It appears that I can't do anything with respect to modifying the content of the Microsoft On-Screen Keyboard itself. I know how to eliminate the Contol Box on Visual Basic forms and also how to negate the effect of clicking it if it is on a VB form. But, the on-screen keyboard is not a VB form. It is an "as is" form from Microsoft.
When the X button in the Control Box of the on-screen keyboard is clicked it terminates the osk.exe program and removes the keyboard from the screen. From within my VB application I want to disable that action (as well as the action of the Control Box Minimize button that moves the keyboard to the system tray). I also want to remove, or negate the effects of, the keyboard's menu items that would allow an end user to modify the behavior of the keyboard when it is used with my application. That way I can control the operation of the keyboard within my application.
Unless somebody from Microsoft development can tell me how to do these things, it looks like I'll have to go with a 3rd party on-screen keyboard.