Learn about a comprehensive method of getting the Windows version and differentiate among the various editions.

Discover an easy way to set up system-wide global API hooks using AppInit_DLLs registry key for DLL injection and Mhook library for API hooking. To illustrate this technique we will show how to easily hide calc.exe from the list of running processes.

Did a former Microsoft employee post projected ship dates for upcoming key products like Windows 8?

Discover how to develop a simple file system filter driver. The demo driver will print the names of opening files to debug output. The article requires basic windows driver and C/C++ knowledge. However it may be interesting to the people without windows driver experience.

The new Windows 7 user interface features can offer Web developers significant productivity gains in terms of organizing, finding, and navigating to commonly used resources. This article introduces you to the improvements which can cut significant time from otherwise mundane daily workflow tasks.

Understand from this guide how and when - as well as when not - to use multithreading.

Even the best-written C++ applications can crash or hang-and end-users' perceptions of the application hinge on how gracefully the application works with the operating system to handle such problems. By registering your applications with Windows Application Recovery and Restart, they can recover gracefully after errors occur.

Generate multiple (on-screen)Virtual Keyboards to include into your portable application via a DLL, so that your users can take theirlanguage/keyboard with them on their travels, even if the PC they use does not have their home keyboard installed.

By adopting a messaging based approach to task parallelism, the Asynchronous Agents Library provides a simple model for concurrent programming that avoids the complexity of memory locks.

Discover how to use separate projects within a solution to reduce confusion when you have imported code mixed with your new code.

Understand the new direction in development of static code analyzers - verification of parallel programs. The article reviews several static analyzers which can claim to be called "Parallel Lint".

Visual C++ 2010 includes a number of new features for preventing data inconsistencies due to simultaneous updates of memory locations - a key challenge in parallel development.

Event-driven programming or event-based programming is a programming paradigm in which the flow of the program is determined by events - i.e., sensor outputs or user actions (mouse clicks, key presses) or messages from other programs or threads. Event-driven applications usually are organized as in state machine modes due to complicated event interaction. An IPC event queue manager is required to support event-based programming.

Visual C++ 10.0's new Parallel Pattern Library supplies methods to execute multiple processing tasks, across available processing resources, eliminating the headache of manually allocating task execution.

Detect the types of SIMD instructions available on the processor.

Discover how to retrieve device path and device instance id for storage devices attached to the system.

Discover the AMD64 architecture and its implementation EM64T by Intel.

Use Lock Leveling to Prevent Multi-threading Deadlocks

Discover how to retrieve information on your computer's devices including the mouse, keyboard, and other peripherals attached to the system.

The Buffered Animation API makes it easy to make animations without flickering. Learn how to use this Buffered Animation API.

Learn how to fixing flickering issues when drawing graphics by using double buffering.

The CTP build of Visual C++ 2010 includes a new library to help you write native parallel code.

Pursue a description of a number of parallel code errors that lead to incorrect behavior of parallel programs created with OpenMP.

Sometimes, you can't avoid writing your own DLL. This explanation takes some of the mystery out of the process.

Learn how to support touchscreens in your applications on handsets running Qualcomm Brew.

Find out what is under the SFL's hood.

Memory-map files to save valuable RAM or simplify file parsing in embedded Qualcomm Brew applications.

Learn how to rapidly develop applications and add-ins using ATL for Windows CE.

Discover a method for customizing message boxes created with the MessageBox Windows API function.

Drill deeper into Mobile Development in C++ and go through the development and debugging of a Windows Mobile 6 application with a focus on MFC.

Learn more about this very useful library.

This is a Version Number Build Tool for Automatic Version Numbering after each build in the Visual Studio Environment.

A MySQL Storage engine requires functions that MySQL provides. Therefore, you normally need to link it into mysqld-core under Windows because mysqld.exe doesn't export all required functions (because it's an .exe, not a .dll). So, you're unable to import the required functions in our Plugin. Learn a possible way to circumvent this limitation by using the .map files that are provided with MySQL.

Writing Windows services never was an easy thing, but this article makes it far simpler for you to do.

Learn about Hadcon's real-time module for Windows XP/2000.

Try a no-embedded-background-needed introduction into developing Windows Mobile applications in C++. With comprehensive support for smart device development in Visual C++ and great device emulation features in the Windows Mobile SDKs, mobile development is well within the reach of all Visual C++ developers.

Explore the challenges of developing an MFC application to use on Vista and non-Vista platforms in the context of Vista's new Command Link Button style.

Learn to use the "Network Distributed Object Model" to have a simplified way of performing network communication at the object level.

Walk through the development of a simple guitar tuner Vista sidebar gadget and in the process learn a little bit about Silverlight, XAML, and Vista gadgets.

Microsoft Foundation Classes continue to play an important role for C++ developers. Discover how to upgrade an existing application with MFC 9's full support for the Windows Vista look-and-feel.

By Matt Goebel Explore the common pitfalls of Vista development, some quick workarounds, and best practices. Learn about the UAC, Virtualization, impact on pre-installed .NET Frameworks, common program compatibility issues, and guidelines for UI/UX design.

The application that runs on everything—this would be a dream of every developer! Use Java, one might say. But even Java has different implementations, is limited in features, and so forth, not to mention the differences for mobile devices. This article offers you few simple receipts you can use to effectively port your mobile C++ applications back and forth between several mobile platforms.

Multicore processors bring new challenges. See a solution for gaining the ability to scale to the increasing number and types of processor cores.

Learn how to check whether or not a component is a .NET managed component. Also, learn to get other information, such as dependent assemblies, from the metadata using Microsoft APIs and related COM interfaces.

For long-term Visual C++ developers, the CryptoAPI will be a familiar part of your programming toolkit. If you're developing Windows Vista applications, though, you should be applying the new Windows Cryptography API: Next Generation.

Windows Vista introduces a new security concept called User Access Control (UAC), where local administrators have two access tokens—one representing the privileges of a normal user and the other holding the elevated privileges of the local administrator account. Here, you will learn how to properly implement the UAC to provide a rich user experience.

Windows PowerShell replaces the outdated batch files and Windows Scripting Host with a brand new object-oriented shell and scripting language. In this article, you will learn how to retrieve directory and filenames from a specific drive.

Windows Vista brings tablet-style development to the mainstream by incorporating ink functionality directly into the core operating system. The greater availability of operating system support for ink is complemented by new Vista drivers from digitizer OEMs that provide the same functionality as a full TabletPC device, greatly increasing the potential client-base for ink enabled applications. This article will look at how an existing application can work with new forms of input without a major re-design.

Within the new threading and synchronization APIs that Microsoft added to the Windows SDK for Vista, condition variables dramatically simplify the semantics of lock acquisition and management.

If you have been using Vista, you would have noticed that MessageBoxes are passé. These have been replaced by the new Task Dialogs. Task dialogs are intended to make the experience more interactive and goal-oriented. Take a tour of the Task Dialog API.