wpf Popup Lightbox effect on window - wpf

Question

I am using following code to set gray light effect on window when I open a popup. It works fine but it basically reloads all controls or refreshes the main window .
Especially this line: currentWindow.Content = lightboxGrid;
Window currentWindow = Application.Current.Windows.Cast<Window>()
.SingleOrDefault(x => x.Name.Equals(MAIN_WINDOW_NAME));
Grid lightboxGrid = new Grid();
object currentWindowContent = currentWindow.Content;
currentWindow.Content = null;
lightboxGrid.Children.Add(new ContentControl()
{
Content = currentWindowContent
});
// now add the grid that will "black out" the content
Grid blackoutGrid = new Grid();
blackoutGrid.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Black);
lightboxGrid.Children.Add(blackoutGrid);
blackoutGrid.Opacity = 0.0; // start fully transparent
blackoutGrid.Loaded += blackoutGrid_Loaded;
currentWindow.Content = lightboxGrid;
this._lightboxEffectApplied = true;
What could be the option to have the same effect without refreshing the main window or reloading the controls?

Answer 1

If your main window has a Grid as its layout root (even if all the content is in the first cell), then you could add this blackoutGrid as a child to that grid and it will display above the other elements without messing with the original visual tree structure.
In this case, the Content of your Window would be a Grid, and you would add your blackoutGrid to that Grid, and remove it when you are done.
The way you are writing this seems to be a little against object-oriented practice. Technically it should be your Main Window that has the ability to display a lightbox effect.