how to set wpf MessageBox.Owner to desktop window because SplashScreen closes MessageBox

Question

I am using the SplashScreen feature in WPF by setting a bitmap's Build Action to Splashscreen. Behind the splash screen, licensing information is being check, and if it fails I show a MessageBox.

According to this Feedback, it is because the MessageBox.Owner is the splash screen and as soon as another window is open even if it is a MessageBox the splash screen window is closed which then in turn closes the MessageBox, so the user never sees the MessageBox.

So the workaround would be to set the MessageBox.Owner to another window, but that would mean that I have to instantiate another window which might not even be needed.

Would it be possible to set the MessageBox.Owner to the desktop window? And how, because the only other function that comes to mind is the GetDesktopWindow() api function, but that returns a window handle and MessageBox.Owner is a WPF Window.

Answer 1

Since using the desktop window as the parent for your modal dialogs is not a good idea, as @Nir pointed out in his answer, here are three other workarounds:

1) Use a hidden window. Create a tiny, non-modal window to act as the parent for your MessageBox or other modal dialog. This approach is described here:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/116bcd83-93bf-42f3-9bfe-da9e7de37546/

2) Create non-modal message windows. Change your startup mode to explicit shutdown and use a non-modal window to display your message. This approach is described in the answer to this StackOverflow question:

MessageBox with exception details immediately disappears if use splash screen in WPF 4.0

3) Call MessageBox twice. Apparently, the problem only affects the first modal dialog shown. So you could simply call your modal dialog twice, if you didn't mind the flash of the first one opening and closing.

https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/600197/wpf-splash-screen-dismisses-dialog-box

Personally, I don't like any of these workarounds. The only other option is to avoid the built-in SplashScreen functionality and to roll your own from scratch. Here's a link if you want to investigate that route further:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/wpf/thread/8dd49fd0-9cc9-43c6-b285-6f119ab8a32e/

Finally, if you're as annoyed by this issue as I am, you can vote for Microsoft to fix this bug here:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/600197/wpf-splash-screen-dismisses-dialog-box