To “open” or NULL, that is the verb

When you programmatically want to execute a shell item/path/URI you are forced to pick a verb even when you want to perform the default action (A.K.A. double click). This means passing NULL as the verb if you are calling ShellExecute[Ex]. When you do this the shell will do its magic to find the default verb:

I see your errorlevel and raise you a process exit code

Have you ever written a batch file that is more of a “application” than a script? Of course you made sure ERRORLEVEL is set correctly so when your batch file is a part of a larger script, IF ERRORLEVEL error checking can be used. What could go wrong?

For some crazy reason, cmd.exe does not use the expected logic when you use the && and/or || syntax. I assume part of the problem is because the batch file is executed by cmd.exe itself and there is no child process and no real process exit code.

Fixing this requires some hacky workarounds and is generally a big pain in the ass.

WinDbg: A darker shade of border?

Why does WinDbg look like crap?

Certification requirements for Metro style apps

As I feared, Microsoft are heading down the locked-down Apple style path with Metro/WinRT.

Let’s take a look at the (preliminary) certification requirements for the Windows Store:

Windows 8 (//build/ 2011) platform lies

I’m sure you have seen this slide:

The truth is probably closer to this:

Never means never, unless you are the taskbar

I like to keep my taskbar buttons grouped a certain way but explorer forces per application combined groups even when you tell it never to combine!

The DWM hates the paparazzi

The windows team is probably working on the third generation of the DWM but the screen shot capability is still in the dark ages, just take a look at the B8 blog:

A third-party tool should not be required to create a simple screen shot of a window in 2011.

Somewhat automatic flash update

How many times are you going to force me to click this Adobe?

..and this?

Giving the user some control over the auto update process is good, but one button click should be enough and don’t force me to agree to the same license every time! (I assume the license is the same, we all know nobody reads those anyway)

The application directory bundle shell hack

In the words of the great Raymond Chen: In Windows, the directory is the application bundle but that is a poor excuse for the lack of some kind of application bundle or fat binary support. I usually don’t care about eye candy but it would be nice (and a fun experiment) if we could get a application directory to look and act like a real application bundle.

UNC + \\?\ means more work for you

Working with extended-length paths is bad enough on its own, but at least they are easy to display to the user:

printf("%S\n",MyPathSkipXLPrefix(PathBuffer));

Until you add UNC paths into the the mix that is…