Managing windows on a visual basic application has changed a lot since version 6.0, back then you had a direct reference to windows as instantiated objects, but in .NET this has changed and even if somebody disagrees , I think is for the best.
However there are ways to obtain the a similar functionality when handling windows, On this occasion we will see these tricks to handle MDI forms.
As we know MDI applications consist on a Parent Form inside which the other forms called Children are shown.
A very common problem we face with MDI forms is not being able to know if the children forma are already created, and if they are created, how to pass a message or have a direct reference to objects inside of them.
Besides this solution comes handy when your need a children form to communicate to another children form. And to control that there are no duplicate children forms, if that's what you wish. Well, the implementation is as follows:
First step - Shared Module:
As a first step you must create a module in which you can declare the form objects you want to use, for example suppose we have two children forms, frm_studet and frm_course :
Module children_forms Public objstudent As frm_student Public objcourse As frm_course End Module
In this case we have two forms to control.