SAMPLE: How To Add New Menu Items to the System Menu

• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, version 4.0

SUMMARY

Sometimes it is desirable to add a new menu item to a window's System menu. This can be accomplished by using the AppendMenu API call and a Windows sub-classing control such as Message Blaster(tm). This article explains how to implement this action and provides a code sample.

In order to use the Message Blaster control, you can download the sample, free of charge, from the Microsoft Software Library.

The following file is available for download from the Microsoft Software Library:

~ Msgblast.exe

For more information about downloading files from the Microsoft Software Library, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q119591 : How to Obtain Microsoft Support Files from Online Services

MORE INFORMATION

Step-by-Step Example

1. Download the Message Blaster Control.



2. Start Visual Basic, or choose New Project from the File menu if Visual Basic is already running. Form1 is created by default.



3. From the Tools menu, go to the Custom Controls option and add the MSGBLAST.VBX control to the project.



4. Place a Message Blaster Control on the form.



5. Place a Command button on Form1. Change the Caption to "&ADD."



6. Add the following code to the general declarations section of Form1:

   
      Option Explicit
   
      Private Declare Function RemoveMenu% Lib "User" (ByVal hMenu%, ByVal _
         nPosition%, ByVal wFlags%)
      Private Declare Function GetSystemMenu Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd%, ByVal _
         revert%) As Integer
      Private Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd As _
         Integer,ByVal nIndex As Integer) As Long
      Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "User" (ByVal hWnd As _
         Integer, ByVal nIndex As Integer, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long
      Private Declare Function AppendMenu Lib "User" (ByVal hMenu As _
         Integer, ByVal wFlags As Integer, ByVal wIDNewItem As Integer, _
         ByVal lpNewItem As Any) As Integer
   
      Private Const MF_STRING = &H0
      Private Const MF_BYCOMMAND = &H0
      Private Const WM_SYSCOMMAND = &H112
   
      'Enter the line below as one line of code
      Private Sub RemoveControlMenuItemByPosition(frm As Form, iPosition As
      Integer)
        Dim iHSysMenu As Integer
        Dim iReturn As Integer
        Dim lDW As Long
        Dim lRR As Long
        iHSysMenu = GetSystemMenu(frm.hWnd, 0)
        iReturn = RemoveMenu(iHSysMenu, iPosition, MF_BYPOSITION)
        lDW = GetWindowLong(frm.hWnd, -16)   'Window style
        lDW = lDW And &HFFFEFFFF    'Turn off bits for Maximize arrow button
        lRR = SetWindowLong(frm.hWnd, -16, lDW)
      End Sub
   
      Private Sub RemoveControlMenuItemByCommand(frm As Form, lCommand As _
        Long)
        Dim iHSysMenu As Integer
        Dim iReturn As Integer
        Dim lDW As Long
        Dim lRR As Long
        iHSysMenu = GetSystemMenu(frm.hWnd, 0)
        iReturn = RemoveMenu(iHSysMenu, lCommand, MF_BYCOMMAND)
        lDW = GetWindowLong(frm.hWnd, -16)   'Window style
        lDW = lDW And &HFFFEFFFF    'Turn off bits for Maximize arrow button
        lRR = SetWindowLong(frm.hWnd, -16, lDW)
      End Sub
   
      Private Sub cmdRemoveMenuItems_Click()
        Call RemoveControlMenuItemByPosition(Me, 0)
      End Sub
    




7. Place the following code in the Form Load Event:

   
      Private Sub Form_Load()
        MsgBlaster1.hWndTarget = Me.hWnd
        MsgBlaster1.MsgList(0) = WM_SYSCOMMAND
      End Sub
    




8. Place the following code in the Message event of the Message Blaster Control:

   
      'Enter the line below as one line of code
   
      Private Sub MsgBlaster1_Message(MsgVal As Integer, wParam As Integer,
      lParam As Long, ReturnVal As Long)
        Select Case wParam
          Case 1
            MsgBox "You clicked to About"
          Case 2
            MsgBox "You clicked on Help"
          Case 3
          'This option removes the custom added menu items and the separator.
          Dim iHSysMenu As Integer
          Dim iReturn As Integer
          iHSysMenu = GetSystemMenu(Me.hWnd, 0)
          Call RemoveControlMenuItemByCommand(Me, 1)
          Call RemoveControlMenuItemByCommand(Me, 2)
          Call RemoveControlMenuItemByCommand(Me, 3)
        End Select
      End Sub
    




9. Place the following code in the Command1 Click event:

   
      Private Sub Command1_Click()
        Dim iReturn As Integer
        Dim iHSysMenu As Integer
        iHSysMenu = GetSystemMenu(Me.hWnd, 0)
        iReturn = AppendMenu(iHSysMenu, MF_STRING, 1, "About...")
        iReturn = AppendMenu(iHSysMenu, MF_STRING, 2, "Help...")
        iReturn = AppendMenu(iHSysMenu, MF_STRING, 3, "Remove items...")
      End Sub
    




10. Press the F5 key or choose Start from the Run menu to run the project. Click the Add button. View the System menu and note that the new items have been added.

REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q110498 : How to Add Items into Control Menu Box of Visual Basic Form

Q110104 : Using MSGBLAST.VBX Control to Process Windows Messages from VB

Keywords          : kbsample kb16bitonly kbVBp400 VB4WIN 
Version           : 4.00 | 4.00
Platform          : NT WINDOWS 
Issue type        : 

Last Reviewed: June 18, 1999