Caps Lock Warning for Password Control

[zacks]

I'm not sure when it came into being, since this it the first time I
have worked very much with a password control in .NET, but if a
textbox that has a non-empty value for PasswordChar or the
UseSystemPasswordChar property is true, and the textbox has focus, if
the Caps Lock key is pressed, a warning balloon tooltip is
automatically displayed by the system. I cannot even find
documentation that describes this behaviour.

My question is, is there anyway to temporarily turn that off in code?

 

[Jeroen Mostert]

I'm not sure when it came into being, since this it the first time I
have worked very much with a password control in .NET, but if a
textbox that has a non-empty value for PasswordChar or the
UseSystemPasswordChar property is true, and the textbox has focus, if
the Caps Lock key is pressed, a warning balloon tooltip is
automatically displayed by the system. I cannot even find
documentation that describes this behaviour.

There isn't any, it's a courtesy of your friendly neighborhood common
controls library.

My question is, is there anyway to temporarily turn that off in code?

My question is, why on earth would you want to? It's saved my bacon a few
times. That said...

The behavior you describe comes with the system edit control. The system
(well, actually, "something", it's always hard to tell) will send an
EM_SHOWBALLOONTIP message, which you can suppress by (for example) using a
custom control that overrides WndProc:

public class CustomMaskedTextBox : MaskedTextBox {
private const int EM_SHOWBALLOONTIP = 0x1503;
public bool DisableBalloonTips { get; set; }

protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
if (m.Msg == EM_SHOWBALLOONTIP && DisableBalloonTips) {
m.Result = (IntPtr) 0;
return;
}
base.WndProc(ref m);
}
}

A more general method would be to use some way of subclassing the control,
since this can apply to any edit box.

Since you cross-posted this in the C# and VB groups, I trust you can
translate it to VB yourself if necessary. For future reference, a better
group would have been microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.windowsforms, since
this is not a language-specific question.

 

[zacks]

There isn't any, it's a courtesy of your friendly neighborhood common
controls library.


My question is, why on earth would you want to? It's saved my bacon a few
times. That said...

My company uses a third part software packe that our software
integrates with. The third part software has two methods of security,
one uses Active Directory, where the password is defiitely case
sensitive. But the password for the builtin security is not case
sensitive. That is why I would like to be able to turn it off, if the
database is configured to use the third party software security, there
is no need to warn the user that the Caps Lock key is on.

The behavior you describe comes with the system edit control. The system
(well, actually, "something", it's always hard to tell) will send an
EM_SHOWBALLOONTIP message, which you can suppress by (for example) using a
custom control that overrides WndProc:

   public class CustomMaskedTextBox : MaskedTextBox {
     private const int EM_SHOWBALLOONTIP = 0x1503;
     public bool DisableBalloonTips { get; set; }

     protected override void WndProc(ref Message m) {
       if (m.Msg == EM_SHOWBALLOONTIP && DisableBalloonTips) {
         m.Result = (IntPtr) 0;
         return;
       }
       base.WndProc(ref m);
     }
   }

A more general method would be to use some way of subclassing the control,
since this can apply to any edit box.

Since you cross-posted this in the C# and VB groups, I trust you can
translate it to VB yourself if necessary. For future reference, a better
group would have been microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.windowsforms, since
this is not a language-specific question.

Thanks, I will try your segguestion. I crossposted to both groups
cause it was, as you say, not language specific. I was unaware of the
other newsgroup, in the future I will first try there.

 

[Jeroen Mostert]

My company uses a third part software packe that our software
integrates with. The third part software has two methods of security,
one uses Active Directory, where the password is defiitely case
sensitive. But the password for the builtin security is not case
sensitive. That is why I would like to be able to turn it off, if the
database is configured to use the third party software security, there
is no need to warn the user that the Caps Lock key is on.

It can't hurt to warn, though, and it's very good for users to get
accustomed to the rule "passwords are case sensitive", since in most systems
they are (and in those were they aren't, they ought to be, but let's ignore
the issue of password strength for now). Unless users (or pointy-haired
bosses) actually complain that they're confused by the message, I wouldn't
go to the trouble of disabling it. Especially since the way to disable it is
a bit dubious (turning off balloon tips works, but it has the obvious
drawback of, well, turning off balloon tips, which can be used for more
purposes than caps lock warnings).

 

[zacks]

It can't hurt to warn, though, and it's very good for users to get
accustomed to the rule "passwords are case sensitive", since in most systems
they are (and in those were they aren't, they ought to be, but let's ignore
the issue of password strength for now). Unless users (or pointy-haired
bosses) actually complain that they're confused by the message, I wouldn't
go to the trouble of disabling it. Especially since the way to disable itis
a bit dubious (turning off balloon tips works, but it has the obvious
drawback of, well, turning off balloon tips, which can be used for more
purposes than caps lock warnings).

Thanks for your comment. In fact, after I mentioned this to my "pointy
head boss", that was exactly what he said to me.

No, he not really "pointed headed".