Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windows and programming

Where to get started with Python GUI programming?

cowbellemoo — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:46:59 -0800

Which Python GUI framework is right for someone new to GUI programming? But who may also aspire to open source community (linux) development/involvement? Cross platform, wonderful documentation/tutorials, and cruft-free new technology are also welcome. My current need is just for a simple GUI front end for scripts I write in work for Windows, but one day I'd like to have GUI skills robust enough to help out with open source development. I've given this list a look, but I really don't know where to start. I know GTK/Qt are the most commonly utilized, but are there any exciting new next-generation graphical toolkits? What's fun to learn? What are your favorite tutorials, books, or resources for it?

Any and all suggestions welcome! Thanks!

You better C sharp or you'll VB flat

jozxyqk — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:41:39 -0800

How do you use a Class Library DLL created with C# from VBA? Here at work, we've got some ancient code that is desperately in need of a rewrite, and I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to all the terminologies and interoperability of bits of Windows code.

What we have now is a DLL written in Visual C++ 5.0.
There is also a VBA piece that runs inside Excel.
The Excel code contains lines that look like this:
Declare Sub subname Lib "dllname" (ByVal Arg1 As String, Arg2 As Long, Arg3 As Long)

I've been tasked with catching up with this century and rewriting the DLL in C#/.NET , with as minimal changes as possible to the other pieces.

I know C# is very Java-like, and I'm just starting to learn it (fairly easy language to pick up).

But is there a way to create a DLL in C# that is accessible using the above "Declare Sub" syntax? If so, what is the syntax? Since C# involves class hierarchies I imagine it's a bit different.

If not, then what is the "proper" way to link to a .NET DLL from VBA? Do I have to "register" the DLL and use COM?

How do I hook Windows desktop folder clicks?

long — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:38:45 -0800

I'd like to write a program for Windows XP that detects when a folder on the desktop is clicked and switches the desktop location to that folder, instead of the default Explorer behavior of opening the folder in a window. Roughly, the program will behave like this:
1. User left-clicks folder A on the desktop.
2. Program captures the click, changes the appropriate registry keys, and refreshes the desktop view so that folder A's contents are now displayed on the desktop. (Folder A does not open in an explorer window).

I'm competent at programming, but don't have much experience with the Windows API or hooking. From some googling, I gather that a decent approach is to hook WH_MOUSE_LL, but it seems that detecting whether the clicked object is a folder is non-trivial and potentially kludgey.

Can you advise a general approach that (1) accomplishes the described behavior and (2) isn't too hacky?

Thanks so much,
Long

How to turn processes into clickable links

TimeTravelSpeed — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:19:11 -0800

I would like to write a program which transforms the Windows task manager's process list into clickable links. Where do I start? I often find myself googling the obscure process names in my task manager to see what program uses it, and/or if it's safe. I'd love to be able to just click on the process and have it open a browser and run the google search.

I tried to get the "App A Day" guy to do it years ago, but he instead made a more generic version that googled any highlighted text, which, although very useful, is a bit buggy and not quite what I need.

Can I use something like C# and the Windows API to change the behavior of the Task Manager, or is this program was completely locked off from tweaks? I'm a fairly experienced coder but have never delved into the Windows API.

Thank you for any suggestions you might have!

Suggestions for getting started with Dot Net development?

Flunkie — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:38:18 -0800

Do you have any suggestions for getting started with Dot Net development? I'm looking to start learning about Dot Net development. I'd like recommendations for where to begin.

First, for a little background, I am (I believe) a competent programmer with a lot of experience in a diverse set of languages, operating systems, environments, and programming paradigms, so you don't have to suggest very basic things (such as if I were instead asking "I'm looking to start learning how to become a programmer, and I want to use Dot Net to do it").

But I know very little about Dot Net. I'd like suggestions on how to start learning - good tools to use, books to read, websites/blogs/feeds to look at, et cetera, on pretty much any subject - how to learn the contents of the framework class library, best practices, unit testing, documentation generation, code coverage, distributable packaging, what the heck's a XAML and why/how would I use it instead of whatever the heck a WPF is, what the latest indecipherable acronym du jour means, ... anything, basically.

A little additional info that may be helpful in answering: I have settled on starting with SharpDevelop as my main programming tool for this, along with various tools that it is made to work hand-in-hand with - FxCop and StyleCop, for example.

Thanks in advance. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated greatly.

How can create a simple program to modify Windows Address Book and Outlook Address Book entries?

mrbloo — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:53:09 -0800

I'd like to create a simple program that would modify the phone numbers in my MS Windows and MS Outlook Address Books (reason is we got new area codes). What is the simplest programming language on windows and best way to get this done by directly accessing the address books (without exporting to CSV)? I've done some VBS with WMI, Windows batch scripting, perl, python, javascript, PHP.. so I understand programming but not programming with MS Windows DLLs and COMs and APIs etc.

I've done some searching and found it quite complicated to work with VC++ or a similar language on MS Windows so far. Any input would be much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

Strange behavior when running an MS-DOS Batch file as a scheduled task

SteveTheRed — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 09:30:01 -0800

How can I fix an MS-DOS batch script that works when run manually, but exhibits strange behavior when run as a scheduled task? Introduction:

We have a batch file that backs up a directory from a server to a network share using robocopy in an MS-DOS batch file. When I manually run the batch file, it works fine. When I run it as a scheduled task, it runs to completion with an exit code of 0 but puts the folder in the wrong place. In the file, I break up the date string
from date /t into three variables (dropping the alpha day of the week), then use those variables to form the path where the folder is to be stored (shown below):

REM Get system date to use for directory and put in 3 environment variables



for /f "tokens=1-2 delims= " %%a in ('date /t') do (

set mdate=%%b)

for /f "tokens=1-3 delims=/ " %%a in ("%mdate%") do (

set mm=%%a

set dd=%%b

set yyyy=%%c)



REM Error checking in NET USE: errorlevel=2 [CAN'T LOGON]



net use x: \\SHARE\FOLDER /USER:DOMAIN\USER PASSWORD ***redacted for obvious reasons***

If errorlevel 2 Goto END



REM COPIES the content of the BACKUP DIR to the share

 

C:\BACKUP_SCRIPTS\robocopy d:\FOLDER\Backup X:\FOLDER\%yyyy%%mm%%dd%\Database /E /NP /Z /LOG+:X:\FOLDER\%yyyy%%mm%%dd%\logs\Database.log  ***also redacted***

Troubleshooting So Far:

I experimented with the original file and test scripts based on the file running as a scheduled task and manually. Running manually works OK. When run as a scheduled task, the result of date /t isn't getting passed to the variables. When robocopy starts to copy the files it sees X:\FOLDER\\Database, so it copies the folder to the next level up from where I want it to go.

Background:

OS: Windows server 2003 SP1
CPU: A fairly fast Dell rack mounted server that I don't have physical access to (I use terminal service)
The CPU is used in production
I am an administrator on the CPU
The scheduled task is run under a different account that has admin privileges
The sceduled task log shows successful completion

Caveats:

Using an MS-DOS Batch file is the only option open to me for this task. I hate it, but other options like perl, python or COTS backup software are not allowed on this machine.

If you do know the answer, but it is cryptic, please try to explain it so that I can get it through code review.

If anyone knows how to fix this, I would really appeciate it. Thank you.

Some rather clueless questions about using undocumented APIs in Windows

RustyBrooks — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:56:52 -0800

Some rather clueless questions about using undocumented APIs in Windows The details behind this are kind of a long story. But the deal is, I have a DLL that contains an API. It's totally undocumented. Using APIMonitor I can find the API calls that look like what I want, and I can call these from my programs provided I load the DLL, etc.

But the problem is, I don't know the prototypes for these functions. APIMonitor gives some clues because it shows the stack, but as far as I can tell it's not really "enough" to figure out the function signatures. If I use the wrong signatures obviously I corrupt the stack and crash my program pretty much straight away.

I have a program (not mine) that uses the DLL, which is what I've been using to run APIMonitor on. I can also use some tools I have to "hook" into this API, so that my function gets called instead of the API function. I was hoping I could use this to look at the details of the calling arguments but it's not really that much help because I still need to know the number and type of arguments that are getting passed to my function.

Are there any tools or methods I can use to figure out how to call these functions?

(This is all using Visual C/C++ if that matters)

if you ever change ... call me

southof40 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:20:08 -0800

windowsprogramming filter - I want a program running under Windows to be notified whenever a particular file(s) is/are modified. Need some keywords to help my searches about this facility. In the past I'm sure I've read of a mechanism which exists within Microsoft Windows which allows a program to register an interest in one or a set of files within the file system and subsequently to be notified whenever they are modified. The terms involved (file / folders / modification) are all very common so Googling has failed me.

Could anyone provide me with the name of this mechanism (or anything else within Windows which would provide similar functionality).

Just a bit of background I want to make a copy of the file to another location whenever it's modified.

Single White Nerd Seeks A Special Gamepad

Popular Ethics — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:02:53 -0800

Windows Gamers / Programmers: How can I get a trackball to work as a game controller? I have a project at work which requires a dedicated hardware interface to control a camera's pan/tilt/zoom/focus/iris. I could build my own with potentiometers and a usb DAC, but I thought it might be easier (and cooler) to use an off-the-shelf game pad.

Unfortunately, I need something with an trackball and/or scroll wheels (ie, I want something that rotates gradually, but I don't want it to snap to center when you let go). Have any mefi gamers heard of such a thing? Alternatively, is there a way to convince a trackball that it's a gamepad (as far as windows is concerned), and not a mouse?

How do I assign mouse input to the proper window with multiple GLX windows?

Java_Man — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:19:20 -0800

How do I assign mouse input to the proper window with multiple GLX windows? Hello,
I am programming an application that can render to several possible types of windows (GLUT, MFC, etc.) depending on platform. It is configured so that multiple windows can be displayed simultaneously.
I am having some trouble adding GLX window support under Linux. I can set up multiple windows and display different content on each: that works just fine. But if someone clicks on a window, I don't know how to assign the click to the proper window (though I can register its location in x, y coords). I'm having a hard time finding documentation (or a tutorial) that helps with this issue. Does anyone know where I can find some good information online?
For now, all of the windows are on the same display.
Also, it is important that this be done with GLX windows, so please do not suggest that I just use GLUT and be done with it.
Thank you.

Is it possible to write a program that uses only physical RAM, and not the swap/pagefile in Windows?

torpark — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:26:56 -0800

Is it possible to write a program that uses only physical RAM, and not the swap/pagefile in Windows? I am trying to write a program that won't leave any traces on a computer after it is run. As it currently stands, it leaves lots of signatures in the swap file. Terribly annoying.

Help me learn to program simple Windows desktop applications

LeeJay — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 12:10:14 -0800

I want to learn to create simple Windows desktop applications for my own personal use. What programming language should I start learning? I want to create some simple desktop applications for use on my own computer (Win XP Pro). Stuff like recipe collections or daily journals or a personal organizer. I don't need to create anything with a bunch of flashy graphics nor do I think I'll be doing much programming for the web (although maybe I would branch out to experimenting with that one day). This is simply a way for me to solve a few problems and learn something new.

There are a lot of options available for someone who wants to learn programming but so many of them seem mainly focused on designing for the web. I have little experience with programming (I've written a few simple interactive fiction games with Inform 6) but I don't mind a steep learning curve if I can eventually do what I need to do. Which is why I want to make sure I'm learning the right language from the start.

What I want to do first is create an application that will allow me to organize a large amount of information on world mythology. I have folders full of articles and stories and studies and images and I basically need to organize them by culture and time period and type and then display them by category. There are a lot of programs I can use for this (I'm using Keynote right now, which I like) but I have always wanted to venture into learning a programming language and I thought since I have a need now would be the right time to dive in.

Any suggestions?

"There's no place like home...."

Afroblanco — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 10:55:07 -0800

Need a tinker-free Linux/MySql install for Ruby On Rails. Also, seeking advice for getting started in RoR. Ok, I'll start this out by saying that I have little-to-no interest in operating systems. I've run Windows for the past decade or so because (for me, anyway) it's a no-effort solution that requires the least tinkering possible.

HOWEVER, I've recently been teaching myself Ruby On Rails, and it seems that RoR is most comfortable in a Unix/MySql environment. So here are the questions -

1) Am I correct in the assumption that the standard RoR setup is Unix/MySql? Is this what RoR is most comfortable with? Has anyone successfully run RoR on WinXP/SqlServer?
2) What Linux installation requires the least tinkering to get it to work properly?
3) Which Linux installation has the best community support?
4) Is there a way to install linux as a dual-boot on my WinXP system without reformatting, repartitioning, and reinstalling everything? Bonus points for solutions that involve only free tools.
5) What are some good MySql resources? Specifically, I'm looking for guides to dealing with installation and administration. Also, what are the best MySql community sites?
6) What resources would you suggest for someone starting out in RoR? I'm currently reading Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby as well as Agile Web Development In Rails. Are there any other books or guides that you would suggest? Are there any places where I can get some good sample code to play around with? What are some good community sites? (I should mention that I'm an experienced programmer, so I'm specifically looking for help with Ruby, not programming in general)

Sorry for the ton and a half of questions. If you could answer *any* of the above, your help will be greatly appreciated.

Succor From SQL

thejoshu — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 14:57:21 -0800

I have a Windows-served website programmed in C# and connected to a SQL database. I'd like to move the whole thing to the Mac. It's a MS SQL Server database. The web front-end is ASP.NET, written in C#. This operation is running on Windows Server 2003. (The site provides a reasonably simple function: user logs in and then can search through a list of 20,000 or so companies in a certain field by various different terms - location, membership to a number of organizations, size of the firm, what have you.) I would love to port this to the Mac, and have it hosted on a Mac mini (when they stick an Intel proc in the thing).

I have no idea how to approach this, but I am a pretty fast learner. Can you recommend the route of least resistance for doing something as major as this? Which languages might work best; which might be easiest to switch to?

Windows Transparency Problems

RustyBrooks — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:38:11 -0800

OK, so I figured out, through lots of painful browsing of MSDN, how to make windows (partially) transparent, and also how to chroma-key windows. And it works great, but only in windows 2000. In windows XP it works only in certain cirumstances. Need windows programmer to help me... Here's the basic code snippet, where title and red/green/blue are defined upstream of this.

HWND hwnd = FindWindow(NULL, title);
COLORREF crkey = RGB(red, green, blue);

SetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, GetWindowLong(hwnd, GWL_EXSTYLE) | WS_EX_LAYERED);
SetLayeredWindowAttributes(hwnd, crkey, alpha, LWA_COLORKEY | LWA_ALPHA);

This is like textbook, out of the windows example pages.

* It works on windows 2000
* It works on windows XP, EXCEPT it seems that I can only do it to windows that are NOT related to main application that is running the code above. That is, I can pick, say, my email window and make it transparent, but not another toplevel in my application.

I actually suspect that it may be a problem with how me/windows is "finding" the window. That first line where I get the HWND, I suspect that maybe it is not finding the window, under windows XP, if it's part of my application. The windows MSDN pages indicate that a different method is used if the window is/is not part of the application, so I suspect that may be the source of the problem.

I'm a unix programmer, doing this in windows out of necessity and I am in way over my head. I either need a better way to "find" window handles, or I need a way to verify whether FindWindow is finding anything, or if it's finding the "right" window.

The C code above is in a module, called by a scripting language called Tcl/Tk, so I don't really have low-level access to the toplevel windows in other ways (that is, I'm not explicitly creating them myself)

Chromakeyed transparent windows?

RustyBrooks — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:43:16 -0800

I have found programs that allow you to apply partial transparency to a window (in windows), but I'm looking for something a little different: chroma keyed transparency, like what is used in visual effects or on the weather report. I have two windows. I want one to sit on top of the other, and I want to choose a color on the top window, which will be totally transparent, so you can see the other window through it. I have programs that I use, like TweakWindow, which allow you to set partial transparency to the top window, and this is OK, but ideally I'd like to have parts of the top window be transparent, and parts not.

Does anyone know of a windows program that does something like this?

My most likely usage will be to have most of the top window be the transparent color, and the rest to have blocks of white with data in them.

Windows programming question

RustyBrooks — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 14:32:27 -0800

Windows Programming: how to simulate mouse clicks, button presses, and how to extract data from windows widgets? I have a need to automate some of the functions of an existing program. In particular, at regular intervals I need to: fill in a text field, press a button, and read from another text field. I know that things of this kind are possible because programs like WinRunner seem to do this. Also, here is an example of a program that does something quite similar to what I want: UB History (although this is just a general class of problem I'm interested in solving)

Another thing I'd like to be able to do is embed a windows application into another, so that it seems integrated into it. Alternatively, I'd like to be able to take screen dumps of just that window and show them in another program (say, 1-5 times a second). My goal here is to be able to overlay data from my program on top of another program.

Mapping URIs as Drives with Python and Win32

yerfatma — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 11:22:39 -0800

I've fallen hard for Python and have been searching for a project to really learn the language with. I'd like to create functionality similar to Windows "Map Network Drive" for URIs using Python, urllib, etc. My questions are: does this seem possible for someone with a decent programming background (but no formal CS training)? Is it a good idea? The idealized version would be integrated into the Windows shell and turn a directory URI into an accessible directory in Windows Explorer (with proper icons, file info, etc.). Additonal idealization would include abstracting the code enough that it worked with any other OS that cared to use it.

Please pardon, but also correct, any terminology that's not sensible.

What's a lightweight, simple email server I can install on my XP box?

signal — Mon, 18 Oct 2004 05:33:29 -0800

What's a lightweight, simple email server I can install on my XP box? It will only serve like 2 addresses. IMAP and web access is a plus. Running as a service would also be nice.

Microsoft Script Debugger

mmascolino — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 14:02:26 -0800

Microsoft Script Debugger - Has anyone actually gotten this thing to work properly? I've got some JavaScript (that I didn't write) that is completely bisbehaving in IE (although it produces no errors...it works fine in FireFox, so my usual line of attack doesn't work). I've used the View | Script Debugger | Break at Next Statement and then refreshed the page. It opens the debugger app but doesn't open any source files and it most certainly doesn't break. Has anyone seen this behavior and overcome it?

Can you suggest some Windows programming tools for a very rusty, very amateur programmer?

Zonker — Sat, 17 Jul 2004 08:05:08 -0800

Can you suggest some Windows programming tools for a very rusty, very amateur programmer? (More within) Years ago, in pre-internet days, I banged out a few simple programs just for fun, and when I came across a few stories about Microsoft offering a (temporarily) free beta version of their latest visual C++ package, I thought that it would be fun to mess around with. Unfortunately, even after I held my nose and jumped through all the hoops they set up to download the package, it refused to install, and from further reading it sounds like the whole deal is really aimed at building mindshare for .net rather than just letting someone like me build a few fairly simple programs. So I'm looking for something else that would let me try my hand at writing the occasional program to run in Windows XP pro. Skill-wise, I am (or rather, was) well beyond "Hello, world", but I won't be trying to create a new web browser or 3D graphics engine in this lifetime.

My wish list, in no particular order, includes: C/C++ (though I'm open to other languages, if you'd care to suggest one), legal and philosophical compatibility with the Free/Open Source world (just on general principles), and access to the Windows GUI in some form or another.

So with that in mind, I'd be most grateful for any suggestions the community could offer.

Best daily websites for Windows coders?

kjh — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 19:18:18 -0800

After several years' break, I'm finally getting back into coding. My prior experience is with Linux, but I've since switched to Windows, and specifically .NET. I'm finding it a joy to use and play with, but going at it in a vacuum is hard. I'm familiar with gotdotnet and the invaluable MSDN, but where are the best, must-read daily sites for Windows developers?

Open-Source Version Control

grefo — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 08:34:56 -0800

Can some recommend an open-source version control system that will run locally? CVS seems a bit unwieldy, and other online reviews are geared toward large applications/development groups. Windows based if possible, but Linux is fine, too.

What is a good beginning source to figure out what .dll files do and how to fix errors in Windows ME?

brent — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 19:23:35 -0800

Where is a good beginning source to figure out what .dll files do and how to fix errors in a Windows ME computer?