How to use the System Tray directly from Visual Basic

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This article was previously published under Q176085

SUMMARY

This article demonstrates how to take full advantage of the Windows System Tray, or Taskbar Notification Area, using Visual Basic. It places an icon of your choice into the Taskbar Notification Area that will display a ToolTip of your choice when the mouse is rested over it, will restore the application when clicked, and will display a popup menu when right-clicked. This is all possible because of Visual Basic's ability to directly handle callbacks, therefore taking full advantage of the Shell_NotifyIcon function that is exported by Shell32.dll.

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MORE INFORMATION

The following example can be added to any Visual Basic Project that has at least one form and a standard module.

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Step-by-Step Example

Add the following code to the declarations section of a standard module in your project:

      'user defined type required by Shell_NotifyIcon API call
      Public Type NOTIFYICONDATA
       cbSize As Long
       hwnd As Long
       uId As Long
       uFlags As Long
       uCallBackMessage As Long
       hIcon As Long
       szTip As String * 64
      End Type

      'constants required by Shell_NotifyIcon API call:
      Public Const NIM_ADD = &H0
      Public Const NIM_MODIFY = &H1
      Public Const NIM_DELETE = &H2
      Public Const NIF_MESSAGE = &H1
      Public Const NIF_ICON = &H2
      Public Const NIF_TIP = &H4
      Public Const WM_MOUSEMOVE = &H200
      Public Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN = &H201     'Button down
      Public Const WM_LBUTTONUP = &H202       'Button up
      Public Const WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK = &H203   'Double-click
      Public Const WM_RBUTTONDOWN = &H204     'Button down
      Public Const WM_RBUTTONUP = &H205       'Button up
      Public Const WM_RBUTTONDBLCLK = &H206   'Double-click

      Public Declare Function SetForegroundWindow Lib "user32" _
      (ByVal hwnd As Long) As Long
      Public Declare Function Shell_NotifyIcon Lib "shell32" _
      Alias "Shell_NotifyIconA" _
      (ByVal dwMessage As Long, pnid As NOTIFYICONDATA) As Boolean

      Public nid As NOTIFYICONDATA

Add the following code to any form in your project that you want to respond to the System Tray Icon, or Notification Icon, for your application:

      Private Sub Form_Load()
       'the form must be fully visible before calling Shell_NotifyIcon
       Me.Show
       Me.Refresh
       With nid
        .cbSize = Len(nid)
        .hwnd = Me.hwnd
        .uId = vbNull
        .uFlags = NIF_ICON Or NIF_TIP Or NIF_MESSAGE
        .uCallBackMessage = WM_MOUSEMOVE
        .hIcon = Me.Icon
        .szTip = "Your ToolTip" & vbNullChar
       End With
       Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_ADD, nid
      End Sub

      Private Sub Form_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
      'this procedure receives the callbacks from the System Tray icon.
      Dim Result As Long
      Dim msg As Long
       'the value of X will vary depending upon the scalemode setting
       If Me.ScaleMode = vbPixels Then
        msg = X
       Else
        msg = X / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX
       End If
       Select Case msg
        Case WM_LBUTTONUP        '514 restore form window
         Me.WindowState = vbNormal
         Result = SetForegroundWindow(Me.hwnd)
         Me.Show
        Case WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK    '515 restore form window
         Me.WindowState = vbNormal
         Result = SetForegroundWindow(Me.hwnd)
         Me.Show
        Case WM_RBUTTONUP        '517 display popup menu
         Result = SetForegroundWindow(Me.hwnd)
         Me.PopupMenu Me.mPopupSys
       End Select
      End Sub

      Private Sub Form_Resize()
       'this is necessary to assure that the minimized window is hidden
       If Me.WindowState = vbMinimized Then Me.Hide
      End Sub

      Private Sub Form_Unload(Cancel As Integer)
       'this removes the icon from the system tray
       Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_DELETE, nid
      End Sub

      Private Sub mPopExit_Click()
       'called when user clicks the popup menu Exit command
       Unload Me
      End Sub

      Private Sub mPopRestore_Click()
       'called when the user clicks the popup menu Restore command
       Dim Result As Long
       Me.WindowState = vbNormal
       Result = SetForegroundWindow(Me.hwnd)
       Me.Show
      End Sub

Make the following Property Settings on the same form to which you added the above code:

   Property         Required Setting for Taskbar Notification Area example
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Icon           = The icon you want to appear in the system tray.
   Minbutton      = True
   ShownInTaskbar = False

Add the following Menu items to the same form using the Menu Editor:

   Caption      Name          Enabled   Visible   Position
   ---------------------------------------------------------
   &SysTray     mPopupSys      True      False    Main Level
   &Restore     mPopRestore    True      True     Inset one
   &Exit        mPopExit       True      True     Inset one

You can add additional menu items as needed.

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Taskbar Notification Area Flexibility

You can modify the ToolTip that appears over the Notification icon by changing the following line in the Form_Load procedure:

   .szTip = "Your ToolTip" & vbNullChar

Replace "Your ToolTip" with the text that you want to appear.

You can modify the Icon that appears in the Taskbar Notification Area by changing the following line in the Form_Load procedure:

   .hIcon = Me.Icon

Replace Me.Icon with any Icon in your project.

You can change any of the Taskbar Notification Area settings at any time after the use of the NIM_ADD constant by reassigning the values in the nid variable and then using the following variation of the Shell_NotifyIcon API call:

   Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_MODIFY, nid.

However, if you want a different form to receive the callback, then you will need to delete the current icon first using "Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_Delete, nid" as the NIM_Modify function will not accept a new Hwnd, or you will need to add another Icon to the systray for the new form using "Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_ADD, nid" after refilling the nid type with the new forms Hwnd. You can also declare separate copies of the nid type for each form that you want to display an icon for in the Windows System Tray and change them in each form's activate event using the NIM_DELETE and NIM_ADD sequence.

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REFERENCES

For more information regarding using the System Tray or using the Taskbar Notification Area from Visual Basic 4.0 or earlier, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

149276 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/149276/ ) How to use icons with the Windows 95/98/Me Taskbar Notification Area

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