#1,098 – OnLastWindowClose Shutdown Mode

By default, a WPF application terminates when all of its windows are closed.  This corresponds to a value of OnLastWindowClose for the main Application object’s ShutdownMode property.

We can see this in action if we have a main window and then instantiate a second window on a Button click.

        // Button in main window, opens another
        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            OtherWindow ow = new OtherWindow();
            ow.Show();
        }

When we click on the button, the second window opens.

At this point, we can close either window and the application will continue running.  It will only terminate when we close the second of the two open windows.  If we use the “Open Another” button to open multiple windows, the application will only terminate after we close the last open window.  The order that we close the windows doesn’t matter.