C# MessageBox To Front When App is Minimized To Tray

Luke Belbina picture Luke Belbina · Jan 29, 2011 · Viewed 13.6k times · Source

I have some code that popups a message box:

MessageBox.Show(this,
                 "You have not inputted a username or password. Would you like to configure your settings now?",
                 "Settings Needed",
                 MessageBoxButtons.YesNo,
                 MessageBoxIcon.Question);

My problem is when this pops up my app is usually minimized to the tray. As a result the messagebox doesn't come to the front and it also doesnt appear along the start bar. The only way of seeing it is by alt-tabbing.

Here is the code that minimizes my app (the parent) to the tray:

if (FormWindowState.Minimized == WindowState)
{                
      Hide();                
}

Answer

Cody Gray picture Cody Gray · Jan 29, 2011

There's an additional flag you can specify as an option to the standard Windows MessageBox function that isn't exposed in the WinForms wrapper.

What you're looking for is called MB_TOPMOST, which ensures that the message box is displayed as the top-most window over everything else on your desktop. Simply amend your code as shown below:

MessageBox.Show(this,
                "You have not inputted a username or password. Would you like to configure your settings now?",
                "Settings Needed",
                MessageBoxButtons.YesNo,
                MessageBoxIcon.Question,
                MessageBoxDefaultButton.Button1,  // specify "Yes" as the default
                (MessageBoxOptions)0x40000);      // specify MB_TOPMOST