How can I create a borderless application in Python (windows)?

Question

I would like to know how to create an application in Windows that does not have the default border; particularly the title bar with minimize, maximize, and close buttons. I'm thinking of writing a ticker program that takes up a narrow space at the top or bottom of the screen, but I won't attempt it unless it's possible to make a thin application in Python. Any help with terminology is appreciated; maybe I don't know how to ask the right question in searching. Does Tkinter have this option? Thanks

Answer 1

I found an example that answered my question here. overrideredirect(1) is the key function.

I like this method because I'm familiar with Tk and preferred a Tk solution, but see the other answers for alternate solutions.

import tkMessageBox
from Tkinter import *

class App():
    def __init__(self):
        self.root = Tk()
        self.root.overrideredirect(1)
        self.frame = Frame(self.root, width=320, height=200,
                           borderwidth=2, relief=RAISED)
        self.frame.pack_propagate(False)
        self.frame.pack()
        self.bQuit = Button(self.frame, text="Quit",
                            command=self.root.quit)
        self.bQuit.pack(pady=20)
        self.bHello = Button(self.frame, text="Hello",
                             command=self.hello)
        self.bHello.pack(pady=20)

    def hello(self):
        tkMessageBox.showinfo("Popup", "Hello!")

app = App()
app.root.mainloop()

Just need to add your own kill button or quit method.

Answer 2

If you're willing to use Qt/PySide, take a look at QtCore.Qt.FramelessWindowHint The code below just proves it's possible and doesn't try to be terribly useful. In particular, you will have to force kill the app to get the app to close. In a proper implementation, you would handle mouse events in a custom way to allow the user to move and close the application. To run this, you will need to install PySide.

Hacked up Code

import sys

from PySide import QtGui, QtCore

app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)  
MainWindow = QtGui.QMainWindow(parent=None, flags=QtCore.Qt.FramelessWindowHint)

MainFrame = QtGui.QFrame(MainWindow)
MainWindow.setCentralWidget(MainFrame)
MainFrameLayout = QtGui.QVBoxLayout(MainFrame)

label = QtGui.QLabel('A Label')
MainFrameLayout.addWidget(label)

MainWindow.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Answer 3

Try Using QT Designer and Python (PyQT4)

and this code

from TestUI import Ui_MainWindow
class testQT4(QtGui.QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self, parent=None):    

        super(testQT4, self).__init__(parent,Qt.CustomizeWindowHint)
        self.ui = Ui_MainWindow()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
    myapp = testQT4()
    myapp.show()

    sys.exit(app.exec_())

TestUI is your UI file Created by using "cmd" going into your project directory (by cd[space][your path here])

and typing this

pyuic4 resfile.ui -o TestUI.py

above will create the TestUI.py on projects folder

resfile.ui is the file that you made on QT Designer

Hope this helps.