Form.ShowWithoutActivation Property (System.Windows.Forms)

ShowWithoutActivation Property

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Microsoft Visual Studio 2010/.NET Framework 4

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.NET Framework Class Library

Form..::.ShowWithoutActivation Property

Gets a value indicating whether the window will be activated when it is shown.

Namespace: System.Windows.Forms
Assembly: System.Windows.Forms (in System.Windows.Forms.dll)

Syntax

Visual Basic

<BrowsableAttribute(False)> _
Protected Overridable ReadOnly Property ShowWithoutActivation As Boolean

[BrowsableAttribute(false)]
protected virtual bool ShowWithoutActivation { get; }

Visual C++

[BrowsableAttribute(false)]
protected:
virtual property bool ShowWithoutActivation {
    bool get ();
}

[<BrowsableAttribute(false)>]
abstract ShowWithoutActivation : bool
[<BrowsableAttribute(false)>]
override ShowWithoutActivation : bool

Property Value

Type: System..::.Boolean
True if the window will not be activated when it is shown; otherwise, false. The default is false.

Remarks

Use this property if you want to show a top-level window, but don't want to interrupt a user's work by taking the input focus away from the current window. This can be an informational pop-up window or a floating window, such as a Tools palette in the Paint application.

Because this property is read-only, you can only change its value by overriding ShowWithoutActivation in your own form, and programming it to return true.

If your non-activated window needs to use UI controls, you should consider using the ToolStrip controls, such as ToolStripDropDown. These controls are windowless, and will not cause a window to activate when they are selected.

Version Information

.NET Framework

Supported in: 4, 3.5, 3.0, 2.0

.NET Framework Client Profile

Supported in: 4, 3.5 SP1

Platforms

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference

Form Class

System.Windows.Forms Namespace

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About TopMost

iNyan | Edit | Show History

You can set the topmost property of the form to false at first and then, after summoning the form using the overriden ShowWithoutActivation bool, set it to true in order to make the form appear over all of the other windows. The TopMost effect will take place and the form won't steal any focus.

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A limitation

t o m | Edit | Show History

Note that windows marked as topmost cause focus changes regardless of their ShowWithoutActivation behaviour.

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ShowWithoutActivation doesn't appear to work when "Application Framework" is enabled

Andrew Browning | Edit | Show History

We have a database component generator written in VB.NET 2008 (3.5 Framework, etc.) which is part of our build process. It can be used interactively (and is hence not a console app), but is generally called (multiple times) by the build scripts.

Previously, each time I ran the application in batch mode it stole focus from whatever else I was doing, ate a couple of key strokes, then returned the focus back to me.

I overrode the ShowWithoutActivation property, but this only worked when I also cleared the "Enable Application Framework" checkbox against the generator application's project.

It took several hours of poking around for me to figure this out. Hopefully reading this will save someone else this time.

AB

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