Is it possible to develop an application that behaves like the Charms Sidebar of Windows 8?

Question

Having always made "simple" windows forms I was always content with the traditional windows, I wondered if it was also possible to create an application that would behave like the old Charms Sidebar of Windows 8. As a reminder, you had to put your mouse in the upper or lower right corner to display the different shortcuts (see the image below).

Windows 8 charms sidebar

I would like to reproduce this same behaviour. Is this possible? If so, how would you go about making this type of application?

Answer 1

Yes and no. Metro related applications and UI uses a undocumented window "band" feature that normal applications cannot use. All a normal application can do is to set itself as always on top.

Use a low-level mouse hook to detect cursor movement and check if it is in your "hot area".

Performing the charm bar actions can probably be performed by emulating the Win+... hotkeys with SendInput ...