How do I make a WinForms app go Full Screen

Question

I have a Winforms app that I am trying to make full screen (somewhat like what VS does in full screen mode).

Currently I am setting FormBorderStyle to None and WindowState to maximized which gives me a little more space, but it doesn't cover over the taskbar if it is visible.

What do I need to do to use that space as well?

For bonus points, is there something I can do to make my MenuStrip autohide to give up that space as well?

Answer 1

You need to set your window to be topmost.

Answer 2

I recently made an Mediaplayer application and I used API-calls to make sure the taskbar was hidden when the program was running fullscreen and then restored the taskbar when the program was not in fullscreen or not had focus or was exited.

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Integer
Private Declare Function FindWindowEx Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowExA" (ByVal hWnd1 As Integer, ByVal hWnd2 As Integer, ByVal lpsz1 As String, ByVal lpsz2 As String) As Integer
Private Declare Function ShowWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Integer, ByVal nCmdShow As Integer) As Integer

Sub HideTrayBar()
 Try


  Dim tWnd As Integer = 0
  Dim bWnd As Integer = 0
  tWnd = FindWindow("Shell_TrayWnd", vbNullString)
  bWnd = FindWindowEx(tWnd, bWnd, "BUTTON", vbNullString)
  ShowWindow(tWnd, 0)
  ShowWindow(bWnd, 0)
 Catch ex As Exception
  'Error hiding the taskbar, do what you want here..
 End Try
End Sub
Sub ShowTraybar()
 Try
  Dim tWnd As Integer = 0
  Dim bWnd As Integer = 0
  tWnd = FindWindow("Shell_TrayWnd", vbNullString)
  bWnd = FindWindowEx(tWnd, bWnd, "BUTTON", vbNullString)
  ShowWindow(bWnd, 1)
  ShowWindow(tWnd, 1)
 Catch ex As Exception
 'Error showing the taskbar, do what you want here..  
               End Try


End Sub

Answer 3

And for the menustrip-question, try set MenuStrip1.Parent = Nothing when in fullscreen mode, it should then disapear.

And when exiting fullscreenmode, reset the menustrip1.parent to the form again and the menustrip will be normal again.

Answer 4

To the base question, the following will do the trick (hiding the taskbar)

  private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        this.FormBorderStyle = FormBorderStyle.None;
        this.WindowState = FormWindowState.Maximized;
    }

But, interestingly, if you swap those two lines the Taskbar remains visible. I think the sequence of these actions will be hard to control with the properties window.