Controls / Toast Notification

New to Telerik UI for WinForms? Download free 30-day trial

Getting Started with WinForms ToastNotification

This tutorial will help you to quickly get started using the control.

Adding Telerik Assemblies Using NuGet

To use RadToastNotification when working with NuGet packages, install the Telerik.UI.for.WinForms.AllControls package. The package target framework version may vary.

Read more about NuGet installation in the Install using NuGet Packages article.

With the 2025 Q1 release, the Telerik UI for WinForms has a new licensing mechanism. You can learn more about it here.

Adding Assembly References Manually

When dragging and dropping a control from the Visual Studio (VS) Toolbox onto the Form Designer, VS automatically adds the necessary assemblies. However, if you're adding the control programmatically, you'll need to manually reference the following assemblies:

  • Microsoft.Toolkit.Uwp.Notifications
  • Telerik.Licensing.Runtime
  • Telerik.WinControls
  • Telerik.WinControls.RadToastNotification
  • Telerik.WinControls.UI
  • TelerikCommon

The Telerik UI for WinForms assemblies can be install by using one of the available installation approaches.

Defining the RadToastNotification

To start using RadToastNotificationManager just drag it from the toolbox and drop it on the form.

Assembly References

Toast Notifications are unsupported in Windows Server 2016. Our Toast Notifications rely on the NotificationData class, which triggers a runtime error when attempting to display a toast notification on Windows Server 2016.

As of R2 2021 Toast Notifications are supported in .NET5 and the Microsoft.Toolkit.Uwp.Notifications.dll is upgraded to version 7.

If you want to use RadToastNotificationManager in .NET5/.NET6, please make sure that the following requirements are fulfilled: How to Use ToastNotification in .NET 5/.NET6

RadToastNotificationManager requires .NET Framework 4.6.1 or higher.

Toast notifications can only be displayed in Windows 8.0 or higher. For older Windows versions, use RadDesktopAlert instead.

As of R2 2021 Telerik UI for WinForms suite offers Telerik.WinControls.RadToastNotification.Design.dll which is a separated assembly from the Telerik.WinControls.RadToastNotification.dll. In order to use the design time of RadToastNotification, Telerik.WinControls.RadToastNotification.Design.dll is needed in the GAC - same behavior as Telerik.WinControls.UI.Design.dll. The design time also uses Telerik.WinControls.SyntaxEditor.dll.

By using the RadToastNotifications Editor you can add different toast notifications to the manager at design time. They are serialized as Telerik toasts which generate Windows system toasts.

WinForms RadToastNotifications Editor

Then, if you want to show a toast notification at run time, e.g. when clicking a button, you must call ShowNotification method. Register RadToastNotificationManager and Show a Notification

Show a Notification


public ToastNotificationGettingsStarted()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    this.radButton1.Click+=radButton1_Click;
}

private void radButton1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    this.radToastNotificationManager1.ShowNotification(3);
}

protected override void OnClosed(EventArgs e)
{
    base.OnClosed(e);
    this.radToastNotificationManager1.Unregister();
}



Public Sub New()
    InitializeComponent()

    AddHandler Me.RadButton1.Click, AddressOf radButton1_Click
End Sub

Private Sub radButton1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    Me.radToastNotificationManager1.ShowNotification(3)
End Sub

Protected Overrides Sub OnClosed(ByVal e As EventArgs)
    MyBase.OnClosed(e)
    Me.radToastNotificationManager1.Unregister()
End Sub

The screenshot below is captured under OS Windows 10. The toast notification templates may differ according to the operating system (and OS style theme) that shows them.

As a result, the toast notification is successfully shown when you click the button:

WinForms RadToastNotification Getting Started

Windows has "Focus Assist' settings where you can choose which notifications you would like to see and hear. The possible options are:

  • Off - Get all notifications from your apps and contacts.
  • Priority only - See only selected notifications from the priority list. The rest will go straight to the action center.
  • Alarms only - Hide all notifications, except alarms.

If a user has Focus Assist set to Alarms only, he will only see and hear Alarm notifications.

See Also

Telerik UI for WinForms Learning Resources

In this article
Related articles
Not finding the help you need? Improve this article