[VB.NET] handling of external full screen apps

Discussion in 'Mixed Languages' started by kjsupe, Oct 4, 2012.

  1. kjsupe

    kjsupe MDL Novice

    Sep 30, 2012
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    Hey all, back again for some help. I have searched high and low and can't seem to find a proper solution (read: working solution). Here is the situation. I work at a Family Entertainment Center and I am making a custom Kiosk program for people to register an account for our rewards program. Everything is working beautifully, I just have one more hurdle to jump. Our kiosk already has another full screen program running on it that allows customers to add credits to their game cards and check their balances. I initially tried having the external app open inside a panel on my program, but am guessing since it is full screen, that it is still opening full screen instead of in the panel. I have tried several ways to force it to open in my program and none are working. I can get programs like notepad and calc to open in it, however.

    I currently have a script implemented (thanks again, The Dev), which will return my program to the main form after 30 seconds of inactivity. The bonus to this is that it will also return my app to the top focus instead of the other app that loads. This isn't the most elegant solution so I was hoping for one of several possible solutions:

    1. Have a button or some sort of interactive overlay that will allow the user to click it to return to the normal program

    2. Find a way to force this program to open inside my program.

    This full screen app does not have anything that appears on the task bar, it only appears as a process (GMKiosk.exe) in the task manager. So it would have to be called that way. I would like for it to stay open but to just move between the foreground and background when called to save the loading time of it opening fresh every time.

    Sorry to be so long winded, but trying to be as specific as possible.