Window.ShowActivated Property

Definition

Gets or sets a value that indicates whether a window is activated when first shown.

C#
public bool ShowActivated { get; set; }

Property Value

true if a window is activated when first shown; otherwise, false. The default is true.

Examples

The following example shows how to use markup to configure a window to be opened without being activated.

XAML
<Window
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    x:Class="WindowShowActivatedSnippets.AWindow"
    ShowActivated="False">
C#
using System.Windows;

namespace WindowShowActivatedSnippets
{
    public partial class AWindow : Window
    {
        public AWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
    }
}

The following example shows how to use code to configure a window to be opened without it being activated.

C#
AWindow window = new AWindow();
window.ShowActivated = false;
window.Show();

Remarks

When a window with its ShowActivated property set to false is opened, the window is not activated and its Activated event is not raised until a user manually activates the window by selecting it. After the window is selected, it activates and deactivates normally.

To prevent a window from being activated when it opens, the ShowActivated property must be set to false before the window is shown (by calling Show); setting ShowActivated to false after a window is shown has no effect.

Setting ShowActivated to false on a window that is opened modally, by calling ShowDialog, has no real impact. Although the modal window will not be activated, the modal window will prevent the user from activating any other open application windows.

Dependency Property Information

Identifier field ShowActivatedProperty
Metadata properties set to true None

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Framework 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
Windows Desktop 3.0, 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9