WS_EX_ABOVESTARTUP | WS_EX_TOPMOST in NETCF, plus some LINQ to come…

ReedR — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:11:00 GMT

I was helping out one of my colleagues (Clint Rutkas) this week on a problem that I thought would make a good blog post. Clint posted the final code, so here’s a link to his blog. The basic challenge was to pop up a form that would rise above everything else, grab the users attention, and prompt for a response—even on a locked device. This is effectively what a meeting reminder does. I would not recommend doing this as a standard practice, but there are times when it make sense. For example, if you have a time sensitive event that must get the users feedback ASAP. If you wanted to take this a step further, you could turn on the backlight as well and play a sound. Just remember to be mindful of forcibly taking focus and manipulating Z-Order…that can be a really good way to hose the UI if you fire it at the wrong time…not to mention the power implications if you enable the backlight. Check it out.

I will be delivering a Webcast this week on LINQ. If you have a chance, be sure to tune in. You can also watch the on-demand version after the event. For more information, check out LINQ on MSDN or see Jim Wilson’s webcast from last year. He does a pretty interesting section on Extension Methods that I will not cover in this webcast.

Cheers,

Reed

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WS_EX_ABOVESTARTUP | WS_EX_TOPMOST in NETCF, plus some LINQ to come…