Application Activation and Deactivation Sample

This sample demonstrates how to handle both the Activated and Deactivated events to monitor the activation status of an application.

Building the Sample

• Install the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) and open its build environment command window. On the Start menu, point to All Programs, Microsoft Windows SDK, and then click CMD Shell.
• Download the sample, usually from the software development kit (SDK) documentation, to your hard disk drive.
• To build the sample from the build environment command window, go to the source directory of the sample. At the command prompt, type MSBUILD.
• To build the sample in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, load the sample solution or project file and then press CTRL+SHIFT+B.

Running the Sample

• To run the compiled sample from the build environment command window, execute the .exe file in the Bin\Debug or Bin\Release folder contained under the sample source code folder.
• To run the compiled sample with debugging in Visual Studio 2005, press F5.

Remarks

The sample simulates the mail server polling functionality of a mail client. When mail is received, the application notifies the user using one of two mechanisms that depend on application's activation status; if the application is currently activated, the UI is updated, otherwise an icon is displayed in the system tray.

Note: This sample uses the NotifyIcon component from Windows Forms to display a system tray icon. Consequently, this sample also demonstrates integration of Windows Forms technology into Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).