Question

How can i make, what i will call, a “popup” window” in WinForms?

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Since i used my own made-up word “popup”, let me give examples of this so-called “popup” window:

• a tooltip window (can extend outside the boundaries of its parent form, doesn’t appear in the taskbar, is not modal, and doesn’t steal focus):

  

• a popup menu window (can extend outside the boundaries of its parent form, doesn’t appear in the taskbar, is not modal, and doesn’t steal focus):

  

• a drop-down window (can extend outside the boundaries of its parent form, doesn’t appear in the taskbar, is not modal, and doesn’t steal focus):

  

• A main menu window (can extend outside the boundaries of its parent form, doesn’t appear in the taskbar, is not modal, and doesn’t steal focus):

  

• Update A popup window not make itself the “active” window when interacted with using a mouse or keyboard (the “owner” window remains the active window):

The attributes that i’m looking for in this mythical “popup” are that it:

• can extend outside the boundaries of its parent form (i.e. is not a child window)
• doesn’t appear in the taskbar (i.e. Window’s heuristics of which windows should appear doesn’t kick in, nor does it have WS_EX_APPWINDOW extended window style)
• is not modal (i.e. doesn’t disable its “owner”)
• doesn’t steal focus
• is always on-top of of it’s “owner”
• does not become the “active” window when interacted with (the owner remains active)

Windows applications are already managing to create such windows. How can i do it in a WinForms application?

Related questions

• How do i achieve all the above in native code?
• How do i create a popup window in Delphi?
• i have this native code to show a “popup” window – what P/Invokes are required to perform the same actions in .NET?
• i have a set of P/Invoke’s in .NET – can i reuse a regular WinForm, overriding certain methods, to achieve the same effect?
• i have WinForm that i’m showing as a “popup” by overriding certain methods – is there a built-in Control that can act as a popup for me?
• How to simulate a drop-down window in WinForms?

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Attempt#1

i tried the Show(onwer) + ShowWithoutActivation method:

PopupForm dd = new PopupForm ();
dd.Show(this);

with PopupForm:

public class PopupForm: Form
{
    public PopupForm()
    {
        InitilizeComponent();
    }

    private void InitilizeComponent()
    {
        this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.None;
        this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal;
        this.ShowInTaskbar = false;
    }

    protected override bool ShowWithoutActivation
    { get { return true; } }
}

Very nearly solved the problem, but then i discovered was reminded of another property of “popup” windows: they do not take focus from their “owner” form become active when interacted with by mouse or keyboard.

Answer 1

You want an owned window. In your main form:

private void showPopup_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    PopupForm popupForm = new PopupForm();
    // Make "this" the owner of form2
    popupForm.Show(this);
}

PopupForm should look like this:

public partial class PopupForm : Form
{
    private bool _activating = false;

    public PopupForm()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    // Ensure the popup isn't activated when it is first shown
    protected override bool ShowWithoutActivation
    {
        get
        {
            return true;
        }
    }

    private const int WM_NCACTIVATE = 0x86;

    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    public static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
    {
        // The popup needs to be activated for the user to interact with it,
        // but we want to keep the owner window's appearance the same.
        if ((m.Msg == WM_NCACTIVATE) && !_activating && (m.WParam != IntPtr.Zero))
        {
            // The popup is being activated, ensure parent keeps activated appearance
            _activating = true;
            SendMessage(this.Owner.Handle, WM_NCACTIVATE, (IntPtr) 1, IntPtr.Zero);
            _activating = false;
            // Call base.WndProc here if you want the appearance of the popup to change
        }
        else
        {
            base.WndProc(ref m);
        }
    }
}

And make sure that PopupForm.ShowInTaskbar = false.