[VB.NET] How to hide startup form?

I was to hide my startup form because I only want to display my tray icon. Any ideas how to do this?

You can add a minimize event on load, if that your program is set to minimize to system tray!

Or you can add Me.Opacity = 0(Me.Opacity = 1 when clicked on systray icon again) on load, and then hide the taskbar button!

1. // IDE: set opacity to 0

2. // IDE: add a timer to your form

3. timer.Enabled = true //enable the timer on form.Load event

4. me.hide() // the timer.Tick even hide form

5. me.opacity = 1 // the timer.Tick make form opacity back to normal

6. me.show() // yourNotifyIcon.click event

Why not just:

this.Visible = false;
this.ShowInTaskbar = false;

Hi guys,

Interesting thread this.

The method that i've implemented to do this was through the use of this code:

#Region "Taskbar Icon"
REM TASKBAR ICON

Private Sub NotifyIcon1_MouseDown(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles NotifyIcon1.MouseDown
If Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal Then
Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized
Else
Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal
End If
End Sub
#End Region

On the form properties I also made sure that it didnt have appear in the task bar, nor have minimise/maximise/quit buttons..

However, to get to my question - i've tried using this opacity function to produce a 'fade in/out' type affair.

The code that I would use is (fade out):

Dim n

For n = 1 To 10

Me.ActiveForm.Opacity() = Me.ActiveForm.Opacity() - 0.1

Next

However, even though the code itself is correct, on running it, it'll produce the error message:

An unhandled exception of type 'System.NullReferenceException' occurred in Agility.exe

Additional information: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

So..any takers to tell me whats going on?

All i want is for it to fade in/out on the system tray button click given if it is already in view or not.

Thanks

prabably those code are running when no from active under your "Me"

try
Me.Opacity() -= 0.1

a tip to fading effect:
you should do your fade codes with threading method rather than just a simple loop.
for example, you can have a timer with interval of 100ms, every time the timer tick, you reduce the opacity by 0.1, until it reaches 0 (totally invisible) or whatever you want.
And to make it "solid" you do it with the timer again but isntead of reduce opacity, you increase it, until it reaches 1

And of course, if you want, you can create a separate thread and just run the loop with that second thread, however I found the timer method is easier.

thanks for the reply.

I found that using the timer was going to be the safest bet. To solve the problem, dont have your form minimised on startup folks

Yes, believe it or not, that was the answer...

I believe you, if your form is minimised, I guess that will make it not 'Me.ActiveForm'