Questions on VB. NET!

[Pliroforikarios]

Hello to everybody,
I am using VB.NET to develop a project in Studio .NET 2003 and i have the following questions and affairs:

1. I am using the following fragment of code in order to read and write in an Excel file:

Dim oExcel As Object = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Dim oBook As Object = oExcel.Workbooks.Open(file)
Dim oSheet As Object = oBook.Worksheets(1)

But this code make my program to freeze for about 5-6 seconds (on my machine, using framework 1.1). There is any way during the execution of this piece of code not to freeze the program, but to display a progress bar or sth. else telling/notifying the user that he/she will wait for a few seconds?

2. How can i integrate a progress bar control in a status bar panel?

3. I have created an icon using MS Paint and i want to use as the icon of my Program. When i am trying to use it i receive the following message: "The argument 'picture' must be a picture that can be used as icon.". The icon i have created has dimensions 32x32.

4. I am using a text box control and i want when i press enter (while the cursor is inside this control) an action to be performed. Does anyone how can i do this? An example of what i want to do is when i write the word "Hello" and i press enter to appear a Message Box with text = "Hello".

Thanks for you time spending on reading my topic.

[pclement]

You might want to ask each question as a separate post since each represents a different topic.