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DONE: Dim the taskbar (set transparency)

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m_s:
On the back of this entry over on 43F (http://www.43folders.com/2006/02/23/against-distraction/), I would like to find something that would do the same as Merlin's number 2, MenuShade.  I've never liked the Windows' Autohide, but I would love to find something that would quite gracefully fade out the Taskbar and bring it back on mouseover.  On a brief Google search, I turned up about four different things, some free, some cheap.  The one I tried is AlphaXP Lite, and this works really well, but everytime WallpaperMaster changes the wallpaper, AlphaXP seems to forget what it's there for, and the Taskbar is solid again...  Anybody up for coding something elegant and tiny?

The image is from the AlphaXP website, over at: http://www.zeroherosoftware.com/alphaxplite.html

Cpilot:
Hi m_s.
If your using XP I can do this fairly easily.
As a test copy this script into the edit window here FBSL Studio.
Make sure FBSL.exe is selected then download the exe. onto your machine.
Double click to run and it should fade your TaskBar. run it again to disable.

--- ---'$apptype console
#option explicit
#dlldeclare user32.FindWindow,user32.SetLayeredWindowAttributes,user32.GetWindowLong _
user32.SetWindowLong
dim %Ret,%hTaskBar
Const LWA_ALPHA = &H2
Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)
Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000


hTaskBar = FindWindow("Shell_TrayWnd","")
Ret = GetWindowLong(hTaskBar, GWL_EXSTYLE)

SetWindowLong(hTaskBar,GWL_EXSTYLE,Ret + WS_EX_LAYERED)

SetLayeredWindowAttributes(hTaskBar,0,150,LWA_ALPHA)


If it works ok for you and anyone else who wants to test it (WinXP), I'll go ahead and create your application for you.

m_s:
That looks great!  And what a great site for building apps!  Can you get it to respond to mouseover - i.e. go solid when the mouse hovers?  And can you make the fade a little slower?  And how about setting a variable transparency?  Thanks for your time and effort, Cpilot - much appreciated!

Cpilot:
Can you get it to respond to mouseover - i.e. go solid when the mouse hovers?  And can you make the fade a little slower?  And how about setting a variable transparency?  Thanks for your time and effort, Cpilot - much appreciated!-m_s
--- End quote ---
All those shouldn't be a problem  ;). The little script you tried out only took me about five minutes to whip up.
I'll work on it tonight and provide a link to download. Gives me an opportunity to really work with the taskbar api.  :Thmbsup:

That looks great!  And what a great site for building apps!
--- End quote ---

Yup, FBSL can either be installed client side or used server side. It's definately worth a look.
FBSL

Rover:
Protest post: not enough traffic on the forums.

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