Visual Basic Shell Programming

13.5 Tool Bands

Before signing off, we really need to discuss tool bands. There is an additional registry setting you must be aware of in order to implement this band properly:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Software\ Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\ Toolbar = '{CLSID}'

Other than that, tool bands are registered just as you would an Explorer band.

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, tool bands are not really ready for prime time; there are some problems.

For one (see Knowledge Base article Q23161), the shell seems to ignore your menu title for the tool band. It'll just use the same name as whatever tool band was registered first. And chances are that's going to be "Radio" if you installed the Windows Media Player with IE 5.0.

The problems don't stop there, either. It seems that somewhere between turning your tool band on and off and opening and closing Explorer, the Radio band will disappear from the menu altogether; you will have to reinstall from the IE 5.0 CD. This is a real bummer if you happen to like this Radio band. No tunes! But guess what? Even after the Radio band is gone, you're tool band might still be there; it'll be called "Radio," though.

We all know how fast problems get addressed in this business, so it'll be no surprise at all if these problems are fixed by the time this book comes to print. Consider this a heads up.