Visual Basic

Option Explicit On

Imports Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim xlApp As Application
        Dim xlWorkBook As Excel.WorkBook
        Dim xlSheet As Excel.WorkSheet

        xlApp = CreateObject("Application Excel")
        xlWorkBook = xlApp.xlWorkSheets
        xlSheet = xlWorkBook.Sheets("Données principales")
        xlSheet.activate
        MsgBox("h")
        MsgBox(xlSheet.Range("A1").value)
    End Sub

End Class

<pre>Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices

Public Class ClearSystemTray

    Private Const WM_MOUSEMOVE As UInteger = &H200

    <DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto)>
    Private Shared Function PostMessage(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal Msg As UInteger, ByVal wParam As IntPtr, ByVal lParam As IntPtr) As Boolean
    End Function

    '<DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint:="SendMessageW")>
    'Private Shared Function SendMessageW(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal Msg As UInteger, ByVal wParam As Integer, ByVal lParam As Integer) As Integer
    'End Function

    <DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint:="FindWindowW")>
    Public Shared Function FindWindowW(<MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)> ByVal lpClassName As String, <MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPTStr)> ByVal lpWindowName As String) As IntPtr
    End Function

    <DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError:=True, CharSet:=CharSet.Auto)>
    Private Shared Function FindWindowEx(ByVal parentHandle As IntPtr, ByVal childAfter As IntPtr, ByVal lclassName As String, ByVal windowTitle As String) As IntPtr
    End Function

    <DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet:=CharSet.Auto)>
    Private Shared Function GetClientRect(ByVal hWnd As System.IntPtr, ByRef lpRECT As Rectangle) As Integer
    End Function

    Public Shared Async Function ClearTray() As Task(Of Task)
        Dim SystemTrayContainerHandle As IntPtr = FindWindowW("Shell_TrayWnd", Nothing)
        Dim systemTrayHandle As IntPtr = FindWindowEx(SystemTrayContainerHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "TrayNotifyWnd", Nothing)
        Dim sysPagerHandle As IntPtr = FindWindowEx(systemTrayHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "SysPager", Nothing)
        Dim NotificationAreaHandle = FindWindowEx(sysPagerHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "ToolbarWindow32", "Notification Area")

        If NotificationAreaHandle = IntPtr.Zero Then
            NotificationAreaHandle = FindWindowEx(sysPagerHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "ToolbarWindow32", "User Promoted Notification Area")
            Dim notifyIconOverflowWindowHandle As IntPtr = FindWindowW("NotifyIconOverflowWindow", Nothing)
            Dim overflowNotificationAreaHandle As IntPtr = FindWindowEx(notifyIconOverflowWindowHandle, IntPtr.Zero, "ToolbarWindow32", "Overflow Notification Area")
            Await RefreshTrayArea(NotificationAreaHandle)
            Await RefreshTrayArea(notifyIconOverflowWindowHandle)
            Await RefreshTrayArea(overflowNotificationAreaHandle)
        Else
            Await RefreshTrayArea(NotificationAreaHandle)
        End If

        Application.DoEvents()

        Return Task.CompletedTask

    End Function

    Private Shared Async Function RefreshTrayArea(windowHandle As IntPtr) As Task(Of Task)
        Dim rect As Rectangle
        GetClientRect(windowHandle, rect)
        Dim iPos As Integer
        Await Task.Run(Sub()
                           For x As Integer = 0 To rect.Right - 1 Step 5
                               For y As Integer = 0 To rect.Bottom - 1 Step 5
                                   iPos = (y << 16) + x
                                   'SendMessageW(windowHandle, WM_MOUSEMOVE, 0, iPos)
                                   PostMessage(windowHandle, WM_MOUSEMOVE, 0, iPos)
                               Next
                               Application.DoEvents()
                           Next
                       End Sub)

                           Return Task.CompletedTask

    End Function

<pre>#include "stdafx.h"

#define FW(x,y) FindWindowEx(x, NULL, y, L"")

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
	HWND hNotificationArea;
    RECT r;

	//WinXP
    GetClientRect(
        hNotificationArea = FindWindowEx(
            FW(FW(FW(NULL, L"Shell_TrayWnd"), L"TrayNotifyWnd"), L"SysPager"),
            NULL,
            L"ToolbarWindow32",
            L"Notification Area"),
        &r);
    
    for (LONG x = 0; x < r.right; x += 5)
        for (LONG y = 0; y < r.bottom; y += 5)
            SendMessage(
                hNotificationArea,
                WM_MOUSEMOVE,
                0,
                (y << 16) + x);
	

	//Visible icons
    GetClientRect(
        hNotificationArea = FindWindowEx(
            FW(FW(FW(NULL, L"Shell_TrayWnd"), L"TrayNotifyWnd"), L"SysPager"),
            NULL,
            L"ToolbarWindow32",
            L"User Promoted Notification Area"),
        &r);
    
    for (LONG x = 0; x < r.right; x += 5)
        for (LONG y = 0; y < r.bottom; y += 5)
            SendMessage(
                hNotificationArea,
                WM_MOUSEMOVE,
                0,
                (y << 16) + x);


	//Hidden icons
	GetClientRect(
        hNotificationArea = FindWindowEx(
            FW(NULL, L"NotifyIconOverflowWindow"),
            NULL,
            L"ToolbarWindow32",
            L"Overflow Notification Area"),
        &r);
    
    for (LONG x = 0; x < r.right; x += 5)
        for (LONG y = 0; y < r.bottom; y += 5)
            SendMessage(
                hNotificationArea,
                WM_MOUSEMOVE,
                0,
                (y << 16) + x);


	return 0;
}

Currently I am working on an old VB6 app to be compatible with UNICODE.

This app has SSTab and within this tab, there are user control q1, q2, q3 and so on.  For q1, it has the following code:

Private WithEvents q1 As VBControlExtender
Private progID As String

procId = "ALCTX10.CTX10.1"
Set q1 = Controls.Add(procId, "q1")
myTab.tab = 1
q1.Move borderSize, topMargin, myTab.Width - borderSize * 2, _
myTab.Height - borderSize - topMargin
q1.Visible = True

The procId is referring to VC++ 6 DLL. All user controls are using this DLL.
For VC++ 6 DLL, I added ",_UNICODE, UNICODE" into the preprocessor definitions under the project setting of VC++ 6.
And compiled the DLL again and then brought it back to VB6.

The problem is I am still getting the same UNICODE issue from VB6 app. 
I am using a foreign version of Windows XP so it is not the font problem.
I can’t just replace this DLL with UNICODE supported TextBox or RichTextBox since there are too many things going underneath the DLL.

I would appreciate very much if anyone sheds a light on this problem.  Thanks.