windows, as expected. However, the app minimize after start. How i can his maximize after start?
I tried the ways from this thread
the documentation explains this:
UWP apps must call RequestEnableAsync from a UI thread to trigger a user-consent dialog. If the user consents, the UWP app will then start on startup or user log in. Note that UWP startup apps will start minimized.
Minimizing when starting the application is the default behavior. This is to ensure a good user experience for Store app by default. Currently, UWP does not provide related APIs to modify this behavior.
What I need is to provide an exit confirmation dialog for my mobile app.
The dialog is to appear when users taps the Back button on their phones. I know two options i.e.
"Press back again if you really wish to exit" type of message.
"Do you really wish to exit + Yes/No" dialog.
I am exploring the second variant.
The problem I see primarily concerns the windows store apps.
If I show it and give user time to decide than I have already cancelled the default behavior.
For windows store app it is Windows.Phone.UI.Input.HardwareButtons.BackPressed i.e. I've set the Windows.Phone.UI.Input.BackPressedEventArgs.Handled to true.
What do I do if user clicks Yes i.e. confirms his intent to exit the app?
I've read the Metro App can no longer be programmatically killed and do understand that programmatically closing the windows store app is considered "unacceptable". Does it mean that such an exit confirmation dialog is banned for windows platform?
What about Android? Is it ok there to exit the app programmatically?
Formally Windows Store Policy does not allow such behavior:
Where applicable, pressing the back button should take the user to a previous page/dialog. If the user presses the back button on the first page of the app, then the app terminates (unless it is allowed to run in the background).
So you might be lucky to pass certification, but it is definitely not recommended behavior.
For "testing purposes" there are two methods exposed in API to programmatically exit application:
High-level Application.Current.Exit()
Low-level CoreApplication.Exit()
Technically you can use one of these methods to force application to close after user confirmed to exit. But there is no guarantee that you will pass certification.
For Android there are also guidelines. In particular the Core App Quality guide says that
App does not crash, force close, freeze, or otherwise function abnormally on any targeted device.
There are various discussion on Stack Overflow on how to correctly close Android app (example).
From my experience such apps do path certification, but Play team may choose to not promote them as they don't follow official design guidelines.
You could by using the onBackPressed callback method and showing a dialog, but as Jason said, it is a bad practice on Android too.
Let me explain why.
The OS has a PackageManager which manages every apps on the device. Apps have a priority level. That's why the phone app opens when it receives a call and yours get paused (in background). If the active app with the highest priority level needs memory or if your device encounter any problems, it can destroy your activities and then close your app automatically.
Is there any way to completely disable the taskbar in Windows 10 Home? I have a C# app that I want to display fullscreen on clients' displays without any sign of it running on Windows. It's supposed to run on startup and display a website.
I created a setup that changes most of the Windows settings via registry, like hiding desktop icons and altering logon view, but the taskbar remains visible. Auto hide doesn't satisfy me, because after the system boots the taskbar is still visible until you actually click somewhere on the desktop, and it takes a while for my app to run. I'd really appreciate some help.
When explorer is running, there taskbar will always be visible in some kind (even if it's a small border).
If you want to achieve something like a digital signage solution, you may replace the shell. Changing the shell will also provide some other benefits (most popups / balloontips won't occur anymore).
Be aware that this configuration is effective for all users on the system.
Path to the shell is available at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\Shell
Update:
Just to hightlight:
It is indeed possible to have custom shells per user (see comments).
This is done by specifying a custom location of the shell path that is located in the registry for a given user.
Yes, you can totally disable the taskbar in Windows 10 but it is only temporary until you hover your mouse around the taskbar area.
Here's a tutorial: how to hide the taskbar in Windows 10
For practical purposes but also as a learning exercise, I am wanting to create notification application to remind me of friend's Birthdays. I would like the application to be running in the background so that it can check the current date against user configured reminders. If a reminder is due then the user is displayed a simple Window that will allow them to snooze or dismiss the notification. I want the application to have user specific notifications (i.e. User A's notifications are not seen when User B is logged in).
Option 1 - Application launched upon Windows startup:
I thought about keeping it simple by checking when to display notifications only when the application starts up. I would then put a shortcut in the Windows Startup folder. However, this probably wouldn't work if the PC is put to sleep and resumed each day.
Option 2 - Application constantly running in background:
I then thought about making the application so it minimises to an icon in the System Tray and thus would constantly be running in the background. It would then periodically check when to display notifications.
Option 3 - Using Windows Service with application:
I then thought about using a Windows Service to do the periodic checks as to when to display notifications. Obviously, a Windows Service cannot display UI notifications so it would need to use some other mechanism for notification (e.g. sending an email). An application could then be used to configure settings that the service uses.
Are there any other options that I have not considered which would work better. I'm currently inclined to go with option 2 for my first implementation but could look to move to a better solution afterwards.
TIA
Your option 2 is the optimal one since you are aimed to distinct users and their reminders - your application runs in the context of a particular user, you already know which remainders need to be shown. Of course, you could go for the third option but this way is really need more time to code and the code itself would be more complex. I would go for the second option. As your applications is WinForms, for the periodical checks I would recommend you to use System.Windows.Forms.Timer class.
By the way, showing an icon in the tray notification area does not make your application "run in the background", it is just a convenient way to show your application is up and running.
I have started prgramming a windows service. I have added a notify icon from the toolbox.
It has the small notify icon that appears in the systray as a member of those icons.
It works so far.
So far I have a blank form. I have used the DoubleClick for the notifyIcon to bring up
the form (I will use the form for something later).
Now I have a list of things I want to accomplish to make this work like a true windows
service.
First of all, if possible, I owuld like to remove the maximize and cancel button on the form.
Most windos service apps that I have seen offer the ability to close the app by right-mouse-button clicking on the notify icon which brings up a menu of options.
I see in the properties of the form under Misc there is an CancelButton. But I do not see how do deactivate it. In the Properties of the forum I see under Window Style there is a ControlBox option that, if I turn to false, all three buttons, (minimize, maximize and cancel) go away.
These are not what i am looking for. I would not like the option for them to resize,
maximize or close the form here. I suspect people will close the box intending to
make the box go away while still wanting the app to run.
Under the "Focus" caption in Properties, there id "Deactivate". I have created my own
event/method/function for this and in debug I noticed that when you click on the x-box in the upper right corner, this function is called. The problem is that after the function is
over, the app closes anyway. How do I over-ride this function?
Secondly, how do you catch the right button click event on the notify icon in the
systray?
I can see how to create events for "Click" and "MouseClick" etc. but how so I determine
which button was click?
Using the right buton click is how such programs know when to pull up a menu. So I would
like to know how to do this as well.
Windows services should not display notification icons, nor show forms. You'll find out very soon that post Vista they are explicitly forbid from doing so.
You need to split your application into a user program that may show an icon in the notification tray and shows forms, and the service. They need to be distinct processes and communicate via IPC (shared memory, named pipes, sockets etc).
As to how to react to a righ-click on the notification icon question, you simply need to assign something in your designer to the ContextMenu property:
The menu is shown when the user
right-clicks an icon in the
notification area of the taskbar.
Shortcut menus also are known as
pop-up menus.
Standard Windows services do not run with any user interface at all. Generally speaking, your Windows service project type in Visual Studio won't contain any UI components whatsoever.
The UIs you see when working with other services are secondary applications designed to manage those services. Those may run in the system notification area ("tray"), or may run as minimized windows, may be MMC snap-ins, or may be separate applications the administrator launches on an ad-hoc basis.
As an example, SQL Server runs as a service, whether or not Management Studio or any of the other ancillary UI apps are running.
In any event, the user interface "component" of a service needs to be an entirely separate application. This is particularly important in the post-Vista world, for reasons cited by Remus Rusanu. You'll create a separate WinForms project to do this, and have it send messages to the service to control. (This may include the basics such as start, stop and restart; it usually also includes other service-specific commands.)
You may want to consider reading the following other questions here on StackOverflow for some guidance on the standard Windows Service/UI helper application pattern:
What can Services do under Windows?
What is the difference between a windows service and a regular application?
Creating a user interface for monitoring and interacting with a running windows service
Running an exe from windows service that interacts the the user’s desktop
Why do forms fail in Windows Services