VB-Disable Ctrl Alt Del in XP, Hide TaskBar, Disable Windows keys

[wordracr]

Ok, I'm just packin this stuff together =O
The only thing I haven't seen on this forum is about disabling ctrl alt delete.



--Ctrl Alt Del Here is a Link to a great article.
At first you might think it isn't possible with vb6 judging by its title.
But give things a chance ^_^ I will leave you in suspense by saying no more.
If anything, you'll be disappointed, but relieved that there is a way to accomplish it.

If you don't want to use any of the methods listed in the article,
I saw that someone posted their idea and it killed (deleted)
taskmgr.exe on a timer- because windows remakes if you delete
it from the system32 dir. A decent timer interval value is 100-500 ms.
Make sure you put On Error Resume Next in the sub that kills taskmgr.exe.
Sometimes I got a path/file access error, probably from crammed timer events.



--Hide TaskBar(only)

This will remove the taskbar graphic from the users screen.
It will not be displayed until you show it.
If the user presses the
Windows key, it will show the StartMenu,
but this can be fixed, as shown in the next example.

Search msdn or AllApi.net for the API calls used and not defined.

Private Sub ToggleTaskBar()
    Dim TaskBarWnd As Long
    
    TaskBarWnd = FindWindow("Shell_TrayWnd", vbNullString)
    If IsWindowVisible(TaskBarWnd) Then
        Call ShowWindow(TaskBarWnd, SW_HIDE)
    Else
        Call ShowWindow(TaskBarWnd, SW_SHOW)
    End If
End Sub

--Disabling Keys such as Windows, Alt+tab, Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Esc, W+L,W+R,W+F,..etc.

I used the low level hook from merrion_computing's eventvb.dll.
It seems to work just as good as a soldering iron, except that
you can actually change it back just by running the unhook code ='(

I didn't use modules as much as I could have because I was
getting the shortcut keys received by windows and processed..
(rarely, but still happened), and I thought less code jumps might eliminate the problem.
It could have been because I was running from vb.
With an executable, I can't get anything to pass through,
no matter how fast I press.

This code could be changed somewhat, but I just did what I needed to do to get it to work fast.

Download the dll in the attachment
-reg it on your system by typing in run "regsvr32 " & [filename]
-open up a project and add the reference named "MCL Event VB Release _ "

Put in general declarations area:

Private Declare Function MessageBeep Lib "user32" (ByVal wType As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function GetKeyState Lib "user32" (ByVal nVirtKey As Long) As Integer
 
Private WithEvents apiLink As EventVB.APIFunctions
Private WithEvents hook As EventVB.ApiSystemHook
 
Private Const vbKeyLWin As Integer = 91
Private Const vbKeyRWin As Integer = 92
Private Const vbKeyLCtrl As Integer = 162
Private Const vbKeyRCtrl As Integer = 163

And then for the events:

Private Sub Form_Load()
  Set apiLink = New EventVB.APIFunctions
  Set hook = apiLink.System.Hooks
 
  hook.StartHook WH_KEYBOARD_LL, HOOK_GLOBAL
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
   hook.StopHook WH_KEYBOARD_LL
   Set hook = Nothing
   Set apiLink = Nothing
End Sub
 
Private Sub hook_KeyDown(ByVal VKey As Long, ByVal scanCode _ 
    As Long, ByVal ExtendedKey As Boolean, ByVal AltDown As _
    Boolean, ByVal Injected As Boolean, Cancel As Boolean)
 
    'Alt Tab
    If AltDown And VKey = vbKeyTab Then
        Cancel = True
    
    'Alt Esc
    ElseIf AltDown And VKey = vbKeyEscape Then
        Cancel = True
    
    'Ctrl Esc
    ElseIf VKey = vbKeyEscape Then
        'Check if a ctrl key down
        If GetKeyState(vbKeyLCtrl) And &HF0000000 Or _
            GetKeyState(vbKeyRCtrl) And &HF0000000 Then
            Cancel = True
        End If
        
    'Windows key (L/R). Used to "disable" the start menu.  
    'Stops single keydown of a windows key
    ElseIf VKey = vbKeyLWin Or VKey = vbKeyRWin Then
        Cancel = True
    
    'Windows + Any
    'If there is a hotkey combination being pressed,
    'the Windows key will not be stored in VKey,
    'So I check the state of the windows keys.  
    'If they are down, cancel keys
    Else
        If GetKeyState(vbKeyLWin) And &HF0000000 Or _
            GetKeyState(vbKeyRWin) And &HF0000000 Then
            Cancel = True
        End If
    End If
    
    'This is totally optional of course
    If Cancel = True Then 'We have stopped some keystrokes. Beep
        MessageBeep 0
    End If
    
End Sub

And that's it. Post comments! =p If you see any errors, post, so we can get them fixed.

Thanks! Enjoy.