Showing the Restore Button without a Maximize button

Question

I want to prevent the user from maximizing the Windows Form to full screen so I have disabled the Maximize button. However, I want to be able to have the user 'restore' the Form. When they click the Restore button I want it to show a different, smaller, minified, form, which will show them a maximize button which will return the use to the original form.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks.

edit: You don't understand, I'm not preventing the user from resizing the form. Whats happening is when the click the restore button, it will hide the form and open a new one with less controls on it. When they click maximize on the smaller form, it will return to the original form.

Answer 1

You can set the MaximumSize and MinimumSize and enable the maximize button to get this kind of effect.

Answer 2

I'm sorry, can you draw what you want?

Answer 3

FWIW, the right answer is to make your form resize properly, adapting to any window size and not to constrain the user to what looks right on your display at your resolution and your font size. Non-resizeable windows are one of the most annoying things I encounter in an application (Windows itself is full of them).

Answer 4

I looked at a similar problem to this at work and the only solutions I could find involved setting undocumented window styles, which I was not inclined to do.

Therefore the best solution to your problem I would think would be to hide the current minimize/maximize/restore buttons and add your own using some ownerdraw or other commands.

Looking at this from a user interaction perspective I would want the minimize/maximize/restore buttons to do exactly the same thing for your application as they do for all others. Overriding that functionality would create confusion for your users, hence why I would recommend creating different buttons either on the title bar or somewhere else on your interface that perform this function.