Question

Basically I made console app that performs some task that takes a few minutes. I’d like to have it flash in the taskbar to let me know when it’s done doing its thing.

Answer 1

Using the answer that @Zack posted and another one to find the handle of a console app I came up with this and it works great.

class Program
{
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    static extern bool FlashWindowEx(ref FLASHWINFO pwfi);

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    public struct FLASHWINFO
    {
        public UInt32 cbSize;
        public IntPtr hwnd;
        public UInt32 dwFlags;
        public UInt32 uCount;
        public Int32 dwTimeout;
    }

    public const UInt32 FLASHW_ALL = 3;

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Flashing NOW");
        FlashWindow(Process.GetCurrentProcess().MainWindowHandle);
        Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue");
        Console.ReadKey();
    }

    private static void FlashWindow(IntPtr hWnd)
    {
        FLASHWINFO fInfo = new FLASHWINFO();

        fInfo.cbSize = Convert.ToUInt32(Marshal.SizeOf(fInfo));
        fInfo.hwnd = hWnd;
        fInfo.dwFlags = FLASHW_ALL;
        fInfo.uCount = UInt32.MaxValue;
        fInfo.dwTimeout = 0;

        FlashWindowEx(ref fInfo);
    }
}