How to make a window always stay on top in .Net?

Question

I have a C# winforms app that runs a macro in another program. The other program will continually pop up windows and generally make things look, for lack of a better word, crazy. I want to implement a cancel button that will stop the process from running, but I cannot seem to get the window to stay on top. How do I do this in C#?

Edit: I have tried TopMost=true; , but the other program keeps popping up its own windows over top. Is there a way to send my window to the top every n milliseconds?

Edit: The way I solved this was by adding a system tray icon that will cancel the process by double-clicking on it. The system tray icon does no get covered up. Thank you to all who responded. I read the article on why there is not a 'super-on-top' window... it logically does not work.

Answer 1

The way i solved this was by making a system tray icon that had a cancel option.

Answer 2

I was searching to make my WinForms application "Always on Top" but setting "TopMost" did not do anything for me. I knew it was possible because WinAmp does this (along with a host of other applications).

What I did was make a call to "user32.dll." I had no qualms about doing so and it works great. It's an option, anyway.

First, import the following namespace:

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

Add a few variables to your class declaration:

private static readonly IntPtr HWND_TOPMOST = new IntPtr(-1);
private const UInt32 SWP_NOSIZE = 0x0001;
private const UInt32 SWP_NOMOVE = 0x0002;
private const UInt32 TOPMOST_FLAGS = SWP_NOMOVE | SWP_NOSIZE;

Add prototype for user32.dll function:

[DllImport("user32.dll")] 
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
public static extern bool SetWindowPos(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hWndInsertAfter, int X, int Y, int cx, int cy, uint uFlags);

Then in your code (I added the call in Form_Load()), add the call:

SetWindowPos(this.Handle, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, 0, TOPMOST_FLAGS);

Hope that helps. Reference

Answer 3

Set the form's .TopMost property to true.

You probably don't want to leave it this way all the time: set it when your external process starts and put it back when it finishes.

Answer 4

Why not making your form a dialogue box:

myForm.ShowDialog();

Answer 5

Form.TopMost will work unless the other program is creating topmost windows.

There is no way to create a window that is not covered by new topmost windows of another process. Raymond Chen explained why.

Answer 6

Here is the SetForegroundWindow equivalent:

form.Activate();

I have seen people doing weird things like:

this.TopMost = true;
this.Focus();
this.BringToFront();
this.TopMost = false;

http://blog.jorgearimany.com/2010/10/win32-setforegroundwindow-equivalent-in.html