'newbe' Embed an applicaion within my form?Help.....

Question

Hello just regestred as I have just started to learn C# at college on the HNC. I am trying to write an application for my workplace. What I would like to do is to run other applications within my form does anyone have any ideas?

Alan · Answer

There is a way to run notepad from within your form though you have to call a number of Win32 API functions to do so. Here's some code I wrote a while back in response to a similar question on another forum. For some reason which I couldn't fathomI could never get it to overlay properly though you might have better luck with your application: // win32 definitions needed const int GWL_STYLE = -16; const int WS_VISIBLE = 0x08000000; [DllImport(user32.dll)] static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWndChild IntPtr hWndNewParent); [DllImport(user32.dll)] static extern int SetWindowLong(IntPtr hWnd int nIndex int dwNewLong); [DllImport(user32.dll)] static extern bool MoveWindow(IntPtr hWnd int X int Y int nWidth int nHeight bool bRepaint); // code to start notepad and host within main app window (place within a method) Process p = new Process(); p.StartInfo.FileName = notepad.exe; p.StartInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Normal; p.Start(); p.WaitForInputIdle(); SetParent(p.MainWindowHandle this.Handle); SetWindowLong(p.MainWindowHandle GWL_STYLE WS_VISIBLE); MoveWindow(p.MainWindowHandle 0 0 this.Width this.Height true);

CG · Answer

Is there anyway to make notepad open in my form then?

Alan · Answer

Notepad is an external application as are all the Windows utilities but you can run anything you like using the Process class. Just try it and see.

CG · Answer

Wouldn't that just open notepad? I want to run an external application in my form. Thanks for the reply

Alan · Answer

I'd check out the System.Diagnostics.Process class: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.diagnostics.process.aspx For example to run notepad from your Windows Forms application is as simple as: Process.Start(notepad.exe);