How to make a window always stay on top in Net

Question

I have a C  winforms app that runs a macro in another program   The other program will continually pop up windows and generally make things look  for lack of a better word  crazy   I want to implement a cancel button that will stop the process from running  but I cannot seem to get the window to stay on top   How do I do this in C      Edit   I have tried TopMost true    but the other program keeps popping up its own windows over top   Is there a way to send my window to the top every n milliseconds   Edit  The way I solved this was by adding a system tray icon that will cancel the process by double-clicking on it   The system tray icon does no get covered up   Thank you to all who responded   I read the article on why there is not a  super-on-top  window    it logically does not work

User · Answer

Here is the SetForegroundWindow equivalent:

form.Activate();

I have seen people doing weird things like:

this.TopMost = true;
this.Focus();
this.BringToFront();
this.TopMost = false;

http://blog.jorgearimany.com/2010/10/win32-setforegroundwindow-equivalent-in.html

User · Answer

I know this is old  but I did not see this response   In the window  xaml  add   Deactivated  Window Deactivated    In the code behind for Window Deactivated   private void Window Deactivated object sender  EventArgs e                Window window    Window sender          window Activate            This will keep your window on top

User · Answer

Set the form s  TopMost property to true   You probably don t want to leave it this way all the time  set it when your external process starts and put it back when it finishes

User · Answer

If by  going crazy  you mean that each window keeps stealing focus from the other  TopMost will not solve the problem    Instead  try   CalledForm Owner   CallerForm  CalledForm Show      This will show the  child  form without it stealing focus  The child form will also stay on top of its parent even if the parent is activated or focused  This code only works easily if you ve created an instance of the child form from within the owner form  Otherwise  you might have to set the owner using the API

User · Answer

Form TopMost will work unless the other program is creating topmost windows  There is no way to create a window that is not covered by new topmost windows of another process  Raymond Chen explained why

User · Answer

I had a momentary 5 minute lapse and I forgot to specify the form in full like this     myformName ActiveForm TopMost   true    But what I really wanted was THIS     this TopMost   true

User · Answer

The way i solved this was by making a system tray icon that had a cancel option

User · Answer

Set Form TopMost

User · Answer

What is the other application you are trying to suppress the visibility of  Have you investigated other ways of achieving your desired effect  Please do so before subjecting your users to such rogue behaviour as you are describing  what you are trying to do sound rather like what certain naughty sites do with browser windows      At least try to adhere to the rule of Least Surprise  Users expect to be able to determine the z-order of most applications themselves  You don t know what is most important to them  so if you change anything  you should focus on pushing the other application behind everything rather than promoting your own    This is of course trickier  since Windows doesn t have a particularly sophisticated window manager  Two approaches suggest themselves     enumerating top-level windows and checking which process they belong to  dropping their z-order if so   I m not sure if there are framework methods for these WinAPI functions   Fiddling with child process permissions to prevent it from accessing the desktop    but I wouldn t try this until the othe approach failed  as the child process might end up in a zombie state while requiring user interaction

User · Answer

I was searching to make my WinForms application  Always on Top  but setting  TopMost  did not do anything for me  I knew it was possible because WinAmp does this  along with a host of other applications    What I did was make a call to  user32 dll   I had no qualms about doing so and it works great  It s an option  anyway   First  import the following namespace   using System Runtime InteropServices    Add a few variables to your class declaration   private static readonly IntPtr HWND TOPMOST   new IntPtr -1   private const UInt32 SWP NOSIZE   0x0001  private const UInt32 SWP NOMOVE   0x0002  private const UInt32 TOPMOST FLAGS   SWP NOMOVE   SWP NOSIZE    Add prototype for user32 dll function    DllImport  user32 dll      return  MarshalAs UnmanagedType Bool   public static extern bool SetWindowPos IntPtr hWnd  IntPtr hWndInsertAfter  int X  int Y  int cx  int cy  uint uFlags     Then in your code  I added the call in Form Load     add the call   SetWindowPos this Handle  HWND TOPMOST  0  0  0  0  TOPMOST FLAGS     Hope that helps  Reference

User · Answer

The following code makes the window always stay on top as well as make it frameless   using System  using System Drawing  using System Runtime InteropServices  using System Windows Forms   namespace StayOnTop       public partial class Form1   Form               private static readonly IntPtr HWND TOPMOST   new IntPtr -1           private const UInt32 SWP NOSIZE   0x0001          private const UInt32 SWP NOMOVE   0x0002          private const UInt32 TOPMOST FLAGS   SWP NOMOVE   SWP NOSIZE            DllImport  user32 dll             return  MarshalAs UnmanagedType Bool           public static extern bool SetWindowPos IntPtr hWnd  IntPtr hWndInsertAfter  int X  int Y  int cx  int cy  uint uFlags            public Form1                         InitializeComponent                FormBorderStyle   FormBorderStyle None              TopMost   true                     private void Form1 Load object sender  EventArgs e                        SetWindowPos this Handle  HWND TOPMOST  100  100  300  300  TOPMOST FLAGS                      protected override void WndProc ref Message m                        const int RESIZE HANDLE SIZE   10               switch  m Msg                                case 0x0084  NCHITTEST                         base WndProc ref m                        if   int m Result    0x01  HTCLIENT                                                  Point screenPoint   new Point m LParam ToInt32                             Point clientPoint   this PointToClient screenPoint                           if  clientPoint Y  lt   RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                                        if  clientPoint X  lt   RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                  m Result    IntPtr 13  HTTOPLEFT                                 else if  clientPoint X  lt   Size Width - RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                   m Result    IntPtr 12  HTTOP                                 else                                 m Result    IntPtr 14  HTTOPRIGHT                                                       else if  clientPoint Y  lt    Size Height - RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                                         if  clientPoint X  lt   RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                  m Result    IntPtr 10  HTLEFT                                 else if  clientPoint X  lt   Size Width - RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                   m Result    IntPtr 2  HTCAPTION                                 else                                 m Result    IntPtr 11  HTRIGHT                                                       else                                                       if  clientPoint X  lt   RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                  m Result    IntPtr 16  HTBOTTOMLEFT                                 else if  clientPoint X  lt   Size Width - RESIZE HANDLE SIZE                                   m Result    IntPtr 15  HTBOTTOM                                 else                                 m Result    IntPtr 17  HTBOTTOMRIGHT                                                                         return                            base WndProc ref m                      protected override CreateParams CreateParams                       get                               CreateParams cp   base CreateParams                  cp Style    0x20000      lt --- use 0x20000                 return cp

User · Answer

Why not making your form a dialogue box   myForm ShowDialog

User · Answer

Based on clamum s answer  and  Kevin Vuilleumier s comment about the other flag responsible for the behavior  I made this toggle that switches between on-top and not on-top with a button press   private void button1 Click object sender  EventArgs e                if  on                        button1 Text    yes on top               IntPtr HwndTopmost   new IntPtr -1               SetWindowPos this Handle  HwndTopmost  0  0  0  0  TopmostFlags               on   false                    else                       button1 Text    not on top               IntPtr HwndTopmost   new IntPtr -2               SetWindowPos this Handle  HwndTopmost  0  0  0  0  TopmostFlags               on   true

[c#] How to make a window always stay on top in .Net?

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