DukeBlazingstix

I've used unrar.dll for a while now in WindowsXP to add unrar capability to my application; I pretty much just threw RARLab's sample code into my app, and it worked no problem. A while back, I moved to Vista Beta2 x32, and I had to open up a command prompt as Administrator and regsvr32 unrar.dll to get my application to recognise it. Now, though, I'm running Vista RC2 x64, and it won't let me register it for the life of me. Can anybody help me do any of the following: register unrar.dll with the system; have my app call unrar.dll without registering it; find an alternative to RARLab's unrar.dll that will work in Vista x64?

That's perfect, a nice long discussion to read... you wouldn't happen to know what the thread was called, do you... I ran a quick search, but couldn't see it for looking.

I've just installed VirtualPC 2007, and I'm having alot of fun revisiting past Windows Operating Systems, with the eventual plan being to keep ISOs of all my OS discs auto-booting, with the product keys built into them, so I can quickly set up a new system from scratch, then test whatever software I'm writing on all of them. So I've been working backwards through WinMe, and Win98, and now I'm at Win95. With alot of research, and a little hacking, I've managed to make myself a bootable Windows95 installation CD, that even works like the Me/98 ones (where it'll give you the option of booting from the CD, or the HDD), and the only thing I'm stuck on is auto-inserting the Product Key. I tried using the same method I did for the Windows98SE disc, using the MSBATCH.INF file, and the following: [Setup] ProductKey="XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX" but the problem is that my Win95 key is an OEM key that looks like "XXXXX-OEM-XXXXXXX-XXXXX" and I can't figure out how to enter that into the MSBATCH.INF file in a way it understands. Any help?

I was reading a thread here with somebody asking if they can build a modern system and still use Windows 98, and I thought "Why?" I wasn't the only person, as somebody did ask such a question, but responses were primarily brought with a bit of heat and, let's say, resentment. I was actually about to press the issue there myself, but I didn't want to hijack that person's thread, since I sure they wanted a specific answer to their inquiry, and this is going a bit offtopic. I'm not trying to start a flamewar (which given the forum I'm in, will undoutable be rather one-sided), but I'm genuinely curious. I mean, I used to do the whole DualBoot Win98SE/WinXP, but after a time, that grew too cumbersome for me, so I adopted full-force, and overall have been quite pleased. And just recently I've given the Vista RC2 beta a go, and it was a very rocky adjustment, but on the whole I've grown accustomed to it, and will probably buy it when it comes out. In fact, all my original misgivings about XP, and Vista have given way. I'm sure part of that is because I've gotten myself two moderatly-large (1440×900) monitors, so I'm no longer put off by the increasing amount of desktop real-estate everything takes now. I even installed Microsoft's beta of Virtual PC 2007, and I have (over the last three days) installed Virtual machines of a wide range, including Windows 95B, Windows 98SE, WindowsMe, Windows2000, and given each a small run through. It was merely a refresher, since I had used each and every one of those extensively in their decade+ history. And after having used WindowsXP for as long as I have, I could not imagine going back to those older Windows OSes. So, now that you have a small bit of my background, and where I'm coming from, why continue to use Windows 9x?

For what it's worth, it took me over a month to realise it was more than just a graphic; that it actually controlled shutdowns.

I assume you mean other than navigating to the main MCE start screen and then moving left to the little Power Button next to the clock? I have no idea.

Before you answer, this isn't the typical PerceivedType="video" question. I'm not trying to get Media Center to recognise QuickTime or Matroska files or anything like that. I'm asking here because it is Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (with SP2) that I'm trying to do this on, and want to make sure that I'm not missing something because of some bizarre undocumented difference between vanilla XP and MCE XP. I'm doing a little tinkering around with the registry trying to reacquaint myself with how Windows deal with filetypes. I used to know a fair bit back in the Windows 95 days, but things have changed a bit since then. Mostly, they've gotten more complicated. I know about the three basic groupings in the [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT] key (well, three for my purposes). The Extensions (anything beginning with a period), the ProgIDs (anything not), and SystemFileAssociations (among other special ProgIDs, like Folder, File, Directory, *, and one or two others.) It looks like the [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations] is pretty much a subtle way for Microsoft to impose their own programs as the defaults for opening certain extensions. Or at the very least adding those damned annoying "Add To Playlist...", "Add To Sync List...", "Add To Burn List..." menus. But they also have a few more special keys there such as [image], [audio], [text], , and a few others. These magic keys correspond to the PerceivedType string value associated with the extensions. The great thing about that is that you can add the appropriate [shell/open.MPC] to the [systemFileAssociations\video] key, and suddenly you have "Open in Media Player Classic" on all of your video files. You can even associate a [DefaultIcon] to it. All this I learned spelunking around MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default...._file_types.asp). (After way to much set-up, I'm getting to my actual question.) What I've done, because I'm as particular as the next nerd about certain things, is give [systemFileAssociations\video] a generic audio/video icon, and marked a bunch of various extensions (.mov, .qt, .rm, .ts, .ogm, .vob, and so on) as PerceivedType="video" and nothing else, with the expectation that they'll show my generic audio/video icon, and I'll also be able to right-click and choose "Play in MPC", or "Play in VLC". I've also created an [.mpeg1] extension and given it all the same properties as the pre-built [.mpg, .mpe, .mpeg, etc]. (And finally, here's the problem/question) The pre-built [.mpg, .mpe, .mpeg] extensions/progids all work exactly as advertised. They show the icon properly, and the right-click context menus, all pulled right from the [systemFileAssociations\video] key. Great. But the [.mpeg1, .mov, .qt, .vob] extensions that I created from scratch only show the icon. They're not pulling the right-click context menus correctly. So obviously my assumption is that I'm missing something. Some vital, nearly insignificant-looking, reference that says "Yes, these really are PerceivedType="video" files." Does anybody have any ideas? Anybody with some more knowledge on the subject of Windows File Associations, and Perceived Types than myself, and seemingly MSDN? For what it's worth, this is a clean install, and I have zero problems with reinstalling for as many times as it takes to get this right. It's not my main machine anyway.

Of course, wouldn’t you just know it. Not one minute after I ask the question do I find the answer on my own. Debug.Assert does not get compiled, so all I have to do is: Dim IsIDE as Boolean IsIDE=False Debug.Assert IsIDE=True And the EXE will never see the Debug command. Or if that syntax isn’t perfect, some such varient of that code will do the trick. For anyone who might stumble along here through google some distant day, I found this Debug.Assert method here: http://visualbasic.about.com/od/usevb6/l/blfaq0012a.htm <sigh>Now I feel like a real smeghead, answering my own questions, like I only asked so I could feel smart or something. I know I’ll be back soon enough with another question I couldn’t figure out on my own. Say... how are any of you with SQL?

Hi, I’ve just got a small question that’s been driving me nuts. I used to do alot of VB6 programming back in “the day” but I haven’t done any in years, and am quite a bit rusty. I now find myself in the unenviable position of having to write a few “small” programs for work. I would swear up and down that there was a simple way of telling if the program was being run through the IDE or through a compiled exe, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is, and I just have no luck hitting the right keywords to find it on google. Does anybody have any easy, or not-so-easy methods they’d be willing to share?