You should create the window without the title bar style. Something like WS_POPUPWINDOW should do the job for you. Then, make sure you show your window maximized.

In that case, I believe what you are looking for is a system tray icon. We'd need to know what language you're using to help you there.

I'm thinking maybe you want the Shell_NotifyIcon function. I've never used it but its what I would look into first.

how the tray icon works is that the window remains closed until the tray icon is clicked on and a menu option is chosen, then the program opens the window

you have to design your program to be able to run without a window and to be able to reopen the window

just because your window closes doesn't mean your winmain can't live on forever

create a loop in winmain that does stuff and monitor your tray icon and open the window when lets say somebody clicks on the icon

as a matter of fact those tray programs where a menu opens when the icon is clicked, the menu itself is a window (a certain style)
the tray icon is registered with the shell and the shell notifies you when it has messages for it, so a part of your program will have to handle messages from the icon

the link for the how to from msdn
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/winui/winui/windowsuserinterface/windowing/windows/windowreference/windowfunctions/createwindow.asp

from your program you use Shell_NotifyIcon to place your icon down in the tray
you dont have to start your program with a window, you can just loop winmain with like a sleep timer of 100
then when the user clicks on the tray icon open your window

wrong link ^^

this link..lol
[link]http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/functions/shell_notifyicon.asp?frame=true[/link]