Why does windows XP minimize my swing full screen window on my second screen ?

Question

Hello dear fellows,

In the application I'm developping (in Java/swing), I have to show a full screen window on the second screen of the user. I did this using a code similar to the one you'll find below... Be, as soon as I click in a window opened by windows explorer, or as soon as I open windows explorer (i'm using windows XP), the full screen window is minimized...

Do you know any way or workaround to fix this problem, or is there something important I did not understand with full screen windows?

Thanks for the help,

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JWindow;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import java.awt.GraphicsDevice;
import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;
import java.awt.Window;

import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JToggleButton;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.awt.GridBagLayout;
import javax.swing.JLabel;

public class FullScreenTest {

    private JFrame jFrame = null;  //  @jve:decl-index=0:visual-constraint="94,35"
    private JPanel jContentPane = null;
    private JToggleButton jToggleButton = null;
    private JPanel jFSPanel = null;  //  @jve:decl-index=0:visual-constraint="392,37"
    private JLabel jLabel = null;
    private Window window;
    /**
     * This method initializes jFrame 
     *  
     * @return javax.swing.JFrame 
     */
    private JFrame getJFrame() {
     if (jFrame == null) {
      jFrame = new JFrame();
      jFrame.setSize(new Dimension(474, 105));
      jFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
      jFrame.setContentPane(getJContentPane());
     }
     return jFrame;
    }

    /**
     * This method initializes jContentPane 
     *  
     * @return javax.swing.JPanel 
     */
    private JPanel getJContentPane() {
     if (jContentPane == null) {
      jContentPane = new JPanel();
      jContentPane.setLayout(null);
      jContentPane.add(getJToggleButton(), null);
     }
     return jContentPane;
    }

    /**
     * This method initializes jToggleButton 
     *  
     * @return javax.swing.JToggleButton 
     */
    private JToggleButton getJToggleButton() {
     if (jToggleButton == null) {
      jToggleButton = new JToggleButton();
      jToggleButton.setBounds(new Rectangle(50, 23, 360, 28));
      jToggleButton.setText("Show Full Screen Window on 2nd screen");
      jToggleButton.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
       public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent e) {
        showFullScreenWindow(jToggleButton.isSelected());
       }
      });
     }
     return jToggleButton;
    }

    protected void showFullScreenWindow(boolean b) {
     if(window==null){
      window = initFullScreenWindow();
     }
     window.setVisible(b);

    }

    private Window initFullScreenWindow() {
     GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
     GraphicsDevice[] gds = ge.getScreenDevices();
     GraphicsDevice gd = gds[1];
     JWindow window = new JWindow(gd.getDefaultConfiguration());
     window.setContentPane(getJFSPanel());
     gd.setFullScreenWindow(window);
     return window;
    }

    /**
     * This method initializes jFSPanel 
     *  
     * @return javax.swing.JPanel 
     */
    private JPanel getJFSPanel() {
     if (jFSPanel == null) {
      jLabel = new JLabel();
      jLabel.setBounds(new Rectangle(18, 19, 500, 66));
      jLabel.setText("Hello ! Now, juste open windows explorer and see what happens...");
      jFSPanel = new JPanel();
      jFSPanel.setLayout(null);
      jFSPanel.setSize(new Dimension(500, 107));
      jFSPanel.add(jLabel, null);
     }
     return jFSPanel;
    }

    /**
     * @param args
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
     FullScreenTest me = new FullScreenTest();
     me.getJFrame().setVisible(true);

    }

}

Answer 1

Usually when an application is in "full screen" mode it will take over the entire desktop. For a user to get to another window they would have to alt-tab to it. At that point windows would minimize the full screen app so that the other application could come to the front.

This sounds like it may be a bug (undocumented feature...) in windows. It should probably not be doing this for a dual screen setup.

One option to fix this is rather than setting it to be "full screen" just make the window the same size as the screen with location (0,0). You can get screen information from the GraphicsConfigurations on the GraphicsDevice.

Answer 2

The following code works (thank you John). With no full screen and a large "always on top" window. But I still don't know why windows caused this stranged behavior...

private Window initFullScreenWindow() {
 GraphicsEnvironment ge = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment();
 GraphicsDevice[] gds = ge.getScreenDevices();
 GraphicsDevice gd = gds[1];
 JWindow window = new JWindow(gd.getDefaultConfiguration());
 window.setContentPane(getJFSPanel());
 window.setLocation(1280, 0);
 window.setSize(gd.getDisplayMode().getWidth(), gd.getDisplayMode().getHeight());
 window.setAlwaysOnTop(true);
 //gd.setFullScreenWindow(window);
 return window;
}

Answer 3

how to make it can't close with alt+f4 and can't alt+tab ?

any one can help?