GUI when System Locked? (2K/XP)

[<ABX]

I know this is somewhat possible because the On Screen Keyboard is able to do this, but I was wondering if could do this in VB .Net.

This is a personal project, so I don't really care if its a pain to redistribute.

Basicly the main features that I want to be able to implement are HotKeys (I absolutly hate having to unlock the workstation just to be able to use the Play/Stop/Next/ect HotKeys) Can Services still catch global hotkeys when the system is locked?

I'd like to be able to display some system statics eg. Processor Usage, Ram, ect.

I could make this a screen saver but screen savers are suspose to be colorful and fun to look at and I suck at drawing and being creative.

Any Ideas?

[RobDog888]

So you want to create a screensaver of displaying system information? Hmm, sounds like a cool idea.

How about making it like some kind of instrument panel with some cool gauges/controls? You can create
a few different layouts/color schemes. Then rotate the display between them?

[kleinma]

you could even probably find some useful free controls to do most of the "fancy" work and just have to code it all up

ask rob.. he will make some user controls for you

[RobDog888]

you could even probably find some useful free controls to do most of the "fancy" work and just have to code it all up

ask rob.. he will make some user controls for you

Guess I'm learning the hard way.

>ABX, what were your ideas? I could help if you want.

[<ABX]

Some of the things I wanted to display were:

Currently Playing Winamp song (I have a large collection, so sometimes I forget)
Current Time
RSS Reader ( would be nice, but if I did, I'd just use a library)
Processor/Hard Drive/Network/ect usage

My main thing is getting it to display... maybe I should find a crash course on GDI+ but as I said... I'm not very creative -- I got 14% in Art

[RobDog888]

What would be really cool would be to write this like one of those winamp visual plugins or whatever they
are called. The display would respond to the music but would also show the info like you want. Less need for creativity?

[<ABX]

Winamp doesn't support any kind of library that .Net can create

You would need to create a 'proxy' plugin in C++

[RobDog888]

I guess you could write something that would respond with the speaker output levels?
A digital graphic equilizer is always cool looking.