We’ll go through some solutions to the problem of building a single instance application in WPF, like Firefox. This means running your application again will not create a new instance but instead just pass any arguments to the current instance.   WPF – Writing a Single Instance Application By default, it comes up with two main items in the solution – "Window1.xaml" (which...

Are you having problems trying to keep multiple copies of folders on different computers updated? Drag and drop a folder onto the left box. Alternatively, click on the box and browse for the folder using the explorer. Drag another folder and drop it on the right box. Click on the Sync! button which appears! http://code.google.com/p/nsync/ nsync is a free, open source software that performs synchronization...

3 New Controls 3 much needed controls that if you’re a Windows Forms user, you’d be wondering why WPF didn’t already have these. Long awaited DataGrid control (if you’re in 3.5 SP1 check out WPFToolkit as an alternative) Calender control DatePicker Control Visual State Manager Another new feature supporting the WPF-Silverlight continuum is the VisualStateManager, which...

WPF provides a powerful foundation for amazing animation effects (hopefully GPU accelerated). Here’s part 2 of my roundup on a few easily done effects you can add to your project. In this part we take a look at some powerful transition libraries.   Fluid Kit Fluid Kit contains a transition container that enables rich transitions between views. The transitions themselves are pluggable...

WPF provides a powerful foundation for amazing animation effects (hopefully GPU accelerated). Here’s part 1 of my roundup on a few easily done effects you can add to your project. Fade, Wipe, Slide … they’re all here! Slide/Wipe transition for your Windows in WPF Ever wanted to slide or wipe in your windows in WPF? Ever wanted that powerpoint wipe transition effect for your windows? Here’s...

Ever wanted to slide or wipe in your windows in WPF? Ever wanted that powerpoint wipe transition effect for your windows? Here’s how to do it in WPF and in XAML. First of all set an opacity mask for your window: <Window.OpacityMask> <LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="1,0" EndPoint="0,0"> <GradientStop Offset="0" Color="Black" x:Name="BlackStop"/> ...

If you ever tried to add a animated GIF to your image control in WPF, you’d be disappointed to find that it doesn’t play and merely shows the first in your image sequence. Here’s a combined list of ways and work arounds for this problem.   Here’s the best solution I found, a working animated gif control (host): Written by Greg E. Wilson on Pragmatic TSQL Programmer. http://www.solidrockstable.com/blogs/PragmaticTSQL/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=37 The...

WPF, the Windows Presentation Foundation, comes with the excellent functionality of having animation built in to the framework. What better and easier animation that looks cool but doesn’t take much to do then the fade in and fade out of your forms. Its a set and forget animation as it just plays with the opactiy of you form. Here we’ll see how to use the storyboards to create the fade effects....

This articles teaches you how to create a rounded semi-transparent window in WPF using simple xaml. These are especially useful for notification windows at the corners of the screen like those in Linux or OSX.