Can I create a panel-like thing on Windows with Python?

Question

Sorry for the vague title, couldn't come up with anything more informative %)

What I want is a 5px horizontal panel on the top of the screen that I can draw on (and, possible, handle clicks on too).

One of the following features would be awesome (although I understand it's probably not really possible to combine both of them):

• the panel should be just like the Windows's own taskbar, i.e., maximized windows should not overlap it, but start below it instead
• the panel should show in fullscreen apps too

Is it possible to do this in Python?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible. The "how" part depends on the GUI library you choose for which there are many options, but most people will recommend the following two: wxPython or PySide which is Qt for Python.

PySide has good documentation and tutorials.

What you will want to do is create a QMainWindow instance and set the WindowFlags to your requirements. You probably want the following combination Qt::Window | Qt::CustomizeWindowHint | Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint.

Something like this:

import sys
from PySide.QtCore import *
from PySide.QtGui import *

class Form(QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(Form, self).__init__(parent)
        self.setWindowFlags(Qt::Window | Qt::CustomizeWindowHint | Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Create the Qt Application
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    # Create and show the form
    form = Form()
    form.show()
    # Run the main Qt loop
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Note, that there is a limit to the "staying on top" nature of such windows. There are Win32-specific ways to fight it and get even higher, but such requirement would be a design error.