Hiding minimized title-bars when explorer.exe is dead

Question

I'm trying to secure the kiosk my application runs on. As part of that process, I've decided to kill explorer.exe and task manager. If I minimize an application while explorer.exe is dead it will show up as a minimized task-bar sitting on top of the desktop. The problem is that these title-bars sit on top of any foreground windows so they cause visual anomalies while my other applications are running.

How do I get minimized windows to be totally invisible?

Answer 1

Instead of minimizing them, just throw them 9000 pixels to the left, and bring them back when needed.

It still might be possible to alt-tab to the window. Does your kiosk have a keyboard? Most kiosks don't so that won't be an issue.

Answer 2

There are several reasonable kiosk lockdown software solutions available that already take care of this and much more. They have probably identified and blocked other circumventions as well.

Answer 3

Answering my own question... Use

Form.hide();

instead of

Form.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized;