Non-standard UI in C#

Question

I'm still learning C#, and I know don't know about WinForms yet but I will very soon. However I want to know how I would create an application which shows a customized notifier, like Growl on a Mac. Here's a mock up:

http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3793/41151387.jpg http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3793/41151387.jpg

Could anyone point me in the right direction? And I know I should learn more about C# before trying this, but I've always liked to peek on complicated stuff.

Answer 1

Take a look at this third-party WPF NotifyIcon control, I think it does what you want out of the box, hopefully something like this will be part of WPF in the future. I have used this one before for the exact same reason, and it is really good: you can use standard tooltips or "toast" popups, or create your own which could be just like the one in the example you posted if you wanted.

Answer 2

WPF would be a great place to start. you can make UIs in pure XAML without even touching C#

Here is an example of an "notification" implementation using WPF

Here are some reference links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Presentation_Foundation http://windowsclient.net/wpf/