GetSystemMetrics
The GetSystemMetrics function is used to determine system metrics and configuration settings. The Visual Basic Declare statement looks like this:
Declare Function GetSystemMetrics Lib "user32" _
(ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long
The nIndex parameter takes a constant that specifies which system metric to get. The return value depends on the nIndex parameter.
The ShowSounds metric
In Windows, the user can set the ShowSounds option on the Accessibility Options property sheet, available from the Control Panel. Setting this option indicates that the user wants to see a visual indication of sounds that occur as part of applications and the operating system. You'll want to check this option in your application and provide visual indications if the ShowSounds option is True.
Const SM_SHOWSOUNDS As Long = 70
If GetSystemMetrics(SM_SHOWSOUNDS) Then
' Enable visual indicators.
End If
One method of providing visual indications of the information the sound is conveying is to use the FlashWindow function, discussed below.
Line borders
To set the proper border width and height around a control or image (as discussed in the "Size" section earlier), you would call GetSystemMetrics with the following constants:
Const SM_CXBORDER As Long = 5 Const SM_CYBORDER As Long = 6
GetSystemMetrics will return the width and height measurements in pixels.