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This is a technique I first saw in Mike Blaszczak's 'stealth' program.

It is desirable sometimes to not have your application window show up in the taskbar. For instance, you may have an application resides in the system tray, and since it already has a system tray icon, having the extra icon in the taskbar is needless duplication. A simple way to create a window that will not have an icon in the taskbar is to create a separate invisible window, and have that invisible window be the parent of your applications window.

The way to do this, and still allow your application's window to remain visible, is to set the invisible window as parent in your application's PreCreateWindow override.

First, declare a window member variable in your Main Frame class:

class CMainFrame : public CFrameWnd
{
...
protected:
    CWnd m_wndInvisible;
...

Then override CMainFrame::PreCreateWindow:

BOOL CMainFrame::PreCreateWindow(CREATESTRUCT& cs)
{
    if (!CFrameWnd::PreCreateWindow(cs))
         return FALSE;

     // Create invisible window

     if (!::IsWindow(m_wndInvisible.m_hWnd))
     {
        LPCTSTR pstrOwnerClass = AfxRegisterWndClass(0);
        if (!m_wndInvisible.CreateEx(0, pstrOwnerClass, _T(""), WS_POPUP,
                CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
                NULL, 0))
            return FALSE;
     }

    cs.hwndParent = m_wndInvisible.m_hWnd;

    return TRUE;
}

That's all you need to do! The invisible window will be automatically destroyed when the main application closes.

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sumthing missing addy808 4:09 23 Apr '07   i think if u have a menu based dialog , u can not opt to make it a child else your menus would be gone thanx Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink VC++ Code to add application icon to the Task Manager Smitha Rao 5:03 27 Sep '06   Hi techies, I have created the dialog based application and for some unavoidable reasons, I was supposed to call another property sheet's DoModal function from the OnInitDialog function of my main application dialog class. Becoz of which task bar icon was not appearing. And then putting // Show the task bar icon ModifyStyleEx(0,WS_EX_APPWINDOW); this code in OnInitDialog of Property sheet worked and Task bar icon was appearing. But no luck with taskmanager list Any help in this will be great help to me. regards smitha My application class BOOL CFlowCalSIDlg::OnInitDialog() { CDialog::OnInitDialog(); // Add "About..." menu item to system menu. // IDM_ABOUTBOX must be in the system command range. ASSERT((IDM_ABOUTBOX & 0xFFF0) == IDM_ABOUTBOX); ASSERT(IDM_ABOUTBOX < 0xF000); CMenu* pSysMenu = GetSystemMenu(FALSE); if (pSysMenu != NULL) { CString strAboutMenu; strAboutMenu.LoadString(IDS_ABOUTBOX); if (!strAboutMenu.IsEmpty()) { pSysMenu->AppendMenu(MF_SEPARATOR); pSysMenu->AppendMenu(MF_STRING, IDM_ABOUTBOX, strAboutMenu); } } // Set the icon for this dialog. The framework does this automatically // when the application's main window is not a dialog SetIcon(m_hIcon, TRUE); // Set big icon SetIcon(m_hIcon, FALSE); // Set small icon **** My code goes here********** theApp.m_hMainWnd = m_hWnd; CMyPropertySheet pSheet( IDS_TITLE_FCFV /*_T( "My appl" )*/ ); pSheet.SetWizardMode(); pSheet.DoModal(); **** My code goes here********** return TRUE; // return TRUE unless you set the focus to a control } and in CMyPropertySheet.cpp file BOOL CMyPropertySheet::OnInitDialog() { //Set the sheet icon HICON hIcon = theApp.LoadIcon(MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDR_MAINFRAME)); SetIcon(hIcon, TRUE); // Set big icon. SetIcon(hIcon, FALSE); // Set small icon // Show the task bar icon ModifyStyleEx(0,WS_EX_APPWINDOW); return CPropertySheet::OnInitDialog(); } Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: VC++ Code to add application icon to the Task Manager hari_honey 20:53 19 Aug '08   Hi, Could you solve this problem. I am also having the same problem, if you find the solution please let me know. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink alt+tab Anonymous 2:41 12 Sep '05   yes this was very useful , but i need to remove it fully not even in alt+tab combination. how do i make it,pl help me. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: alt+tab Torres O. 13:26 19 Jan '06   Sorry my english. Here is what I did: In the InitInstance() function inthe CWinapp derived class created by the wizard in a dialog project ...... //Create a new dinamic "CInvisibleDlg" object CInvisibleDlg* dlg = new CInvisibleDlg; //Asingn the pointer to the m_pMainWnd variable m_pMainWnd = dlg; //Call Run for the Cwinapp derived class to begin the message loop Run(); //When the dialog quits we delete it delete dlg; return FALSE; } //End of the InitInstance() function ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// In the .RC file change the dialog's EXSTYLE from WS_EX_APPWINDOW to WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW STYLE DS_SETFONT | DS_MODALFRAME | DS_FIXEDSYS | WS_POPUP | WS_VISIBLE | WS_CAPTION EXSTYLE WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW // Change WS_EX_APPWINDOW to WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW and if you want a invisible window comment "WS_VISIBLE" ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// And finally in the CDialog derived class, in this case "CInvisibleDlg", from within the Constructor just call Create( IDD ) were IDD is the resource simbol of the dialog template. Just one last thing, in the dialog I override the function "OnOk()" to call "postQuitMessage( 0 )" because of another way the App never ends. Hope This helps, and again sorry for my poor english. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 [Message Removed] nompel 10:18 6 Oct '08   Spam message removed Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: alt+tab sam t. xu 11:11 21 Apr '06   For any Doc/View application, change the fist argument in CreateEx() from 0 to WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW if you want to hide it from Alt-Tab. In this way, the created invisible window has WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW style, which does not appear in the task bar or in the window that appears when the user presses ALT+TAB. At the same time, invisible window's caption bar doesn't show up at all. No concern about the shrinked caption bar. A perfect solution combined with Chris's code and MS WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW style. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink How I can add an icon in the left superior corner? leoncar 19:14 12 Jan '04   How I can add an icon in the left superior corner (title of program) in a SDI, without enabling Document/View Architecture Support in Step 1. thank you Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 How I can add an icon in the left superior corner? leolim 19:13 12 Jan '04   How I can add an icon in the left superior corner (title of program) in a SDI, without enabling Document/View Architecture Support in Step 1. thank you Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 How to make it in Visual Basic? Mickey_vip 13:40 6 Aug '03   Hello I'm a graduating student with almost no experience in professional programming and I have a question: How can I make my Visual Basic 6.0 windows application to run and show only as tray icon and not on task bar? Thank you in advance mickey Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.33/5 Incorrect icon in system dialog When Alt+Tab kimdaejeong 0:31 25 Apr '03   Solution is CMainFrame::OnCreate () { ... HICON icon = (HICON)::GetClassLong(m_hWnd, GCL_HICON); if(icon) { HWND wnd = m_wndInvisible.m_hWnd; ::SetClassLong(wnd, GCL_HICON, (LONG)icon); ::SetClassLong(wnd, GCL_HICONSM, (LONG)icon); } Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 How to Create an application(base dialog) with no taskbar icon? zhangyifei 4:40 25 Nov '02   I am trying to make my dialog-box based application work as follows: - When the program starts, an icon in the status bar is created, but no icon in the taskbar - When I press the icon in the status bar the application gets back to its normal state Give me a demo ! ZHANGYIFEI Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.75/5 This man is just great :) Anonymous 15:59 27 Mar '02   wow that good hehe Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink ...or as they tell it in MSDN... Mathias 0:14 14 Jan '02   In MSDN, they tell you the following to accomplish the same thing. "To prevent the window button from being placed on the taskbar, create the window with the WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW extended style." Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 Re: ...or as they tell it in MSDN... Chris Maunder 0:33 14 Jan '02   ...and you end up with a teensy-weensy caption bar cheers, Chris Maunder Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: ...or as they tell it in MSDN... Mathias 0:59 14 Jan '02   Yes you do, but you have to add one more line of code according to MSDN to remove the teensy-weensy caption bar, and here goes: "you must hide the window first (by calling ShowWindow with SW_HIDE)". I made a small code example: BOOL InitInstance(HINSTANCE hInstance, int nCmdShow) { HWND hWnd; hInst = hInstance; // Store instance handle in our global variable hWnd = CreateWindow(szWindowClass, szTitle, WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW, CW_USEDEFAULT, 0, CW_USEDEFAULT, 0, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL); if (!hWnd) { return FALSE; } ShowWindow(hWnd, nCmdShow); UpdateWindow(hWnd); // // Hide button in taskbar ShowWindow(hWnd, FALSE); return TRUE; } Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: ...or as they tell it in MSDN... Anonymous 21:14 22 Jul '03   Use the extended window style WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW combined with the window style WS_POPUP. No more taskbar icon !!! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.00/5 Re: ...or as they tell it in MSDN... Anonymous 21:18 22 Jul '03   With the caption bar. Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Has anyone done this with Visual C++ 6.0? SixString 20:47 29 Nov '01   And if so, will you show/explain the code so can we study how it was done? thanks Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink Re: Has anyone done this with Visual C++ 6.0? Albert van Peppen 4:03 18 Dec '02   Sorry for the late reply... I've got it working in VC++6.0, VC++7.0 and VC++7.1 without any problems.. Do you or anyone else expirience any problems? Al it takes is some good look at the examples Albert van Peppen Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 2.00/5 Top banana! Baz 0:16 4 Apr '01   Cheers for that! Been looking for an easy way to do this for ages! Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink What About Console Application? Anonymous 13:32 12 Jan '01   Can anyone suggest a method to hide teh icon of a Console Application? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 Java Nick 13:48 20 Jul '00   Does anyone know how to write or spawn a Java application that sits on the Taskbar, but is hidden as in the example above? This would be like a service that runs in the background like NT Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 5.00/5 How do you do this in Delphi? Rick Ashford 20:01 13 Apr '00   I'm just a beginner, and I'm trying to figure out how to do this in Delphi Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 3.50/5 How to avoid task being removed from task list ( in the Task Manager)? Bernd Giesen 4:23 7 Apr '00   Well, it's nice that the app icon doesn't appear duplicate (in the task bar ans the system trayy as well), but unfortunately, its task entry is also removed from the task LIST within the Task Manager if the window is minimized to the tray. How can I avoid that (I always need that task list entry to obtain the corresponding window handle by using FindWindow(...))??? Or, in other words: How do I wake up that minimized window from within another process/application? Sign In·View Thread·PermaLink 1.80/5

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