Timothy Tocci

Open the registry editor (eg by pressing Windows + "R" and entering regedit) Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes Right-click CLSID and select "Key" from the menu to create a new key. Name this key {86ca1aa0-34aa-4e8b-a509-50c905bae2a2} Right click the new key and select "Key" from the menu to create a second new key inside the first, and name this InprocServer32 Expand…

GetMyMusicOffOfMyIpodAndOntoMyComputer application in VB

  Project files on Github

Windows Installer To Try It Out Without Installing Visual Studio

Originally this application was a console application that I developed to get the music off of my iPod. After my post on transparent forms in VIsual Basic I decided to port it to a Widget format to make it easier to use and demonstrate what goes into creating a transparent Windows Forms application…

Necessi…

Transparent Forms in VB.NET WinForms Applications

Creating transparent irregular shaped forms in a WinForms applications using Visual Basic is not too difficult. Using a photographic background with a transparent color, a programmer can create some really attractive interfaces. Of course creating an interface sans the standard titlebar chrome requires a bit more work and programming. However, if you want to provide a memorable interface that is…

FileSystemWatcher Class in VB.NET

  FileSystemWatcher in VB Example

Just a quick post on using the Microsoft file system watcher component in the .Net framework with Visual Basic. Utilizing the Microsoft file system watcher component in .Net with Visual Basic, you’re able to watch a directory structure for changes to its contents and respond with Visual Basic code.

Using the.net file watching component is pretty simple on the…

Synchronous Delegate in VB.NET

I didn’t know why I would need one either until the need came up (“Oh no, my UI is on a different thread!”). Delegatesare described as similar to function pointers in C++ in the Microsoft documentation. When I read that I said to myself “yeah, but Visual Basic doesn’t work like that wonderful and painfully frustrating language that AT&T invented so long ago”. So Microsoft still has to learn that…

Getting System Information With WMI and VB.NET

Machine Information app

I’ve been getting back into developing with Visual Basic lately. I’ve learned much of what I need to know in the past while in college; or so I thought. Much has changed since those days of Visual Basic 6. Everything is done a bit differently now using dot NET. Before, everything was Component Object Model components – and I really liked Visual Basic 6 for making it easier…

Preview File Types as Text in Preview Pane in Windows Explorer on Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista

Visual Basic file shown in the preview pan in Windows Explorer (file from the tutorial here)

If you use Windows the way I do you use the Windows Explorer Preview pane to look at text based files. Why? Because it’s just easier that way. Most of the time I have to look back at files to see exactly how I pulled something off in the past. If it wasn’t for the preview pane I would have to open that…

Overriding Backbone.sync for local use

If you’re using Backbone to develop the front end in a local application you’ll have to override the Backbone.sync functionality to replace the REST functionality normally used by the library. Using Backbonein a local environment to store data, whether to store data in a file on the hard drive or using a local DB, is a bit different from its normal usage. The REST functionality has to be replaced…

Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version 3

Internet Explorer 11 Context Menu Chooser Application Version 3

This is an application that allows you to pick and choose which of the many context menu add-ons you would like enabled in your browser. Internet Explorer does not support nested context menus so this I wrote this application to make it easy to enable and disable different menu items you may want to use (instead of separate scripts).…

MilSpecGreen Windows 10 Apps

This is a high contrast theme that I can actually endure using late at night without getting frustrated. This theme works great on Windows 10 and Windows 8. I even did a version for Windows 7 to make all of my systems match. Hope you get some use out of them. The download links and screenshots are below.

MilSpecGreen Windows 10 Start Menu

Sore eyes caused me to create…

Windows Admin Command Prompt Here and Desktop Shutdown Menu Items

Just a couple of Windows tweaks scripted into nice small nullsoft installers for convenience. This way if you want to remove them at any time in the future you just uninstall them as you would any other program, Although they were scripted on and for Windows 10, they should also work for all older versions of Windows as well.

Admin Command Prompt Here Menu Item

The Admin Command Prompt Here menu…

Internet Explorer Context Menu Chooser Application Version 2

Analyze-it menu chooser

With this new version the Analyze-it context menus were updated to the most recent version. Analyze-it contained so many menu items that I had to add a counter to the interface t0 indicate when there are more than the twenty menu item visible limit. The menu counter is only active for page context (basic context menu the page provides – nothing selected in other words)…