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AppActivate In C#

Note: This code was only tested on Windows 10.

AppActivate, which many of you may recognize from VB activates a window for an application which is already running, bringing the window of that app to the foreground.

In C#, there is no exact equivalent to this function, which leaves two alternatives (see link at the bottom for code examples):

Option 1 (recommended):
Use SetForeGroundWindow, described in my similar post (scroll down a bit for the code examples).

Option 2:
Add a reference to Microsoft.VisualBasic and call Interactive.AppActivate.

Although Option 2 is a little simpler/faster if you are not familiar with or ready yet to delve into Win32 API, it is not a recommended solution as there can be potential side effects of this approach.

For code examples of both options, see my similarly titled post below and scroll through for code references.

References
Start a Process in the Foreground in C# .Net Without AppActivate https://ronniediaz.com/2011/05/03/start-a-process-in-the-foreground-in-c-net-without-appactivate/

Ronnie Diaz Avatar

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Ronnie Diaz
Ronnie Diaz is a software engineer and tech consultant with over a decade of experience building software and systems. Ronnie started his career in ecommerce, service industries and remote education. He transitioned from traditional desktop client-server applications through early cloud development. Software included human resource management and service technician workflows, online retail e-commerce and electronic ordering and fulfillment, IVR customer relational systems, and video streaming remote learning SCORM web applications. Hands on server experience and software performance optimization led to creation of a small business focused on collocated web hosting and data center services. This led to specialized expertise in large file storage and video streaming and opened the door at Amazon Prime Video. Ronnie now builds and leads teams to build software and systems which stream live sports and events for millions of viewers around the world.
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2 responses to “AppActivate In C#”

  1. nathanwoodburn Avatar
    nathanwoodburn

    doesn’t work

    Reply
    1. Ronnie Diaz Avatar
      Ronnie Diaz

      Coming back to this blog after a long hiatus and looking through old unaddressed comments. Did you eventually figure this out? If so, what was the issue/error you were experiencing and how did you resolve?

      Reply

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