Reputation: 1670
It took me a while to find this answer, so I thought I'd share it here as Q&A.
I wanted a way for my Visual Basic program program to retrieve the following info:
Upvotes: 1
Views: 434
Reputation: 1670
This code is written by me but based on the information I gleamed from this post on CodeGuru. I would like to thank Visual Vincent whose suggested corrections in the comment section made it possible to run this code in x64.
Prep: Shared constants, variables and functions:
Const ABS_AUTOHIDE As Int32 = 1
Const ABS_ONTOP As Int32 = 2
Const ABM_NEW As Int32 = 0
Const ABM_REMOVE As Int32 = 1
Const ABM_QUERYPOS As Int32 = 2
Const ABM_SETPOS As Int32 = 3
Const ABM_GETSTATE As Int32 = 4
Const ABM_GETTASKBARPOS As Int32 = 5
Const ABM_ACTIVATE As Int32 = 6
Const ABM_GETAUTOHIDEBAR As Int32 = 7
Const ABM_SETAUTOHIDEBAR As Int32 = 8
Const ABM_WINDOWPOSCHANGED As Int32 = 9
Const TB_POS_BOTTOM As Integer = 1
Const TB_POS_TOP As Integer = 2
Const TB_POS_LEFT As Integer = 3
Const TB_POS_RIGHT As Integer = 4
Private Declare Function apiSHAppBarMessage Lib "shell32" Alias "SHAppBarMessage" (ByVal dwMessage As UInt32, ByRef pData As APPBARDATA) As UIntPtr
Private Structure RECT
Public rLeft, rTop, rRight, rBottom As Int32
End Structure
Private Structure APPBARDATA
Public cbSize As UInt32, hwnd As IntPtr, uCallbackMessage, uEdge As UInt32, rc As RECT, lParam As IntPtr
End Structure
Dim ABD As New APPBARDATA
Dim Autohide_State As Int32
Dim taskbar_left, taskbar_right, taskbar_top, taskbar_bottom, taskbar_edge, taskbar_thickness As Integer
Part 1 & 2: The Sub below can be used to find the location of the taskbar's top, bottom, left and right edges AND the screen edge on which it resides.
Private Sub GetTaskBarEdge_and_Coordinates()
apiSHAppBarMessage(ABM_GETTASKBARPOS, ABD)
taskbar_left = ABD.rc.rLeft
taskbar_right = ABD.rc.rRight
taskbar_top = ABD.rc.rTop
taskbar_bottom = ABD.rc.rBottom
'Figure out if it's located on the buttom, top, left or right edge of screen
If (taskbar_left < 5) And (taskbar_top > 5) Then
taskbar_edge = TB_POS_BOTTOM
ElseIf (taskbar_left < 5) And (taskbar_top < 5) And (taskbar_right > taskbar_bottom) Then
taskbar_edge = TB_POS_TOP
ElseIf (taskbar_left < 5) And (taskbar_top < 5) And (taskbar_right < taskbar_bottom) Then
taskbar_edge = TB_POS_LEFT
ElseIf (taskbar_left > 5) And (taskbar_top < 5) Then
taskbar_edge = TB_POS_RIGHT
Else
MsgBox("Something went wrong while I was trying to find the taskbar edge. Please contact the develloper. Defaulting Edge to bottom.")
taskbar_edge = TB_POS_BOTTOM
End If
End Sub
Part 3: The Function Below will get you a integer value for the Autohidden state.
0 Means AH is off, Always on top is off.
1 means AH is on and Always on Top is off.
2 means AH is off and AoT is on.
3 means AH and AoT are on.
Note the constants I setup in part 1: ABS_AUTOHIDE = 1 , ABS_ONTOP = 2.
Private Function GetTaskBarAHState() As Integer
Return CInt(apiSHAppBarMessage(ABM_GETSTATE, Nothing))
End Function
Part 4: Taskbar thickness can be calculated from taskbar_bottom - taskbar_top OR taskbar_right - taskbar_left (depending on which edge the taskbar is).
Private Sub GetTaskBar_Thickness()
GetTaskBarEdge_and_Coordinates()
Select Case taskbar_edge
Case TB_POS_BOTTOM
taskbar_thickness = Math.Abs(taskbar_bottom - taskbar_top)
Case TB_POS_TOP
taskbar_thickness = Math.Abs(taskbar_bottom - taskbar_top)
Case Case TB_POS_LEFT
taskbar_thickness = Math.Abs(taskbar_right - taskbar_left)
Case TB_POS_RIGHT
taskbar_thickness = Math.Abs(taskbar_right - taskbar_left)
Case Else
MsgBox("Something went wrong while I tried to find Taskbar thickness. Please contact the develloper. Default to taskbar thickness of 39 [4]")
taskbar_thickness = 39
End Select
End Sub
Upvotes: 1