I have made a small program in C# that I want to run in the background and it should only appear when a certain key combination is pressed. How can I do this?
There are at least three ways to do this:
Classic Windows Service application. "Creating a Basic Windows Service in C#" article from CodeProject will help you. In that case you use System.ServiceProcess namespace. BTW, in that case you should read "System.ServiceProcess Namespace" article from MSDN. Here is a short quote from it:
The System.ServiceProcess namespace provides classes that allow you to implement, install, and control Windows service applications. Services are long-running executables that run without a user interface.
Memory-Resident Program. But this is almost impossible to do with C#. Use C++ or better C for this purpose, if you want. If you want to search by yourself, just use keyword TSR.
Last one is a dirty one. Just create a formless C# application and try to hide it from Task Manager.
To allow the program to be completely invisible is, in my opinion, a bad idea. Because the user cannot interact with the program.
I would recommend placing it in the SysTray (an icon by the clock in Windows)
trayIcon = new NotifyIcon();
trayIcon.Text = "My application";
trayIcon.Icon = TheIcon
// Add menu to the tray icon and show it.
trayIcon.ContextMenu = trayMenu;
trayIcon.Visible = true;
Visible = false; // Hide form window.
ShowInTaskbar = false; // Remove from taskbar.
To monitor keyboard you can use LowLevel Keyboard hook ( see example ) or attach a hootkey (See example)
Create a windows form application, and delete Form1
Modify program.cs Application.Run(new Form1()); to Application.Run();
You can create a Windows Service Application. It runs as a background process. No user interface. This can also start automatically when the computer boots. You can see the rest of the background processes in Task Manager or you can type in services.msc in Command Prompt.
This might help. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9k985bc9%28v=vs.80%29.aspx
A quick and dirty solution (I think the Window Service Application template is unavailable in Visual Studio Express and Standard):
Start a new Windows Forms Application.
Add a new class to the solution and write the code you want inside it.
Go back to the form designer, set the WindowState property to Minimized, and add a Load event to the form. In the event handler hide the form and call your class:
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.Hide();
MyNewClass mynewclass=new MyNewClass();
}
The application doesn't appear in the taskbar and you don't see it when you hit Alt+Tab. You can add a systray icon to it if you want, just like magol wrote:
NotifyIcon trayIcon = new NotifyIcon();
trayIcon.Icon=new Icon(#"C:\iconfilename.ico");
trayIcon.Visible = true;
If you really want to create a program that really run in background, try to create a Windows service.
Its there if when you create a new project
Related
This question already has answers here:
How can I display a system tray icon for C# window service.?
(2 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
I'm familiar with writing windows service applications. I've written a few using various approaches - third party libs, the .NET-provided approach, etc. None of my prior service applications had any way to interact with them, though.
I'm needing now to write a windows service application, but it will need a task tray icon that perhaps brings up a "management GUI" when you click on it.
What is the appropriate pattern for doing this?
Should the service be its own application, but is able to be interacted with through external means - perhaps a database that it polls for config changes? Should it use IPC or something?
Is there a way to make a windows service also have a GUI so that the management GUI and the service are all just the same application?
Is there a way to make a windows service also have a GUI
No; a windows service doesn't have an (interactive) desktop by definition. Anything that points to getting that to work will be a very dirty hack at the very best.
Is there a way to make a windows service also have a GUI so that the management GUI and the service are all just the same application?
You can share code by putting common stuff in a library or something. You can even share the entire codebase and run the application with an --service commandline argument (for example) and the GUI part without (or with --gui) argument(s).
interacted with through external means - perhaps a database that it polls for config changes?
That is a possibility but not the fastest or most efficient
Should it use IPC or something?
I would opt for that. You can use whatever you want; a REST API, WCF, TCP/UDP connections, sockets, (named) pipes, memory mapped I/O... whatever you choose, it will be some sort of IPC. You can even send custom commands to your service but that is very, very limited.
If it were up to my I'd implement it using WCF. But I'm kinda biased, I do lots of WCF stuff.
Summary
Yes, your Windows service can have a GUI. However, that GUI has to be a separate project (say a Windows Forms project). It's just that the Windows Forms project and your Windows service project have to use whatever is common in between such as database, APIs (e.g. WCF), library, etc. Typically, you would carry out the necessary functionality inside your Windows service and update state / settings in your Windows Forms application.
Adding Your GUI to Task Tray along with a Shortcut Menu
In the Main method of your Windows Forms application, create an object of the NotifyIcon class. You can also create a ContextMenu object and assign it to the ContextMenu property of the NotifyIcon object to allow the tray icon to have shortcut menu. Here is a sample:
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
using (var icon = new NotifyIcon())
{
icon.Icon = System.Drawing.Icon.ExtractAssociatedIcon(Application.ExecutablePath);
var contextMenu = new ContextMenu();
var mnuProperties = new MenuItem()
{
Text = "Properties"
};
var mnuQuit = new MenuItem()
{
Text = "Quit"
};
mnuProperties.Click += mnuProperties_Click;
mnuQuit.Click += mnuQuit_Click;
contextMenu.MenuItems.Add(mnuProperties);
contextMenu.MenuItems.Add(mnuQuit);
icon.ContextMenu = contextMenu;
icon.Visible = true;
Application.Run();
}
}
private static void mnuQuit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Application.Exit();
}
private static void mnuProperties_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var propertiesForm = new PropertiesForm();
propertiesForm.Show();
}
Needless to mention, you can add as many menu items to the context menu, add forms, etc.
One last point, it doesn't have to be a Windows Forms application. It can very well be a WPF application instead.
This question already has answers here:
How do I create a C# app that decides itself whether to show as a console or windowed app?
(11 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I've come from developing in Java to developing in C# in Visual Studio. I'm very comfortable with the change apart from one thing: The way in which I can write hidden or GUI applications.
I used to use Swing for developing my GUI based applications in Java.
What i'd like to do is develop an application in the style of a Console Application with static void Main(string[] args){} however I want to be able to create windows and tell them to be visible/open using a method similar to jFrameObject.setVisible(bool). What I want is a console style application which I can use WPF windows and their components in, and i'd like to be able to make those windows in the window designer built in to Visual Studio 2017.
If at all possible, it would be nice if I had an option to show/hide the console too. I have tried a few different methods to do this, like this, however the console which is shown isn't linked to the C# Console object so doing Console.WriteLine(string); outputs to the debug console in Visual Studio 2017 and not the console which was opened in a window.
Thank you for any help given!
Theres no special thing if you want to open a WPF-window (even in a Console Project).
You can simply add a WPF Form using the Visual Studio Utilities (New/Window or something like this).
To open your window, you have two possibilities:
The first one is to open a dialog modal (the code doesn't continue until the form ist closed)
MyWindow window = new MyWindow();
window.ShowModal();
The second solution is open the window without waiting for the dialog to close(some kind like asynchronous)
MyWindow window = new MyWindow();
window.Show();
You can find further information on this article..
Enjoy programming in C# instead of Java.
Starting out, you can use Windows Forms which enables you to easily add GUI elements to an application, e.g. in your Console Application's Main():
var form = new System.Windows.Forms.Form();
form.Text = "Window Title";
var button = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
button.Text = "OK";
form.Controls.Add(button);
form.ShowDialog();
This requires you to add a reference to the [System.Windows.Forms] assembly.
As for the console window [question]: Show/Hide the console window of a C# console application
If you want to do WPF, add a class representing some window:
public class SomeWindow : System.Windows.Window
{
public SomeWindow()
{
this.AddChild(new System.Windows.Controls.Button() { Content = "OK", Height = 30, Width = 100 });
}
}
Then use the application object to run the window:
new System.Windows.Application().Run(new SomeWindow());
The Main needs to be marked with the [STAThreadAttribute]. The assemblies PresentationCore, PresentationFramework and WindowsBase needs to be referenced.
You can start out with a Console application and add references to WinForms or WPF assemblies to open windows.
Alternatively you can start with a WinForms or WPF application and open a console using the Win32 API: How do I create a C# app that decides itself whether to show as a console or windowed app?
I have created a notifyIcon in my C# application and I am happy with it. Basically, my application is a wrapper for other applications (notepad, firefox, etc). So right now, when I run my app ("MyApp firefox.exe") it loads firefox and when I mouse over the icon in the task bar it says "firefox.exe" ... pretty simple.
If I run 2 instances of my application (with different parameters) I get 2 icons, one mouse over is 'firefox.exe', the other 'notepad.exe'.
What I would really like is there to be 1 icon, where I can create a ContextMenuStrip that adds all the application names as MenuItems, so when I right click, there are 2 selectable items.
Is there any way to do this without wrapping my application in yet another application wrapper? Any ideas?
Sorry if this is a horrible answer...
Create a mutex in the same way that you to create only a single instance of an application when the first app starts...
Instead of preventing your application starting set a flag as follows
Mutex firstAppToStart = new System.Threading.Mutex(false, "Mutex...");
if (firstAppToStart.WaitOne(0, false)) {
// set flag to allow notifyicon to be loaded
CreateNotificationIcon();
} else {
// The mutex is not ours, therefore we do not create a notify icon
}
// Subsequent messages will be posted to the first application to use
// the notify icon on the first application
Now use windows messages to post between applications so now you have a single notifyicon - the other apps use windows messages to post messages to it
This does mean when the first app goes the notifyicon will also go, but you can work around this, by preventing the first app closing if it is the first app, holding a list of apps, and then posting a windows message when each closes, when they've all gone the first app can close itself...
Is it possible to open a WPF Application from a C# Windows button click event?
You can launch it like any other applicaiton. Use the Process.Start method. If you need more control, you can create an instance of the Process class (Process process = new Process())and adjust its properties. You can see the Process class's members here.
Absolutely. You should look into System.Diagnostics.Process.
Hey, I have been searching on google and I cant seem to find anything about targeting different windows in c#, I am using Visual studio 2010.
I'm not sure how to do this but I'm pritty sure it can be done, does anyone know where I can read up about it?
I need to be able to target a different program (like notpad for example), and simulate a key press.
Thanks.
If you mean interacting with different windows (possibly part of a different process), typically you would get a window handle (can be done in many ways), and then you can send messages and get data from those messages to those window handles.
For example see SendMessage which you would p/invoke from your C# app.
If you want to get updates on when certain events happen in those windows then you can use Windows Hooks.
I'm going to assume you're on WinForms (same applies for WPF, slightly different code though).
In your project you have
Form1
Form2
Form3
At the top of your Form1 class, you define this code:
Form2 frm2;
Form3 frm3;
Assuming Form1 is your startup object you add buttons for "Show Form2" and "Show Form3"
In their respective code-behind you add code like this
frm2 = new Form2();
frm2.Show();
frm3 = new Form3();
frm3.Show();
Same concept applies for WPF. If you're trying to do stuff with a window outside your application, the SendMessage Windows API is probably what you need to look into.