Display Form non-maximized with borders on Windows Mobile

I need to create a status dialog for a Windows Mobile application (C# 2.0) that needs to be updated, so MessageBox is out. I tried to just create a new Form class, change the size and call ShowDialog, but it always comes up full screen (minus the title bar of course). The only way I could figure out how to display it small is to set FormBorderStyle to None, but then it really does have no border or title bar at all!

I want it to still look like a message box (with title bar and borders) but, I need to actually use a Form so I can update it.

Any ideas of how to do this?

From stackoverflow Adam Haile

• The challenge here is the WinMo shell itself. What's not apparent is that the caption on the form (at the top of the screen) is actually not the caption of the Form you see - it's a completely different application. So to get your Form to "float" requires subverting the way the shell handles Form display. A quick and dirty way is to set the Form BorderStyle to none, but then you lose your caption bar. An option then is to manually draw it in with a FillRect and DrawString in OnPaint. Not too difficult and doesn't require any P/Invoke shenanigans, but it does require that you take the new header into consideration when you layout your controls.

  Anotehr option is to use P/Invoke and manipulate the Form's style bits yourself. This works well, but take care that you do it in the right location in code, as some bits have to be set on Window creation. Also beware the shell, as it might want to change the bits back on you - so this mechanism requires more testing and attention to detail. IMO this is a better route, and I've blogged about it in more detail here. That blog entry isn't specifically about floating forms, but it covers style manipulation well. For more specifically on non-fullscreen Forms, see my other blog entry here.

  From ctacke

• This blog post should help: 'Creating non full screen forms and custom MessageBoxes'.

  From saku