WPF Application that only has a tray icon

Question

I am a total WPF newbie and wonder if anyone could give me some pointers how to write an application that starts minimized to tray  The idea is that it periodically fetches an RSS Feed and creates a Toaster-Popup when there are new feeds   The Application should still have a Main Window  essentially just a list containing all feed entries   but that should be hidden by default   I have started reading about XAML and WPF and I know that the StartupUri in the App xaml has to point to my main window  but I have no idea what the proper way is to do the SysTray icon and hide the main window  this also means that when the user minimizes the window  it should minimize to tray  not to taskbar    Any hints

User · Accepted Answer

There s no NotifyIcon for WPF  A colleague of mine used this freely available library to good effect   http   www hardcodet net wpf-notifyicon  blog post  https   bitbucket org hardcodet notifyicon-wpf src  source code  https   www nuget org packages Hardcodet NotifyIcon Wpf   NuGet package  http   visualstudiogallery msdn microsoft com aacbc77c-4ef6-456f-80b7-1f157c2909f7

User · Answer

You have to use the NotifyIcon control from System Windows Forms  or alternatively you can use the Notify Icon API provided by Windows API  WPF Provides no such equivalent  and it has been requested on Microsoft Connect several times   I have code on GitHub which uses System Windows Forms NotifyIcon Component from within a WPF application  the code can be viewed at https   github com wilson0x4d Mubox blob master Mubox QuickLaunch AppWindow xaml cs  Here are the summary bits   Create a WPF Window with ShowInTaskbar False  and which is loaded in a non-Visible State    At class-level   private System Windows Forms NotifyIcon notifyIcon   null    During OnInitialize     notifyIcon   new System Windows Forms NotifyIcon    notifyIcon Click    new EventHandler notifyIcon Click   notifyIcon DoubleClick    new EventHandler notifyIcon DoubleClick   notifyIcon Icon   IconHandles  QuickLaunch      During OnLoaded     notifyIcon Visible   true    And for interaction  shown as notifyIcon Click and DoubleClick above    void notifyIcon Click object sender  EventArgs e        ShowQuickLaunchMenu        From here you can resume the use of WPF Controls and APIs such as context menus  pop-up windows  etc   It s that simple  You don t exactly need a WPF Window to host to the component  it s just the most convenient way to introduce one into a WPF App  as a Window is generally the default entry point defined via App xaml   likewise  you don t need a WPF Wrapper or 3rd party control  as the SWF component is guaranteed present in any  NET Framework installation which also has WPF support since it s part of the  NET Framework  which all current and future  NET Framework versions build upon   To date  there is no indication from Microsoft that SWF support will be dropped from the  NET Framework anytime soon   Hope that helps   It s a little cheese that you have to use a pre-3 0 Framework Component to get a tray-icon  but understandably as Microsoft has explained it  there is no concept of a System Tray within the scope of WPF  WPF is a presentation technology  and Notification Icons are an Operating System  not a  Presentation   concept

User · Answer

I recently had this same problem  Unfortunately  NotifyIcon is only a Windows Forms control at the moment  if you want to use it you are going to have to include that part of the framework  I guess that depends how much of a WPF purist you are    If you want a quick and easy way of getting started check out this WPF NotifyIcon control on the Code Project which does not rely on the WinForms NotifyIcon at all  A more recent version seems to be available on the author s website and as a NuGet package  This seems like the best and cleanest way to me so far         Rich ToolTips rather than text   WPF context menus and popups   Command support and routed events    Flexible data binding     Rich balloon messages rather than the default messages provides by the   OS      Check it out  It comes with an amazing sample app too  very easy to use  and you can have great looking Windows Live Messenger style WPF popups  tooltips  and context menus  Perfect for displaying an RSS feed  I am using it for a similar purpose

[c#] WPF Application that only has a tray icon

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