Hide form at launch

Question

Hello! I have a program which only needs a NotifyIcon to work as intended. So I've been trying to get the main form to hide when the program starts.

In frmMain_Load, I tried both

this.Hide();
this.Visible = false;

without success.

They work in other methods, like in the NotifyIcon_MouseClick-method, but I want it to hide at Load.

I saw in another question here at SO where Matias suggested this:

BeginInvoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
{
    Hide();
}));

This works, but when I launch the program I can see the form flashing real fast. It's better than nothing, but I wonder if there is any better solution to this.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Don't call Show or ShowDialog on your form, you can have your Application.Run target a custom class that then instantiates a form and doesn't show or creates a NotifyIcon instance and handles everything from there.

Answer 2

There is an easy way, if your program has the default Visual Studio generated Program.cs file:

[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
    Application.EnableVisualStyles ();
    Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault (false);
    Application.Run (new MainForm ());
}

the simple fact of calling Run will, indeed make the form visible. Try doing the following in the properties of your form:

1. Set WindowState to Minimized
2. Set ShowInTaskbar to false

This should do the trick!

Answer 3

You can also put this.hide = true in the form_shown event. I believe that event is fired once only and after the load event. You might see alittle flicker though if your form has a lot of controls and/or the computer is slow.

Answer 4

If your program doesn't require a form to run, then the best method is to not have a form at all. Setup your NotifyIcon in the Program code, and enter a loop until you want to exit the program by setting some value, or calling some method. In this example setting UserExitCalled to true (Program.UserExitCalled = true) will cause the program to quit. Here is a brief example:

static class Program {
    internal static Boolean UserExitCalled;

    /// <summary>
    /// The main entry point for the application.
    /// </summary>
    [STAThread]
    static void Main() {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

        // Setup your tray icon here

        while (!UserExitCalled) {
            Application.DoEvents(); // Process windows messages
            Thread.Sleep(1);
        }

        return;
    }
}

Here the full program class from one of my system tray applications as a working example.

// *********************************************************************
// [DCOM Productions .NET]
// [DPDN], [Visual Studio Launcher]
//
//   THIS FILE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. ANY
//   MODIFICATIONS TO THIS FILE IN ANY WAY ARE YOUR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY.
//
// [Copyright (C) DCOM Productions .NET  All rights reserved.]
// *********************************************************************

namespace VisualStudioLauncher
{
    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Windows.Forms;
    using System.Threading;
    using VisualStudioLauncher.Common.Objects;
    using VisualStudioLauncher.Forms;
    using System.Drawing;
    using VisualStudioLauncher.Common.Data;
    using System.IO;
static class Program
{
    #region Properties

    private static ProjectLocationList m_ProjectLocationList;
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or Sets the ProjectsLocationList
    /// </summary>
    public static ProjectLocationList ProjectLocationList
    {
        get
        {
            return m_ProjectLocationList;
        }

        set
        {
            m_ProjectLocationList = value;
        }
    }

    private static ShellProcessList m_ShellProcessList = null;
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets or Sets the ShellProcessList
    /// </summary>
    public static ShellProcessList ShellProcessList
    {
        get
        {
            return m_ShellProcessList;
        }

        set
        {
            m_ShellProcessList = value;
        }
    }

    private static NotifyIcon m_TrayIcon;
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the programs tray application.
    /// </summary>
    public static NotifyIcon TrayIcon
    {
        get
        {
            return m_TrayIcon;
        }
    }

    private static bool m_UserExitCalled;
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets a value indicating whether the user has called for an Application.Exit
    /// </summary>
    public static bool UserExitCalled
    {
        get
        {
            return m_UserExitCalled;
        }

        set
        {
            m_UserExitCalled = value;
        }
    }

    // TODO: Finish implementation, then use this for real.
    private static ApplicationConfiguration m_ApplicationConfiguration = null;
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the application configuration
    /// </summary>
    public static ApplicationConfiguration ApplicationConfiguration
    {
        get
        {
            if (m_ApplicationConfiguration == null)
                m_ApplicationConfiguration = ApplicationConfiguration.LoadConfigSection(@"./settings.config");

            return m_ApplicationConfiguration;
        }
    }


    #endregion

    /// <summary>
    /// The main entry point for the application.
    /// </summary>
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        if (args.Length > 0)
        {
            if (args[0].ToLower() == "-rmvptr")
            {
                for (int i = 1; i < args.Length; i++) {
                    try {
                        if (File.Exists(Application.StartupPath + @"\\" + args[i])) {
                            File.Delete(Application.StartupPath + @"\\" + args[i]);
                        }
                    }
                    catch { /* this isn't critical, just convenient */ }
                }
            }
        }

        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);

        SplashForm splashForm = new SplashForm();
        splashForm.Show();

        while (!UserExitCalled)
        {
            Application.DoEvents();
            Thread.Sleep(1);
        }

        if (m_TrayIcon != null)
        {
            m_TrayIcon.Icon = null;
            m_TrayIcon.Visible = false;
            m_TrayIcon.Dispose();

            GC.Collect();
        }
    }

    #region System Tray Management

    public static void SetupTrayIcon()
    {
        m_TrayIcon = new NotifyIcon();
        m_TrayIcon.Text = Resources.UserInterfaceStrings.ApplicationName;
        m_TrayIcon.Visible = false; // This will be set visible when the context menu is generated
        m_TrayIcon.MouseDoubleClick += new MouseEventHandler(m_TrayIcon_MouseDoubleClick);

        if (Orcas.IsInstalled)
        {
            m_TrayIcon.Icon = Orcas.Icon;
        }
        else if (Whidbey.IsInstalled) {
            m_TrayIcon.Icon = Whidbey.Icon;
        }
        else {
            m_TrayIcon.Icon = SystemIcons.Warning;
            m_TrayIcon.Text = "Visual Studio is not installed. VSL cannot run properly.";
        }
    }

    static void m_TrayIcon_MouseDoubleClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.Button != MouseButtons.Left)
        {
            return;
        }

        SettingsForm settingsForm = new SettingsForm();
        settingsForm.Show();
    }

    #endregion
}

}

Answer 5

// In Your Program.cs Convert This
static void Main()
{
    Application.EnableVisualStyles();
    Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
    Application.Run(new Form1());
}

// To This
static void Main()
{
    Application.EnableVisualStyles();
    Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
    Form1 TheForm = new Form1();
    Application.Run();
}

// Call Application.Exit() From Anywhere To Stop Application.Run() Message Pump and Exit Application