Author: Jonas Bilinkevicius

I want to get some desktop settings in variables, like background color etc. But I 
don't want to use the registry, does anybody know a different way? I also want to 
know the height of the taskbar, and the position of the taskbar (top of the screen, 
bottom, left or right).

Answer:

For the following example put a RadioGroup on your form and give it 5 items:

1   implementation
2   
3   type
4     TTaskBarPosition = (tpHide, tpBottom, tpLeft, tpRight, tpTop);
5   
6   function FindTaskBarPos(aWorkArea: TRect): TTaskBarPosition;
7   begin
8     if aWorkArea.Left <> 0 then
9     begin
10      Result := tpLeft;
11      Exit;
12    end;
13    if aWorkArea.Top <> 0 then
14    begin
15      Result := tpTop;
16      Exit;
17    end;
18    if aWorkArea.Right <> Screen.Width then
19    begin
20      Result := tpRight;
21      Exit;
22    end;
23    if aWorkArea.Bottom <> Screen.Height then
24    begin
25      Result := tpBottom;
26      Exit;
27    end;
28    Result := tpHide;
29  end;
30  
31  procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
32  var
33    WorkArea: TRect;
34  begin
35    Color := clBackground;
36    SystemParametersInfo(SPI_GETWORKAREA, 0, @WorkArea, 0);
37    RadioGroup1.ItemIndex := Ord(FindTaskBarPos(WorkArea));
38  end;
39  
40  end.