How to make taskbar overlay icons in Windows 7 for .NET.

Microsoft UX Guides recommend using overlay icons to show when my application has status information, such as unread messages or connectivity.

However, I was not very lucky to find a clear tutorial on how to start using overlay icons in my application. Can someone recommend one or, better yet, create a study guide on his blog to improve humanity?

(The title of the question specifically mentions Windows 7, but I think it would be helpful if Vista were included in this tutorial, as well as backward compatibility issues with Windows XP, etc.)

Change . This question was really asked for .NET 3.5 using WinForms. Here is a quick snippet of code that should work if you download the Windows API code shown in the ken2k answer below .

Imports Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Taskbar
' Add reference to Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack.Shell.dll
' Snipped...

If TaskbarManager.IsPlatformSupported Then
  TaskbarManager.Instance.SetOverlayIcon(icon, altText)
End If
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1 answer

I would suggest using the Windows® API Code for the Microsoft®.NET Framework , which wraps all shell materials.

Here you will find a very detailed article that will show you how to use it.

, Windows® API Code Pack XP ( ) Vista. Overlay Windows 7.

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