Winforms Minimization Techniques

Question

I am trying to make my application "flip" when the minimize button is pushed. By flipped, it should be kinda like a coin when flipped. It "flips" down into the taskbar. I am wondering how effects like this are accomplished in WinForms using C#. Can this be done or does something like this need to be done using DirectX?

Answer 1

I don't know, but you can control (including animate) what's displayed within your application window. Doing what you want may therefore require you to animatedly move your window towards the taskbar, while flipping its contents.

Answer 2

This isn't something that WinForms natively supports. You could attempt to "simulate" a flipping window by shrinking the width of the form slowly to 0 and then growing another form at that location to the proper size that looks like the "back" of the window.

But there isn't anything like animations or transitions in winforms. You need to go to WPF for that.

Answer 3

You could P/Invoke AnimateWindow() to get effects like this. Visit pinvoke.net for the declarations you'll need. Beware that the novelty of this wears off very quickly, definitely make it a user-selectable option.