Question

My project is .NET/WinForms.

I have a list view which is always filled with items. I would like it to have selection always. However, if I click on an empty area below list view items, it looses selection.

The list has multiple selection = true and hide selection = false.

Answer 1

You need to prevent the native control from seeing the mouse click so it won’t unselect an item. Add a new class to your project and paste the code shown below. Compile. Drop it from the top of the toolbox onto your form, replacing the existing one.

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

class MyListView : ListView {
    protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
        // Swallow mouse messages that are not in the client area
        if (m.Msg >= 0x201 && m.Msg <= 0x209) {
            Point pos = new Point(m.LParam.ToInt32());
            var hit = this.HitTest(pos);
            switch (hit.Location) {
                case ListViewHitTestLocations.AboveClientArea :
                case ListViewHitTestLocations.BelowClientArea :
                case ListViewHitTestLocations.LeftOfClientArea :
                case ListViewHitTestLocations.RightOfClientArea :
                case ListViewHitTestLocations.None :
                    return;
            }
        }
        base.WndProc(ref m);
    }
}