Hiding and showing window exe(MS word, excel, etc) in C#

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Hello, I am doing an application in c# and in my application I am opening some exe file like MS word, calculator so when I open the application and then I hide it I would like to create a sort of shortcut in the app so that when I click on the shotcut the window will open again.

What I have tried:

What I did is that I was able to put the window of the exe file on topMost but when it is hidden or resized I would like to create a shortcut in the application on C# so that when I click on the shorcut the exe file will reopen.
Thank you.

Posted 5-Sep-16 0:03am

TatsuSheva

Updated 11-Mar-19 5:10am

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3 solutions

Solution 2

Can you try below. I have now tested it and it is working fine.

C#

[DllImportAttribute("user32.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

[DllImportAttribute("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);

[DllImportAttribute("user32.dll")]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);

public static void ShowToFront(string windowName)
{
    try
    {
        IntPtr firstInstance = FindWindow(null, windowName);
        ShowWindow(firstInstance, 1);
        SetForegroundWindow(firstInstance);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }

}

You have to call the function with the full name of the application that you want to restore. (exactly as seen on the windows task manager -> application tab). You can get the name from process.MainWindowTitle. Check the below event..

C#

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {

                Process[] Processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("winword");
                
                foreach (Process p in Processes)
                {
                    ShowToFront(p.MainWindowTitle);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }

        }

Posted 5-Sep-16 4:11am

NaibedyaKar

Comments

TatsuSheva 5-Sep-16 10:18am

I need to check if the window is minimized , so a button is created and then when we click on the button the window will restore.

TatsuSheva 5-Sep-16 11:06am

What you gave me is the correct one but how I can check if the window is minimized ? Because I want to create a button dynamically when the window is minimized.

NaibedyaKar 5-Sep-16 14:36pm

Sorry for the late response, I was busy on something else.
You can use IsIconic(instance) to know whether the application is minimised or not. Let me show the whole code as a separate answer.

Solution 4

Hey guys, i've tried something like this... and the problem was that I had no control over the overall System Wide applications.... when I tried using the following:

<pre>           List<Form> oForms = new List<Form>();
                
                foreach (Form form in Application.OpenForms)
                {
                    MessageBox.Show("form.text");
                    MessageBox.Show(form.Text);
                    oForms.Add(form);
                }
                foreach (var form in oForms)
                {
                    //MessageBox.Show("form.text");
                    //MessageBox.Show(form.Text);
                    form.Hide();
                }

the "Application.OpenForms" was always just something that applied to the application I was working on... It wouldn't cover anything else that was open on the screen like "CALC", "NOTEPAD", "IEXPLORE", etc... I tried several things and it would only display the title of my application in the 'commented-out' MessageBoxes... Is there maybe another C# 'Global' type variable I should be using instead...?

Thanks in advance guys,

Posted 11-Mar-19 5:10am

Data4marketers Inc

Comments

Richard MacCutchan 11-Mar-19 11:17am

This is not an answer to the above question. If you have a problem then please open a new question.

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NaibedyaKar · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-05T08:43:00

Here is how you can check whether the window is minimised and then restore it.

C#

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {
        var processes = Process.GetProcessesByName(&quot;winword&quot;);
        foreach (var p in processes)
        {
            MaximizeWindowIfMinized(p.MainWindowTitle);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
}


[DllImportAttribute(&quot;user32.dll&quot;)]
public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

[DllImportAttribute(&quot;user32.dll&quot;)]
public static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);

[DllImportAttribute(&quot;user32.dll&quot;)]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);

[DllImport(&quot;user32.dll&quot;)]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
static extern bool IsIconic(IntPtr hWnd);

public static void MaximizeWindowIfMinized(string windowName)
{
    try
    {
        var instance = FindWindow(null, windowName);

        if (IsIconic(instance))
        {
            MessageBox.Show(@&quot;Window is minimized&quot;);

            ShowWindow(instance, 1);
            SetForegroundWindow(instance);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
}