HOWTO: Using Visual Basic to Access the Mail Control Panel GUI

• Collaboration Data Objects (CDO), version 1.1
• Microsoft Visual Basic Standard and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 4.0, 5.0

SUMMARY

For the sake of consistency, many developers like to provide the same configuration interfaces to their users as are provided in the Control Panel. These Control Panels are available for developers to call from their applications.

For Messaging related applications, the pertinent Control Panel applet is Mlcfg32.cpl. This article describes how to call this Control Panel applet from a Visual Basic Application.

MORE INFORMATION

1. Place the following code sample into a new Visual Basic Form:

         Dim strSysDirPath As String
         Dim vRetval As Double
   

         Private Sub Form_Load()
            'Setup the string to receive the name of the system directory
            strSysDirPath = String$(145, Chr$(0))
            strSysDirPath = Left$(strSysDirPath, _
                            GetSystemDirectory(strSysDirPath, _
                            Len(strSysDirPath)))
   
            'Run the Mail Control Panel
            vRetval = Shell(strSysDirPath & "\control.exe mlcfg32.cpl", 1)
   
            'Do the rest of your work here. Note: Most developers will
            'likely want to pause their application here until returning from
            'the Control Panel
            MsgBox vRetval
   
         End Sub
   
   

2. Place the following declaration into a new Module:

         Declare Function GetSystemDirectory& Lib "kernel32" _
            Alias "GetSystemDirectoryA" (ByVal P$, ByVal S%)
   
   

REFERENCES

For additional information about Collaboration Data Objects versus Active Messaging, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q176916
   TITLE     : INFO: Active Messaging and Collaboration Data Objects (CDO)

Keywords          : kbcode ActMsg
Version           : WINDOWS:1.1,4.0,5.0
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbhowto