Create another taskbar in Windows 7

[Scott927]

I'm an experienced web developer and want to write a quick Windows utility just to simplify my desktop a bit, but I'm not quite sure where to start. I don't have much Windows programming experience but I have no problem jumping in and learning, I just need a starting point.

Basically I want to create a second taskbar in Windows 7. The standard taskbar, at the bottom, is fine but I'd like to add a second one at the top of my screen that takes full advantage of the new Windows 7 features.

I'm not looking for a complete how-to on this, but can someone point me in the right direction to look as far as what I'd need to do just to get another taskbar to display on my monitor?

[Arjay]

I wasn't aware that you could create a 2nd taskbar on Windows 7.

Can you describe how to do this through the UI?

[gregorian]

I'd like to add a second one at the top of my screen that takes full advantage of the new Windows 7 features.

Could you elaborate on 'new Windows 7 features' and what you'd like the taskbar to contain?

can someone point me in the right direction to look as far as what I'd need to do just to get another taskbar to display on my monitor

It's easy to make a bar appear on the screen. You can get a feel of it by creating a form and setting these properties:

ControlBox: False
FormBorderStyle: None
ShowIcon: False
ShowInTaskbar: False
TopMost: True

You should see a grey bar on your screen. There's a property for transparency as well.

I wasn't aware that you could create a 2nd taskbar on Windows 7.

I don't think the OP implied that. I just Googled it but couldn't find anything.

[Scott927]

I'm not really looking just to make a grey bar, my goal is to actually duplicate the Windows 7 taskbar (minus the start button, of course). I want to write a program that will put another taskbar (with transparency, jumplists, etc) at the top of my screen. I'll then attach a link to each item on the taskbar that will allow me to move an icon up to the other taskbar.

This would be similar to a multi-monitor display utility. The second monitor has another taskbar (UltraMon would be a good example) and you can switch applications between the taskbars, but I just want to create it on the same monitor.

I realize this is probably not a trivial application and that there isn't going to be a "just do this" answer. I'm just looking for direction on where to start researching how to do this.

Thanks,

Scott