April 2008 - Posts

Getting the shell to run an application for you - Part 2: How
27 April 08 05:07 AM | Brandon Live!
The key to getting Explorer to do your dirty work lies in the IShellDispatch2 interface.  Particular, the ShellExecute method.  IShellDispatch2 is one of the shell automation objects used to support scripting languages.  However, that doesn’t mean you have to use VBScript to gain some value from it.  In this case, IShellDispatch2::ShellExecute is exactly what we [...] Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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Getting the shell to run an application for you - Part 1: Why
26 April 08 08:39 PM | Brandon Live!
Some people seem to think that calling ShellExecute or ShellExecuteEx and passing the path to an executable will have the effect of telling the shell to launch an application for you.  However, that’s not quite what happens.  These functions simply allow your application to take an action (like launching a process) in the manner the [...] Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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New Start++ update
23 April 08 03:42 AM | Brandon Live!
I posted this on BrandonTools.com yesterday, and figured I may as well copy it here. It’s been a long time since I’ve released an update to Start++.  Since then I’ve been working sporadically on a major overhaul to Start++, which will likely be released as version 2.0.  However, due to time constraints imposed by my real [...] Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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Tech journalism is dead to me
11 April 08 08:38 PM | Brandon Live!
Gary Morgenthaler of Business Week is the latest in a series of tech journalists to really disappoint me.  Why?  Just look at his latest rubbish posted on Business Week’s website today. Consider the following paragraph and tell me that bias and sensationalism haven’t taken over tech “journalism.” With last year’s arrival of Vista, Windows has swollen to [...] Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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Windows Search Indexer Status Gadget
09 April 08 11:10 PM | Brandon Live!
I’m pleased to announce that the second tool to join the BrandonTools.com collection is now available!  It’s a new Sidebar Gadget for those who want to see what the indexer is up to and to easily control its behavior. Click here for details.   Note that the screenshot depicts the gadget running on WS4.  The "index now" [...] Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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A glimpse of the future
07 April 08 01:12 PM | Brandon Live!
Today I saw, for the first time, a software release where an update had to be released to address 32-bit compatibility issues, as the initial release was apparently only tested on 64-bit machines. Neat.  Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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Microsoft announces Windows 7’s final brand name
01 April 08 03:01 AM | Brandon Live!
Wow, I never expected this announcement so soon!  What do you guys think?  Catchy, right? REDMOND, Wash. — April. 1, 2008 Today Microsoft Corp. announced the official name of its next-generation Windows® client operating system, formerly code-named “Windows 7.” Steven Sinofsky, head of Windows engineering, made the announcement at a special event in Los Angeles, California early this [...] Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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Joe Wilcox says Vista is failing (again)
01 April 08 02:00 AM | Brandon Live!
In this morning’s article, Windows: A Monopoly Shakes, Joe Wilcox paints a grim picture for Windows.  Apparently, about 90% of surveyed enterprises adopted Windows XP in 2007, and about 6.3% adopted Vista, mainly taking away from Windows 2000 adoptions.  I don’t know about yours, but my boots are shaking. Is anybody really surprised?  Enterprise IT isn’t [...] Del.icio.us | Digg It | Technorati | Blinklist | Furl | reddit | DotNetKicks
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