Binaryworld - Hide or disable the desktop icons ... [ VB -> Windows ]

The Desktop is a window like any other window in the system, so you can hide/show and enable/disable it. The only details you need to know is how to retrieve the handle to the Desktop window. It turns out that this window is the first child window of the "Program Manager" window, so all you need is a couple of API functions:

Click here to copy the following block

Private Declare Function FindWindow Lib "user32" Alias "FindWindowA" (ByVal _
  lpClassName As String, ByVal lpWindowName As String) As Long
Private Declare Function GetWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
  ByVal wCmd As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function ShowWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
  ByVal nCmdShow As Long) As Long
Private Declare Function EnableWindow Lib "user32" (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
  ByVal fEnable As Long) As Long

Private Const GW_CHILD = 5
Private Const SW_HIDE = 0
Private Const SW_SHOW = 5

Sub ShowDesktopIcons(ByVal bVisible As Boolean)
  Dim hWnd_DesktopIcons As Long
  hWnd_DesktopIcons = GetWindow( FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager"), _
    GW_CHILD)
  If bVisible Then
    ShowWindow hWnd_DesktopIcons, SW_SHOW
  Else
    ShowWindow hWnd_DesktopIcons, SW_HIDE
  End If
End Sub

Sub EnableDesktop(ByVal bEnable As Boolean)
  Dim hWnd_Desktop As Long
  hWnd_Desktop = GetWindow( FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager"), _
    GW_CHILD)
  If bEnable Then
    EnableWindow hWnd_Desktop, True
  Else
    EnableWindow hWnd_Desktop, False
  End If
End Sub

You can make the above code more concise in this way:

Click here to copy the following block

Sub ShowDesktopIcons(ByVal bVisible As Boolean)
  ShowWindow GetWindow( FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager"), GW_CHILD), _
    IIf(bVisible, SW_SHOW, SW_HIDE)
End Sub

Sub EnableDesktop(ByVal bEnable As Boolean)
  EnableWindow GetWindow( FindWindow("Progman", "Program Manager"), GW_CHILD), _
    bEnable
End Sub