How to prevent loss of focus with a POP up.

[JimPBarber]

Hi I am programming an alert to pop up an image that will alert the user that an event has happened, for instance a server has gone down etc.

  I do not want the users current application to loose focus.  The typist must be able to continue to type uninterrupted.  The text is randomly displayed on the screen, so they have to pay attention and cannot take their hands off the board.  This needs to work across multiple applications, like telnet, word, notepad, etc.... 

While 1
$Ipath = $sFldr
$SleepTimer = 15
$hImage = _GDIPlus_ImageLoadFromFile($Ipath)
$width = _GDIPlus_ImageGetWidth($hImage)
$height = _GDIPlus_ImageGetHeight($hImage)
$iWidth = Random(0,@DesktopWidth - $width,1)
$iHeight = Random(0,@DeskTopHeight - $height,1)
$hGui = GUICreate("", $width, $height,$iWidth,$iHeight,$WS_POPUP,BitOR($WS_EX_LAYERED,$WS_EX_TOPMOST))
Guisetbkcolor($transColor,$hGui)
_WinAPI_SetLayeredWindowAttributes($hGui,$transColor,255)
Sleep($SleepTimer)
GuiSetState(@SW_SHOW)
ConsoleWrite($Ipath & "SleepTimer" & $SleepTimer & " Width:" & $iWidth & " Height:" & $iHeight & @CRLF)
$hGraphic = _GDIPlus_GraphicsCreateFromHWND($hGui)
_GDIPlus_GraphicsDrawImageRect($hGraphic,$hImage,0,0,$width,$height)
Sleep(30000)
GUISetState(@SW_HIDE)
    _GDIPlus_ImageDispose($hImage)
    _GDIPlus_GraphicsDispose($hGraphic)
WEnd

Func _Exit()
    _GDIPlus_Shutdown()
    Exit
EndFunc   ;==>_Exit

[Artisan]

If you want to display text, use a ToolTip:

ToolTip("alert!", Random(0, @DesktopWidth - 200, 1), Random(0, @DesktopHeight - 50, 1))
Sleep(15000)
ToolTip("")

Is it important to use an image?  Is it important to keep it on the screen for a set time?

If you really want to display a GUI on top but not have it steal focus, just use:

GUISetState(@SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE, $hGui)

Edited May 17, 2013 by Artisan

[guinness]

You might want to think about including some error checking in that code. For example what happens if the image path can't be loaded?