desktop icons hiding not working in windows 8.1?

Question

I am trying to hide the desktop icons using pinvoke. so here by I am providing the code for the console app to hide the desktop icons.

using Microsoft.Win32;
 using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Drawing;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using static testdesktopicons.DesktopManager;

namespace testdesktopicons
{
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        //DesktopManager.SetWallpaper(DesktopManager.Style.Stretched);
        DesktopManager.ToggleDesktopIcons();
        //DesktopManager.SetTaskbarState(AppBarStates.AutoHide);
    }
}



public static class DesktopManager
{
    const int SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER = 20;
    const int SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE = 0x01;
    const int SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE = 0x02;
    private const int WM_COMMAND = 0x111;
    private const int SW_HIDE = 0;
    private const int SW_SHOW = 1;

    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);
    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern IntPtr GetWindow(IntPtr hWnd, GetWindow_Cmd uCmd);
    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    //static extern int SystemParametersInfo(int uAction, int uParam, string lpvParam, int fuWinIni);
    //[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern bool GetWindowInfo(IntPtr hwnd, ref WINDOWINFO pwi);
    //for taskbar hide
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern int ShowWindow(int hwnd, int command);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    public static extern int FindWindowEx(int parentHandle, int childAfter, string className, int windowTitle);
    [DllImport("user32.dll")]
    private static extern int GetDesktopWindow();
    //auto hide taskbar



    public enum GetWindow_Cmd : uint
    {
        GW_HWNDFIRST = 0,
        GW_HWNDLAST = 1,
        GW_HWNDNEXT = 2,
        GW_HWNDPREV = 3,
        GW_OWNER = 4,
        GW_CHILD = 5,
        GW_ENABLEDPOPUP = 6
    }
    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    public struct RECT
    {
        private int _Left;
        private int _Top;
        private int _Right;
        private int _Bottom;
    }

    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    struct WINDOWINFO
    {
        public uint cbSize;
        public RECT rcWindow;
        public RECT rcClient;
        public uint dwStyle;
        public uint dwExStyle;
        public uint dwWindowStatus;
        public uint cxWindowBorders;
        public uint cyWindowBorders;
        public ushort atomWindowType;
        public ushort wCreatorVersion;
        public WINDOWINFO(Boolean? filler)
: this()   // Allows automatic initialization of "cbSize" with "new WINDOWINFO(null/true/false)".
        {
            cbSize = (UInt32)(Marshal.SizeOf(typeof(WINDOWINFO)));
        }
    }
    [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
    public struct APPBARDATA
    {
        public UInt32 cbSize;
        public IntPtr hWnd;
        public UInt32 uCallbackMessage;
        public UInt32 uEdge;
        public Rectangle rc;
        public Int32 lParam;
    }
    static bool AreIconsVisible()
    {
        IntPtr hWnd = GetWindow(GetWindow(FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager"), GetWindow_Cmd.GW_CHILD), GetWindow_Cmd.GW_CHILD);
        WINDOWINFO info = new WINDOWINFO();
        info.cbSize = (uint)Marshal.SizeOf(info);
        GetWindowInfo(hWnd, ref info);
        return (info.dwStyle & 0x10000000) == 0x10000000;
    }


    public static void ToggleDesktopIcons()
    {

        Console.WriteLine("toggle desktop");

        Console.WriteLine("Icons are visible" + AreIconsVisible());
        var toggleDesktopCommand = new IntPtr(0x7402);
        IntPtr hWnd = GetWindow(FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager"), GetWindow_Cmd.GW_CHILD);
        SendMessage(hWnd, WM_COMMAND, toggleDesktopCommand, IntPtr.Zero);
        Console.ReadLine();

    }


}
}

This works fine in windows 10 . It will toggle the visibility of desktop icons.

But its not working in windows 8.1. what is going wrong, how can I make it work even in windows 8.1?

Where is this technique documented? Why don't you. Use the shell API? And why do you ignore error checking? — David Heffernan, Aug 22 '17 at 05:47
there is no error, but its not working in windows 8, but works fine in w10 — vishnuprasad kv, Aug 22 '17 at 05:52
You don't check for errors. You've no idea whether or not there are errors. You ignored my other questions. Where is this technique documented as working? Why don't you use the shell API? — David Heffernan, Aug 22 '17 at 06:02
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6402834/how-to-hide-desktop-icons-programatically — vishnuprasad kv, Aug 22 '17 at 06:04
this is the question which I used for reference. it doesn't work in w8. — vishnuprasad kv, Aug 22 '17 at 06:04
I mean officially documented by MS. That code is a gross hack. I don't expect it to work. Why do you? Can you answer my other questions. Why did you ignore error checking or did you just copy code blindly without trying to understand it? And is that why you use undocumented hacking rather than the documented API. — David Heffernan, Aug 22 '17 at 06:05
I searched a lot, but I only got this method. I could not find a documentation for this in c# — vishnuprasad kv, Aug 22 '17 at 06:07
Isn't that the same as Shell.Application.ToggleDesktop ? https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/gg537747.aspx — Simon Mourier, Aug 22 '17 at 06:08
where is c# code for it in the document? I don't know c++ or VB — vishnuprasad kv, Aug 22 '17 at 06:10
how it can be a duplicate, in the question you marked, there also people are complaining its not working in windows 8. — vishnuprasad kv, Aug 22 '17 at 06:14
you can try this: `dynamic shell = Activator.CreateInstance(Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application"));shell.ToggleDesktop();` — Simon Mourier, Aug 22 '17 at 06:19
@vishnuprasadkv - make sure your c# code is compiled with the same bitness (x64 vs x86) as the OS — Simon Mourier, Aug 22 '17 at 06:40
cant we make it a common ,method for *64 and *32 bit system? that's what I'm looking for — vishnuprasad kv, Aug 22 '17 at 06:57

desktop icons hiding not working in windows 8.1?

0 Answers0