Appbars

[markwestcott]

Ok, this is sorta hard to explain, but I'll do my best:

An Appbar - Like the taskbar, they stop any other apps going in front of them. They make all the windows smaller so that they take always take up space on your screen (eg AllAdvantage)

Is there any way to stop an application from being an appbar?
(Guess what its for! (read to make other apps go over alladvantage)

Anyway, any help would be appreciated

Mark

[billrogers]

Appbars, use api's to do this, like

Public Declare Function SHAppBarMessage Lib "shell32.dll" (ByVal dwMessage As Long, pData As APPBARDATA) As Long

I am not sure how you would stop an exe from making api calls.

Use the SetForegroundWindow to set which window will be in the Foreground.

Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" Alias "SetForegroundWindow" (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long

[kedaman]

Here's my appbar stuff, still under research, if anyone can improove it, let me know Also, i haven't tested it for a while so i don't know if i left it bugfree or not

' // AppBar stuff

Public Const ABM_NEW = &H0
Public Const ABM_REMOVE = &H1
Public Const ABM_QUERYPOS = &H2
Public Const ABM_SETPOS = &H3
Public Const ABM_GETSTATE = &H4
Public Const ABM_GETTASKBARPOS = &H5
Public Const ABM_ACTIVATE = &H6               '  lParam == TRUE/FALSE means activate/deactivate
Public Const ABM_GETAUTOHIDEBAR = &H7
Public Const ABM_SETAUTOHIDEBAR = &H8          '  this can fail at any time.  MUST check the result
                                        '  lParam = TRUE/FALSE  Set/Unset
                                        '  uEdge = what edge
Public Const ABM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED = &H9


'  these are put in the wparam of callback messages
Public Const ABN_STATECHANGE = &H0
Public Const ABN_POSCHANGED = &H1
Public Const ABN_FULLSCREENAPP = &H2
Public Const ABN_WINDOWARRANGE = &H3 '  lParam == TRUE means hide

'  flags for get state

Public Const ABS_AUTOHIDE = &H1
Public Const ABS_ALWAYSONTOP = &H2
Public Const ABE_LEFT = 0
Public Const ABE_TOP = 1
Public Const ABE_RIGHT = 2
Public Const ABE_BOTTOM = 3

Type RECT
        Left As Long
        Top As Long
        Right As Long
        Bottom As Long
End Type
Type APPBARDATA
        cbSize As Long
        hwnd As Long
        uCallbackMessage As Long
        uEdge As Long
        rc As RECT
        lParam As Long '  message specific
End Type


Public Declare Function SHAppBarMessage Lib "shell32.dll" (ByVal dwMessage As Long, pData As APPBARDATA) As Long
Declare Function GetWindowRect Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, lpRect As RECT) As Long
Declare Function MoveWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal nWidth As Long, ByVal nHeight As Long, ByVal bRepaint As Long) As Long

' //  EndAppBar
Sub Newbar(hwnd&)
    Dim abd As APPBARDATA, rt As RECT, rc As RECT
    GetWindowRect hwnd, rt
    With rc
        .Left = 0
        .Top = 0
        .Bottom = 1200
        .Right = 1600
    End With
    With abd
        If (rt.Right - rt.Left) > (rt.Bottom - rt.Top) Then
            If (rt.Bottom + rt.Top) > Screen.Height / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY Then
                .uEdge = ABE_BOTTOM
            Else
                .uEdge = ABE_TOP
            End If
        Else
            If (rt.Right + rt.Left) > Screen.Width / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX Then
                .uEdge = ABE_RIGHT
            Else
                .uEdge = ABE_LEFT
            End If
        End If
        .hwnd = hwnd
        .uCallbackMessage = 123
        .cbSize = Len(abd)
        SHAppBarMessage ABM_NEW, abd
        '.uEdge = ABE_BOTTOM
        .rc = rc
        .cbSize = Len(abd)
        'SHAppBarMessage ABN_WINDOWARRANGE, abd
        SHAppBarMessage ABM_QUERYPOS, abd
        
        If (rt.Right - rt.Left) > (rt.Bottom - rt.Top) Then
            If (rt.Bottom + rt.Top) > Screen.Height / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY Then
                .uEdge = ABE_BOTTOM
                .rc.Top = .rc.Bottom - rt.Bottom + rt.Top
            Else
                .uEdge = ABE_TOP
                .rc.Bottom = .rc.Top - rt.Top + rt.Bottom
            End If
        Else
            If (rt.Right + rt.Left) > Screen.Width / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX Then
                .uEdge = ABE_RIGHT
                .rc.Left = .rc.Right - rt.Right + rt.Left
            Else
                .uEdge = ABE_LEFT
                .rc.Right = .rc.Left - rt.Left + rt.Right
            End If
        End If
        .cbSize = Len(abd)
        SHAppBarMessage ABM_SETPOS, abd
        MoveWindow hwnd, .rc.Left, .rc.Top, .rc.Right - .rc.Left, .rc.Bottom - .rc.Top, 1
        DoEvents
        SHAppBarMessage ABM_ACTIVATE, abd
    End With
    SHAppBarMessage ABM_REMOVE, abd

End Sub

[markwestcott]

With this code, knowing another windows HWND, how would I stop the other program being an appbar?

Sorry to be thick


Mark

[Crazy D]

Check out MSDN, search for SHAppBarMessage, and then click the link to the ABM_REMOVE message, I guess that's where you have to look for,. Need to fill a strucuture, one of it's members is the hWnd of the taskbar... see if you can do it with that.

[markwestcott]

Thanks, but I cant get it to work! This is the code I am using:



Type RECT
Left As Long
Top As Long
Right As Long
Bottom As Long
End Type
Type APPBARDATA
cbSize As Long
hwnd As Long
uCallbackMessage As Long
uEdge As Long
rc As RECT
lParam As Long ' message specific
End Type


Public Declare Function SHAppBarMessage Lib "shell32.dll" (ByVal dwMessage As Long, pData As APPBARDATA) As Long
Declare Function GetWindowRect Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, lpRect As RECT) As Long
Declare Function MoveWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal x As Long, ByVal y As Long, ByVal nWidth As Long, ByVal nHeight As Long, ByVal bRepaint As Long) As Long

Sub Newbar(hwnd)
Dim abd As APPBARDATA, rt As RECT, rc As RECT
GetWindowRect hwnd, rt
With abd
.hwnd = hwnd
.cbSize = Len(abd)
End With
SHAppBarMessage ABM_REMOVE, abd

End Sub



Any Ideas why?




[Edited by markwestcott on 06-08-2000 at 08:51 AM]

[kedaman]

Yes, use ABM_NEW instead of ABM_REMOVE. Use ABM_SETPOS to set the position, you can use my sample, it should work.

[markwestcott]

Surely that is going to make something into an appbar, not stop it being one?

[kedaman]

Yes, remove that line "SHAppBarMessage ABM_REMOVE, abd" and put it in another method