Customize the task bar in Windows Mobile Devices

Introduction

This article basically provides functionality for a Compact Framework based handheld device task bar to be enabled or disabled.

Background

The Compact Framework does not directly support disabling or enabling the task bar in devices. So, I used Platform Invoke (P/Invoke). Just copy and paste this code in your project, and pass the two arguments depending on what you want to do with the task bar.

Using the code

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace PPC.Common
{
    public class LockTaskBar
    {
        [DllImport("CoreDll.dll", SetLastError = true)]
        public static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string className, string WindowsName);

        [DllImport("coredll.dll", EntryPoint = "EnableWindow")]
        public static extern bool EnableWindow(IntPtr hwnd, bool bEnable);

        /// <summary>
        /// this is for enable and disable task bar. 
        /// Basically this is provide access control Start menu.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="HHTaskBar">HHTaskBar</param>
        /// <param name="enabled">default false</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static bool Execute(string HHTaskBar,bool enabled)
        {
            bool IsState = false;
            try
            {
                IntPtr hwnd = FindWindow(HHTaskBar, null);

                if (!hwnd.Equals(IntPtr.Zero))
                {
                    if (enabled)
                    {
                        IsState = EnableWindow(hwnd, false);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        IsState =EnableWindow(hwnd, true);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (DllNotFoundException dllex)
            {
                throw dllex;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw ex;
            }
            return IsState;
        }
    }
}

Just copy and paste the code in your project, and call the Execute method passing the window handle string HHTaskBar. If you want to disable the Start menu, pass true, otherwise pass false.

History

• First version: 01/01/2008.