Notification bubbles from nothing in C#

Question

in a C# application that has no graphics at all, and does a bunch of network operations, I need to be able to show notification bubbles (on top of everything, for a few seconds) near the icon tray on certain events.

I've been looking at this : http://www.codeproject.com/KB/miscctrl/taskbarnotifier.aspx

But with no success. The problem with it is that the windows designed there won't show on asynchroneous events. It seems that I need a main form first on which I add delegates for it to work, which I have no need for.

All options I've seen so far require me to have a form in my application, but that won't happen. Is it impossible then to have these bubbles ? Any ideas ? There must be a way to add an icon in the tray popping messages inconditionally and without GUI right ?

Is your app WinForms (without forms) or a console app? – Marco Nov 23 '11 at 09:54 — Marco, Nov 23 '11 at 09:54

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

8

Taken from Systray icon for Console application and Creating balloon tooltip in C#

Add a reference to both System.Windows.Forms and System.Drawing.

Update:

using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
...

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    var item = new NotifyIcon(this.components);
    item.Visible = true;
    item.Icon = System.Drawing.SystemIcons.Information;
    item.ShowBalloonTip(3000, "Balloon title", "Balloon text", ToolTipIcon.Info);
}

Also it can be that popups are disabled in registry.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community

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answered Nov 23 '11 at 10:08

Vitaliy

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This example also does not work for me. The trick is to set the tray icon: `icon.Icon = SystemIcons.Information;`. – illagrenan Feb 18 '14 at 19:22
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I've updated the example and verified on my side - thank you for pointing into correct solution – Vitaliy Feb 19 '14 at 15:39

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 23 '11 at 10:07

2

Look at the NotifyIcon class, it allows you to put icons into the notification area as well as doing balloon notifications which is what you're after.

edited Nov 23 '11 at 10:07

George Duckett

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answered Nov 23 '11 at 10:04

Kevin Holditch

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Note you need to add a reference to assembly `System.Windows.Forms` and use the namespace `System.Windows.Forms`. – George Duckett Nov 23 '11 at 10:06
`NotifyIcon` class requires `System.Windows.Forms` to be imported, maybe OP does not want it... – Marco Nov 23 '11 at 10:07
@Marco Thats kind of like asking to do XML serialisation without referencing `System.Xml`... – Justin Nov 23 '11 at 10:23

Notification bubbles from nothing in C#

2 Answers2

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