Visual Basic NotifyIcon for Taskbar Notification

Taskbar notifications give nice touch to user interface design. Visual Basic NotifyIcon is the right control to implement taskbar notifications.

To begin with, Place a NotifyIcon control on your Form1 Design. Click Choose Icon and select any icon file for it.

Paste the following code in Windows Application1:

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
                           Handles MyBase.Load

        NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = "Tool Tip Text for Windows Application"
        NotifyIcon1.Text = "Windows Application"
        NotifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(5000)
        CreateContextMenu()

    End Sub

    Public Sub CreateContextMenu()

        'Define New Context Menu and Menu Item 
        Dim contextMenu As New ContextMenu
        Dim menuItem As New MenuItem("Exit")
        contextMenu.MenuItems.Add(menuItem)

        ' Associate context menu with Notify Icon 
        NotifyIcon1.ContextMenu = contextMenu

        'Add functionality for menu Item click 
        AddHandler menuItem.Click, AddressOf menuItem_Click

    End Sub

    Private Sub menuItem_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
        Me.Close()
    End Sub

End Class

Press F5 to run the application. At start of the application, we can see the balloon tip notification text. Context Menu is also working with an Exit option.

Code Description for NotifyIcon

• It is necessary to define the BalloonTipText before calling to show the BalloonTip. At form load, we define the desired texts for Notify Icon and balloon tip notification.
• CreateMenu() method defines the context menu functionality for the Notify Icon. It is easy to understand the code with inline comments. Please have a look at our detailed post on Visual Basic Drop Down Menu for additional guidance.
• menuItem_Click() provides functionality when Exit option is selected from the Context Menu.

Changing the Notification Text

All you need to do is change the text of balloon tip and show the balloon tip:

Step 1

Change the text of BalloonTip using the property BalloonTipText.

Step 2

Show the BalloonTipText using the method ShowBalloonTip (timeout as integer).

Monitoring BalloonTip Clicked Event

Sometimes, it is necessary to call some method when user clicks the BalloonTipText. To understand it, just add the following code in Form1 code and run the application.

Private Sub NotifyIcon1_BalloonTipClicked(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) _
                                          Handles NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipClicked
        MessageBox.Show("BalloonTipClicked event is called")
    End Sub

When you click the BalloonTip, a message box is shown as response. The main idea is to create a method for handling NotifyIcon1.BalloonTipClicked event.

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