i have been searching for an example of screen capture in vb.net. i have found the following example. i have added this class to a basic windows form app. but i get errors saying things like
'getdesktopwindow' is not a member of 'windowsapplication1.screeencapture.user32'

basically all function of the user32.dll and the gdi32.dll are not available.

i thought this might be because i need to add references to these two dlls but i tried adding a reference and vs.net complained about them not being valid com objects.

any help would be appreciated

Code:
Imports System
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Drawing.Imaging

Public Class ScreenCapture

    '/ <summary>
    '/ Creates an Image object containing a screen shot of the entire desktop
    '/ </summary>
    '/ <returns></returns>
    Public Function CaptureScreen() As Image
        Return CaptureWindow(User32.GetDesktopWindow())
    End Function 'CaptureScreen


    '/ <summary>
    '/ Creates an Image object containing a screen shot of a specific window
    '/ </summary>
    '/ <param name="handle">The handle to the window. (In windows forms, this is obtained by the Handle property)</param>
    '/ <returns></returns>
    Public Function CaptureWindow(ByVal handle As IntPtr) As Image
        ' get te hDC of the target window
        Dim hdcSrc As IntPtr = User32.GetWindowDC(handle)
        ' get the size
        Dim windowRect As New User32.RECT
        User32.GetWindowRect(handle, windowRect)
        Dim width As Integer = windowRect.right - windowRect.left
        Dim height As Integer = windowRect.bottom - windowRect.top
        ' create a device context we can copy to
        Dim hdcDest As IntPtr = GDI32.CreateCompatibleDC(hdcSrc)
        ' create a bitmap we can copy it to,
        ' using GetDeviceCaps to get the width/height
        Dim hBitmap As IntPtr = GDI32.CreateCompatibleBitmap(hdcSrc, width, height)
        ' select the bitmap object
        Dim hOld As IntPtr = GDI32.SelectObject(hdcDest, hBitmap)
        ' bitblt over
        GDI32.BitBlt(hdcDest, 0, 0, width, height, hdcSrc, 0, 0, GDI32.SRCCOPY)
        ' restore selection
        GDI32.SelectObject(hdcDest, hOld)
        ' clean up 
        GDI32.DeleteDC(hdcDest)
        User32.ReleaseDC(handle, hdcSrc)

        ' get a .NET image object for it
        Dim img As Image = Image.FromHbitmap(hBitmap)
        ' free up the Bitmap object
        GDI32.DeleteObject(hBitmap)

        Return img
    End Function 'CaptureWindow


    '/ <summary>
    '/ Captures a screen shot of a specific window, and saves it to a file
    '/ </summary>
    '/ <param name="handle"></param>
    '/ <param name="filename"></param>
    '/ <param name="format"></param>
    Public Sub CaptureWindowToFile(ByVal handle As IntPtr, ByVal filename As String, ByVal format As ImageFormat)
        Dim img As Image = CaptureWindow(handle)
        img.Save(filename, format)
    End Sub 'CaptureWindowToFile


    '/ <summary>
    '/ Captures a screen shot of the entire desktop, and saves it to a file
    '/ </summary>
    '/ <param name="filename"></param>
    '/ <param name="format"></param>
    Public Sub CaptureScreenToFile(ByVal filename As String, ByVal format As ImageFormat)
        Dim img As Image = CaptureScreen()
        img.Save(filename, format)
    End Sub 'CaptureScreenToFile
       _

    '/ <summary>
    '/ Helper class containing Gdi32 API functions
    '/ </summary>
    Private Class GDI32

        Public SRCCOPY As Integer = &HCC0020
        ' BitBlt dwRop parameter
         Public Shared<DllImport("gdi32.dll")>  _
         Function BitBlt(hObject As IntPtr, nXDest As Integer, nYDest As Integer, nWidth As Integer, nHeight As Integer, hObjectSource As IntPtr, nXSrc As Integer, nYSrc As Integer, dwRop As Integer) As Boolean

         Public Shared<DllImport("gdi32.dll")>  _
         Function CreateCompatibleBitmap(hDC As IntPtr, nWidth As Integer, nHeight As Integer) As IntPtr

         Public Shared<DllImport("gdi32.dll")>  _
         Function CreateCompatibleDC(hDC As IntPtr) As IntPtr

         Public Shared<DllImport("gdi32.dll")>  _
         Function DeleteDC(hDC As IntPtr) As Boolean

         Public Shared<DllImport("gdi32.dll")>  _
         Function DeleteObject(hObject As IntPtr) As Boolean

         Public Shared<DllImport("gdi32.dll")>  _
         Function SelectObject(hDC As IntPtr, hObject As IntPtr) As IntPtr
    End Class 'GDI32
       _

    '/ <summary>
    '/ Helper class containing User32 API functions
    '/ </summary>
    Private Class User32
        <StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)> _
        Public Structure RECT
            Public left As Integer
            Public top As Integer
            Public right As Integer
            Public bottom As Integer
        End Structure 'RECT


         Public Shared <DllImport("user32.dll")>  _
         Function GetDesktopWindow() As IntPtr

         Public Shared<DllImport("user32.dll")>  _
         Function GetWindowDC(hWnd As IntPtr) As IntPtr

         Public Shared<DllImport("user32.dll")>  _
         Function ReleaseDC(hWnd As IntPtr, hDC As IntPtr) As IntPtr

         Public Shared<DllImport("user32.dll")>  _
         Function GetWindowRect(hWnd As IntPtr, ByRef rect As RECT) As IntPtr
    End Class 'User32
End Class 'ScreenCapture