My application handles the startup and termination of external some application.
An inbuilt TaskBar is there to tab the applications that are started.
Say when three applications are started, i map those 3 applications to the tabs created. So that the user can use the task bar to switch between the application. The default windows task bar will be replaced by my applications taskbar because it is a Kiosk application.
All these works fine...
What i want to do is, the toggling between the applications is not smooth, which the user dosent like.
I want to make the change of applications smooth. I am using windows XP.
I am calling ShowWindowsAsync function to show the application when user clicks the respective tab.
How can i make the the visual effective using c# ? Is there any possibility ?
P/Invoke AnimateWindow() to get transitions. Visit pinvoke.net for the required declarations.
Related
I'm developing a MVC application using .NET 6.0. I am publishing the app with the following configuration:
The app, so far, is launched by double-clicking the .exe, it shows the classic "cmd-style" window.
Now the requirement is to start the portable app minimized into a system tray notification area in Windows (if this is not possible, I was looking for a method to deploy the app as a service which runs in background).
How can I achieve this? Thank you.
To obtain access to the system tray, you need a message pump and a target window. In other words, a regular command-line executable doesn't cut it. Basically you need to have an executable that creates a window (can be an invisible one) and then the main thread must pump Windows messages.
I'll say this much for now becuase the provided information is insufficient and explaining all possible scenarios would be too long a response.
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.
In my application their is one option to hide the app. Whenever user clicks on hide the app window as well as the app icon from task bar should be get hidden.
How to achieve this in UWP?
This feature is not supported (yet) on UWP.
If you look at the UWP Skype, it always remain visible from the taskbar along with all the other apps. A UWP app cannot register by itself a global shortcut to be launched.
Minimized UWP applications are suspended by the OS when it wants/needs and will not be able to perform any job. If you hide your application you will be suspended and will not be able to perform any work. The only exception being if you request an extended execution time, your application will be allowed to run while minimized. They will still be limits but they are more battery/lock screen bounds.
If you really want to hide your app, you should just close your app window and rely on some background tasks to perform the work you might want to do when hidden/stopped.
This should be a good reading:
Windows 10 universal Windows platform (UWP) app lifecycle
Support your app with background tasks
Postpone app suspension with extended execution
I am developing a simple chat application which works in LAN. I have a problem in ALt+Tab.
When I open 2 applications (One is mine and another one say Firefox), now it switches properly between two windows when I press Alt+Tab.
Now I will minimize firefox. So now my app is the only one in foreground. Now if I press Alt+Tab, firefox comes foreground which is not expected (or I dont expect).
How to make Alt+Tab not work when all windows are in minimized state ?
I am using vb.net but c# is also OK for me and for example I have given firefox; there may be n number of windows in minimized state.
Please help me.
Pressing ALT + TAB in Windows (or other OS) is supposed to switch between every active application that is running and has a top-level Window. So the behavior you are describing is actually working the way it is supposed to.
More on Wikipedia about that.
However, it is possible to hack this behavior by capturing the ALt-Tab event. It is actually used by several remote control application so they can transmit commands from one computer to another.
Here is a start up guide, but beware that you get into Windows weird APIs and low-level functionnality. Use at your own risk...
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