Information needed on how to code for Windows 7 Taskbar in c#

Question

Hello,

What i know so far about how to code for win 7 taskbar features is that i can either use .net 4 or WinAPI code pack in .net3.5 or pinvoke.

My question is that can i code for win 7 task bar features using .net3.0 or prev and using pinvoke can i use features such as thumbnail toolbar, jumplist, overlay icon

Thanks

Answer 1

There is a series of articles on the new Taskbar API by the debugging guru Sasha Goldshtein. You should have a look at the Overlay Icons and Progress Bars API.

You can download the sample code from Windows 7 Taskbar Developer Resources on Microsoft Code. What you're looking for is the IMClient sample:

The IMClient sample demonstrates how taskbar overlay icons and taskbar progress bars can light up an application’s taskbar button instead of relying on an additional dialog or on an icon in the system notification area (tray).

I believe this should help you achieve what you want.

Answer 2

Why not get hold of the Code Pack and try using it with a lower version of the .NET Framework? I have read a lot of the code in there and little if any of it relies on .NET 3.5 features. If you're using VS 2010 you could probably succeed in building it against 2.0 or whatever you're using no problem. The license allows you to integrate code from the library into your project, to change it, to basically treat it as your own, so you've got nothing to lose.