1-2-3's of making a toolbar

[a8le]

Hi all,

I am thinking about make a toolbar like... the quick launch toolbar, with autohide, top position (opposite of start/task bar), skinnable, etc.

Is this possible? I need it to work with XP and Vista. I am using Visual Studio 2008, VB.NET.

If it is can someone lead me in the right direction? I guess we can forget about what it is supposed to do for now. I'll be happy with a blank bar for now.

 

[cjard]

Creating a fixed dialog window with no control box and positioning it at -2, -2, width screen.width + 4, height 20 px, always on top, no show in taskbar would probably be your start. You can define clipping regions to remove the extra [pixles if someone has a multimonitor display

 

[a8le]

Thanks for the reply cjard. I'll get started with that. And will come back with my results.

 

[a8le]

so i created a form with a fixed dialog border style and have tried everything, but it's still not a "bar".

what am i doing wrong?

 

[JohnH]

I think you mean Appbar (like the Windows Taskbar), you can read about it here Using Application Desktop Toolbars and find programming support for it on the internet or these forums.

 

[a8le]

hi, so far i have found one thread on the net with a working example. it's not perfect but works...

Creating a (Dockable) Application Desktop Toolbar - VBForums

could you take this help a few steps further?...

1) displaying some information on it (maybe total ram used?)
2) give it the ability close. i can't close it properly, i have "task manager" end processed it but that portion of the screen is still taken

 

[JohnH]

1) displaying some information on it (maybe total ram used?)

You design the form like any other form, use any controls and code you like. This has nothing to do with the Appbar system. Feel free to start a new forum thread regarding any new topic you want to ask about.

2) give it the ability close. i can't close it properly, i have "task manager" end processed it but that portion of the screen is still taken

Read the "Registration" section of article I linked, it also explains unregistration.