Click here to Skip to main content
15,867,308 members
Articles / Desktop Programming / Win32

Caps Lock Status Tray Application

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
4.00/5 (1 vote)
18 Jul 2010MIT1 min read 31.9K   457   13   7
See the state of caps lock, num lock, scroll lock in the Windows tray

Introduction

This application displays the current state of the CAPS lock, NUM lock, and SCROLL lock in a single Windows tray icon.

Background

Recently I bought a wireless keyboard that lacks any LED indication for the state of the CAPS lock and NUM lock. This is infuriatingly inconvenient, so I whipped up this little application using the Win32++ framework by David Nash.

Using the Code

The included solution and project are for Visual Studio 2008. The source should work in any development environment for Windows.

The Win32++ framework is refreshingly simple compared to MFC and a delight to work with. This application is actually a modified sample from among the dozens of working samples that come with Win32++. (I actually found it refreshing that all the samples 'just worked' right out of the zip file - with project and solution files for a handful of development environments - a rare gem in the open source world.)

The only thing I had to figure out for myself was how to get the main form to start up in the hidden state and show the tray icon without any user interaction. The trick is to set the creation style to WS_ICONIC and the extended style to something that doesn't minimize to the task bar, like WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW.

C++
void CView::PreCreate( CREATESTRUCT& cs )
{
	// This function will be called automatically by Create. It provides an
	// opportunity to set various window parameters prior to window creation.
	// You are not required to set these parameters, any parameters which
	// aren't specified are set to reasonable defaults.

	// Set some optional parameters for the window
	cs.dwExStyle = WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW;       // Extended style
	cs.style = WS_ICONIC;                  // Start up minimized
	cs.hMenu =  LoadMenu( GetApp()->GetResourceHandle(), 
			MAKEINTRESOURCE( IDM_MINIMIZED ) );
}

Points of Interest

Feel free to improve the icons; I am not an artist. Enjoy!

History

  • July 2010 - Initial submission

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The MIT License


Written By
Team Leader Under Armour
United States United States
I'm your huckleberry.

Check out more beards here.


Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralIssues Pin
Karpov Andrey27-Dec-10 20:30
Karpov Andrey27-Dec-10 20:30 
GeneralRe: Issues Pin
ron wilson29-Dec-10 15:05
ron wilson29-Dec-10 15:05 
GeneralRe: Issues Pin
Karpov Andrey29-Dec-10 19:52
Karpov Andrey29-Dec-10 19:52 
Yes, this is fixed in recent version. But I am found another suspicious piece of code in Win32++ library. Smile | :)
GeneralTip/Trick... Pin
Dave Kreskowiak17-Jul-10 18:21
mveDave Kreskowiak17-Jul-10 18:21 
GeneralRe: Tip/Trick... Pin
ron wilson18-Jul-10 2:41
ron wilson18-Jul-10 2:41 
GeneralRe: Tip/Trick... Pin
Dave Kreskowiak18-Jul-10 9:06
mveDave Kreskowiak18-Jul-10 9:06 
GeneralRe: Tip/Trick... Pin
ron wilson18-Jul-10 9:30
ron wilson18-Jul-10 9:30 

General General    News News    Suggestion Suggestion    Question Question    Bug Bug    Answer Answer    Joke Joke    Praise Praise    Rant Rant    Admin Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.