Hide desktop icons from C# WPF

Question

I need a solution to show/hide desktop icons programmatically with C# WPF Now one possible way is to change the this registry value:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

HideIcons = 1

But to make it take effect I need to restart Explorer.exe which is not an option. Cause my program runs on desktop background. and killing Explorer kills the program and I have restart it.

I also tried this: Stackoverflow Link But it didn't work on Windows 10

So, is there any other way to do it? Please Help !

Answer 1

Create Class Library add this code in it and add namespace System.Runtime.InteropServices

    [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);
    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
    }
    [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
    static extern IntPtr SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, UInt32 Msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam);

    private const int WM_COMMAND = 0x111;

   public static void ToggleDesktopIcons()
    {
        var toggleDesktopCommand = new IntPtr(0x7402);
        IntPtr hWnd = GetWindow(FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager"), GetWindow_Cmd.GW_CHILD);
        SendMessage(hWnd, WM_COMMAND, toggleDesktopCommand, IntPtr.Zero);
    }

    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.Bool)]
    [DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern bool GetWindowInfo(IntPtr hwnd, ref WINDOWINFO pwi);

    [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)));
        }

    }

   public static bool IsVisible()
    {
        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;

    }

add this dll reference to your project.. and call dllClass_name.ToggleDesktopIcon();