1 ONE Windows Shell Programming W ith each operating system release, service pack, and Internet Explorer upgrade, Microsoft adds more possibilities for vendors to extend and … … Windows user interface.This has been the case with earlier versions of Windows through its latest release, Windows 2000. The first version of Windows many of us did any serious development for was Windows 3.x. With the 3.x versions, you could add limited modifications to the shell:• Control Panel applets• Screen savers• File manager …
With each operating system release, service pack, and Internet Explorer upgrade, Microsoft adds more possibilities for vendors to extend and enhance the Windows userinterface.This has been the case with earlier versions of Windows through its latest release, Windows 2000. The first version of Windows many of us did any serious development for was Windows 3.x. With the 3.x versions, you could add limited modifications to the shell: • Control Panel applets • Screen savers • File manager extensions The early file manager extensions allowed developers to only add menu items and toolbar buttons. On any given Windows installation, a computer could have up to five extensions installed. A lot of time has passed since then, and the developers at Microsoft have continued to enhance the extensibility of the shell. With Windows 2000, the shell still allows you to write your own Control Panel applets and screen savers, but you can also do more— much more. For example, you can: • Customize the Windows taskbar • Add extra menu options when right-clicking on a file • Add advanced handling of folders, drives, and printers • Handle new data formats when a file is copied and pasted • Allow specialized actions when a file gets dropped on a file type • Monitor copying of folders, drives, and printers • Add your own views of data in Windows Explorer …. 1.1Goals of this Book It is my belief that a book on a specific technology should not just explain the technology; it should also make it easier to use that technology. For example, I have a few fairly popular C++ books: • Effective C++ byScott Meyers • More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers • Large Scale C++Software Design by John Lakos • C++ FAQs by Marshall Cline and Greg Lomow • The C++Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup I have learned more from the first four books than from the fifth, which was written by the inventor of the language! Do not get me wrong, Stroustrup’s text has helped me around syntactical errors, but the others have given me tools to write better code faster.1I will try to show how to write good code that uses and enhances the Windows shell. In order to accomplish this, I provide a lot of fully functional examples as well as what I hope are production- quality libraries and wizards to make your life easier. 1. Stroustrup has written many articles and USENET posts that will help you use the language better. However, The C++ Programming Language is just a language reference, not a “how to do it better” kind of book.
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