How do I create Windows with WPF that look like notification area windows in Windows 7?

Question

Is there a way to create windows like the native Windows 7 notification area Windows with Windows Presentation Foundation? For example the audio controls or the power plan settings.

I was able to create a Window with Windows Forms that was looking equal, but still had the resize cursor when you hovered the borders. I’m using the following code:

<Window x:Class="WpfApplication1.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        ResizeMode="NoResize" ShowInTaskbar="False" Topmost="True"
        DataContext="{Binding}" WindowStyle="SingleBorderWindow"
        WindowStartupLocation="Manual" ShowActivated="False"
        IsManipulationEnabled="False" mc:Ignorable="d"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        d:DesignHeight="218" d:DesignWidth="368" SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight">
    <Grid>

    </Grid>
</Window>

My problem is that I’m not able to remove the title bar and close button completely. Or is there a library available for creating such windows?

I wanted to post screenshots, but I wasn’t able since I don’t have 10 reputation points, yet.

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

You can't do that with WPF only. You need to do some Win32 interop and remove the WS_CAPTION and WS_SYSMENU styles from your window.

Here's my answer to a similar SO question that has some sample code on how to manipulate the window style and extended style.