Using WPF for creating gadgets/desktop apps

In the June CTP we have the AllowsTransparency property made available at the Window level. This takes away lot of pain from using HwndSources. It makes life a lot easeir since all that is needed is to set the properties: AllowsTransparency="true" Background="transparent" and WindowStyle="none". As in the case of HwndSource this would remove the title bar and to provide the drag functionality we would have to use a Thumb. I tried putting these new properties to good use by creating a simple gadget ( more of a desktop app) which is just eye candy :)....

So its a rotating globe... which has a circular thumb for dragging it along and the ever so useful Close button. And yeah there is no minimized button; thats by design :) couldnt resist saying that... So in effect it has everything to start off creating simple desktop gadgets.

The project is attached for convenience and experimenting :).

transparency with thumb.zip

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 09, 2006
  Cool demo - but the drag does not work for me... hm.
• Anonymous
  August 15, 2006
  The drag code is the same that I posted in a post concerning HwndSources... the code should work fine