WPF Window with Style=None cover taskbar when Maximised after app initialization.

Question

I want to achieve the same effect as Windows Media Player or Browser based Flash players which take up the ENTIRE (not even the taskbar is visible) real estate when maximised.

This works fine if the WindowState is set to Maximised and the WindowStyle is set to None in XAML so the app is started in that state. Problem is I want to start the app in a bordered window and when the user chooses, maximise as specified above. In the StateChanged handler I check for Maximised state and if this is the case I set the WindowStyle to None. This has the effect of maximising the window but NOT covering the taskbar. The following code will make this work as I want but its a hack and I'd like to clean it up:

if (WindowState == WindowState.Maximized)
{
    m_videoWindow.Maximise();

    WindowStyle = WindowStyle.None;

    //the following makes this work but I would like to clean it up
    Hide();
    Show();
}

EDIT This (from 2006 when still in CTP) mentions the problem and someone from MS states they hope to improve full screen support in the next version, have these improvements been made?

Answer 1

This article explains it all: Maximizing window (with WindowStyle=None) considering Taskbar.

Also worth checking out: Custom Window Chrome in WPF.

Edit: Now new, is the WPF Shell Integration Library that allows complete restyle of the window chrome without the headaches of reimplementing move, resizing, etc.

Answer 2

Hello Simon,

I don't know if this is ok for you, but you can resize the window to have the same size than the working area (that is, in most cases, all the screen except the taskbar) and locate it at 0,0 (top-left corner):

Width = System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width; 
Height = System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Height; 
Left = 0; 
Top = 0;

The exact definition for the WorkingArea property (from MSDN) is:

Gets the working area of the display. The working area is the desktop area of the display, excluding taskbars, docked windows, and docked tool bars.

Hope it helps