I'm building a menu bar app for Mac OS and was wondering if there was a way to show the desktop while the user has another full screen application open and focused. I've looked online a lot and have been able to hide all apps if you aren't in a full screen app and already on a desktop using (this is what I found on most other SO posts):
NSApp.activate(ignoringOtherApps: true)
NSWorkspace.shared.hideOtherApplications()
However when I'm in a full screen app this code will just kinda flicker the full screen app.
Is there a way to maybe switch to a desktop and then hide all apps? Or does apple not allow this kind of behaviour with the public APIs?
Thanks!
Apple iMac & MacBook lineup uses high-resolution display branded as "Retina Display" which by default, macOS will set the screen resolution below the native screen resolution. For example on the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, which comes with native resolution of 2560-by-1600, macOS will set the default resolution to 1280-by-800 with option to scaled to other screen resolution (1024-by-640, 1440-by-900, and 1680-by-1050) on Settings app.
However, on Windows (including the latest version) screen resolution are by default, set to the native screen resolution with "Scaling" function to increases the elements sizing. For example on a 15-inch laptop, which comes with a Full HD display, Windows will set the default resolution to the 1920-by-1080 with scaling set to 100% but recommended to 125%. Setting a higher scaling in turns result in certain elements displayed blurry.
Hence, why is this case?
An operating system can work without screens. You could for example start your computer (either running Windows, or MacOSX, or Linux), and run some application app (or app.exe on Windows) on that command line.
Now, imagine you type app (without the ENTER key) in some command window, unplug your screen, and type the ENTER key. You app has still started (and perhaps detected that no screen is available, only if that app is a GUI application opening a window by using some widget toolkit). If your app is not a GUI application but a command line one (eg cp which copy files) it can successfully execute.
In practice, your screen is today used by some display server. And your application don't show directly pixels on the screen: it interacts with your display server which generally is the only process accessing the screen (more precisely, your graphics card).
So you need to learn how to tune or configure your display server. And that of course is operating system and display server specific. On MacOSX and and Windows and on Linux they are very different (and Linux even has several ones, e.g. Xorg or Wayland). On MacOSX it is Quartz.
I am looking for a solution that will allow me to create a desktop icon that when clicked will open a url in the user's default browser.
The solution should work for mac & windows (or alternatively will need a separate solution for windows and mac).
For this situation, creating a webpage shortcut from the browser is not enough. It needs to be an .exe or app.
I remember being able to do this with Flash back in the early 2000's.
I am developing a photo capturing kiosk application on AIR as3 for Windows Desktop.
I have set the stage display to FULL_SCREEN_INTERACTIVE and that works fine. (I have also hid the Start Menu and Task Bar)
The problem is if there is any pop-up like Windows Update or Team Viewer connection etc. it comes to the top in front of my application and then people are able to minimize my application and breach into my windows computer.
Can I do anything to make sure that my application ALWAYS STAYS ON TOP of all other messages, programs and applications ?
I've got an applescript, created in Automator, that opens a number of applications and folders that I use as part of a workflow for creating a photo book. The way my flow works is Photoshop Elements in Desktop 1, four Finder windows on Desktop 2, iPhoto on Desktop 3 and Booksmart on Desktop 4.
My applescript opens each of these just as I'd like, the only problem is it opens everything on the desktop that I'm on at the time. I then have to go into mission control and move around my windows putting each application onto the desktop I'd like it to be on. This takes as long as opening the applications one by one on their requisite desktop.
I have tried assigning desktops to the applications, but this doesn't appear to work consistently.
Is there any applescript that I can use that will open an application on a specific desktop?
I'm running OS X 10.8.2.
Many thanks
Did you try assigning the application to a desktop?
This will open the application on the right desktop without the help of a script.