Is there any way for me 2 be able to change the z-index of a program which I downloaded, so it's always on top of whatever is on my screen? Currently it's pre-programmed to be on top of everything, but once I start a full-screen game, it's not on top anymore.
Ps: It's running on Windows 7 (64bit), & it's downloaded here: code.google.com/...
I'd try 2 figure it out from the code but I can't seem to find it, I thought programs on code.google.com are opensource, appearantly not.
No, the point of 'full screen' is 'full screen'. Once a game takes full screen control, usually via DirectX or OpenGL, they've taken over the 'hardware output context', not allowing any more games on top of them.
Many games have the option to run 'windowed' in their video options. That forces the game to remain in regular desktop drawing (at a performance cost) and as such allow interaction with the other windows in the desktop window manager.
Related
I'm using NetBeans 8 on Windows 8.1. I've attached an extra monitor to my notebook and I want to use a dual screen set up. I want to have my code on my primary screen and all other panes (projects, databases, tasks, etc.) on another one (i.e. a smaller notebook screen).
The problem is that you can't have the other panes docked on another screen. I end up with many panes on screen, but you can't organize them as easy as with a single screen set up. Here's a little mockup what I want:
I've post a feature request, but no one seems to care. But many programmers/designer are using 2 screens. So if you are using a dual screen setup with NetBeans, how are you using it? Are there some extra tools/options that I haven't found yet?
OK, I just found a workaround and possible answer.
I've got my main window (w/ tasks, files, projects) on my secondary screen and dragged my editor (my code) to my (larger) primary screen.
I still can't dock windows outside the main window, but since I want to have only one window outside it, it isn't really necessary.
I created a little Vision2 window with an animation in it.
In my Windows 7 environment, I want this animation to be always visible on top all other windows on my desktop. I'm able to periodically call raise to bring the Vision2-window in front - but I lose focus of my selected window doing that.
To boil it down:
Q1: Is it even possible to keep a window "always on top" all other windows with Vision2 ?
Q2: Is it possible to do it with Eiffel WEL (and Windows 7) ?
Talking about Windows in general, it is not possible to guarantee that a window will be on top of all other windows, because if you have 2 windows that have this property, one of them will be on top of the other. As you will see in the post below, you have 2 categories of windows and z-order:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2005/11/21/495246.aspx
Assuming you are ok with something on top of all your windows, in WEL, you can use the Win32 API to achieve that by using WEL_WINDOW.set_z_order ({WEL_HWND_CONSTANTS}.hwnd_topmost).
In Vision, you can also do that by using EV_POPUP_WINDOW and calling `disconnect_from_window_manager' on it.
I'm developing a app that will be available at a regional fair and the public will use it to quickly download "perks" to theirs pen-drives. BUT when you move your mouse to the top-right corner of the screen a "menu" appears (there's a similar thing on tablets) and it enables the user to quit/switch-out-of my app, and that I can't allow! How do I block that?
You have to wait for Windows 8.1 i.e. 18th October. 8.1 offers such thing to manage. Moreover it also offers kiosk mode. Through which you can allow only one app to be open on top most.
Source
This is not under the control of your application, it's a feature of the operating system. And as far as I know, there's no way to block it. Typically such changes would be done through group policy settings, but at least in Windows 8, there's no such control available. I'm not sure about Windows 8.1, although I haven't stumbled upon any mention of such features there, either.
Also, this is not the only way for the user to switch out of your application. He could also drag the app down from the top and close it or go to the lower bottom corner to open the start screen, if he's using the mouse. The keyboard would give him even more options, of course.
This library does exactly what I am talking about on Linux systems: http://ichi2.net/pyosd/
My knowledge of Win32 API is limited but it seems to me that unless you create a window and enter the win32 main loop, you cannot do it. Some Googling also confirmed that.
Even so, are they newer GUI frameworks or technologies that would make it happen on windows?
Thanks
You don't need no stinkin' GUI frameworks. You can either:
Draw directly on the desktop. Of course, this is not generally considered a good idea, since it's mucking around with the internals of another application. Drawing this way is also quite fragile because your changes are erased each time the desktop repaints itself.
Create a transparent, layered window that you draw onto, which will appear over the desktop. If you specify that this window should be a top-level window, you could also have it appear over all of the other windows on the desktop.
There is absolutely nothing that forces windows to be rectangular gray-colored boxes, and since each window provides a device context that you can draw into, you can let your imagination run wild.
We have a Linux based system that does not use a Window manager. When we start certain applications (for instance Firefox) from a terminal window (e.g. Firefox &) we find that no matter what we do, we can't get the application to display full screen.
If we run xrandr, it shows the default resolution is 1280x1024, but when we try to maximize Firefox (by pressing F11) the application is only sized to 1203x650.
Another application that seems to have the same problem is the evince PDF reader.
Our application is not configured to run a window manager (and we don't want to add one), so I'm wondering if there is something else that we can do to get these applications to render full screen.
Thanks...
Although you don't want to use a window manager, you might need to use a window manager.
I haven't dug into the X server sources around this, so I can't definitively say X requires a window manager to run properly. But as somebody who writes X client code, and hacks the X server, on minimalist embedded devices with small screens, low CPU power and no GPU... let's just say, all the major players in that space use one, and have good reasons for it.
If you want to avoid chewing up a lot of disk space, RAM or CPU power doing window management, you should check out matchbox. It's a low-footprint window manager designed to meet those criteria, and it's what many folks in that minimalist embedded space are using. My employer uses it on cell phones, configured so that only one app at a time is visible to the user, and the foreground app takes up the whole screen with no window borders. But you can use it other ways, too - Nokia uses it for their Maemo-based network tablets.
You could use xwit(1) to forcibly resize and place the windows. But as as far as I know, X11 in itself does not have the concept of a "maximized" window; the very idea is only added by most window managers and/or applications (like Firefox).
Does passing the "-geometry=1280x1024+0+0" option to Firefox help?
Oh, also... if you don't explicitly set a window manager, you might be unexpectedly falling back to the default X11 window manager. If you're not absolutely positive there's no window manager, you should check into this possibility.