As its name indicates, the LinkLabel control allows you to create a link. If you have done web development, you would know that a link can be made fancy by varying its colors. A link typically uses three different colors (actually, if you use cascading style sheet, you can add a fourth color as hover):

• Link: This is the general color used on a link that a user has not clicked before. The LinkLabel class defines this color through the LinkColor property.
• Active Link: When the user clicks a link, its target typically opens if everything is alright. This causes the link to change its color status. The color of an active link is represented in the LinkLabel class with the ActiveLinkColor property.
• Visited: When a user comes to a page or the document that provides a link, you can indicate whether the link was previously accessed or not. This is done by displaying a color other than the link color. The color of a previously visited link is represented in the LinkLabel class by the VisitedLinkColor property.

After creating a link, when the user accesses it, you can define some behavior the link would exhibit to the user, such as getting underlined or not underlined when the mouse passes over the link. The behaviors of a link can be controlled through the LinkBehavior property whose values are AlwaysUnderline, HoverUnderline, NeverUnderline, or the application would refer to Internet Options dialog box of Control Panel.

A link is typically meant to help the user switch to a different page or document when clicked. In some cases and at a particular time, you may not want the user to be able to click a link. In this case you can disable it. If you decide to disable a link, you can change its color using the DisabledLinkColor property. On the other hand, if the user is not able to access a link, that is, if a link is disabled, you can find out the color of that link from the DisabledLinkColor property.

Here is an example:

Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Windows.Forms

Module Exercise

    Public Class Starter
        Inherits Form

        Friend WithEvents lnkConnector As LinkLabel

        Dim components As System.ComponentModel.Container

        Public Sub New()
            InitializeComponent()
        End Sub

        Public Sub InitializeComponent()

            lnkConnector = New LinkLabel()
            lnkConnector.Width = 150
            lnkConnector.Text = "Lessons and Topics"
            Controls.Add(lnkConnector)

        End Sub

        Private Sub ConnectorClicked(ByVal sender As Object, _
                                     ByVal e As LinkLabelLinkClickedEventArgs) _
                                     Handles lnkConnector.LinkClicked
            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start( _
                    "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe", _
                    "http://www.functionx.com/vccli")
        End Sub
    End Class

    Function Main() As Integer

        Dim frmStart As Starter = New Starter

        Application.Run(frmStart)

        Return 0
    End Function

End Module

This would produce: