[ACCEPTED]-How to run an application inside wpf application?-wpf

Accepted answer
Score: 21

What you are looking to do is entirely possible, but 21 it does come with a few bugs, so don't expect 20 an easy ride. What you need to do is create 19 a class that inherits from HwndHost and overrides 18 the BuildWindowCore() method. See the example from Microsoft 17 at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752055.aspx

In the above example, they give you the 16 notion of being able to put a Win32 control 15 within your WPF form, but you can use the 14 same architecture to load the MainWindowhandle of your created 13 Notepad process into the child of the border. Like 12 this:

protected override HandleRef BuildWindowCore(HandleRef hwndParent)
    {
        ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("notepad.exe");
        psi.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Minimized;
        _process = Process.Start(psi);
        _process.WaitForInputIdle();

        // The main window handle may be unavailable for a while, just wait for it
        while (_process.MainWindowHandle == IntPtr.Zero)
        {
            Thread.Yield();
        }

        IntPtr notepadHandle = _process.MainWindowHandle;

        int style = GetWindowLong(notepadHandle, GWL_STYLE);
        style = style & ~((int)WS_CAPTION) & ~((int)WS_THICKFRAME); // Removes Caption bar and the sizing border
        style |= ((int)WS_CHILD); // Must be a child window to be hosted

        SetWindowLong(notepadHandle, GWL_STYLE, style);
        SetParent(notepadHandle, hwndParent.Handle);

        this.InvalidateVisual();

        HandleRef hwnd = new HandleRef(this, notepadHandle);
        return hwnd;
    }

Please keep in mind that you will need 11 to import a few functions from the User32.dll 10 to be able to set the style of the window 9 and set the parent window handle:

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private static extern int SetWindowLong(IntPtr hWnd, int nIndex, int dwNewLong);

[DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern int GetWindowLong(IntPtr hWnd, int nIndex);

[DllImport("user32")]
private static extern IntPtr SetParent(IntPtr hWnd, IntPtr hWndParent);

Also make 8 sure that you are including:

using System.Windows.Interop;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Threading;

This is my first 7 answer on a forum so please let me know 6 if it needs some work. Also reference Hosting external app in WPF window but 5 don't worry about DwayneNeed stuff. Just 4 use SetParent() as you see in my code above. Just 3 be careful if you try embedding the app 2 inside a tab page. You will encounter some 1 fun there.

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