In Windows 7, there was a remarkable thing - indication of progress on the taskbar button. To use this feature on VB6 (and any other language) you need to create an object TaskBarList, get ITaskBarList3 interface and use its methods - SetProgressState and SetProgressValue. In my module, I added the ability to set the state of the progress bar on the taskbar, and duplicated this indicator on the form itself + added ability to use animated icons in the form header (also supported by the usual icons). From this example, you can learn how to draw the non-client area of the window, make buttons that are highlighted when hovering. The example uses double buffering, so everything works smoothly and without flicker. This module can be connected to any project with any forms.
Functions: SetNCSkin - set new style window; RemoveNCSkin - remove style from window; SetIcon - set animated (or simple) icon to window; PlayAnimation - enable playing icon animation; StopAnimation - stop animation playing; SetProgressState - set state of taskbar button; GetProgressState - get state of taskbar button; SetProgressValue - set value of progressbar in the taskbar button (0..1); GetProgressValue - same, only get a value.
Thanks for the link to the working project - I'll definitely check that out too. Not only for the progress bar code but for the music generation portion. I'm a musician and have a side app I've been working with slowly over the years - I may be able to borrow some ideas from you in that area as well.