Disable close button in Excel Application

Ramana

Hi,
Can anyone tell me how to disable Close(x) button in an excel application which is opened inside a wpf window.

Thanks & Regards,
Ramana

11 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Vulpes15y ago
To leave yourself the option of closing the workbook without killing the process, I'd just make the 'cancel' statement subject to some condition which is initially true but you can set to false:

private void WorkbookBeforeCloseHandler(Excel.Workbook Wb, ref bool Cancel)
{
if (someCondition) Cancel = true;
}
Ramana15y ago
Hi Vulpes ,
Thanks for ur reply. The code which u have posted will ensure that the WorkBook will not be closed , even I should not be able to close the Excel Application also.

Thanks & Regards,
Ramana
Vulpes15y ago
If you're starting Excel using interop, then you could (indirectly) use Sam's approach to prevent the user from closing the workbook by handling the Application's WorkbookBeforeClose event and setting the Cancel parameter to true. If 'xlApp' is your Excel Application object the code would be:

xlApp.WorkbookBeforeClose += WorkbookBeforeCloseHandler;

private void WorkbookBeforeCloseHandler(Excel.Workbook Wb, ref bool Cancel)
{
Cancel = true;
}
Ramana15y ago
No, I've opened excel file using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application() and setting WPF window as the Parent window Using user32.dll.
Vulpes15y ago
No offence taken, Sam :)

As you know, I tend to answer the question as asked even if it's not something I'd do myself.

However, a problem with trapping WM_CLOSE is that the user would then have no visible indication that the window couldn't be closed.
Sam Hobbs15y ago
There is likely a more appropriate solution for whatever you need to do instead of disabling the close button. Why do you need to disable the close button?

Even if there is a good reason to disable the close button, an experienced Windows developer would attempt to disable the close message instead of the close button. The close message can be sent in a variety of ways.

Ooops, I am sorry, Vulpes; this is implying that you are not an experienced Windows programmer and I know you and Abhimanyu are. I am trying to get Ramana to consider alternatives but I don't mean to diminish the experience and knowledge of others. I might be the one that misunderstands.
Mahesh Chand15y ago
Are you opening xls document in MS Excel within your WPF application or you using some other control to display Excel?
Vulpes15y ago
Well, you can try this Win32 code which (in theory at least) should disable the Excel Close button and which I've placed in a console app for testing.

However, when I tried it on Excel 2007 (Windows 7) it disabled the Close button only when the Excel window didn't have the focus. As soon as it had the focus, the Close button re-enabled itself!

Whether it will behave the same when it's a child of a WPF window remains to be seen:

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

class Test
{
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string strclassName, string strWindowName);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool EnableMenuItem(IntPtr hMenu, uint uIDEnableItem,
uint uEnable);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern IntPtr GetSystemMenu(IntPtr hWnd, bool bRevert);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool DrawMenuBar(IntPtr hWnd);

const uint MF_ENABLED = 0;
const uint MF_GRAYED = 1;
const uint MF_DISABLED = 2;

const uint SC_CLOSE = 0xf060;

static void Main()
{
IntPtr hWindow = FindWindow("xlMain", null);
if (hWindow != IntPtr.Zero)
{
IntPtr hMenu = GetSystemMenu(hWindow, false);
EnableMenuItem(hMenu, SC_CLOSE, MF_DISABLED);
DrawMenuBar(hWindow);
}
}
}

To re-enable the Close button call:

EnableMenuItem(hMenu, SC_CLOSE, MF_ENABLED);
Abhimanyu K Vatsa15y ago
check out these, may will help you

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3211518/remove-closex-button-from-wpf-window

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/743906/how-to-hide-close-button-in-wpf-window
Ramana15y ago
No, I want to disable the close button of excel file.
Abhimanyu K Vatsa15y ago
do like this