spiritpyre

According to Microsoft's instructions for using VC++ 2005 Express w/ PSDK, you're doing everything right. If you're still having problems with this, I would try re-downloading the psdk. If you have a broadband connection I would recommend downloading the iso version of the PDSK because I remember having problems with one of the other version (don't remember if it was web-install or the "full-download" version). Also after you've installed the psdk, you will need to tell VC++ to use the updated include files from the psdk. In VC++ 6.0 (student version?), i think it was under (Tools >> Otions >> 'Directories' Tab ). Hope that helps. good luck

sorry for the waitand thanks for the reply. i'll give a try as soon as i get a chance.

thanks guys nice to know they're useful

No luck after a 1/2 hr. googling so I thought I'd ask here. posting here bc developer's should know more about this than peeps in software forum...i hope. I've been looking for a freeware IDE (editor) and/or compiler that I can use at school. Nothing fancy but I would like syntax highlighting (c++), and something that I don't have to install (standalone). It should fit on a 32MB flash stick with no problem. It'd be nice if it was able to handle Visual Studio project files, but I'll take what I can get... my school's systems don't let user apps edit the registy that's why I need (and prefer) standalone. need: - opens text-based files - supports syntax highlighting (for at least c++) - standalone app/requires no install optional (but good): - can open projects at all - can open visual studio projects - can compile c++ projects Really hope someone else has had this problem and found something. Thanks in advance. -sp

See my first post in the thread (or click my sig). You can now change the captions for the File Ext Toggler & the Hidden Files Toggler to anything you want. I gave instructions in the first post, but basically you'll need to use regedit or a reg file to add your title like so: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 ; Custom Caption for File Ext Toggler [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Custom ShExts\File Ext Toggler] @="Ext's On/Off" ; Custom Caption for Hidden File Toggler [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Custom ShExts\Hidden File Toggler] @="Hidden/Not" enjoy btw if anyone wants to repack the dll's and upload 'em here go ahead. as for the separate menu thing, that's what I've been working on for awhile now. The main delay is that I need to be able to read and interpret text from text/ini files (and I plan on using the same code for at least 4 projects now). SO... basically I've been writing trying to build a class that's as versatile and flexible as notepad, but with less UI (in all but 1 project). So far my class supports ANSI, UTF-8, Unicode, & Unicode - Big Endian but I've been extending it like crazy. Before I finish it up though my goal is that it can run head-to-head or surpass Notepad on text files (regardless of encoding) of up to 32 MB in size... which I'm pretty close on that part (w/ current schedule.. few weeks hopefully)

@BlueMe sorry, but atm its hard coded in (extensions all send the caption text to explorer when its requested). When/if I get the time, I *might* be able to add support for custom captions. shouldn't be too bad, but between school, work, and my other project time is somewhat on short supply. I'll try to work it in when i can tho. @Pedro56 ok. I've checked this on 4 systems running xp home (sp2) and 1 system at school running xp pro (sp2) and every context menu I find has refresh (regardless of launching via Windows Explorer/My Computer) . So what I'm wondering is if what you found might be the result of another 3rd party software/ registry tweak / etc. installed on the system in question. AFAIK, explorer does not have separate registry entries for its context menus launching from windows explorer vs. my computer/(any folder). anybody feel free to confirm this. Since my school has disabled search that may be that problem. But, I still don't see why not having it disabled would take away the refresh option. What you may be able to do is find and remove the registry entry that adds search to the context menu (don't forget to make BACKUPS first!) which may take some experimenting. I can say though that having search instead of refresh is definately the reason that you're getting the problem, but without another way to refresh I can't do anything different. Hope you can get things working but I don't really think I can do much unless I find a new way of refreshing the system. @Nighted eidenk beat me to it. its a much much simpler solution to just add via registry. @atomizer not that i know of, but the tabs-in-explorer thing is a pretty cool idea.

@ Pedro56 ok, since its on xp my best guess is still th refresh routine. When it refreshes the window (and displays/hides the file extensions) it tries to use a hotkey combo. But I think what's happening is that another hotkey is in place which uses part or all of the same key combination. -- like I said, I'd love to doing the refresh in a more 'programmatic' way but using a key combo is the only way I've been able to find that actually WORKS. Anyway here's what you can try: open windows explorer exactly like you do when you experience the problem. Then try pressing Shift+F10. The right-click menu should pop-up exactly as if you had used the mouse. Next, with the menu still up, press 'e' (for Refresh) on the keyboard. If you get the same problem then there's some installed program that has stolen one of Microsoft's default hotkey combos. If it refreshes normally I'm not sure. My systems are both xp home w/ sp2 and try as i might it works fine on both... Is anybody else able to recreate this issue? (system/conditions?)

also wanted to say welcome to msfn to you and Serenity_ and thanks to Serenity_ for great extensions just curious what programming language did you write them in? I like the Create .bak and I don't think I've seen anybody make that before.

So far I haven't been able to recreate the problem. I opened Windows Explorer (i.e. Folder pane/bar is displayed instead of "System Tasks") and 'My Computer' but it works fine in both on my system. What system is your client running? I've had no problems on any xp system, haven't personally tested 2000/NT/ME as of yet, but as I said the extension may hit problems on 9x systems. If it is a 9x system, I would guess that the problem is coming from the 'refresh' routine which currently just calls "Refresh" from a context menu. I'd love to use a better method of refreshing the file system programmatically, but haven't been able to find anything yet.

haven't been on much due to a busy school schedule, and a lot going on but i finally have some news about where I'm at and some other stuff I'm gonna try (and the level of difficulty i expect from each): SubMenuPack - this is the one that I've been hitting major delays with. I never really realized how much work programmers need to go through to work with files in a win32 environ. (i.e. file i/o api's, path validation, multi-byte & unicode, custom file parsing, and creating logical/reusable code and algorithms, etc.). But I feel like I've been making headway with it when I get the time, and i've already found some 're'-uses for some of the code I've laid down for this. I've added a lot more functionality than i ever originally intended to and when I finish with the entension itself I plan on finishing up the config utility to package with the release. I'm hoping to be done with this before the new year, but I can't really promise anything. [Difficulty: Really Freakin' Hard] In the works/projects waiting list: 1) IE/shell extension for Favorites items to "Open in New Window" [Difficulty: Moderately Easy] (Complete) Note: decided to rework this to be more browser-independent (for all those who run firefox/opera/etc) 2) a textfile extension that would essentially use an external, multiline Find and Replace dialog [Difficulty: Moderately Hard] 3) IE extension (will release more info after I find out if its possible but it has something to do with saving pictures when right-clcik is disabled on a page). [Difficulty: Moderately Hard] 4) replacement extensions for WMP 10 (I think I could do this already but I've been putting my time in on my main project) anyway it would basically remove WMPs paired extensions and allow you choose which ones were allowed on a 1:1 basis (instead of the 1:2 basis available thru regedit) [Difficulty: Really Freakin' Easy] 5) a Toolbar extension or two (probably remakes of my other extensions) [Difficulty: Really Freakin' Hard] 6) adding icons to my context extensions [Difficulty: Moderately Hard] I suppose I might take a few ideas as long as nobody is expecting anything anytime soon... if anybody has some useful ones to throw on the list (that aren't too hard lol) but i plan on trying to finish up as much as i can before i start on anything new.

have you tried to delete from the command prompt after killing explorer via task manager? I've had a few weird things like that happen, and usually I could fix it with that. if not, try this: rmdir /S /Q foldername otherwise you might try something like Unlocker or similiar software

@ skywalka: thanks for the screen. right now i'm still putting all my programming time into the SubMenu extension, so don't expect anything rigth away... but I'll see if i can't add that when i get time. @ HyperHacker: yeah, I didn't like that either when i first found them, but i never had any problem signing up. sorry its not working, did you try sending them an email about it? codeprojects has a lot of cool stuff -- even if you're not interested in their coding articles, there are lots of FREE tools and demos. anyways, quite a few of their articles have come in very handy for helping figure out how to accomplish some bast***ly programming trick or another.

I'll try to look into it when I get a chance. right now school's been picking up and when I get time I've been trying to improve/finish/add to the SubMenu Pack extension. I've been going over its string parsing routine trying to make it more flexible, I'm working on a separate app that you can use to import the commands & (optionally parameters) without having to deal with the registry/settings file, and then i need to recode my previous extensions as windowless .exe's... ...the main reason for all of this being to extend windows without cluttering up my menu lol btw would you be able to post a (cropped) screenshot of the menu? I'm not really sure what you mean by tick and the link didn't show any screens... I'm assuming its a bitmap/icon or something like that, right? (if so I think it should be do-able, but I just want to make sure) thanks.

or if you're *REALLY* lazy you can use a shell extension...lol. DLL Registration / Unregistration using a Shell Extension (By Sardaukar)

Not sure if this would work or not, but you could try adding My Computer as a zone in "IE" and changing settings for it. I didn't try it so it might not work for getting the security warning to go away, but I think I had tried the tweak a while back and it worked for adding MyComp. to zones. [source] ; Add My Computer to Zones (Current User Only) [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\0] "Flags"=1 ; Add My Computer to Zones (All Accounts) [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Zones\0] "Flags"=1

Finally figured out a one of my major set-backs. It seems that even after installing the most up-to-date Platform SDK's, you must manually tell VC++ 6 to use them (and set it's "include" folder first in the list above any other "include" folders VC++ uses) ...or at least that's what I had to do. I was getting compiling errors (undecl. id's) on MIIM_STRING [for my SubMenu] project and also on something else related to my "alternative refresh". (And no I don't like web-installs...on psdk's or anything. lol) [in English]: Busy with classes, but hopefully I've have something to release in around a week. B) Anyway here's a Preview: Currently I store the settings in [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\My Shell Extensions] with a SubKey for each item that will appear in the menu. I'm also considering setting some kind of ceiling on how many items can appear in the menu (to help cut down the lag) in the version that I release. One cool feature is that you can use environment variables in the paths, but you have to double-up on the percent signs so the extension can escape them (ie. "%windir%" would be entered as "%%windir%%") and it *should* work on any environment variable defined on the system. <Edit> eliminated need for escaping the '%'s; they can now be entered like you normally would. <edit 10/13/05> fixed some bugs and got rid of some of the lag but I still have a few things to do. Here's what I'm hoping to get in before I release: 1) a way to specify parameters/arguments (currently anything called with arguments can't be launched) 2) would like to restructure things so that the value used for the caption is more like that used for adding file/folder verbs strictly via the registry. 3) opting for fully configurable settings that allow you to use either the registry or a settings file. spent the last week cleaning up my registry functions, now I just need to code file op's (should be pretty easy) 4) would like to possibly do some error proofing by having certain string-particulars taken care of by the program rather than the user 5) make a config utility for easy item entry, and changing settings 6) improve the parsing routine, so that the extension can be more flexible 7) recode Select All, Browser Back, File Extension Toggle, and Hidden File Toggle as standalone, *windowless* execuables so that they can be called from a directory background. [Quick Update]: Finished the registry part currently working on ini support (so far main problems are 1)generating a default file if one isn't found and 2) i'm getting a high number of compiler warnings when my current ini-class is included). Finished re-designing the config utility, just need to finish off some code in some parts -- as it is now the config utility has around 3/4 of its coding left but it should be much much easier to code than the extension itself....partly because i can reuse code. [After This Project] 1) attempt something i found that might "refresh" better 2) [iF I CAN] create a Toolbar extension 3) attempt to add bitmaps to previous extensions (either a checkmark, X, or +/- ) ... probably a checkmark or else it would be configurable

@ evilvoice & matthewk had a couple of hours today so I repackaged the dlls and wrote a sample cmd that registers them (...in case anybody was interested ) (see my first post <{POST_SNAPBACK}>) i have a bit of work to do this weekend so i doubt i'll get time for any programming but i'm hoping i'll have some time thursday.

sorry for the late reply don't get on as much anymore @skywalka thanks. that looks like it might be useful. I'll have to try it out though. the last method I tried (from M. Dunn) didn't work because for some reason Visual C++ 6 didn't like something in his code... and after triple checking my #includes & declaration, I realized that it was something with the compiler not the code (i think). Still haven't figured out what it is, but if this works I won't have to. @matthewk I put all of the dlls in "%windir%\system32\ShellExt\" folder so that they're out of the way, but not just some extra "junk" thrown in the system32 folder. Don't know what you're looking to do but if you were looking to use regsvr32 to automate, you can also just run the .exe with the /S switch to silently install it. @Vladotto thanks for the new additions. also the reason I didn't list folder pilot is that its not freeware (only 30-trial) -- its licensing isn't very clear from the products page but it says if you check out Babex's downloads page; XFilesDialog look like a demo too but I'm not sure. [i just like free stuff better ] @eidenk My little trick isn't as cool as I wanted it to be. (My refresh works by calling the right-click menu [shift+F10] and pressing "e" to choose 'R&efresh' -- it just does it really quick so its kinda hard to see). I still want to find another method for refreshing because mine only works on the current window. Anyway if you have AutoIt v3 you can probably recreate the same thing with this code via a script, and then just just Aut2Exe to compile it: Send("+{F10}") Send("e") but because of the way the context menus are called, it would only work if called from the background menu (because "R&efresh" doesn't appear on file or folder menus) otherwise if you tried calling it when you right-clcik a file for example, the selection of the file (to be able to right-clcik it) would throw everything off. [and then we have another reason why I'd like to "Refresh" a different way ]

One thing that would be really nice for the unattended guide is a quick mention of another, alternative (and IMHO simpler ) method of "Running RunOnceEx from CD". What I've been using for sometime but didn't catch onto for a while AFTER I had started making some form of a UA cd is that batch/cmd files have internal variables of their own. The most useful one (again IMHO) is %0 when used with certain modifiers to become %~d0, %~p0, or especially %~dp0. -- %0 contains the path OF the batch/cmd itself. (the d modifier=drive;p=path(w/o drive/filename);dp=drive+path(w/o filename) )For a complete reference see here. pathorigin_sample.cmd TITLE="Path Origin" Sample ECHO OFF CLS : Sets pathorigin : (cd="current directory" doesn't always work right) :=================================================== : 2 modifiers works the same as SET pathorigin1=%~d0%~p0 : a compound modifier SET pathorigin2=%~dp0 ECHO. ECHO pathorigin1 (of cmd) is "%pathorigin1%" ECHO pathorigin2 (of cmd) is "%pathorigin2%" PAUSE CLS ECHO. ECHO (pathorigin1==pathorigin2): ECHO pathorigin1(%pathorigin1%) == pathorigin2(%pathorigin2%) PAUSE One thing to keep in mind is -- whether in the root or a "sub-root" folder -- THE PATH WILL ALWAYS END WITH A \ (unlike %cd% which only appends a \ if the current directory is the root of a drive) Also: MAKE SURE YOU DON'T LEAVE ANY TRAILING SPACES AT THE END OF THE SET var1= LINES ================================================== I think ppl who are new to unattended discs/batch/cmd -- and even some ppl who aren't -- might like this way better as opposed to other options like using FOR %%i IN (D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) DO IF EXIST %%i:\CD.txt SET CDROM=%%i: which from what I've heard doesn't always work the greatest if there are multiple cds (or if for some reason the file "CD.txt" was in the root of a HDD/removable USB drive, on a floppy, etc. )

Might get more replies if you are more specific and LIST what you have tried that didn't work. Have you tried exporting possibly related registry keys and reapplying at the right times such as described here?

or if you want to get going right away I'd say AutoIt is pretty good. Its really simple (but aren't all scripting? lol) and comes with a big help file that has all the reference you're likey to need.

Not saying a book wouldn't help or that it wouldn't be a handy reference but Just as a sidenote: any book that covers that registry values, etc still won't have everything (i.e. custom program settings, settings that correspond to recent MS Updates, etc.) besides even if someone has absolutely NO life and catalogues each of the 200,000 (or more?) registry keys/values and their purposes (think about how much of a bi*** that would be for those huge binary values if you wanted to go into uber-details lol) --- do you really want to waste your time with the 199,700+ registry entries that you couldn't normally care less about?

If you're isntalling .NET Frmaework, did you check that the account it creates is deleted on both pcs? Remove_dotNET_account.cmd net user aspnet /delete maybe that's not it but I have seen a couple of occasions where my own uA cd's skip over an entry or two for no apparent reason... btw I believe you can set autologin using the NET command from a batch/cmd but I've never had to bother with it so i don't know the exact syntax. (cmd.exe >> "net /?") or search msfn cause I think I've seen it around here before somewhere.

might take a little effort but you could probably script it. AutoIt

@ eidenk, TiredLion, & FnaD thanks for all the great additions & info Mmm be very useful for me as I've been having a hard time adding support for submenus (keep getting stupid compiler errors that shouldn't be there -- if you know what you're doing & wanna help please pm me lol ) and I gonna be pressed for time for awhile what with starting back up at college with a full courseload & working on several pcs on the side -- But I'm still hoping I'll find some more time soon cause I still want to add a few things like: - A more professional Refresh method - Toolbar button variations - .exe variations - A submenu package that would have all of them and be customizable - replacement extensions for some WMP10 stuff - couple of other ideas that I'm still toying with