Reserving a specified area on Windows Desktop

Reserving a specified area on Windows Desktop

• medel

  ' The right way to do this is at the link below, but, as always,

  ' it's in C

  ' http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/programmersguide/shell_int/shell_int_programming/appbars.asp

  ' So, here's playing around with some hopeful APIs

  Public Class Form1

  Private Declare Function SystemParametersInfo _

  Lib "user32" Alias "SystemParametersInfoA" _

  (ByVal uAction As Integer, ByVal uParam As Integer, _

  ByRef lpvParam As RECT, ByVal fuWinIni As Integer) As Integer

  Public Declare Function SendNotifyMessage Lib "user32.dll" _

  Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal Msg As Integer, _

  ByVal ByValByValwParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As String) As Integer

  Private Const SPI_GETWORKAREA As Integer = 48 'get the current screen size

  Private Const SPI_SETWORKAREA As Integer = 47 'change the screen size

  Private Const SPIF_SENDCHANGE As Integer = 2 'broadcast the change to other windows so that they know

  Private Const WIDTH_OF_TOOLBAR As Integer = 100

  Private oldRect As RECT = New RECT()

  Private Const HWND_BROADCAST As Integer = -1

  Private Const WM_SETTINGCHANGE As Integer = &H1A

  Public Structure RECT 'store the screen size in this structure

  Dim Left As Integer

  Dim Top As Integer

  Dim Right As Integer

  Dim Bottom As Integer

  End Structure

  Private Sub GetWorkspace(ByRef oRECT As RECT)

  Dim iResult As Integer = SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETWORKAREA, 0, oRECT, 0)

  End Sub

  Private Function SetWorkspace(ByVal oRECT As RECT) As Integer

  Return SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETWORKAREA, 0, oRECT, SPIF_SENDCHANGE)

  End Function

  Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

  Me.MaximizedBounds = New Rectangle(Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width - WIDTH_OF_TOOLBAR, 0, WIDTH_OF_TOOLBAR, Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Height)

  Me.TopMost = True

  Me.WindowState = System.Windows.Forms.FormWindowState.Maximized

  Dim RECT As RECT = New RECT()

  RECT.Left = 0

  RECT.Top = 0

  RECT.Right = Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Width - WIDTH_OF_TOOLBAR

  RECT.Bottom = Screen.PrimaryScreen.WorkingArea.Bottom

  GetWorkspace(oldRect)

  ' The next line works somewhat. When you maximize other windows

  ' they observe the setting, but do nothing initially.

  SetWorkspace(RECT)

  ' The 'SendNotifyMessage' hung. Partly because it came back to this program.

  ' But the change took and required a re-boot to get rid of.

  'SendNotifyMessage(CType(HWND_BROADCAST, IntPtr), WM_SETTINGCHANGE, SPI_SETWORKAREA, CStr(0))

  End Sub

  Private Sub Form1_FormClosing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.FormClosingEventArgs) Handles Me.FormClosing

  SetWorkspace(oldRect)

  End Sub

  End Class

  
  
  
• Reserving a specified area on Windows Desktop