My article "Making a Generic Splash" in the September 2003 issue of Hardcore Visual Basic shows how to make splash screens in VB .NET. This contest tests your splash screen making abilities in either VB or VB .NET.

The splash screen should display the fictitous application's name, version number, copyright statement, registered user, and serial number (make up bogus values for the test). It should be easy to change all of these values within the program (e.g. when I make a new release, I need to change the version number). Get the registered user and serial number from somewhere in the system (perhaps the Registry). An "Easter egg" is optional.

Entries will be judged on such items as esthetics, graphics, form shape, functionality, and coolness factor. However, keep in mind that the main goal of a splash screen is to introduce the application without slowing it down and without overwhelming or distracting the user. In other words, a 12 minute 142MB video is probably not a good idea no matter how cool it is.

I will award prizes from my stash of extra books to the best. I will almost certainly give more than one prize (I have a lot of books I don't really need).

Fine Print: By sending me an entry, you agree to let me post your solution for anyone to see. I may ask you to help with shipping costs for your prize if the postage is really expensive.

Winners

Neil Crosby built his solution in VB .NET. This program's splash screen doubles as an About dialog. It stores registration information in the Registry. When it starts, the program checks the registry and displays this information or, if it isn't in the Registry, asks the user to register.

Neil, who has a fair amount of graphical talent, gave the program a cute rocketship icon and a colorful shaped splash screen.

Download Neil's solution.

Download Neil's second solution that includes sound and animation.

Storm Aki adapted a very impressive splash screen from his company's products. When it runs, it:

• Gets the Windows version
• Gets the screen resolution and can change it to 800x600 if necessary
• Gets the application name and version
• Displays a logo using an interesting transition effect

Download Storm's solution.

Edwin Martin used a fairly straightforward approach, displaying separate square Splash screen and About dialog. He loads the registration information from a text file. One nice feature of his About dialog is you can click to get System information. I claim this information does not belong in an About dialog because it's not about your program, but this example does show how to run Microsoft's SysInfo application. The program finds the SysInfo application's location in the Registry and runs it with the Shell command.

Download Edwin's solution.

Public Sub StartSysInfo() On Error GoTo SysInfoErr Dim rc As Long Dim SysInfoPath As String ' Try To Get System Info Program Path\Name From Registry... If GetKeyValue(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, gREGKEYSYSINFO, _ gREGVALSYSINFO, SysInfoPath) Then ' Try To Get System Info Program Path Only From Registry... ElseIf GetKeyValue(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, gREGKEYSYSINFOLOC, _ gREGVALSYSINFOLOC, SysInfoPath) Then ' Validate Existance Of Known 32 Bit File Version If (Dir(SysInfoPath & "\MSINFO32.EXE") <> "") Then SysInfoPath = SysInfoPath & "\MSINFO32.EXE" ' Error - File Can Not Be Found... Else GoTo SysInfoErr End If ' Error - Registry Entry Can Not Be Found... Else GoTo SysInfoErr End If Call Shell(SysInfoPath, vbNormalFocus) Exit Sub SysInfoErr: MsgBox "System Information Is Unavailable At This Time", vbOKOnly End Sub