🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi all, post a month ago regarding control panel applets and need some 
expert input on some design aspects.

Remy pointed me towards some good links under MSDN but having read that, i'm 
a bit confused.

Basically I have two development needs and need to know if I can encompass 
then into one flexible application.

Firstly, I need to develop a control panel applet that will work on Windows 
NT5 and below (Win 2k, Win XP and Win2k3).  However, in the non-to-distant 
future, this CPA will also need to be deployed on Vista.  Having read the 
vista control panel information on MSDN, it seems that the old cpl format is 
no longer recommended.  Based on this, I had considered making a thin-cpl 
for < win NT5 which in turn launched a .exe application which presented the 
control panel functionality.  This would seem logical as the .exe 
applicaiton could then be used directly under vista?  Does this make sense? 
Can anyone see any issues with this?  Can anyone provide me with any 
information that may be relevant.

Secondly, I need to display a taskbar icon which will evoke the .cpl or 
.exe.  To save on development and file deployment, I had also considered 
wrapping this taskbar app in with the .exe.  So basically, when the user 
logs on, the .exe will run (reg->HKLM->Run) to create the taskbar icon.  It 
could then sit in the background until the .cpl is run, which could then 
make it visible to the user.  On Vista, I could make the .exe so that only 
one instance could run and then code the WinMain to bring the running .exe 
into view?  Does this also make sense?

Any help or pointers would be gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance,

Mike C