Bringing a windows form in front of windows using c#

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I need to declare and initialize a windows form from within another windows form and then bring it in front of another application. The function to bring the form to the front must be called using a System.Timers.Timer.Elapsed[^] event handler.

I have attempted to use the SetForegroundWindow[^] windows function to bring the form to the front, but that knocks the application out of full screen. I need to interact with the form without knocking the application out of full screen. BringWindowToTop[^] seems to solve this issue, but calling it throws cross-threading errors.

I am using a delegate to call BringWindowToTop and the Timer and BringWindowToTop function is defined/called from the form I wish to bring to the front.

Posted 1-Feb-12 10:50am

@nubiz93

Updated 1-Feb-12 12:37pm

DaveyM69

v2

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Steve Wellens 1-Feb-12 18:03pm

Why would you want to do something so annoying to the user?

BillWoodruff 1-Feb-12 19:10pm

What is the nature of the full-screen application which you wish to bring a WinForm in front of ? Is it an application you have written ?

Is it a .NET application ? WinForms, WPF ? ... a XNA or DirectX game written in C++ ? ... or ? Do you even know ?

If that full-screen application is full-screened because it's using XNA or DirectX, as many games are: I am not sure this can be done.

@nubiz93 2-Feb-12 11:00am

The applications are made in Flash and Unity. No, I did not create the applications.

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DaveyM69 · Answer 1 · 2012-02-01T12:21:00

Solution 1

This doesn't sound like a great idea but if that's your requirements...

The obvious solution is to solve your threading issues when calling BringWindowToTop.

Have a look here[^]. Although your not changing a control, the same principle applies.

Posted 1-Feb-12 12:21pm

DaveyM69