Form without titlebar, but with title text (to show in taskbar)?

[NickThissen]

Hey there,


The main form in my application is a small form without a titlebar. I accomplished this by setting these properties:
- ControlBox = False
- MinimizeBox = False
- MaximizeBox = False
- Text = "" (empty)

As long as the Text (title text) remains empty, the form has no title bar. Note that it still has a border so it can be resized (FormBorderStyle = Sizable, as usual, not None!)


Now, because I have to keep the Text property empty, the taskbar button never shows any text... But I want to show text in the taskbar button!

As far as I know, the only way to set the text on the taskbar button is using the forms Text property, but I cannot set that because the form will have a titlebar if I do...


Is there no way around this?
Can I have a form without a titlebar (caption, or whatever it's called), but still with text in the taskbar button?

[Mal1t1a]

Yes there is, you could set the FormBorderStyle = None. Then set the Forms text to whatever you want.

[NickThissen]

Yes there is, you could set the FormBorderStyle = None. Then set the Forms text to whatever you want.

But then I lose the border completely, which is not what I want. The form needs to be resizable. I suppose I could make it manually resizable (I know how, even got a codebank submission on the subject), but then I have to draw my own border, and I'd like to keep the normal windows border.

[boops boops]

Nick won't be satisfied with FormBorderStyle=None because he still wants a border for resizing -- just no title bar. @Nick, I think you need to set the Form's Region property to exclude the title bar. Parts outside the region will not be drawn, so the form can still have its text. Disclaimer: But I haven't tried it

BB

[Mal1t1a]

It doesn't seem to be possible if you don't want to draw your own border. You could always, just grab the picture of the border, and draw it onto the form, and set the Forms Region Property To be more Rectangular. But again, You are re-drawing it.

[NickThissen]

Nick won't be satisfied with FormBorderStyle=None because he still wants a border for resizing -- just no title bar. @Nick, I think you need to set the Form's Region property to exclude the title bar. Parts outside the region will not be drawn, so the form can still have its text. Disclaimer: But I haven't tried it

BB

Hm, that's not ideal either, because
1) I have to know exactly how large the border is (which can be different for different versions of windows, themes, etc),
2) It looks crap. For some reason it seems to revert to the 'basic' theme on windows 7, so the borders look flat and all that. Also, the top looks crap because it's not a real border, just part of the titlebar...

[NickThissen]

I found this, but the conclusion was also to remove the entire border

Is there really no other way? There must be some way to set the taskbar text, using some API perhaps?

[NickThissen]

Well, I think I found a solution (it was in the link I posted previously after all).
When I override the forms CreateParams property and remove the &HC00000 style (WS_CAPTION), then it seems to work.

But, the thread (and also other threads) mention that this resulted in a 'different' border. I can't see a difference on windows 7, but I'm afraid the border will be different on Vista or XP maybe... I can't test it as I only have win7...

Could anyone test this for me?
All you need is to add this code to your form:

Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As CreateParams
   Get
      Dim cp As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
      cp.Style = cp.Style And Not &HC00000 ' WS_CAPTION
      Return cp
   End Get
End Property

and tell me if the border looks normal or not... Thanks!

[Mal1t1a]

I'm running Windows XP SP3 on this computer, I tested that code, and it just did the exact same effect as setting the Form Border Style to None

[NickThissen]

I'm running Windows XP SP3 on this computer, I tested that code, and it just did the exact same effect as setting the Form Border Style to None

So that means there is no border at all? That's strange, because I still get a border:


See, there is an ordinary looking border, no caption, and still a taskbar button text.

This is exactly what I need, but judging from your post and the other thread, it doesn't work like this on XP..?

[Mal1t1a]

Okay, well, with this code, I can not resize the form, but it does still give it a nice Border.

Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As CreateParams
        Get
            Dim cp As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
            cp.Style = -&HA00000 And cp.Style
            Return cp
        End Get
    End Property

[NickThissen]

Okay, well, with this code, I can not resize the form, but it does still give it a nice Border.

I'm starting to freak out slightly now ... That code gives me no border at all, like what you described with my code... Did MS really change this behavior completely in Win7??

[boops boops]

Hi Nick, I haven't followed all the ins and outs of the thread, but for what it's worth here's another off-the-wall idea. Set ShowInTaskbar to False and use another (invisible) form to show the taskbar button with text. Here's a quick example.

Public Class Form1
 
    Dim proxyForm As New Form
    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.ControlBox = False
        Me.MinimizeBox = False
        Me.MaximizeBox = False
        Me.Text = ""
        Me.ShowInTaskbar = False
        proxyForm.Text = "MyText"
        proxyForm.Opacity = 0 'make ProxyFrom invisible.
        proxyForm.Show(Me) 'make ProxyForm Owned
    End Sub
End Class

I tried it in XP, but I've no idea how it will look in other OS versions. Something would have to be done about the extra icon in Alt-Tab, but I believe there are ways of dealing with that.

regards, BB

[Mal1t1a]

I'm starting to freak out slightly now ... That code gives me no border at all, like what you described with my code... Did MS really change this behavior completely in Win7??

Why not just Check the OS Version, and If it's vista plus, Set it to your code, and if It's not, then set it to my code.

[formlesstree4]

Well if you think about it, it shouldn't be that far-fetched that it was changed so drastically. Aero is completely different than the default theme in Windows XP and I wouldn't be surprised if something had changed. In fact, I'd be a bit concerned if something didn't change. After all, wasn't Vista/7 a rewrite of Windows?

[Hags61]

Just happened to take a glance and your boarder still shows on XP Pro machines. I would not expect it to be any different on XP Home or other.

Imports System.Windows.Forms

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Me.Text = "My Caption"
        Me.Location = New Drawing.Point(500, 500)
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides ReadOnly Property CreateParams() As CreateParams
        Get
            Dim cp As CreateParams = MyBase.CreateParams
            cp.Style = cp.Style And Not &HC00000 ' WS_CAPTION
            Return cp
        End Get
    End Property
End Class

This produces: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink