' Declare the MainMenu control.
Friend WithEvents MainMenu1 As System.Windows.Forms.MainMenu

' Declare MenuItem2 as With-Events because it will be user drawn.
Friend WithEvents MenuItem2 As System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem


Private Sub InitializeMenu()

    ' Create MenuItem1, which will be drawn by the operating system.
    Dim MenuItem1 As New MenuItem("Regular Menu Item")

    ' Create MenuItem2.
    MenuItem2 = New MenuItem("Custom Menu Item")

    ' Set OwnerDraw property to true. This requires handling the
    ' DrawItem event for this menu item.
    MenuItem2.OwnerDraw = True

    'Add the event-handler delegate to handle the DrawItem event.
    AddHandler MenuItem2.DrawItem, New DrawItemEventHandler(AddressOf DrawCustomMenuItem)

    ' Add the items to the menu.
    MainMenu1 = New MainMenu(New MenuItem() {MenuItem1, MenuItem2})

    ' Add the menu to the form.
    Me.Menu = Me.MainMenu1
End Sub

' Draw the custom menu item.
Private Sub DrawCustomMenuItem(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As _
        System.Windows.Forms.DrawItemEventArgs)

    ' Cast the sender to MenuItem so you can access text property.
    Dim customItem As MenuItem = CType(sender, MenuItem)

    ' Create a Brush and a Font to draw the MenuItem.
    Dim aBrush As System.Drawing.Brush = System.Drawing.Brushes.DarkMagenta
    Dim aFont As New Font("Garamond", 10, FontStyle.Italic, _
        GraphicsUnit.Point)

    ' Get the size of the text to use later to draw an ellipse
    ' around the item.
    Dim stringSize As SizeF = e.Graphics.MeasureString( _
        customItem.Text, aFont)

    ' Draw the item and then draw the ellipse.
    e.Graphics.DrawString(customItem.Text, aFont, _
        aBrush, e.Bounds.X, e.Bounds.Y)
    e.Graphics.DrawEllipse(New Pen(System.Drawing.Color.Black, 2), _
        New Rectangle(e.Bounds.X, e.Bounds.Y, CInt(stringSize.Width), _
        CInt(stringSize.Height)))
End Sub