I'm trying to create an absurdly simple shell extension in C++ using Visual Studio 2010, but I can't even seem to get the examples out there to work as a starting point.
I'm using Windows 7 x64.
I've tried this Visual Studio template, but once I get the template to work in VS2010, I have a host of errors that I'm not sure how to fix.
I've tried The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Shell Extensions, and once the demo compiles all the right registry settings etc. are created but no context menu appears.
I've looked at this C# COM Interop example, but I've been left confused as to whether it is safe to use C# thanks to this article*, but it looks like I might be OK if I use .NET 4 because it supports in process side-by-side CLR hosting.
in short: historically two versions of .NET cannot run in the same process, and the way shell extensions work is they inject themselves into a process. So if .NET 3.5 gets injected into a .NET 2 process - bang
So, can I use .NET 4.0 now?
Is there a working, downloadable, VS2010 solution that adds a simple shell extension?
I used to be not so bad with C++ back in the day, but after years of moulding to .NET I'm quite rusty, and as such, fiddling with the details to fix the host of errors I'm getting on the existing examples is proving... fiddly!
I could really do with a clean slate to start with that I can break myself and figure out what I did wrong!
I struggled with this for a while and had limited success with the code project article due to x64 issues and SDK differences.
I recently picked the project back up and started over using the MS all-in-one code sample and I am very pleased. It makes a simple example context menu and x64 works out of the box: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/windowsdesktop/CppShellExtContextMenuHandl-410a709a
To get it running on your machine:
download the code via the all-in-one sample browser or use the direct link.
Open project in VS under admin rights
switch build config to x64 and build it
Kill all explorer sessions
Locate the new dll and run regsvr32.exe .\CppShellExtContextMenuHandler.dll
open explorer again and right click a .cpp file to see the new menu
remove it by running same command with /u flag
My next step is to get debugging working and I think this may do the trick: msdn
On Windows 7 x64 for a C++ extension you need to build it as an x64 project. In Visual Studio 2010 there is an option on the ATL Wizard to create a shell extension project that provides preview window support, thumbnails and Windows Search support. I recently used this and once built, nothing seemed to happen. However, switching the project configuration to build an x64 dll got it working.
With regards to using .Net - Explorer now launches plugins in a separate sub-process. So loading a shell extension that links to .net 4.0 does not contaminate everything with that version of .net as only the hosting subprocess will actually load that CLR. You can see this using a preview extension as a new process (prevhost) gets launched to contain this.
I got this one working: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/174369/How-to-Write-Windows-Shell-Extension-with-NET-Lang
Make sure you use the right RegAsm.exe for de/registering it:
32-bit platforms: Compile for x86/Any CPU. Use C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\vXYZ\RegAsm.exe.
64-bit platforms: Compile for x64/Any CPU. Use C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\vXYZ\RegAsm.exe.
(XYZ is the version of the .NET Framework you used for compiling.)
Note, however, that Microsoft recommends against using .NET for shell extensions.
The short answer to your 'can I use C#' is no. This is from Microsoft’s Guidance for Implementing In-Process Extensions. "One runtime of particular note is the common language runtime (CLR), also known as managed code or the .NET Framework. Microsoft recommends against writing managed in-process extensions to Windows Explorer or Windows Internet Explorer and does not consider them a supported scenario."
The problem arises because only a single version of .NET can be used in an application and there is no way to enforce that limitation if multiple .NET extensions are in use.
Related
How can I deploy my Win32 application as an EXE application so that others (who don't have VC++ installed) can use it?
I am using VC++ 2010 on Windows 7.
If you switch to "Release" mode when you compile your finished program (rather than "Debug", which you use for debugging it during development), you should get an executable that will run on a computer without Visual Studio installed.
However, that executable will still require the appropriate version of the C runtime library to be installed. For example, if you developed it in Visual C++ 2010, you will need version 10 of the CRT installed. This is a freely redistributable library, downloadable here.
So, you have several options for deployment:
Manual Deployment
Give people the bare executable file, and include the installer for the redistributable in another folder on the installation media. If they copy the executable to disk and cannot run it because they get an error message, they should install the CRT libraries from the included redistributable installer. Then the executable will run just fine.
This works great if you have relatively a computer-savvy audience, or you're deploying to a fixed range of machines (like across a school or corporation). But it doesn't work so well for general deployment to customers.
In fact, you don't even need the installer. You can just place the CRT DLLs in the same folder as your executable and it will run just fine. This is how I test apps I'm developing on clean VMs. It works like a charm. There's no need to run the CRT installer at all. You'll find these required libraries as part of your Visual Studio installation:
<Program Files folder>\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VC\redist\x86
Automated Deployment
Create a setup program that automatically installs your application along with any dependencies it requires, including the CRT redistributable. This is what you see most commercial applications doing. I recommend it for anything but the most trivial of apps.
Full versions of Visual Studio 2010 (i.e., not Express versions) can create a Setup Project that you can customize as needed to work as an installer for your application. But this is no longer the recommended way to create an installer, and this functionality has been removed from the latest version of Visual Studio, 2012.
So I recommend using something else, even if you have an older version of VS where the Setup Project is available. No point in wasting time creating something you'll just have to update later. My personal favorite choices for creating setup programs are WiX and Inno Setup. Both are free, and extensive documentation is available online.
Creating simple setups that don't have to do very much is really quite straightforward—this is likely the case for you, as all you need to do is install the CRT redistributable if it is not already there. I'd be willing to bet money you can find a walkthrough or example online for how to do this in either WiX or Inno Setup.
If you need to do more complicated stuff, both of these setup packages support it. They are extensively customizable and very powerful, it just takes more work to get it all going.
Static Linking
If you absolutely need to be able to distribute a bare executable that is guaranteed to simply work when double-clicked, you will need to switch your project to statically link in the required runtime libraries. This means that all of the CRT code is actually embedded by the linker directly into your executable, and means that you don't have to redistribute the CRT libraries separately.
The disadvantage of this approach is that the only way to benefit from improvements, bug fixes, and security patches released for the CRT is to recompile and redistribute your application. If you dynamically link (the default), your app will automatically benefit from enhancements to the installed version of the CRT libraries. Microsoft strongly recommends against static linking.
To switch between these modes in Visual Studio, follow these steps:
Right-click on your project in the Solution Explorer and select "Properties".
Ensure that the "Release" configuration is selected in the drop-down box at the top of the dialog.
Expand the "C/C++" item in the TreeView, and select "Code Generation".
Change the setting of the "Runtime Library" option to "Multi-threaded (/MT)".
A further description on what these cryptic compiler switches mean and which ones you should use when is given in my answer here.
Final Note: The "Debug" versions of the CRT libraries are not redistributable, but that doesn't matter because you should always distribute the "Release" build of your app anyway, never the "Debug" build.
In general, the odds are pretty good your EXE file will run on any version of Windows you built it on or higher.
All bets off, for example, if you built using Visual Studio 2012 Professional on Windows 7, and you try to run it on Windows 95. But otherwise, you're probably safe :)
The best way to test if you have any dependencies is to install and run on a "clean machine".
The best way to get (and reuse) a "clean machine" is with a VM.
I recommend VMWare. But Virtual Box and Windows Virtual PC are also viable choices.
As far as an installer, I'd strongly encourage you to look at InnoSetup
I hope that helps!
Make sure you build in release mode. As Floris Velleman said, you're using unneeded libraries for standalone executable.
For more information, you can check Compiler Options (MSDN).
Background:
According to the documentation at http://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/documentation (under 'Getting and Building the Code' the very first item says:
The easiest way to work with our source is to install Visual Studio 2010 (with SP1).
I am running VS2010 SP1 and have managed to follow all of the instructions to get this source code up and running (on my Win7 64 bit machine). I am have the .NET 4.5 framework installed.
Problem:
During the build (from the command line) as well as from Visual Studio itself, I get the following error:
"The project file 'MY_LOCAL_PATH\src\System.Net.Http.Formatting.NetCore\System.Net.Http.Formatting.NetCore.csproj' cannot be opened. The project type is not supported."
Does anyone know how to get this project to load? All of the others in the Runtime.sln load fine.
UPDATE:
The two project type guids that are in the project file (csproj) are BC8A1FFA-BEE3-4634-8014-F334798102B3 and FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC. The first has something to with Metro and the other is C#. I could understand the metro hangup but again the documentation says VS2010 SP1 is fine.
As documented here, the solution now requires VS2012 and Windows 8. I'll update the documentation Wiki accordingly.
I have emailed a few people as well as this post to no avail. Looking more into this and my best guess is that because of the Metro project type I am going to need to get Windows 8 to get this to work. The MVC project does build regardless of this project so I am going to say this is the answer.
I've looked through the existing threads on IronPython and IDEs without finding an answer.
If I don't need to support Python 3, is there a practical way to do IronPython development fully inside the VS 2k10 IDE like I used to with FORTRAN.net?
IronPython 2.7 includes VS 2010 support - it's still only a beta but if you download and install it there's an option to install VS support. That includes a project system, intellisense, a REPL window, object browsing, etc...
I'm afraid the answer is no. I have had bad luck with IronPython, especially when native modules are in play (even when they're part of the standard library). However, there is IronPython Studio, which is built on VS2008 and IPyDD. I don't think .NET is ready for Python yet :(
VS 2008 No.
VS2010 The extension module is fine, but it does not allow you to compile to an exe from within VS2010.
I prefer Sharpdevelop 3.5 or later. I don't know if #develop supports FORTRAN.NET though.
I'm curious about your thoughts on moving to a new IDE (specifically Eclipse). I have been hearing wonderful things about it from this community and I'm always on the lookout to try new things.
Currently I'm running Visual Studio 2005, with a bunch of external commands loaded (for compiling down to a binary, running lint, etc). We're developing C code for microcontrollers.
I've read over some of the other threads on here about the advantages and disadvantages to Eclipse and Visual Studio (specifically SO - best IDE thread and SO - best C IDE thread), but I'd like to hear your thoughts on using it for programming an embedded environment. I'd imagine that there is a simple way to use the external tools that Visual Studio currently uses (it simply calls various batch files that we've created).
Is it worth it to specifically switch over to Eclipse?
Answer to you question about way to call external tools: no problem - from eclispe you can anything: external program, batch file etc. Moreover, if you use custom build generator - you could use it transparent with eclipse.
I don't think I would switch from Visual Studio to Eclipse in hopes of getting a better IDE. Typically an embedded manufacturer makes plugins and toolchains that work specificially with Eclispe, that's what makes it worth using in the Embedded world. For example with the NetBurner plug-ins, when creating a new project you can just select New NetBurner Device Excecutable, or New NetBurner Library, all the default includes and libraries get set up for you and the proper cross platform tool chain is set up for you automatically. In the NetBurner case it also uses the Eclipse managed build process (as opposed to make files) which I find nice. There is also support for using make files if you prefer that option.
While I have a couple of tools set up to run as external tools (lint, an auto version updater, DOS prompt etc) most steps can be triggered from pre-build or post-build steps or there are many many add-ons for common needs like source code management, bug tracking, etc. There is great support for SVN, Trac and Mylyn for example. I use both VS2010 and Eclipse. I like them both but VS2010 is the better IDE. It's a little hard to compare because I do C# (and a little C++/CLI )in VS and C++ in Eclipse. That said, I wouldn't relish the though of trying set up VS to do my embedded tasks.
I am pretty new to programming. I would like to download an open source project and build it in my Microsoft Visual Studio 2008. In fact, I tried to import and build the application WinSCP:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/winscp/
But I didn’t work. Please can somebody help me and tell me which files do I have to download (from sourceforge) and how to import these into Microsoft Visual Studio in order to build the application. Thank you a lot. David
WinSCP seems to be written in Borland C++ Builder or whatever it's called today. It's not a standard C++ program and wouldn't compile in any other compiler because it uses special features only present in BCB. (It uses Delphi-style components, VCL and thus the __property keyword.)
Unfortunately, a lot of Open Source projects have very poor support for Microsoft's development tools. One project that comes to mind as being not too big and having workable MSVC project files is FreeType2, but that's a library and not an application, which probably makes it not very interesting for toying around with.
In support forum of winscp, they say, that you can't compile this project in Visual Studio.
Winscp appears to be a CPP project using a makefile instead of a sln file. VS uses SLN and *proj files to control builds and such. A good way to start would be to open VS, create a new console project (and solution) and go through some tutorials online.
If you really want to just see how a large project works in VS, grab something like IronRuby or IronPython or even something like the Witty twitter client.
In the general case, it is not possible to pour the C++ sources of a program into Visual Studio and expect it to work. C++ programming environments are far too different between operating systems for that. If you have a open-source program which builds and runs fine on Linux (for example), it may need several weeks (or months) or programming effort to make it run on Windows.