Adjusting the rectangle that maximized windows fit in?

Question

The best way I can think of to ask this is by example... In Windows 7 and Vista, there's the gadget bar down the right hand side of the screen, and when you maximize a different (any and all) window, that window fills the rest of the screen without covering the gadget bar. How can I do that with my own app except across the top of the screen in C#?

I want to write a ticker displaying information from social networking sites across the top of the screen but obviously I don't want to cover the min, max, and close buttons of maximized windows.

I guess what I'm asking is how do I change the Desktop Working Area and put my application just above the working area?

Answer 1

You need to make an Application Desktop Toolbar to do this. This is a non-trivial task.

However, there is a CodeProject article that does this in C#. This should make it very easy to implement for a Windows Forms application. If you want to use a different UI technology, you should be able to port the API calls.