Desktop Gadgets alternatives on windows 10

Question

I want to have a small window like thing on the desktop that's always on the desktop and it would just have two buttons(that does some work) as the desktop gadgets are discontinued from windows 8.Any Other Hard-Code alternatives to do that?

Answer 1

Yes it's possible, but it does require a bit of work. To overview the process:

1. Set the form's ShowInTaskbar property to false, so it doesn't show up in the taskbar.
2. Set the form's BorderStyle property to None. (Which also conveniently happens to remove the caption bar, minimize/maximize buttons, etc.)
3. Override the window procedure for the form, and handle the WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING message, so that you can keep the window at the bottom of the Z-Order.
4. Handle the WM_NCHITTEST message for your form so that you can move the form by dragging it by its background. Return HTCAPTION so that the system acts like your mouse is in the caption bar of the form.

As a simple demo, create a form, with the ShowInTaskbar property set to false, and BorderStyle set to None. Then add the following code:

static readonly IntPtr HWND_BOTTOM = new IntPtr(1);
private const int WM_NCHITTEST = 0x0084;
private const int WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING = 0x0046;
private const int HTCAPTION = 2;
private const int HTCLIENT = 1;

private struct WINDOWPOS
{
    public IntPtr hwnd;
    public IntPtr hwndInsertAfter;
    public int x;
    public int y;
    public int cx;
    public int cy;
    public uint flags;
}

protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
    if (m.Msg == WM_NCHITTEST)
    {
        m.Result = new IntPtr(HTCAPTION);
        return;
    }
    else if (m.Msg == WM_WINDOWPOSCHANGING)
    {
        WINDOWPOS posInfo = Marshal.PtrToStructure<WINDOWPOS>(m.LParam);
        posInfo.hwndInsertAfter = HWND_BOTTOM;
        Marshal.StructureToPtr(posInfo, m.LParam, true);
    }
    base.WndProc(ref m);
}