Flashing application in the taskbar

// Add this to the top of the file
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

// Add this to your class
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
public static extern int FlashWindow(int hwnd, int bInvert);

// Call this from within your class to flash the window once
FlashWindow((Int32)this.Handle,1);

hooray!  it works!  thanks.  

i do need to know when the user has clicked on the flashing button so i can stop it from flashing.  how do i do this?

whom are you asking to?
when the application will get the focus it will no more blink!!

Desp, it still blinks.

//START Blinking
            private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)            
            {                  
                  FLASHWINFO f = new  FLASHWINFO();              
                  f.hwnd=this.Handle;  
                  f.dwTimeout=0;
                  f.dwFlags = FLASHW_ALL;
                  f.cbSize = Marshal.SizeOf( f);
                  f.uCount=100;
                  FlashWindowEx( ref f);
            }

//STOP Blinking
            private void button2_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
            {
                  FLASHWINFO f = new  FLASHWINFO();              
                  f.hwnd=this.Handle;  
                  f.dwTimeout=0;
                  f.dwFlags = FLASHW_STOP;
                  f.cbSize = Marshal.SizeOf( f);
                  f.uCount=100;
                  FlashWindowEx( ref f);
            }

Thanks for your help Desp I really appreciate it and will definitely award you with the points.  Is there any way to stop the blinking when the user clicks on the flashing button at the taskbar?  

yeah , put the stop flashing code in the Form_Activated event ;-)

anymore questions?

is there any way to know whether the button is already blinking or if FlashWindowEx is active?

gee, thanks.

Aaron, I will reward you the same number of points.  I will post a question with title,"Points for AaronReams".  Thanks for your help too.

Aaron, would you know how to detect whether the button is blinking?

Hi zoobird,

Thanx.  I'm not sure of the best way to detect if the button is blinking.  It just depends on how you are using it.  There's a few different options...

You could maintain state on your own with a bool in your class.

You can always just call FlashWindow(this.Handle, false) to disable the flashing and return to its original state (active or inactive).

You can also check the state of FlashWindow using the return type.

<MSDN>
The return value specifies the window's state before the call to the FlashWindow function. If the window caption was drawn as active before the call, the return value is nonzero. Otherwise, the return value is zero.

Good luck.
-Aaron