How to create rich tooltips and rich balloons in notification area

Question

I've been wondering, whenever you call the ShowBalloonTip method of the NotifyIcon class, you get a balloon tooltip like this:

Fig1: Standard Balloon Tooltip

Some applications and Microsoft products are able to display more than those 'simple' balloon tips.
Here are some samples:

Fig2: Windows Update Balloon Tooltip

_{(source: microsoft.com)}

Fig3: Hardware Driver Installation Balloon Tooltip

Fig4: Hardware Removal Tooltip (Program: USB Safely Remove)

A good look at Figures 2, 3, and 4 reveals they aren't standard balloon tooltips!

Fig2 has a different shape, possibly from setting the Region property. It also has a custom icon which is much bigger than the standard ToolTipIcon.

Fig3 uses the standard shape (I think) but it has a custom icon which needless to say is larger than the default ToolTipIcon size.

Fig4 uses a standard ToolTipIcon but it has a different shape.

My question is how does one create any of the 'rich' balloon tooltips that are seen in the notification area in .NET? I can handle WinAPI as well as it can produce the necessary output.

Cheerful

My good look doesn't tell me that. What's different about your look? Yes, they use large custom icons. That's been supported since Windows XP SP2. Use the Shell_NotifyIcon function to create them. – Morganne

Answer 1

You have to use the Win32 Function Shell_NotifyIcon. You can set the dwInfoFlags member of the NOTIFYICONDATA structure to NIIF_USER in order to use a custom icon for the balloon tooltip.

On Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later you can use the hIcon member to specify a custom icon.

On Windows Vista and later the NOTIFYICONDATA structure contains the addiional member hBalloonIcon. You can use this member to specify a custom icon if you have set the cbSize member to the correct size of the extended NOTIFYICONDATA structure.

Decarbonate

Answer 2

Check this out:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/WPF_TaskbarNotifier.aspx

or

www.codeproject.com/KB/WPF/wpf_notifyicon.aspx

Other option is to Make your own notification form balloon, then you will have notification with flowers background and pink borders :) BTW: that can have some functionality in it too.

As in this example:

https://i.sstatic.net/QtA0Y.jpg << Image Example

Create a form as you like, Region, Controls, Etc :) and code something like:

void notifyIcon_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
    {
        if (!this.Visible)
        {
            ShowPopup();
        }
    }

    Timer t = new Timer();
    private void ShowPopup()
    {
        Rectangle rect = Screen.GetWorkingArea(new Point(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Right, Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Bottom));
        this.Top = rect.Bottom - this.Height;
        this.Left = rect.Right - this.Width;
        this.Visible = true;

        t.Interval = 4000;
        t.Tick += new EventHandler(t_Tick);
        t.Start();
    }

    void t_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        t.Stop();
        Visible = false;
    }

    private void Form1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        this.Visible = false;
    }

    private void Form1_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
    {
        notifyIcon.Visible = false;
        notifyIcon.Dispose();
    }

BTW they all look kinda same, with different Icon size, and the First one could fit to the right, while all other are aligned to left... minor shade changes Etc. :)

Hexad

You really don't need to do all of that, nor do you need to use WPF. Support for this is built into Windows. – Morganne

Well the windows API is capable... i didntfind a strong enogh yet easier way. What did you have in mind? – Hexad