Main form not shown in Taskbar

Question

What could be the reasons for the Main application form not to be shown in TaskBar?

ShowInTaskbar property is set to "true", but form doesn't show itself there if after running the application and before the Main form appears I switch to some other window. Form exists, but until I minimize apps that are above to make it visible, it won't show in Taskbar.

UPDATE. Form does not have an Owner.

Benefice

What's the form's border style? – Ishmaelite

What happens between starting the application and showing the main form? Is there a splash screen or some kind of log-in form being shown that could be getting in the way? – Palaeontography

@Cody Gray: Log-in form is shown, and after that the form to select a file that will be shown in the Main form. – Benefice

Make sure that you're not showing the main form as a child or owned dialog of the log-in form. – Palaeontography

Answer 1

I've added form.Activate() after form.Show(). Now it always jumps out when completely loaded, and doesn't get lost under some other screens.

Though it is not a solution, but a crutch, responses are welcome anyway.

Benefice

that does the trick and I prefer that to my method which was to set the form's topmost property to true and then false in the Shown event. I inherit from base forms also which helps. – Nairobi

Answer 2

Check if your main form has a Parent defined or an Owner. In either case that would exclude it from being in the task bar in its own right. Also worth trying TopMost=true.

Vivien

Answer 3

I had the same issue with one project I wrote. No icon showing in the Taskbar unless I forced Windows to refresh it.

It was a call to

this.MinimumSize = new Size(wid, len);

In the Form_Load that was the issue.

Intransigence

Answer 4

I had a similar issue when the program was run from an installer (InstallMate in my case). I eventually pinned the problem down to changing the form's title text (Text) in the Form1_Load() method. When I moved that title changing text to just below the InitializeComponent(); bit, the problem went away.

I hope this can help someone else, despite the specificness of my circumstances.

Heuer

Answer 5

I had the same issue as @deegee where setting MinimumSize in the Form Load causing the non display in the Taskbar. I fixed the issue with setting the Form Visible to False then to True.

Emelda

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The Question title was "Main form not shown in Taskbar" which was why I came here, and the answer is that is can be caused and fixed as described – Emelda