visual basic 6 taskbar

I'm planning to make a task bar and really need help on a number of things. I'll ask each thing I need help with instead of asking for how to make the whole thing.

just found out how to make a clock.

how can I open image files (jpg, gif, etc) using visual basic? I'm guessing it's sort of the same as opening exe files.
shell "path and file" is basically how you open exe files. Is opening image files similar to that?

If you use the ShellExecute API, it will launch the file in the windows default viewer.

Well, if you have a specific extension of the file that a certain program of yours you know will open, you could use something like this... given that you got the actual file path of the picture.. For example, if you had the file

mypicture.exe

and wanted to change it from .exe to .jpg, you could write like::

vb Code:

aa = "mypicture.exe"
 
bb = Left(aa, 9)
 
cc = bb & ".jpg"
 
MsgBox cc

To get it back to a jpeg.. Just an example :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Negative0

If you use the ShellExecute API, it will launch the file in the windows default viewer.

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Not sure what you mean. I tried

Code:

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ShellExecute "C:\Documents and Settings\Charlie\My Documents\untitled.JPG"

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but it didn't work

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=364654
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q170918/
http://allapi.mentalis.org/apilist/ShellExecute.shtml
http://www.vb-helper.com/howto_open_...text_file.html
http://www.developerfusion.co.uk/show/278/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by iPrank

http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?t=364654
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q170918/
http://allapi.mentalis.org/apilist/ShellExecute.shtml
http://www.vb-helper.com/howto_open_...text_file.html
http://www.developerfusion.co.uk/show/278/

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that seems a bit complicated to run. Also I think those are for a different version of visual basic.

Perhaps we are getting stuck on terminology.

What do you mean by "Open"?

If you simply want to display them, then using a Picturebox control or an Image control should do the trick.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hack

Perhaps we are getting stuck on terminology.

What do you mean by "Open"?

If you simply want to display them, then using a Picturebox control or an Image control should do the trick.

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I mean opem them in the windows image viewer.

The links IPrank provided show you how to use the shellexecute function as I stated.

Look at this link in particular, it does exactly what you are trying to do:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q170918/

You could easily get by without declaring all of those SE_ERR constants and you don't need the case statement, it just helps you figure out what the error was if you got one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Negative0

The links IPrank provided show you how to use the shellexecute function as I stated.

Look at this link in particular, it does exactly what you are trying to do:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q170918/

You could easily get by without declaring all of those SE_ERR constants and you don't need the case statement, it just helps you figure out what the error was if you got one.

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ok I'll take a look at that.

is there a way to close programs? like
close "C:\WINDOWS\calc.exe"
or something.