How to display menu by NotifyIcon without displaying the form in Taskbar

Question

I have a form with a NotifyIcon and a ContextMenuStrip and I want to display the menu by clicking on the notification, but unfortunately it is displayed in the taskbar. Why? I tried setting the ShowInTaskbar property to false, but it didn't work.Tip Only with Mouse Left Click. Here is my code:

Public Class frmNotificaction
    Public WithEvents MyNotify As New NotifyIcon With {.Icon = My.Resources.Icon1}
    Dim MyMenu As New ContextMenuStrip
    Private Sub frmNotificaction_Load(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        MyMenu.Items.Add("Item1")
        MyMenu.Items.Add("Item2")
        MyNotify.Visible = True
    End Sub
    Private Sub MyNotify_MouseClick(sender As Object, e As MouseEventArgs) Handles MyNotify.MouseClick
        If e.Button = MouseButtons.Left Then
            Me.ShowInTaskbar = False
            MyMenu.Show(Cursor.Position)
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

Answer 1

After you show the window, you can set the owner for the window.

Private Sub MyNotify_MouseClick(sender As Object, e As MouseEventArgs) Handles MyNotify.MouseClick
    If e.Button = MouseButtons.Left Then
        Me.ShowInTaskbar = False
        MyMenu.Show(Cursor.Position)
        SetWindowLongPtr(MyMenu.Handle, GWL_HWNDPARENT, Handle)
    End If
End Sub

Private Const GWL_HWNDPARENT As Integer = -8

<DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint:="SetWindowLongPtr", SetLastError:=True)>
Private Shared Function SetWindowLongPtr64(hWnd As IntPtr, nIndex As Integer, dwNewLong As IntPtr) As IntPtr
End Function

<DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint:="SetWindowLong", SetLastError:=True)>
Private Shared Function SetWindowLong32(hWnd As IntPtr, nIndex As Integer, dwNewLong As Integer) As Integer
End Function

Private Shared Function SetWindowLongPtr(hWnd As IntPtr, nIndex As Integer, dwNewLong As IntPtr) As IntPtr
    If IntPtr.Size = 8 Then
        Return SetWindowLongPtr64(hWnd, nIndex, dwNewLong)
    Else
        Return New IntPtr(SetWindowLong32(hWnd, nIndex, dwNewLong.ToInt32()))
    End If
End Function

Answer 2

Finally found a simple, working solution!

ContextMenuStrip from a left click on a Notify Icon

I just wonder why this wasn't mentioned here, on a microsoft page?

In short: the default right-click p/invokes SetForegroundWindow before showing the menu.

So, if You add this to Your left-click event, the menu behaves as usual when opening with a right-click:

[DllImport("User32.dll", ExactSpelling = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(HandleRef hWnd);
private void notifyIcon1_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Button == MouseButtons.Left)
    {
        SetForegroundWindow(new HandleRef(this, this.Handle));
        this.contextMenuStrip1.Show(this, this.PointToClient(Cursor.Position));
    }
}

Cheers, Stephan

Answer 3

Hi @Mansour_Dalir ,

You need to explicitly set the position where the ContextMenuStrip should appear.

    Private Sub MyNotify_MouseClick(sender As Object, e As MouseEventArgs) Handles MyNotify.MouseClick
        If e.Button = MouseButtons.Left Then
            Me.ShowInTaskbar = False
            MyMenu.Show(Cursor.Position)
        End If
    End Sub

Best Regards.

Jiachen Li

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Answer 4

Not sure I fully follow your situation but it sounds like you want to "minimize your app" to the system tray and then allow the user to restore the window when the tray icon is shown. To implement that you don't need to muck with the taskbar setting. When the user minimizes your window then instead just hide the main window. It will disappear from the taskbar but the tray icon should still be visible. When the user clicks the tray icon (or a menu inside it) then show your window again.

Note that many apps provide the option to show a tray icon only when minimized so in that case you should handle the minimize request on the window by hiding it but show the tray icon. When the window is restored then hide the tray icon and show the window again.

You can google for how to do this as there are lots of examples of how to get it working.