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I have a secondary monitor that I want to use exclusively to display information from a specific c# wpf application.

The normal windows desktop should not extend to this monitor, it should be impossible to move the mouse to it or somehow transfer input focus to this monitor. Nor should there ever be any error messages or other windows on that monitor, except for the single maximized window from the c# application.

This is necessary because the secondary monitor is used to display information not to the user in front of the pc, but to a remote location several meters away.

The approach I found to maximize a wpf app on a secondary monitor requires that the windows desktop is extended to that secondary monitor. If that monitor is not visible to the user, then this can get highly confusing if the mouse cursor is on that monitor, or an error message or main window is accidentally moved to it.

Is it possible to somehow get exclusive access to a monitor in wpf without extending the windows desktop to that monitor?

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HugoRune
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    There is no simple solution for this type of behaviour. If it is possible at all it would need to be done with a kernel-mode driver, and at that it would need to be specifically written for every video card you intend to support. I highly recommend you consider an alternative means of doing this. The remote station could easily be configured with an embedded version of Windows running a kiosk application that gets its information via a network socket, for example. This feels like a much more sensible approach. – J... Sep 22 '14 at 13:46
  • This will only run on a specific (siemens) pc, multiple hardware support is not necessary. However, if a kernel mode driver is required, then a solution involving multiple PCs is probably easier. We are considering this as well, I was mainly looking for a way to save on hardware costs and communication overhead between multiple PCs. – HugoRune Sep 22 '14 at 13:58
  • PCs are cheap, hardware drivers are tricky - one mistake and you BSOD your system. Surely that's more expensive in (what I imagine is) an industrial setting than a few hundred bucks for a kiosk box, and much more of a pain to maintain when your hardware changes. – J... Sep 22 '14 at 14:14
  • True, if a hardware driver is required, then this is probably not feasible; I was hoping for some simple c# solution. Though hardware costs are a little higher in this case, since even a kiosk box has to adhere to some stringent rules, which causes costs more in the ballpark of a few thousand bucks per pc. – HugoRune Sep 22 '14 at 14:36
  • Still, if your requirements dictate a $2k industrial PC, then the argument holds doubly so -- whatever it is controlling is worth a heck of a lot more than the cost of a PC. – J... Sep 22 '14 at 15:16

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