DeskBand Objects (Taskbar toolbar) in VB.net

Question

I'm looking into figuring out how to add a deskband as a toolbar to my taskbar, very similar to the google desktop search toolbar. All it needs to have is a search textbox, a button, and some way to display results.
I want to add it to an existing application, so that when the application is minimized it'll turn into a toolbar so that certain program functions will be available all the time.

This means that I have a few things to figure out:

1. We mostly have windows xp machines, but we hope to upgrade to windows 7 over the next year. In light of this, should I keep researching deskbands, or should I try to figure out thumbnail toolbars?

2. I've seen a link to http://www.codeproject.com/KB/shell/dotnetbandobjects.aspx as one way to do it in C#, which I might be able to translate to VB.Net. I also found http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd378460%28VS.85%29.aspx#deskbands which kind of tells how to do things. Is there a better way to accomplish this?

3. Should I just skip all of this and have a small windows form that opens up from an icon in the system tray?

Sorry if this isn't very clear, as I don't know enough about these to know the right questions to ask.

Answer 1

Deskbands are still viable. But keep in mind that since they're implemented as a DLL, you'll need a 64-bit version for 64-bit windows. While most 64-bit computers ship with the 32-bit IE enabled by default, there is only one option for Windows Explorer itself - it'll be 64-bit. Most machines these days are shipping with 64. So while 99% of the apps out there do not need to be 64-bit right now, including plug-ins and toolbands for IE, you're out of luck with deskbands that need to be in the taskbar. Any DLL loaded by windows explorer (64) has to be 64-bit. And this applies to 90% of new desktops and laptops.