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Hi Dave,
Thanks for the reply. "incorporate" was rather a poor choice of words. "Get access to" is more in the line of desires 
And maybe ActiveDesktop is the wrong place to look for, but it seem to me the logical place to start.
What I'd like to build is an opaque form, containing an analogue clock. No big Deal...butI want it permanenlty on top /allways visible (full-screen) and really transparant, i.e. without interfering with other programs/user-interaction, etc.
So, am I looking in the correct direction ?
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Not exactly. Having your clock app on top of everything will essentially stop the user from clicking on anything on the desktop, or even right-clicking the desktop. Your purpose is better servered by a Java applet running in an HTML page. That way, the desktop sits on top of your clock and you won't prevent the user from getting to their desktop.
RageInTheMachine9532
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Hi Dave,
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
will essentially stop the user from clicking on anything
that's exactly what I'm trying to solve here. I have to figure out how to pass all user-interaction through my form without distortion. In effect I want my form to act as a layer between the user and the desktop a.k.a Windows. I'd like to be able to 'project' a clock (and/or statusmessages) on screen in a transparent fashion without interfering the user in his/her work. Like the H.U.D.S. you see in fighterplanes ?
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I can't think of a way your going to accomplish this. Just repeating mouse clicks isn't as easy as it sounds. Your form, literally, has to minimize before the mouse clicks are going to go their destination, then your form can come back and repaint.
Also, having your clock on top of the desktop icons will alter the coloring of the icons themselves. Icons under your clock are going to be colored funny and possibly even greyed out. This is a violation of the GUI design guidlines that describe a consistant user experience.
I don't see how your going to pull this off without a near impossible implementation of your clock app. You can map mouse click to the Desktop window and send the desktop the mouse click messages, but I just don't see how your going to get past context menus and icon manipulation since those will require you forwarding all mouse actions to various windows.
RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, gastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Nome
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Hi Dave,
I'm aware I've pulled a 'verry tough cookie' out of the jar, but I'd like to explore this path a little further.. It probably will set your mind at peace that I'm not an overenthousiastic newbie, but a weather-worn veteran with more than 25 years in the trenches So I kinda know where I'm going...
This is in my opinion the a feassable concept:
Draw a borderless full screen form with an transparant background and pipe all WinProc messages received by this form to the next form/object in Z-order. This way it should not interfere with the GUI guidelines ?
The analog clock idea I was writing about was primarely for my own use, but I can forsee the use of a non-intrusive way of displaying data like background-processtatus or CPU temperature or whatever one deems interesting ?
Your feedback on this is highly apreciated!
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Sounds good, ... can apply to a bunch idea's like you've got. I was thinking more of an ActiveX solution, running in an HTML page. But with stuff like CPU temp and fan speed, an ActiveX control would get the data from a dedicated app running as a service, then rendering on the page. This kind of thinking is a bit deprecated in the .NET world and forthcomming Longhorn.
Ummmm...I have heard of apps that'll play a DVD movie on the desktop, behind all the icons and everything. Your desktop is still usable too! You might want to try checking into the technique's used there to paint the background image. I don't know that names of any packages, but you might want to check SourceForge.
RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, gastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Nome
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okay i recently made a VB program to allow a user to select a file and open it.. but the thing is..the openfile dialog box opens, it lets user chose a file to open..then wen u click open, nuthin opens! no error message comes but nothing gets opened...do i hav to maybe provide a data grid on the form to open the file? why cant it just open the file in its default environment? say u want to open a .txt file..why wont it open the .txt file in notepad? or do i NEED to provide a data grid on the form? does anyone know how it works? do i need to bind the file to a datagrid?!...Any comments are welcome!!! 
rubdub
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The OpenFiledDialog only tracks which file the user PICKED to open. It will not open the file for you. You have to supply the code to open the file in the way you want. Datagrid's won't help you at all...
RageInTheMachine9532
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Look at the "FileName" property of the "OpenFile" dialog. It will be set to the file path of the choosen file. The "Cancel" button will return a null string in "FileName".
If "to err is human", programmers must be superhuman...
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Can I send a fax from VB application ??
Chintan
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i guess ANYTHING is possible with VB.Net if u find out how to do this then i'd like to know too
rubdub
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Sure. If you have a FAX printer driver installed, just print to that like any other printer.
RageInTheMachine9532
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Sorry! You have to write the code. We will help with the code you come up with, but we will not just give you the code to do it for you. That would be cheating on your part since you are responsible for the code you turn in. Plus, it's the only way your going to learn anything!
RageInTheMachine9532
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All the OpenFileDialog does is prompt the user to PICK the file he/she wan'ts to open. It won't open it for you, but it will return the full path and filename of the file that was picked. It's up to you to supply the code to open the file which ever way you need to.
...and a datagrid is not going to help you in this project...
Assignments are not given out without first covering all the material that your going to need to complete it. What's wrong with going back over everything that was covered since the last project?
RageInTheMachine9532
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Assuming that you have some knowledge with programming in Vb.Net, start by downloading the Primary InterOp Assemblies for Office from Microsoft. Included is an example how to program against the object model. Good luck learning the mammoth object model!
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Hi there!
Are you telling me this, or the original poster? You might want to try posting this in Reply to the original poster so he gets the email message that someone responded to him.
Thanks!
RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, gastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome
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Search for "Code: Reading Excel Data into a Dataset [Visual Basic]" in VB's help or on the Web. The rest of the solution is left to the student.
If "to err is human", programmers must be superhuman...
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Hi there guys.
Am using the VSI to create an MSI package for some ocx's. AM able to get them all to install correctly, and register etc, but unfortunately, I need to create my directory structure in the root of the C: drive. (For reasons too long winded to go into here, that I don't necessarilly agree with  )
I seem to be unable to specify the default install dir to be here - only in a subdirectory of the Program files dir - does anyone know how to do so?
"Now I guess I'll sit back and watch people misinterpret what I just said......"
Christian Graus At The Soapbox
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Have you read the Platform SDK help on the Directory table in Setup/Installer Database/Installer Database Reference/Tables/ in the SDK help?
This explains how to set the target directory in a number of different ways. Might help, might not....
Cheers
Steve S
This developer for hire
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Aha - seems a bit inpenetrable though...
So am I correct in assuming that I would need to follow the following steps:
1. Create my MSI with the incorrect default dir
2. Write an app that opens it, changes the default dir, saves changes then closes it
3. Run the MSI...
Or is it more convoluted than that? Think that I can see what it's saying, but may probably be simpler to just take the hit...
Have tried Installshield / Wise, and they both seem to suffer from the same problem...guess that they're all based on the same thing...
"Now I guess I'll sit back and watch people misinterpret what I just said......"
Christian Graus At The Soapbox
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More simplistically, have you verified that overriding TARGETDIR will give you what you want?
eg:
msiexec /i mypackage.i TARGETDIR=C:\
(This works in most instances, for example, a well-known GIS company uses a variant of same to install COM+ components in known locations )
Steve S
Developer still for hire
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Have given that a bash, and it does indeed default to where I want it to be...
Question is, how do I actually go about overriding TARGETDIR? Am very puzzled by this one!!
(Thanks for all the help Steve!!)
"Now I guess I'll sit back and watch people misinterpret what I just said......"
Christian Graus At The Soapbox
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You could write a simple wrapper for the installer (or get someone to do it for you!) which uses CreateProcess or similar to run MSIEXEC with those arguments, or you should also be able to use something like ORCA to modify the MSI itself as per the comments in the Platform SDK.
You do have a current Platform SDK, don't you Rich?
What you really need, of course, is a highly paid (if somewhat egocentric) colleague who can do all this stuff, yet still manage to reflect enough glory to let you impress your boss... 
Steve S
Developer for hire
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Dear All,
Is # a keyword in VB. If it is then wot is its significance?
____________________________________________________________
rishabhs
I think therefore I am.
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Tends to be used (in VB6 at least) in the following:
<br />
Open "C:\SomeFile" for Input as #1<br />
May be other uses, but not seen them myself...
"Now I guess I'll sit back and watch people misinterpret what I just said......"
Christian Graus At The Soapbox
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