Form / Control as part of the desktop window

[Rolf Welskes]

Hello,
I have the following problem:

I have a control or form what ever.

I want that this is a part of the desktop window.

Means all other normal windows on the dektop are over my application.

I have tried to solve it with a little c++, windows sdk, but do not find a
solution.

I thought I have the control ctrl. and write:

MyControl ctrl = new MyControl();
ctrl.Create();
IntPtr h = ctlr.Handle,
CppHelper.SetOwnerToDesktopWindow(h);

CppHelper should be a small dll with c++ which uses windows functions to set
the control's owner to the desktop window.
But all I do it does not work.

Thank you for any help.
Rolf Welskes

[Linda Liu [MSFT]]

Hi Rolf,

I am sorry that I may not understand what you want exactly. Based on my
understanding, you'd like a control or a form behave like it is a part of
the desktop, i.e. it can not be minimised and is always located behind
other normal windows on the desktop. If I'm off base, please feel free to
let me know.

To tell you the truth, I haven't seen such a behavior of a control/form
except the Gadgets in Windows Sidebar in Windows Vista yet.

Do you mean you want your contol/form to behave like Gadgets? If so, you
may visit the following link to get started:

'Gadget Development Overview '
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sidebar/sid
ebar/overviews/gdo.asp

If my suggestion is not what you want, please feel free to let me know.

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

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[Rolf Welskes]

Hello,
thank you for your informations.
you understand right, but the solution is not what I want, because it must
run under
all windows systems.

I have an application of someone, downloaded (Calendar), which simple is
part of the desktop
means all other windows are over this application.
If I could set the owner of the control / form to the desktop window this
should work.
But this is not possible under dot net (1.1), because the owner must be a
.net control
and the desktop window is not available under dot net (1.1).
Under c++ it is possible to have the handle of the control and the desktop
window,
but how to set the desktop the owner of the control in c++ / windows
gui/sdk?

Thank you for any help.
Rolf Welskes

"Linda Liu [MSFT]" <v-l...@online.microsoft.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:vUgb2DhP...@TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl...

[Linda Liu [MSFT]]

Hi Rolf,

Thank you for your prompt response.

This is a quick note to let you know that I am researching on this issue
and will get it back to you ASAP.

I appreciate your patience.

[Linda Liu [MSFT]]

Hi Rolf,

Sorry for my delayed reply.

You're in the right direction on attempting to set the desktop the parent
of the your form to embed your form as a part of the desktop.

I use spy++ to capture the desktop window and found that it is comprised of
3 sub windows. They're SysListView32, SHELL_DefView and Progman from
outside to inside. You could set any of these 3 sub window as the parent
window of your form.

The only difference is that if you set the SysListView32 as the owner, when
your form is minimized, it still stays on the desktop. On the contrary, if
you set the SHELL_DefView or Progman as the owner, when you minimize your
form, it becomes invisible. I suggest that you choose the SysListView32 as
the parent window.

To set a window as the parent window of another window, we could use the
Win32API -- SetParent.

The following is a sample.

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern private IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName,
string lpWindowName);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern private IntPtr GetWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int uCmd);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern private IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWndChild, IntPtr
hWndNewParent);

const int GW_CHILD = 5;

public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
IntPtr progmanhwnd = FindWindow("Progman", null);
IntPtr shellhwnd = GetWindow(progmanhwnd, GW_CHILD);
IntPtr folderhwnd = GetWindow(shellhwnd, GW_CHILD);

SetParent(this.Handle, folderhwnd);

}
}

Please try my suggestion and let me know the result.

Sincerely,
Linda Liu
Microsoft Online Community Support

[Rolf Welskes]

Hello,
thank your for your informations.
It works fine.
Thank you again and best regards
Rolf Welskes

"Linda Liu [MSFT]" <v-l...@online.microsoft.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag

news:2RcT15FQ...@TK2MSFTNGHUB02.phx.gbl...