How do I go about creating my own taskbar toolbar, a la Windows Media Player:
Windows Media Player's Start bar toolbar http://me.monoxide.ws/images/wmp-toolbar.gif
Examples or documentation or even open source software that implements this for just about any language would be appreciated, but Google isn't being very helpful. Ultimately, I would like to do this in C# (I expect to need P/Invoke) for XP onwards, but any language and Vista onwards would be acceptable/helpful too.
Check this out:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/csharplanguage/thread/e180c4d5-8cd7-47e3-b45a-d643c02bab36
(source: microsoft.com)
It's called as "Desk Band"
See MSDN desription about this
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/programmersguide/shell_adv/bands.asp
and sample over there
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/dotnetbandobjects.asp
By the way, thanks for asking this question. Back in the days I also wanted to do this. However, yesterday I said bye bye to Windows and Hi to Mac. If you asked this yesterday I would upvote it trice if I could ;-)
You'll notice that Media Player on Win7 doesn't have a desk band. Instead it has tiny play/pause buttons in the thumbnail preview that appears when you mouse over the taskbar icon. You can do the same thing for your application. If you use Code Pack (http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack) there is a sample under Samples\Shell\ThumbnailToolbarDemo. Windows 7 only, but way less annoying than taking up an inch or two of taskbar, and just as handy when you want to insta-pause.
Related
I have written a VB application in VS2010. When I try to record its operation for a demo video with Windows Media Encoder x64 or Apowersoft free screen recorder, I get a recording of everything on the desktop except my application. It's like the application is invisible to the recorder. It has worked in the past (2 weeks ago). It must be something I have done but I'm baffled. Is there a "feature" in VB that can prevent you from recording the Form?
BTW, a still screen capture works fine and sub forms I bring up are captured. Only the main form is invisible to the recorder.
Thank you for your help and time.
Not a VS or VB problem after all. What I found was that windows 7 was switching me from Aero Theme to Windows 7 Basic. The message that showed up was that I was low on display memory. (A quick pop-up in the bottom right corner that I was ignored during the recording). However, I have 4.75 G of display memory?
BTW on a video conf call it produced the same invisibility "feature" until I found the Theme switch.
I haven't actually fixed anything but now know to watch for the tell tale screen blink as it switches mode. I pause the recording, and switch it back before restarting the recording. Got through the recordings I needed for now. I was using MS Media Encoder. I have now replaced it with Adobe Premier elements but haven't tried it yet to see if I still have the problem. Need to get the "how to" videos out the door first.
Thanks again. I have read many of your Answers to others in the past that have helped me solve numerous other VB and VS problems.
Michael
That's weird since it's recording forms from the application and not other forms (main form) from the same application.
Make sure you run the recorder as administrator and not the application.
Are About dialog boxes "dead" in Windows 8 Metro apps? I looked over quite a few apps and screenshots of apps in the Windows store, and did not find any "inspiration".
Is there any guidelines from Microsoft or any article that discusses this issue?
What do you think is the best way to show a dialog box/popup that shows the app name, version, author and a link to the app's home page?
I am thinking of a icon button in the bottom appbar, something like "About Appname", that opens a popup with this information. I am using C# and XAML.
You would place the About into the Settings pane via the Settings Charm using the Setting Contract. You can see the About in almost all of the apps in the Store today. Quick start on adding Settings can be found here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/hh872190.aspx
Guidelines for app settings here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh770544.aspx
Take a look here.
It lets you create dialogs/flyouts very easily from a UserControl. A few lines of boiler plate and you are done. Takes care of animation, UI management etc.
I've spent a while searching around and I can't find a solution to this:
I have a transparent, borderless form that displays a clock. I can load this just fine, but I want the clock to be part of the desktop, so it cannot take focus, is behind other applications, and is not hidden with Win+D (similar to applications like RainMeter).
I need the solution to work with VB.Net (I'm using 2010)
Thanks in anticipation
Take a look at the following codeproject article:
Application Desktop Toolbars
It seems to do what you require.
This article is about Application Desktop Toolbars, which are
applications that can align to the screen much like the taskbar. The
article will develop a base class for developing such apps.
I have an application (chat) that I am developing for our company (special requirements). We are mostly using WinXP computers. I want it to be topmost and docked to the right, the problem is, I don't want it to overlap other windows that people are working on.
Is there a way to change the default area that other programs can maximize to? Basically, I want it to look something like this:
Is something like this possible? I'm using VB.net so all .net answers are accepted.
Thanks!
Take a look at the following codeproject article:
Application Desktop Toolbars
It seems to do what you require.
This article is about Application Desktop Toolbars, which are
applications that can align to the screen much like the taskbar. The
article will develop a base class for developing such apps.
For example, if I were to write a calendar app on top of AIR, say with Flex, could this app pop up reminder windows for approaching appointments, just like Microsoft Outlook can?
Clarification: Can those windows be actual dialogs where I can enter and save information?
See Creating toast-style windows
Twhirl pops up "toast" notifications (similiar to most instant messengers), while it is running in the system tray.
So yes.
There are notification balloons tips but this method is going out of favor with systray icons in Windows 7 and it's not cross platform. Unfortunately, you can only call this in the Win32 API using Shell_NotifyIcon and there is no way to get to it from Air.
Stuck making your own toaster popups.
YES
Your Flex AIR application can pop up windows, dialogs, toasters, whatever.
Have a look at this article on the Adobe Website, for creating your own Toast Style Popups.
(Credit for this goes to Duncan Smart, answering this question.)