Cause form to blink different colors within the task bar?

[Jon Pope]

Many of my users have their sound cards muted, so I need some way of
alerting them visually that a message box has appeared on a form that could
be hidden beneath other open applications. I've noticed that whenever I
receive a message from within MSN Messenger, the chat window blinks for a
few seconds within the task bar. This functionality would be ideally suited
for my app.

Is there an API which I can use to allow similar functionality within my
app?
Cheers, Jon

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Jon,

Yes, there is. You can call the FlashWindow/FlashWindowEx APIs through
the P/Invoke layer to flash the window. However, you can not make it blink
different colors. You can only make it flash the system-defined color.

Hope this helps.
--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mv*@spam.guard.caspershouse.com

"Jon Pope" <jo******@healthlinkinc.com> wrote in message
news:uf**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Many of my users have their sound cards muted, so I need some way of
alerting them visually that a message box has appeared on a form that
could be hidden beneath other open applications. I've noticed that
whenever I receive a message from within MSN Messenger, the chat window
blinks for a few seconds within the task bar. This functionality would be
ideally suited for my app.

Is there an API which I can use to allow similar functionality within my
app?
Cheers, Jon

[Jon Pope]

FlashWindowEx appears to be just what I need. However, after reviewing MS's
online documentation I'm stumped as to how to declare the following
structure:

typedef struct {
UINT cbSize;
HWND hwnd;
DWORD dwFlags;
UINT uCount;
DWORD dwTimeout;
} FLASHWINFO,
*PFLASHWINFO;

which I pulled from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...hwinfo_str.asp

How would you recommend I declare and supply this structure to
FlashWindowEx?

Thanks for your help,

Jon
"Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]" <mv*@spam.guard.caspershouse.com> wrote in
message news:e2**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Jon,

Yes, there is. You can call the FlashWindow/FlashWindowEx APIs through
the P/Invoke layer to flash the window. However, you can not make it
blink different colors. You can only make it flash the system-defined
color.

Hope this helps.
--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mv*@spam.guard.caspershouse.com

"Jon Pope" <jo******@healthlinkinc.com> wrote in message
news:uf**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Many of my users have their sound cards muted, so I need some way of
alerting them visually that a message box has appeared on a form that
could be hidden beneath other open applications. I've noticed that
whenever I receive a message from within MSN Messenger, the chat window
blinks for a few seconds within the task bar. This functionality would
be ideally suited for my app.

Is there an API which I can use to allow similar functionality within my
app?
Cheers, Jon

[Chris Priede]

Jon Pope wrote:

FlashWindowEx appears to be just what I need. However, after reviewing
MS's online documentation I'm stumped as to how

http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/...hWindowEx.html

Perhaps that will help...
--
Chris Priede (pr****@panix.com)

[Jon Pope]

What an awesome resource. Thanks for pointing me to it!

Thanks, Jon

"Chris Priede" <pr****@panix.com> wrote in message
news:el**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

Jon Pope wrote:

FlashWindowEx appears to be just what I need. However, after reviewing
MS's online documentation I'm stumped as to how

http://www.pinvoke.net/default.aspx/...hWindowEx.html

Perhaps that will help...
--
Chris Priede (pr****@panix.com)