Disable Start Button without PB

[@discussions.microsoft.com Michael]

Hello, All,

I am developing an application based on Win CE 4.1, and would like to disable Start Button when my app is running. I only want to disable Start Button, but keep the taskbar active because SIP input and date/time display are useful in my app. When users exit from my app, I hope this Start Button can be re-abled.

Under Win 2000/XP, I could use FindWindow() to get the pointer to Taskbar, then GetTopWindow() from the previous pointer, and eventually get this Start Button. At last, I could use EnbleWindow(FALSE) to disable Start Button. But this doesn't work on Win CE. It seems Start Button is not a child window to Taskbar, (not even a control?)

Can anybody give me an idea on how to do this? I don't do it using PB, because this Button shall be re-abled after user exit from my app.

Thanks,
Michael

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

Based on the code that I see, there's no way to disable the Start menu
without disabling the task bar, too. You *could* try setting the a registry
key's default value to 1. I don't know whether this value is read only once
when Explorer starts or every time you pop up the start menu, but it looks
like just when settings change and when Explorer starts. The key is:

Software\\Microsoft\\Shell\\TameStartMenu

I think that sending a WM_SETTINGCHANGE with lParam = 5000 should trigger a
reload, but I'm not 100% on that.

Paul T.

"Michael" <Michael @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C5E96961-179E-4BC5...@microsoft.com...

[Michael]

Dear Paul,

Thank you for the reply.

But are you saying I could try to change registry key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Microsoft\\Shell\\TameStartMenu" from default value to 1. In this way, I can disable Start menu without disabling taskbar? Can I do it at run-time?

And, our device doesn't provide such a key (I can't find shell folder) in its registry. I will ask our vendor later about this. Do we have other options to do this (another key)?

Anyway, this is an intriguing idea, it might help me this way or the other way. I will try it and let you know.

Thanks,
Michael

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

I thought I covered that. The answer is 'maybe'. You'll have to try it and
see what happens (and you'd set it *to* 1 to try to turn it off, and
probably remove the key entirely to turn it back on). As I said, I don't
know if you can do it at run-time; you have to participate in answering your
question here.

The absence of the key doesn't indicate anything. When it's not there, the
shell shows the start menu, which is what you get by default. When it *is*
there and has a non-zero value, it looks to me as though the code will turn
off the start menu.

If you have platform builder, you have the source code for most, if not all,
of this...

Paul T.

"Michael" <Mic...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:13AD1519-FD62-4440...@microsoft.com...

[Michael]

Dear Paul,

It did disable the Start Button after I added a registry key \shell\TameStartMenu, and set it as a DWORD (or binary) with value 11 (or 1). But this button is only disabled for a while. After three to four times of clicks, it will still pop up. It behaviors weired, and pops up every three or four clicks.

It may caused that I did RegFlush() to store the registry change to flash. But I am not sure.

It's interesting.

Cheers,

[Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]]

I don't know what to tell you. You can get the source for the shell from
Platform Builder, maybe, and try to figure out another way. My guess is
that you'll have to completely disable the task bar...

Paul T.

"Michael" <Mic...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:0AF56FF2-E4F5-4B13...@microsoft.com...