Creating ownership between windows

Window objects are self-sufficient by default, and are independent of other windows in the application. Sometimes, however, it's useful to connect two (or more) windows in an owner-owned relationship. An owned window obeys the following rules:

• Closed automatically if its owner is closed

• Minimized automatically if its owner is minimized

• Always appears on top of its owner, but unconstrained to its surface (unlike traditional Win32 child windows)

• Never shown in the task bar if it's currently minimized

In this recipe, we'll see how to create such ownership and show a typical use case.

Getting ready

Make sure Visual Studio is up and running.

How to do it...

We'll create a tool-like window that is owned by the main window, demonstrating a typical usage of window ownership:

1. Create a new WPF Application project named CH05.OwnerWindows.

2. Right-click on the project node in Solution Explorer and select Add | Window….

3. Type ToolsWindow in the Name text box and click on Add.

4. The ToolsWindow...