How to make WPF application running in background

Question

How to make WPF application running in background

Deok Jong Moon 125

Hi there,

I'm fairly a beginner in C# and .NET, and basically the ultimate goal I'd like to achieve is to make a Windows application that has

running in background,
automatically starts when device is booted up,
but has UI, which could show up by clicking on it in the system tray.

For this purpose, I've seen that I could use WPF solution and add background running component in it. But, almost all the articles dealing with the topic is written long time ago, and even when I try to a class such as System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon, it won't show up in my WPF solution's Nuget package manager or anywhere in it.

I'm okay with any other better and easier solution to achieve my goal.

Please give me some advice on it.

Kind Regards,

DJ Moon

Hui Liu-MSFT 48,676 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-30T03:01:00.41+00:00

Hi,@Deok Jong Moon.Welcome Microsoft Q&A. Is it possible to show me the minimal sample code that can reproduce the problem to reproduce the problem and analysis? Could you show screenshots or animations of your expected results?
Deok Jong Moon 125 Reputation points

2023-06-30T03:42:44.9766667+00:00

Hi @Hui Liu-MSFT ,

Uhm... actually there is no sample code for this issue, since it is not making any error at the moment. Maybe I can say that when I try to use NotifyIcon class to type "System.Windows.Forms" in Nuget Manager or in my cs file, it doesn't come up with anything right.
Hui Liu-MSFT 48,676 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-30T05:58:33.4733333+00:00

Hi,@Deok Jong Moon. You could refer to the following steps to use WindowsFrom in WPF.

If the Target framework of your wpf project is .NET Framework *:

You could right-click References under the project and select Add References... then select Assemblies and search for Forms in the upper right corner and check System.Windows.Forms and WindowsFormsIntergration and finally click OK.

If the Target framework of your wpf project is .NET *:

You can double-click the project name to edit the project file, add <UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms> in <PropertyGroup>.

The result:

1 answer

Your answer

Hui Liu-MSFT 48,676 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-30T03:01:00.41+00:00

Hi,@Deok Jong Moon.Welcome Microsoft Q&A. Is it possible to show me the minimal sample code that can reproduce the problem to reproduce the problem and analysis? Could you show screenshots or animations of your expected results?
Deok Jong Moon 125 Reputation points

2023-06-30T03:42:44.9766667+00:00

Hi @Hui Liu-MSFT ,

Uhm... actually there is no sample code for this issue, since it is not making any error at the moment. Maybe I can say that when I try to use NotifyIcon class to type "System.Windows.Forms" in Nuget Manager or in my cs file, it doesn't come up with anything right.
Hui Liu-MSFT 48,676 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2023-06-30T05:58:33.4733333+00:00

Hi,@Deok Jong Moon. You could refer to the following steps to use WindowsFrom in WPF.

If the Target framework of your wpf project is .NET Framework *:

You could right-click References under the project and select Add References... then select Assemblies and search for Forms in the upper right corner and check System.Windows.Forms and WindowsFormsIntergration and finally click OK.

If the Target framework of your wpf project is .NET *:

You can double-click the project name to edit the project file, add <UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms> in <PropertyGroup>.

The result:

Answer 1

running in background,

automatically starts when device is booted up,

but has UI, which could show up by clicking on it in the system tray.

In C#, you can just use P/Invoke for the System Tray

I had uploaded a sample in WinUI 3 (https://github.com/castorix/WinUI3_NotifyIcon)

(function TrayMessage in NotifyIcon.cs)

You can do it in WPF, Winforms, WinUI 3 (you simply hide/show the main window as I did when I minimize/restore it)

To launch the program at Startup, you can write the path+exe in one of the registry keys ,like

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

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How to make WPF application running in background

1 answer

Your answer