Hiding your application from the Windows Taskbar.

Article #15574: Hiding your application from the Windows Taskbar.

Question:

How do I hide my application from the Windows Taskbar?

Answer:

It is possible to have your application running without an icon appearing in the task bar. Here's how to do this:

In Delphi go to the menu option Project -> View Source.

Add the Windows unit to the uses clause.

Add Application.ShowMainForm := False; to the line after "Application.Initialize;".

Add: ShowWindow(Application.Handle, SW_HIDE); to the line before "Application.Run;"

If you still want your form to show then Add: ShowWindow(Form1.Handle, SW_SHOWNORMAL); to the line just before "Application.Run;"
Your main project source file should now look something like this:

program Project1;
uses
Windows,
Forms,
Unit1 in 'Unit1.pas' {Form1},
Unit2 in 'Unit2.pas' {Form2};
{$R *.RES}
begin
Application.Initialize;
Application.ShowMainForm := False;
Application.CreateForm(TForm1, Form1);
Application.CreateForm(TForm2, Form2);
ShowWindow(Application.Handle, SW_HIDE);
ShowWindow(Form1.Handle, SW_SHOWNORMAL); //Only add this if you want your form to show.
Application.Run;
end.

In the "initialization" section (at the very bottom) of each unit that uses a form, add:

begin
ShowWindow(Application.Handle, SW_HIDE);
end.

Last Modified: 10-MAY-01