Programmatically minimize mathematica?

Question

I can minimize a notebook easy enough with Mathematica code, but how does one minimize all of the Mathematica front end? Just as if you clicked the minimize button on the menu bar? This is for version 8 on windows XP if that helps.

Answer 1

Until a better answer comes along, I present, for your edification, an ugly hack that isn't really Mathematica per se:

Needs["CCompilerDriver`"]

src = "
  #include \"WolframLibrary.h\"
  #include <windows.h>
  #include <string>

  BOOL CALLBACK EnumWindowsProc(HWND hwnd, LPARAM lParam)
  {
    char title[256];
    GetWindowText(hwnd, title, sizeof(title));
    std::string t(title);
    if(t.find(\"Wolfram Mathematica 8\") != std::string::npos)
        ShowWindow(hwnd, SW_MINIMIZE);
    return TRUE;
  }

  EXTERN_C DLLEXPORT int hide(WolframLibraryData libData,
    mint Argc, MArgument *Args, MArgument Res)
  {
    EnumWindows(EnumWindowsProc, 0);
    return LIBRARY_NO_ERROR;
  }
";

hidelib = CreateLibrary[src, "hide", "Language" -> "C++",
  "CompileOptions" -> {"/EHsc"},
  "Libraries" -> {"user32.lib"},
  "Debug" -> False]

hide = LibraryFunctionLoad[hidelib, "hide", {}, "Void"]

And to use:

hide[]