How to ​"​pin" to desktop in Vista?

Hi everyone,

I've been perplexed over this problem for the past week.  On previous version of windows (post-Win2k), you were able to employ the following C#  code to essentially pin your window to the desktop:

this.SendToBack();
IntPtr pWnd = UnsafeNativeMethods.FindWindow("Progman", null);
IntPtr tWnd = this.Handle;
UnsafeNativeMethods.SetParent(tWnd, pWnd);

mscrivo wrote:


IntPtr pWnd = UnsafeNativeMethods.FindWindow("Progman", null);

There are ">http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing+desktop+parent"> a number of reasons to beware of playing with the desktop.

windows 3.1 is where the hearts at mainly because im 18 and started off on it i remember the high def colors my packard bell used to put out screaming packard bell navigator

Thanks for the responses guys,

I know that using the desktop window for arbitrary things, especially when not absolutely needed is not a good idea.  However, for the program I developed, it's sort of it's heart and soul.  Here is the program in question:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Outlook_on_the_Desktop/1127842333/1

The whole draw of it, is to be able to always have your outlook calendar accessible on the desktop, nothing can get behind it, and when you click show desktop, it's still visible, like it's fused to your desktop.

The above hack works perfectly to achieve that on Windows 2000 and XP.  However, on Vista, as mentioned, the hack no longer works and neither does SetParent using GetDesktopWindow().   The closest I've been able to achieve is to use SetWindowPos to position it under all windows every time it's activated, but this only solves one of the problems, that is preventing other windows from going behind it.  The other problems are: when the user clicks show desktop, it disappears as well, and it shows up in the window list when pressing alt-tab which is also not desirable.

I was hoping someone else would link this, but what the hell.

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=278156#278156

You can't use HTML backgrounds in Vista though.

AndyC,

I don't use a transparent html background for my program.  I use a fully qualified window, with html hosted within it.  All dressings are removed from the window (titlebar, borders, etc) and the opacitiy is set and volia, it actually works very very well on Windows XP, even with multiple monitors.

hi, Michael,

would you mind telling me more about how you implement your application to pin to desktop in W2K?

i'm looking for a solution on this


thank you so much

I have no idea how the DreamScene stuff is supposed to work, but could you tap into those APIs to get an active background?

Update:  Forget it, I did a bit of checking and aside from the facts that it's only for Vista Ultimate, there is no documentation on the APIs, and wouldn't be what you want anyways, as far as I can tell.

mscrivo wrote:

AndyC,

I don't use a transparent html background for my program.  I use a fully qualified window, with html hosted within it.  All dressings are removed from the window (titlebar, borders, etc) and the opacitiy is set and volia, it actually works very very well on Windows XP, even with multiple monitors.

Please don't pin your windows to the desktop.

http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/02/24/79212.aspx

mscrivo wrote:

Thanks for the responses guys,

I know that using the desktop window for arbitrary things, especially when not absolutely needed is not a good idea.  However, for the program I developed, it's sort of it's heart and soul.  Here is the program in question:
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Outlook_on_the_Desktop/1127842333/1

The whole draw of it, is to be able to always have your outlook calendar accessible on the desktop, nothing can get behind it, and when you click show desktop, it's still visible, like it's fused to your desktop.

The above hack works perfectly to achieve that on Windows 2000 and XP.  However, on Vista, as mentioned, the hack no longer works and neither does SetParent using GetDesktopWindow().   The closest I've been able to achieve is to use SetWindowPos to position it under all windows every time it's activated, but this only solves one of the problems, that is preventing other windows from going behind it.  The other problems are: when the user clicks show desktop, it disappears as well, and it shows up in the window list when pressing alt-tab which is also not desirable.

You have to go a little further to get this to work properly in vista...

Basically Include the following DLLImports

[DllImport("User32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr FindWindow(String lpClassName, String lpWindowName);

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern IntPtr FindWindowEx(IntPtr hwndParent, IntPtr hwndChildAfter, string lpszClass, string lpszWindow);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern int SetParent(IntPtr hWndChild, IntPtr hWndNewParent);


Then instead of your original code, use the following:

I tried that, it doesn't seem to be working for me.  It runs, but my window disappears completely.

Richard.Hein wrote:

I have no idea how the DreamScene stuff is supposed to work, but could you tap into those APIs to get an active background?

Update:  Forget it, I did a bit of checking and aside from the facts that it's only for Vista Ultimate, there is no documentation on the APIs, and wouldn't be what you want anyways, as far as I can tell.

I am using Vista 64 ... it works if I use SysListView64 instead of SysListView32, but using Spy++, I see that there doesn't appear to be a SysListView64 ... so I'm not quite sure what's going on.