Question
I have a program which only needs a NotifyIcon to work as intended. So I've been trying to get the main form to hide when the program starts.
In frmMain_Load, I tried both
this.Hide();
this.Visible = false;
without success.
They work in other methods, like in the NotifyIcon_MouseClick-method, but I want it to hide at Load.
I saw in another question here at SO where Matias suggested this:
BeginInvoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
{
Hide();
}));
This works, but when I launch the program I can see the form flashing real fast. It's better than nothing, but I wonder if there is any better solution to this.
Thanks.
Solution
// In Your Program.cs Convert This
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
// To This
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
Form1 TheForm = new Form1();
Application.Run();
}
// Call Application.Exit() From Anywhere To Stop Application.Run() Message Pump and Exit Application
OTHER TIPS
There is an easy way, if your program has the default Visual Studio generated Program.cs file:
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles ();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault (false);
Application.Run (new MainForm ());
}
the simple fact of calling Run
will, indeed make the form visible. Try doing the following in the properties of your form:
- Set
WindowState
toMinimized
- Set
ShowInTaskbar
tofalse
This should do the trick!
Don't call Show or ShowDialog on your form, you can have your Application.Run target a custom class that then instantiates a form and doesn't show or creates a NotifyIcon instance and handles everything from there.
You can also put this.hide = true in the form_shown event. I believe that event is fired once only and after the load event. You might see alittle flicker though if your form has a lot of controls and/or the computer is slow.
I've done it just changing this property:
Application.OpenForms["Form1"].Opacity = 0;
If your program doesn't require a form to run, then the best method is to not have a form at all.
Setup your NotifyIcon in the Program code, and enter a loop until you want to exit the program by setting some value, or calling some method.
In this example setting UserExitCalled
to true (Program.UserExitCalled = true
) will cause the program to quit.
Here is a brief example:
static class Program {
internal static Boolean UserExitCalled;
/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
static void Main() {
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
// Setup your tray icon here
while (!UserExitCalled) {
Application.DoEvents(); // Process windows messages
Thread.Sleep(1);
}
return;
}
}
Here the full program class from one of my system tray applications as a working example.
// *********************************************************************
// [DCOM Productions .NET]
// [DPDN], [Visual Studio Launcher]
//
// THIS FILE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. ANY
// MODIFICATIONS TO THIS FILE IN ANY WAY ARE YOUR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY.
//
// [Copyright (C) DCOM Productions .NET All rights reserved.]
// *********************************************************************
namespace VisualStudioLauncher
{
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Threading;
using VisualStudioLauncher.Common.Objects;
using VisualStudioLauncher.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
using VisualStudioLauncher.Common.Data;
using System.IO;
static class Program
{
#region Properties
private static ProjectLocationList m_ProjectLocationList;
/// <summary>
/// Gets or Sets the ProjectsLocationList
/// </summary>
public static ProjectLocationList ProjectLocationList
{
get
{
return m_ProjectLocationList;
}
set
{
m_ProjectLocationList = value;
}
}
private static ShellProcessList m_ShellProcessList = null;
/// <summary>
/// Gets or Sets the ShellProcessList
/// </summary>
public static ShellProcessList ShellProcessList
{
get
{
return m_ShellProcessList;
}
set
{
m_ShellProcessList = value;
}
}
private static NotifyIcon m_TrayIcon;
/// <summary>
/// Gets the programs tray application.
/// </summary>
public static NotifyIcon TrayIcon
{
get
{
return m_TrayIcon;
}
}
private static bool m_UserExitCalled;
/// <summary>
/// Gets a value indicating whether the user has called for an Application.Exit
/// </summary>
public static bool UserExitCalled
{
get
{
return m_UserExitCalled;
}
set
{
m_UserExitCalled = value;
}
}
// TODO: Finish implementation, then use this for real.
private static ApplicationConfiguration m_ApplicationConfiguration = null;
/// <summary>
/// Gets the application configuration
/// </summary>
public static ApplicationConfiguration ApplicationConfiguration
{
get
{
if (m_ApplicationConfiguration == null)
m_ApplicationConfiguration = ApplicationConfiguration.LoadConfigSection(@"./settings.config");
return m_ApplicationConfiguration;
}
}
#endregion
/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
if (args.Length > 0)
{
if (args[0].ToLower() == "-rmvptr")
{
for (int i = 1; i < args.Length; i++) {
try {
if (File.Exists(Application.StartupPath + @"\\" + args[i])) {
File.Delete(Application.StartupPath + @"\\" + args[i]);
}
}
catch { /* this isn't critical, just convenient */ }
}
}
}
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
SplashForm splashForm = new SplashForm();
splashForm.Show();
while (!UserExitCalled)
{
Application.DoEvents();
Thread.Sleep(1);
}
if (m_TrayIcon != null)
{
m_TrayIcon.Icon = null;
m_TrayIcon.Visible = false;
m_TrayIcon.Dispose();
GC.Collect();
}
}
#region System Tray Management
public static void SetupTrayIcon()
{
m_TrayIcon = new NotifyIcon();
m_TrayIcon.Text = Resources.UserInterfaceStrings.ApplicationName;
m_TrayIcon.Visible = false; // This will be set visible when the context menu is generated
m_TrayIcon.MouseDoubleClick += new MouseEventHandler(m_TrayIcon_MouseDoubleClick);
if (Orcas.IsInstalled)
{
m_TrayIcon.Icon = Orcas.Icon;
}
else if (Whidbey.IsInstalled) {
m_TrayIcon.Icon = Whidbey.Icon;
}
else {
m_TrayIcon.Icon = SystemIcons.Warning;
m_TrayIcon.Text = "Visual Studio is not installed. VSL cannot run properly.";
}
}
static void m_TrayIcon_MouseDoubleClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Button != MouseButtons.Left)
{
return;
}
SettingsForm settingsForm = new SettingsForm();
settingsForm.Show();
}
#endregion
}
}