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How to keep window visible at all times, but not force it to be on top

I'm creating a "desktop gadget" of sorts, I've disabled manual minimizing of the window, but now there is another problem: the system can still hide the window if the user presses Windows+D, for example.
When hidden that way, no usual minimize/resize/visibility events are fired.
I want to do something almost like TopMost, but without forcing the window order.
Maybe it's possible to install a global shortcut event using win32 API, and briefly set TopMost to true, but that sounds very hackish.
I found one solution, but it does not seem to work on Windows 10: Keeping window visible through "Show Desktop"/Win+D
The other common option, which would be writing an actual desktop gadget, is not possible on Windows 10, given their deprecation.
Are there any other methods to keep a window visible (but not on top of the screen) at all moments?

This function is working for me:
BOOL FixShowDesktop(HWND hWnd)
{
HWND hWndTmp = FindWindowEx(NULL, NULL, L"Progman", NULL);
if (hWndTmp)
{
hWndTmp = FindWindowEx(hWndTmp, NULL, L"SHELLDLL_DefView", NULL);
if (hWndTmp)
{
SetWindowLongPtr(hWnd, -8, (LONG_PTR)hWndTmp);
return TRUE;
}
}
return FALSE;
}
Note, this code is a bit better then from Keeping window visible through "Show Desktop"/Win+D because the window can be overflowed by other windows (like any other window). Using SetParent places window under all other windows.

How to always show underline character? (C# Windows Form)

I'm making a dialog that look like Notepad's Find Dialog. I notice that the underline character of Notepad's Find dialog always show all the time (I have to press ALT key to see this with my dialog). How to always show underline character like that?
I try to use SendKeys.Send("%") on Form_Load event but nothing happens.
There is another problem, when I press ALT key on child Form, it show underline charater of parent Form too. How to avoid that?
This is sreenshot of Notepad's find dialog:
I pretty sure this is not about Ease of Acess Center, because the main Form of Notepad doesn't always show this.

Seeing the n in "Find" underlined in the Notepad dialog is an intentional bug. The dialog isn't actually part of Notepad, it built into Windows. Underlying winapi call is FindText(). The feature is in general a pile 'o bugs, one core problem is that creating a new window after the UI is put in the "show underlines" state doesn't work correctly, that new window isn't also in that state. Presumably the intentional bug was based on the assumption that the user would be somewhat likely to use the Alt key to get the dialog displayed. Yuck if he pressed Ctrl+F.
The Windows dialog probably does it by simply drawing the "Find" string with DrawText() with the DT_NOPREFIX option omitted. You could do the same with TextRenderer.DrawText(), omit the TextFormatFlags.HidePrefix option.
Not exactly WinFormsy, you'd favor a Label control instead of code. It is hackable, you'd have to intentionally send the message that puts the UI in the "show underlines" state for your own dialog. Do so in an override for the OnHandleCreated() method:
protected override void OnHandleCreated(EventArgs e) {
const int WM_UPDATEUISTATE = 0x0128;
base.OnHandleCreated(e);
SendMessage(this.label1.Handle, WM_UPDATEUISTATE, new IntPtr(0x30002), IntPtr.Zero);
}
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wp, IntPtr lp);
Where "label1" is the control you want to show underlines. Repeat for other controls, if any. It is supposed to work by sending the message to the form, that this doesn't work is part of the pile 'o bugs. Yuck.
Fwiw: do not fix this by changing the system option as recommended in the duplicate. That's very unreasonable.

You can use RichTextBox control and extension method for that:
public static class FontHelper
{
public static void Underline(this RichTextBox txtBox, int underlineStart, int length)
{
if (underlineStart > 0)
{
txtBox.SelectionStart = underlineStart;
txtBox.SelectionLength = length;
txtBox.SelectionFont = new Font(txtBox.SelectionFont, FontStyle.Underline);
txtBox.SelectionLength = 0;
}
}
}
richTextBox1.Text = "Search for";
richTextBox1.Underline(7, 1); // index and length of underlying text

Set active window

I'm trying to make an app that gives a quake style drop-down HUD console. I can get it to show and hide the window, but I can't figure out how to set it as the active window after showing it. Im using Win API calls to show and hide the window. I've tried SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd) and SetFocus(IntPtr hWnd) to no avail. Anyone have any ideas?
http://pastebin.com/DgtJJGiv
public void ShowApp()
{
IntPtr h = FindWindow(null, "C:\\Windows\\system32\\cmd.exe");
ShowWindow(h, SW_SHOW);
//EnableWindow(h, true);
isHidden = false;
// set focus to console window
SetForegroundWindow(h);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(h);
}

I found an answer here:
How to show form in front in C#
The winAPI approaches were not working correctly for me but this did:
form.TopMost = true;
form.TopMost = false;
I originally was only setting TopMost to true but I ran into problems with dialog boxes displaying behind the form. It appears that setting TopMost to true pulls the form to the front and holds it there. Setting it to false doesn't push it back but does allow other forms to be shown in front. I was still having problems with focus so I ended up going with the following:
form.Activate();

You may use SetActiveWindow winAPI method. Hope this helps...

Try this (works for me):
public static void ShowApp()
{
IntPtr h = FindWindow(null, "C:\\Windows\\system32\\cmd.exe");
ShowWindow(h, ShowWindowCommands.Show);
SetForegroundWindow(h);
SetFocus(h);
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(h);
}

Is there any reason why you can't implement your own console window? What I mean is a simple Form with a Textbox set to the correct style. You would probably have more control over how it works than trying to use the 'cmd' process.
Just a thought.

Can't draw on Internet Explorer

I have the following code which draws a square on the main window of another process:
private void DrawOnWindow(string processname)
{
IntPtr winhandle = GetWindowHandle(processname);
Graphics grph = Graphics.FromHwnd(winhandle);
grph.DrawRectangle(Pens.Red, 10, 10, 100, 100);
}
private IntPtr GetWindowHandle(string windowName)
{
IntPtr windowHandle = IntPtr.Zero;
Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName(windowName);
if (processes.Length > 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < processes.Length; i++)
{
if (processes[i].MainWindowHandle.ToInt32() > 0)
{
windowHandle = processes[i].MainWindowHandle;
break;
}
}
}
return windowHandle;
}
This works when I pass "firefox" to the DrawOnWindow method, but it does not work when I pass "iexplore" and I don't understand why. What do I need to do to get this to work on internet explorer? (IE8)

With IE what you're drawing on is the parent window and IE8 has the WS_CLIPCHILDREN window style set. What you need to do is to descent the window hierarchy and figure out exactly which child you want to render on and then go to town on that window instead.

IE8 has one top-level process, which contains the main window and draws the frame, address bar, and other controls in it. t also has several child processes, which own one or more tabs and their corresponding windows.
Your code will return the window handle for the top-level window of the last Iexplore process. However, if that process happens to be a child window, there are two problems:
it does not have a top-level window;
nothing guarantees you that the current visible tab belongs to this process.\
You need to modify your code and special-case it for IE to accommodate for the specifics of the IE process/window hierarchy.
Btw, if you decide to draw on Chrome, you will have similar problems, as they also do similar tricks with multiple processes and window hierarchy that spans across these processes.

How to make a windows form to come front in windows application done in c#?

I have done a global mouse event in my windows application. When i click the center button of my mouse, i want to make a particular form topmost...
There are some applications which runs in the full screen mode, so i need to do this, in order to make my form visible to the users, because this is the only way to view it. Since Alt + Tab is disabled. This is a Kiosk application.
I tried using Topmost = true for that particular form and
I tried using below code...But no use. I am not getting my form in front.
[DllImport("User32.dll")]
public static extern Int32 SetForegroundWindow(int hWnd);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
private void BringToFront(string className,string CaptionName)
{
SetForegroundWindow(FindWindow(className,CaptionName));
}
The global hotkey which has to trigger this form to bring front is working perfectly.
How to make my form come front ??? Thanks.

I solved it, doing this:
this.TopMost = true;
this.TopMost = false;

Not my thing but have you tried messing with:
this.BringToFront();
this.Activate();

get the handle of the window and do this
SetWindowPos(hwnd,HWND_TOPMOST,0,0,0,0,SWP_NOMOVE|SWP_NOSIZE| SWP_SHOWWINDOW);

You need set the fullscreen form's topmost to false, then continue on.

You may not be calling your BringToFront method correctly. For the FindWindow API function, lpClassName would be your application's name (e.g. "MyApplication.exe"), while lpWindowName refers to the caption in the particular form's title bar (e.g. "Form1"). Usually with FindWindow you pass in one or the other, eg:
FindWindow("MyApplication.exe", null);
// or
FindWindow(null, "Form1");
I'm not sure what happens when you pass both.
You may also just need to do something simple to achieve this, like calling the particular form's Activate() method.