Active X exe or Dll to run on the task bar with a icon

Hi,

I am trying to develop a simple Active X dll or exe where this application will run as a background process and will be querying a table in a database in a loop and will notify me if there is a change in the table (just like yahoo messenger mail notification in the taskbar). I want to know the following
- what shld be the best approach to achieve this
- How do I place the icon of my application in the task bar
- How do I pop a message to notify the change in the table.

An early reply from all the experts will be helpfull.

Thanks in advance.
Rakesh

1) Rather then the taskbar, I think you're on about the system tray (all the icons in the bottom right of the taskbar next to the windows clock)? If so, this is awkward & you need to play with the api for this! :p

www.allapi.net
www.vbapi.com
Do a search of the forums

Use one of these to look up Shell_NotifyIcon

2) The new message bit, you could create a form dynamically, that is through code rather than at design time in the visual basic IDE designer. Then call this to show a mini for every time you want a new message et to pop up ...

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...g+form+scratch

Hope this helps :)