I'm a french developer and I need to develop an Metro Style app for Windows 8 Pro who is always launched. I wanted to know how can I disable the close event of my app. My app need to be in front all the time and the user couldn't quit the app.
I thought I could disable all the shortcut with the GPO but the close gesture (drag the app from the top to the bottom) need to me disabled too.
I hope I was clear and everybody will understand the question :-). Feel free to ask me more specific questions.
Cordially Renaud.
The short answer is: You can't.
The operating system and the user control the lifetime of Metro Style apps, you can't block the user from switching away from your app and once your app is no longer in the foreground, the application is suspended and the system can terminate the application at any moment.
Similarly, the user close gesture cannot be blocked.
In Windows 8.1 you may find Kiosk Mode to be what you need.
Related
Hi i have windows 10 Pro x64 bit and i will like to know if it's possible to develop a lock screen for windows 10 , without using hacks or not safe methods .. That will close the Pc monitor until a key is pressed .
I search the google but i did not find anything about that , other than how to disable it or how to change the background image of the already existing one
No, it is not possible.
The authentication experience in Windows is locked-down, for good reason. The system can be extended (previously using GINA for NT4 through XP, now Winlogon) but only really to allow for new authentication providers, not to change the user-experience.
Of course, you could always build your own full-screen application which mimicks a login screen, and it could be used to invoke the login action and create a session for that user, but if I press Ctrl+Alt+Del on my keyboard or WinKey+L, or choose any of the Logoff options from the start menu then I'll still get the "real" login screen, and that's by-design.
Historical note: Windows XP added the 'Welcome Screen' UX for computers that were not domain-joined. The Welcome Screen UI was a regular userland process which invoked the platform APIs for logging users on and off, and it was loaded into the special local login session. Hypothetically it was possible to replace this screen with another one completely, though I don't believe I ever saw anything beyond a proof-of-concept. There were third-party tools that customized the appearance of the login screen, but they worked by replacing image resources, they didn't actually replace the executable.
...but since Windows Vista the login experience was more controlled and I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) it's all controlled by the core authentication components, so it just isn't possible to replace it - not without seriously modifying the entire Windows security system.
I'm developing a Windows 10 Universal app (UWP).
Is it possible to set application as TopMost (always on top)? Like WPF or Winforms (TopMost property).
Thanks
A feature called CompactOverlay mode was added in the Creators Update that supports this type of functionality. When an app window enters compact overlay mode it’ll be shown above other windows so it won’t get blocked. This allows users to continue to keep an eye on your app's content even when they are working with something else. The canonical example of an app taking advantage of this feature is a media player or a video chat app.
A blog post describing the feature can be found here
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/universal-windows-app-model/2017/02/11/compactoverlay-mode-aka-picture-in-picture/
Short answer is no, there is no way as of today to make the application modal.
There is a petition going around asking for this functionality, which was requested last December but given the amount of votes it got (35 at the time this answer was written), it doesn't look like it will be taken into consideration anytime soon.
As mentioned in the comments, this functionality would be PC only so even if it was added, my assumption would be that it wouldn't work outside of the PC mode (so no tablet, mobile or surface family device support).
It's not possible UWP apps have some restrictions compared with WPF of Win32 apps(classic apps).
With uwp apps you need enable some capabilities to do something special in your app as you can see in the link uwp apps need ask for permission or they can't access or modify files directly.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/mt270968.aspx
Best Regards
I would like to create an app which would pop-up fullscreen when user is not interacting with the device; the first tap would then close it. So it's exactly like a screensaver. It should "run" 24/7. Display should always be lit. Battery is of no concern.
I've already done this on android, but my WP skills are lacking and complete research would take me at least a couple of days, so I'm asking any WP gurus out there:
can the same functionality (screensaver) be achieved on the Windows Phone 8.1 platform?
If so, which are the basics that should be covered (programming-wise)?
Edit:
The only solution I have at this moment is changing the LockScreen background on a 30minute interval.
I'm still not sure whate happens in 2 weeks as some info suggests that the registered task will expire. Not to mention that LockScreen is shown only a few seconds.
Edit 2:
Subquestion: is there a way to keep LockScreen shown at all times (while charging)? Or maybe lauch lock screen from code?
Windows Phone doesn't usually allow apps to pop up on their own. Exceptions are made for specific usecases such as voip. There is also no way for an app that isn't running in the foreground to realise that the user hasn't interacted with the screen for any number of minutes.
Therefore your only option is to use the inbuilt lockscreen functionality.
I realize this might sound a little dubious but I assure you it isn't. I have a client who wants a win 8 pro touch screen app. One of the requirements is that the app is the only thing on the device the user may use. So my question is, can I make it so that the user cannot exit my wpf application? I have it running full screen without toolbars but they could still click on start etc. I essentially want it to run on windows but kind of be its own OS. Any advice is appreciated. Also if this is something that can be handled in group policies or some other way I would love to have that advice as well. Thank you.
You'll need to set Windows 8.1 to run in "Kiosk" mode.
How to enable Kiosk mode in Windows 8.1
The only caveat, is that the app must be a Windows modern app, not WPF.
Windows 8.1 comes with an excellent feature where you can lockdown the
device allowing the user to use only one application. You need to keep
in mind that this application needs to be a modern application and
cannot be a desktop application. So, if you are going to use it for
your customized company application (For e.g. ATMs, Flight Schedule),
the application should be a modern application
There is a product called "Secure Lockdown" from Inteset http://shop.inteset.com/lock-down-windows-7-with-inteset-secure-lockdown that looks like it can be used with a WPF app. I've not used it (yet), but it looks like it should work for your scenario. It's not free, but it reasonably priced at around $20. It says it is compatible with Windows 8 as well.
I have a windows mobile professional 6.1 application and I want it to be full screen in all pages so I put the code below into my every pages constructor;
this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
this works OK but "sometimes" for example when I use
MessageBox.Show("alert");
or when I try to connect internet within application and there is a problem and Windows shows me some messages popping up from the top of the screen..in this cases I lose my full screen and the top menu bar of windows becomes visible again..
any ideas?
You can use SHFullScreen to hide the start icon and other system areas of the screen. There is an undocumented function named AllKeys which will allow you to block some of the hardware keys (notes, recorder, green + red phone keys) from running. It will require a lot of work because there are many ways to run programs and the taskbar has a habit of reappearing after a program is run. Simply calling SHFullScreen once is not enough. You'll have to handle WM_ACTIVATE messages and call SHFullScreen again and force your program to the top again. It's a struggle against the operating system to have a true kiosk application on Windows Mobile.
Getting an app to "kiosk mode" in Windows Mobile is challenging becasue the platform simply isn't designed for it. This page has a lot of links to resources of getting it working. Using your favorite search engine to look for "compact framework kiosk mode" is likely to bring up more as well.