Add an icon to the system tray

Task Add an icon to the system tray, and recognize when the icon is clicked or hoovered over

Declaration

'Declare
a user-defined variable to pass to the Shell_NotifyIcon

'function.

Private 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

'Declare the constants for the API function. These constants can be

'found in the header file Shellapi.h.

'The following constants are the messages sent to the

'Shell_NotifyIcon function to add, modify, or delete an icon from the

'taskbar status area.
Private Const NIM_ADD = &H0
Private Const NIM_MODIFY = &H1
Private Const NIM_DELETE = &H2
'The following constant is the message sent when a mouse event occurs
'within the rectangular boundaries of the icon in the taskbar status
'area.
Private Const WM_MOUSEMOVE = &H200
'The following constants are the flags that indicate the valid
'members of the NOTIFYICONDATA data type.
Private Const NIF_MESSAGE = &H1
Private Const NIF_ICON = &H2
Private Const NIF_TIP = &H4
'The following constants are used to determine the mouse input on the
'the icon in the taskbar status area.
'Left-click constants.

Private Const WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK = &H203 'Double-click
Private Const WM_LBUTTONDOWN = &H201 'Button down
Private Const WM_LBUTTONUP = &H202 'Button up

'Right-click constants.

Private Const WM_RBUTTONDBLCLK = &H206 'Double-click
Private Const WM_RBUTTONDOWN = &H204 'Button down
Private Const WM_RBUTTONUP = &H205 'Button up

'Declare the API function call.
Private Declare Function Shell_NotifyIcon Lib "shell32" Alias "Shell_NotifyIconA" (ByVal dwMessage As Long, pnid As NOTIFYICONDATA) As Boolean
'Dimension a variable as the user-defined data type.

Dim nid As NOTIFYICONDATA

CODE
' create a form named Form1
' add a commond dialog control named CommonDialog1
' add two command buttons named Command1 and Command2

Private Sub Command1_Click()
'Click this button to add an icon to the taskbar status area.

'Set the individual values of the NOTIFYICONDATA data type.

nid.cbSize = Len(nid)
nid.hwnd = Form1.hwnd
nid.uId = vbNull
nid.uFlags = NIF_ICON Or NIF_TIP Or NIF_MESSAGE
nid.uCallBackMessage = WM_MOUSEMOVE
nid.hIcon = Form1.Icon

nid.szTip = "Taskbar Status Area Sample Program" & vbNullChar

'Call the Shell_NotifyIcon function to add the icon to the taskbar
'status area.
Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_ADD, nid
End Sub

Private Sub Command2_Click()
'Click this button to delete the added icon from the taskbar

'status area by calling the Shell_NotifyIcon function.

Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_DELETE, nid

End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()

'Set the captions of the command button when the form loads.
Command1.Caption = "Add an Icon"
Command2.Caption = "Delete Icon"

End Sub

Private Sub Form_Terminate()

'Delete the added icon from the taskbar status area when the

'program ends.

Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_DELETE, nid

End Sub

Private Sub Form_MouseMove _
(Button As Integer, _

Shift As Integer, _

X As Single, _

Y As Single)

'Event occurs when the mouse pointer is within the rectangular

'boundaries of the icon in the taskbar status area.

Dim msg As Long

Dim sFilter As String

msg = X / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX

Select Case msg

Case WM_LBUTTONDOWN

Case WM_LBUTTONUP

Case WM_LBUTTONDBLCLK

CommonDialog1.DialogTitle = "Select an Icon"

sFilter = "Icon Files (*.ico)|*.ico"

sFilter = sFilter & "|All Files (*.*)|*.*"

CommonDialog1.Filter = sFilter

CommonDialog1.ShowOpen

If CommonDialog1.FileName <> "" Then

Form1.Icon = LoadPicture(CommonDialog1.FileName)

nid.hIcon = Form1.Icon

Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_MODIFY, nid

End If

Case WM_RBUTTONDOWN

Dim ToolTipString As String

ToolTipString = InputBox("Enter the new ToolTip:", "Change ToolTip")

If ToolTipString <> "" Then

nid.szTip = ToolTipString & vbNullChar

Shell_NotifyIcon NIM_MODIFY, nid
End If
Case WM_RBUTTONUP
Case WM_RBUTTONDBLCLK

End Select
End Sub