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Really, it is just a user drawn tab control turned on it's side.
The ball with LEDs is just an image with transparency that is in front of the tab control.
Don't mistake flashy graphics for new functionality. 
There are articles here on transparency, odd shaped controls and user drawn controls.Opacity, the new Transparency.
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Try Windows Presentation Foundation.
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I am trying to set a .NET WinForms Control as a child to a Window/Form residing on another thread or in a different process altogether. I have had success in parenting a .NET WinForms Control to a native Win32 window in a separate process as well as a .NET WinForms Control to .NET Form residing in another process. However, when I do such to a .NET Form, the .NET form throws several exceptions when it is trying to paint the parent form. If I let the debugger catch and continue after each exception (a real "no no"), the child control finishes painting and the parent Form is left undrawn, with a big red "X" drawn in the background. Only when I create a custom UserControl and set it to the remote .NET Form does it work. What is wrong with the underlying paint procedures of several other controls in the .NET Framework for me to get this inconsistant behavior? Sample code is below...
.NET Control on a native Win32 window - WORKS FINE
// Create any WinForm control
Button button = new Button();
// Set the parent window of that control (aka window) to a common
// native Win32 window...in this case the Desktop window
Win32.SetParent(button.Handle, Win32.FindWindow("Progman", null));
// Continue running the message loop
Application.Run();
.NET UserControl on a Remote .NET Windows.Form - WORKS FINE
// Create a custom UserControl (set colors so you can see it. the
// standard UserControl has the same colors as the Form's background)
UserControl1 ctrl = new UserControl1();
// Set the parent window of that control (aka window) to a common
// .NET Form...in this case the Form1
Win32.SetParent(ctrl.Handle, Win32.FindWindow("WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a", "Form1"));
// Continue running the message loop
Application.Run();
.NET Control on a Remote .NET Windows.Form - DOES NOT WORK
// Create any WinForm control
Button button = new Button();
// Set the parent window of that control (aka window) to a common
// .NET Form...in this case the Form1
Win32.SetParent(button.Handle, Win32.FindWindow("WindowsForms10.Window.8.app.0.378734a", "Form1"));
// Continue running the message loop
Application.Run();
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If the form & control creation threads are different, then the event on the other thread have to be invoked. Adding a child control from a different thread fires events on the new parent thread that should be invoked. Obviously, you don't have control of the firing to make them invoked, so crash and burn.
The child draws fine, the parent, needing invoke, crashes.Opacity, the new Transparency.
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When I began testing, that was my assumption going in. However, of the three code snipplets I posted, two work fine, which seem to counter your explaination. A .NET control parented to a native Win32 window in a separate process works fine as well as a .NET "UserControl" class being parented to a .NET window in a separate process. Only in select cases does your explaination seem to hold weight. Try my examples and see what you get.
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I have a recollection that user control is special in some manner, and pointing in that direction, from MSDN:
You can host Windows Forms UserControl derived classes inside of a form, on another UserControl,
inside of Internet Explorer on a Web page, or inside a WebBrowser control hosted on a form. [^]
I have not used user control myself, but I have hit the multiple thread problem you are talking about with other controls.
I recall the solution we had used was 'single threaded apartment' vs 'multiple threaded apartment', but I can't remember which worked correctly. I think it was single threaded, but try both and see if it changes.
Or try creating a usercontrol with a button in it and moving it to the other thread. User control may fix the threading problem for its children.
Either way, let me know how it comes out.
Thanks
RichardOpacity, the new Transparency.
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The only thing special about the UserControl1 class is that I changed the background color. I could have used the UserControl class directly and set the background color. It makes no difference. In several test cases, I even added several buttons and other controls onto my derived UserControl1 class. It still works fine as a child to a Win32 or .NET WinForm in a separate process. I have learned that when ever a window (or control in .NET terms) posts a message via PostMessage(..), the active thread just adds the message to the destination's message queue and returns immediately, not waiting for the message to be processed. Had I posted a message via SendMessage(..), the active thread would suspend until the message is processed. My guess is that some of the .NET controls (like the Button control) uses SendMessage(..) somewhere internally and waits for it's child/parent to process, perhaps creating even a deadlock somewhere in worse cases. I have found articles and forums suggesting the CLR might be disposing a handle to GDI objects a the point where the exception is thrown in the internal paint procedure or the GDI handle count is exceeded. Eitherway, I am puzzled. I have found articles and code showing multithreaded windowed applications to work fine, but most developers usually have no need for such and never investigate.
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That makes sense.
I don't know where I heard or read about UserControl being special, but this reinforces it.
I'd say that they did decouple cross thread calls in userControl.
We have an app that every window has a thread that actually creates and opens the form.
It also makes tabs by taking the contents of an existing form and sticking it into a new TabControl.
Don't ask why, it's a long story 
While we were initially working on it, we would get cross thread exceptions.
We changed some of the windows to be single threaded apartment, and the problem went away.
We were having problems with the clipboard that also went away when we did STA.
This should also may help me. We are doing much to deal with this problem is other areas. UserControl as the top level container looks like it could let us get rid of some code.
Thanks
RichardOpacity, the new Transparency.
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hii all
m new to windows application.I want to create a desktop application but dont have idea
where to start with.Can anybody give me any gud link or tutorial or name of ebooks which would
help me in my project.however i have worked on web application(asp.net using csharp).plz guide me ...thanks..
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You could check out any one of the results here:
Windows Forms Application Tutorials[^]
or search for the MSDN videos.I don't speak Idiot - please talk slowly and clearly
'This space for rent'
Driven to the arms of Heineken by the wife
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Download Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.
http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/#2008-Visual-CS[^]
Install, launch, and register (Help -> Register Product). After you register, you'll be eligible for some freebies, including the book (PDF) "Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition - Build a Program Now!". Download that, and it should help get you started.
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You could start by going through some good C# books.Me, I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.
Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for...
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can u suggest some books based on win applications
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Well... I load from database some tables in comboboxes. I want to display only a part of data (i work with adress (state, region, street, cp etc.)) so i use local datasets and load all of it in combobox with arraylist (datasource, displaymember etc.). But i can't just register every street in the country, so for a special place i register all of it, and for all other i want to make possible to register it if it's not registered. So i need to check if i write in combobox some text and then want to insert it in the database if this text is already in the combobox displaymember. So how can i search for an item in combobox by displaymember text?
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| Please do not post the same question in multiple forums. txtspeak is the realm of 9 year old children, not developers. Christian Graus
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I have a login form which will connect the Active Directory to check the user; but the output that i get is alway not couldn't connect.
Boolean Success = false;
DirectoryEntry Entry = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://" + Domain, UserName, Password);
DirectorySearcher Searcher = new DirectorySearcher(Entry);
Searcher.SearchRoot = Entry;
Searcher.Filter = "(&(objectClass=user)(sAMAccountName=" + UserName + "))";
Searcher.PropertiesToLoad.Add("cn");
Searcher.SearchScope = SearchScope.Subtree;
try
{
//Test = UserExists(Domain, UserName, Password);
SearchResult Results = Searcher.FindOne();
Success = (Results != null);
}
please help me to find the solution.Regards,
John.L.Ponratnam
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Hello everybody,
I'm developing a custom control containing a TreeView control and a couple of buttons and etc ...
Now, the question is that how can I show the smart tags menu of the TreeView at the design time?--------------
Vahid Rassouli
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Ours is a desktop application (windows based) and based on remoting distributed architecture.
It is a windows based application and not web based.
Steps followed to run the application
1. Application is deployed / hosted on Citrix Server.
2. User has to first logon to citrix server.
3. User clicks the icon of the application in Citrix Server.
Question is
1. If IIS is running, could it mean that underlying channel is HTTP, or could it be
that remoting is done using TCPChannel itself
2. I know that IIS is a web server for ASP.NET web application, why is IIS being used
for a windows application.
3. What could be the role of IIS / Worker process in a desktop or windows application?
4. important!!! Is it that Citrix works as a fileserver also. I am asking because
files are not maintained in the client machine, so when user clicks the icon
in citrix, does necessary DLLS get loaded in the client machine firstly?
Regards,
NetQuestionsmodified on Friday, February 19, 2010 1:29 AM
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Doesn't the use of IIS completely rule out the use of TcpChannel. The communication should be using HTTP and SOAP and not
using Tcp sockects?
Regards,
NetQuestions
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NetQuestions wrote: If IIS is running, could it mean that underlying channel is HTTP, or could it be
that remoting is done using TCPChannel itself
That depends on your remoting configuration. Did you tell your app to use HTTP or to use Sockets to talk to the remote object?
NetQuestions wrote: 2. I know that IIS is a web server for ASP.NET web application, why is IIS being used
for a windows application.
What makes you think it is? Did you have a remote object or a webservice being hosted by IIS?
NetQuestions wrote: 3. What could be the role of IIS / Worker process in a desktop or windows application?
None at all.
NetQuestions wrote: 4. important!!! Is it that Citrix works as a fileserver also. I am asking because
files are not maintained in the client machine, so when user clicks the icon
in citrix, does necessary DLLS get loaded in the client machine firstly?
That depends entirely on how your application is configured in Citrix. If your streaming the app to the client, then the app gets sent to the client and run there. If app is configured to run on the Citrix server, then all that's sent to the client is the window images of the application.
There are, of course, more options for all of these questions, but your not providing enough details on the background of any of these questions to answer them with anything other than generalities.
See what I'm getting at here? Your questions are all answerable, but only by you because all of this stuff in under direct control of how you designed your app, what remoting configuration you've chosen, how the app was deployed to the Citrix server, and how it's being setup and advertised in Citrix.
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thanks dave. I shall get back to you.
regards,
NetQuestions
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Colleagues,
Is there a standard (and free) control which is like a ComboBox, only better?  Some of the potential features could be:
* being able to control the font for each of the items individually
* icons, checkboxes next to the items
If such thing exists, could you post a reference? If not, then I’ll stop the wishful thinking and carry on with the standard ComboBox.
Cheers,
- Nick
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| You may like to investigate WPF where it is relatively easy (after the steep learning curve) to create such controls yourself. Take a look at some of the WPF articles here on CodeProject to see the sort of things that can be done. txtspeak is the realm of 9 year old children, not developers. Christian Graus
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Hi,
ComboBox (as well as ListBox):
1. holds and shows items of any type you choose, not just strings.
2. supports "user drawing", see DrawMode property and DrawItem event.
Hence you could:
- define your own little class representing such item, with all the properties you'd like;
- paint it yourself in whatever format you like.
I often do this with ListBox, and occasionally with ComboBox.
And no, I don't have a published example around.
 Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read code that is properly formatted, adding PRE tags is the easiest way to obtain that. All Toronto weekends should be extremely wet until we get it automated in regular forums, not just QA.
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You might want to subclass the combobox and add your own functionality as shown here[^].Me, I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.
Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for...
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