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Hi,
I am trying to create a desktop widget like application which need to be visible on desktop at all times. To hide it from taskbar and alt + tab menu I am using WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW window style.
The problem is the application is minimized when using Peek Desktop function or Win + D shortcut or Show desktop button.
What is the best way to avoid/handle this minimization?
Thanks in advance.
I am trying to create a desktop widget like application
If you install/launch Widget Launcher, you launch a Widget, Right-click on tray icon to select "Toggle Always On Top" in context menu, then you check styles of the Widget with Spy++, you will see WS_EX_PALETTEWINDOW, which contains WS_EX_TOPMOST as RLWA32 said...
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Hope you've been well. Any updates about this issue?
What is probably happening is that the desktop window is covering your window so you think it has been minimized. If you add WS_EX_TOPMOST to the window extended styles then the desktop won't cover it. See What is the difference between Minimize All and Show Desktop?
This works but puts the application in front of all other windows. I want the app to be behind all other windows but always visible on desktop. I tried to move the application to back with the code below but with this the show desktop problem remains.
case WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING:
{
WINDOWPOS* pos = (WINDOWPOS*)lParam;
pos->hwndInsertAfter = HWND_BOTTOM;
return 0;
}
If you use Spy++ to examine the window messages received when using Win+D you will see that your window does not receive WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING. When I tested on Win10 22H2 I saw that the window procedure received a number of undocumented messages.
If you don't want your window to always be Topmost you could install a low-level keyboard hook that makes your window Topmost when the Win+D sequence is detected. When you don't want it to be Topmost you can remove the style with SetWindowPos.
Although the low level keyboard hook will work for Win + D shortcut, It wont work for Show Desktop button on taskbar.
Well, my last suggestion is to create an icon in the notification area that you can use to make your window visible without messing around with adding/removing topmost.
@Bhushan Kolhe Hope you've been well. Any updates about this issue?
For what its worth I solved the problem by installing a WH_GETMESSAGE hook in the Explorer process. Spy++ (64-bit version) showed that an undocumented message (WM_USER+83) was posted to the Program Manager window available from the GetShellWindow function whenever Show Desktop/Show Open Windows was invoked regardless of the method used to invoke it. The hook procedure watches for this message and, when detected it posts a message back to the test application make its window topmost or not.
For example,
Naturally, this is all implementation dependent and is not guaranteed to work on all Windows versions/builds. I tested on Win10 22H2 with all updates installed.
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply, Do you install the WH_GETMESSAGE hook in Program Manager window using DLL Injection since its part of different process or is there another way?
The program installs a thread specific hook which resides in a DLL. The GetWindowThreadProcessId function is used to obtain the thread id for the hook. The system injects the DLL into the explorer process when the hook is installed and removes it from the explorer process when the hook is uninstalled.