Rick Strahl's Web Log

WebLog Posts in Category Windows

Make your CHM Help Files show HTML5 and CSS3 content
February 15, 2012 @ 2:17 pm

Want to get your CHM files to display content in HTML5 and CSS rather than the stock IE7 quirks more rendering used by default? This blog post describes how you can take advantage of newer HTML and CSS specs in your CHM files.

5 comments

Opening the Internet Settings Dialog and using Windows Default Network Settings via Code
July 20, 2011 @ 12:02 am

Most applications that need to use HTTP to go online require some sort of HTTP configuration options to allow for custom network configurations. An easy way to do this is to rely on the default connection settings that Windows provides. Here's how to use the Windows network settings and how to bring them up visually for editing programmatically.

2 comments

Web Browser Control – Specifying the IE Version
May 21, 2011 @ 12:06 am

The Web Browser control's default rendering mode is not very standards compliant - it's stuck in IE 7 quirks mode which is less than ideal for any HTML preview operations. It also fails to display the latest CSS and HTML 5 enhancements of IE 9. Luckily there's a workaround via some registry hacks that you can add to make your application render the Web Browser control using a specific version of IE.

32 comments

WinInet Apps failing when Internet Explorer is set to Offline Mode
April 20, 2011 @ 10:15 pm

Ran into a problem with applications using WinInet not being able to connect to the Internet when IE is stuck in Offline Mode. Here's the problem and a code workaround that works at least with the latest version of IE.

3 comments

ASP.NET Routing not working on IIS 7.0
March 27, 2011 @ 1:14 pm

Got caught be a difference in behavior between IIS 7.0 and IIS 7.5 with how module management to extensionless URLs are fired in IIS. Routing was working fine on my dev machine, but not on my live server. Here's what you need to watch out for.

8 comments

Loading Assemblies off Network Drives
March 22, 2011 @ 4:24 pm

Remote loading of assemblies and CAS policy in .NET have always been hassle and although .NET 4.0 improves security, lightning up rules to be on par with Win32 applications, for COM Interop and custom runtime hosting old rules still apply. Luckily there's some help in the form of a new configuration switch that allows overriding remote loading of assemblies.

3 comments

IIS not starting: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process
March 04, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

Ran into a nasty problem today with IIS not starting up and the culprit turned out to be: Skype. Here's what the deal is.

9 comments

No Preview Images in File Open Dialogs on Windows 7
March 10, 2010 @ 1:55 pm

I ran into a problem with a File Open dialog in Silverlight (but this applies to any Windows File Open Dialogs) where I could not get image previews to work. It turns out this setting is controlled by Explorer Customization settings which is a pain to figure out while tracking down the issue.

5 comments

Application that won’t Pin to Taskbar in Windows 7
October 08, 2009 @ 2:02 am

I've run into a dead end with an application of mine that won't pin to the Windows 7 taskbar. I've tried a number of different settings but I just cannot get the app to show the Pin to taskbar (or any othe of the taskbar context options) to work.

53 comments

Windows 7 and a Quick Launch Toolbar
August 22, 2009 @ 12:37 pm

I installed Windows 7 this week after my Vista installation finally started going really whacky while I was in Europe. All things considered Vista has been good – the previous install lasted nearly 2 1/2 years without a repave which is more than any OS I’ve had ever had installed before. The Windows 7 install went fairly smooth for me – no install problems although I screwed myself royally doing...

28 comments

Editing Applicationhost.config on 64 bit Win2008
August 09, 2008 @ 12:05 am

Today I needed to edit ApplicationHost.config only to - well, not find the damn file anywhere on my machine. It turns out 64 bit Windows uses redirection in the System32 folder and while running with a 32 bit Explorer replacement and a 32 bit editor I was unable to find the file until I switch to the stock tools in Windows which are 64 bit.

16 comments

Moving my Site onto a 64 Bit Server
August 07, 2008 @ 10:39 am

I'm finally getting ready to install my new Server and after some back and forth and testing on Windows 2008 I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and go with the 64 bit version of Server. I've had mixed feelings about installing 64 bit given that I have had exactly zero experience running under 64 bit. I've not really seen a compelling reason on the desktop to run a 64 bit OS especially...

11 comments

Getting rid of the useless Windows Shutdown Tracker Dialog
August 02, 2008 @ 1:23 am

If you install and run or manage a Windows Server OS you've probably run into the annoying shut down dialog. Maybe you have even been hit by walking away after restarting and forgetting about the damn dialog hanging the system before rebooting/restarting. Well, just did that on an install thank you very much. It's not a secret how to get around this and it's easy to fix, but buried deep enough that it's easy to not find it immediately and so not fix it. Here's how.

8 comments

.NET 3.5 Framework Distribution Size
March 27, 2008 @ 1:23 am

One of the considerations of whether to choose .NET 3.5 for your non-server applications might be distribution size. If you're building a vertical application that you're distributing over the Internet you are probably concerned about the size of your installation if you want people to download it. Recent versions of the .NET runtime have a made decidedly nasty turn for the worse when it comes to...

48 comments

Sensible Debugging in IE 8
March 06, 2008 @ 11:03 am

One thing that caught my attention in the IE 8 notes and that eventually made me download and install it is that it will feature the Developer Toolbar which has been an add-in for previous IE versions as a built in tool. Not only that but IE 8 includes a very FireBug-like debugger that can be easily hooked up to page content. This is a very worthwhile improvement IMHO because the debugging...

14 comments

IE 8 to support Standards Mode out of the Box - Yay!
March 04, 2008 @ 11:30 am

Microsoft announced today on the IE Blog that IE 8 will run in high standards mode by default, which is a complete about face from the previous position that was going to require special meta-tag headers to force the browser to run this way. This is an unexpected, but very welcome turn of events and brings some hope that we'll in our lifetime will have a version of IE that is compliant with the remainder of the browser world.

4 comments

2.5 gigs worth of Windows Error Reports
December 12, 2007 @ 1:38 pm

This morning I was greeted to an especially unresponsive machine. The hard disk was thrashing away and I was pretty much not getting a usable machine for about 10-15 minutes as even typing became too slow for the machine. While I was looking for the culprit of the sudden perf drop I was rummaging...

18 comments

The long Path to getting an proper cased Path & Filename with Win32
December 06, 2007 @ 12:41 am

I'm working through a couple of small bugs in Help Builder today and one issue that's come up is that in some (but not all cases) file selections when inserting images and doing screen captures turn out in inaccurate casing. Images are embedded into the document typically as relative images and the...

Why is Printing in Windows such a Pain in the Ass?
October 15, 2007 @ 2:16 am

Printing seem like a pretty basic process. You have a document you send it to a printer spooler and it prints. A simple queue and a file streaming interface, right? Well, for me printing always seems to be an excercise in meditated toe nail removal. The first issue is that Windows refuses to...

7 comments

Registration Ids: The simpler the better?
August 27, 2007 @ 1:02 am

Having gone through easily 50 registration screens in the last few days, reinstalling applications on my new box got me to once again thinking about registration codes in applications. Somebody last week asked me as I provided them with a software key with Help Builder - what's this - this isn't a...

File Locations on Windows Machines = Absolute Madness
August 25, 2007 @ 6:58 pm

I configured and updated a brand new machine last week and overall the process has been pretty smooth and painless. But once again I'm reminded how silly Windows' scattering of files all over the place really is. I installed the new box on Monday. It's now Saturday night and I'm still picking up a...

9 comments

Programmatic Printer Driver Installation re-visited for Vista
May 03, 2007 @ 11:30 pm

A long while back I posted an entry regarding how to install a printer driver programmatically by shelling out and using rundll32.exe to execute the PrintUi.dll which can handle a variety of print tasks including installing a printer driver. This code's been working fine, but it's been giving...

16 comments