How to give an Exceed X-window focus in a C# application?

Question

Currently our software is running on AIX Unix machines, but we use Windows boxes running Exceed to display the UI in X-windows. I'm writing a Windows application ( modernizing the UI in C# ), but some of the legacy windows still need to be displayed in Exceed. When a user clicks a button on my windows application, it sends a message to the Unix server which displays the X-window. My problem is that these X-windows are not getting focus, so they are popping up BEHIND all of my .NET windows/forms.

A user of this software can easily have 5+ windows forms open at any given time, so it is a big inconvenience if every time they want to display a legacy X-window, they have to minimize all of the .NET windows. What is the best way for me to solve this? Is there a way for me to give Exceed focus so that it brings the X-window to the top? I tried using Application.OpenForms, but calling .SendToBack() on each form didn't help me.

Answer 1

If the pop-up windows are coming from a process other than the Windows app which you're creating, you'll probably need to resort to a hack. Microsoft put code into WinXP to prevent apps from being able to throw their windows in front of everything, unless it's part of the app the user is working on. To do this, you need to monkey with the ForegroundLockTimeout registry value, and the Windows APIs to pull a window to the front.

More info:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/winforms/thread/54826e98-9faa-4457-ba1d-b645af88170b/ (The last entry contains the conclusion, but you'll need to read some of the previous entries. I also suggest you set the ForegroundLockTimeout to zero, do the switch, then set ForegroundLockTimeout back to its previous value.)