Yet another coding blog

skype-open-source: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source availabl...

2011-06-02T16:29:00.000+03:00

skype-open-source: Skype protocol reverse engineered, source availabl...: "Hello, I'am Efim Bushmanov a freelance researcher and here is my project files on skype research. While 'Wall Street Journal' makes politi..."

Qt Windows 7 extend frame into client area with transparency

2011-03-31T16:51:00.002+03:00

I wanted to have something similar to these below:

Making the window transparent did not help me much. I was getting this:

I could not get rid of the margins.

After some research I figured out, and the result can be seen below:

To get merge the margins with the window frame it is enough to call DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea with the margins value set to -1.

void ExtendFrameIntoClientArea(QWidget* widget) {
    MARGINS margins = {-1};

    DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea(widget->winId(), &margins);
}

The transparency part is easy, it was published long time ago:

long EnableBlurBehindWidget(QWidget* widget, bool enable)
{
    HWND hwnd = widget->winId();
    HRESULT hr = S_OK;

    widget->setAttribute(Qt::WA_TranslucentBackground, enable);
    widget->setAttribute(Qt::WA_NoSystemBackground, enable);

    // Create and populate the Blur Behind structure
    DWM_BLURBEHIND bb = {0};

    bb.dwFlags = DWM_BB_ENABLE;
    bb.fEnable = enable;
    bb.hRgnBlur = NULL;

    DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow(hwnd, &bb);
    return hr;
}

I have managed to compile this using MINGW. The DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow and DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea are loaded directly from dwmapi.dll.

#include <windows.h>

#define DWM_BB_ENABLE                 0x00000001  // fEnable has been specified

typedef struct _DWM_BLURBEHIND
{
    DWORD dwFlags;
    BOOL fEnable;
    HRGN hRgnBlur;
    BOOL fTransitionOnMaximized;
} DWM_BLURBEHIND, *PDWM_BLURBEHIND;

typedef struct _MARGINS
{
    int cxLeftWidth;      // width of left border that retains its size
    int cxRightWidth;     // width of right border that retains its size
    int cyTopHeight;      // height of top border that retains its size
    int cyBottomHeight;   // height of bottom border that retains its size
} MARGINS, *PMARGINS;

extern "C"
{
    typedef HRESULT (WINAPI *t_DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow)(HWND hWnd, const DWM_BLURBEHIND* pBlurBehind);
    typedef HRESULT (WINAPI *t_DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea)(HWND hwnd, const MARGINS *pMarInset);
}

void DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea(HWND hwnd, const MARGINS *pMarInset) {
    HMODULE shell;

    shell = LoadLibrary(L"dwmapi.dll");
    if (shell) {
        t_DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea set_window_frame_into_client_area = reinterpret_cast<t_DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea>(GetProcAddress (shell, "DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea"));
        set_window_frame_into_client_area(hwnd, pMarInset);

        FreeLibrary (shell);
    }

}

void DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow(HWND hwnd, const DWM_BLURBEHIND* pBlurBehind) {
    HMODULE shell;

    shell = LoadLibrary(L"dwmapi.dll");
    if (shell) {
        t_DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow set_window_blur = reinterpret_cast<t_DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow>(GetProcAddress (shell, "DwmEnableBlurBehindWindow"));
        set_window_blur(hwnd, pBlurBehind);

        FreeLibrary (shell);
    }
}

The project can be downloaded from here.

Windows 7 Taskbar Extensions in Qt: Tab Thumbnails

2011-03-31T15:48:00.003+03:00

In this post I'll explain how I implemented this Windows 7 feature using Qt with MINGW32.

For this purpose I have created a simple browser with tabs.

The main blockers implementing this using Qt with MINGW32 are the missing defintions of various important Windows 7 SDK functions, interfaces, enums, constants and structures (e.g. ITaskbarList3, ITaskbarList4, CLSID_TaskbarList, STPFLAG, DWMWINDOWATTRIBUTE, and DWM functions (DwmInvalidateIconicBitmaps, DwmSetIconicThumbnail, DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap, DwmSetWindowAttribute)).

In order to fix this I had to define them mingw friendly in my project. The DWM functions are loaded during runtime from dwmapi.dll.

In the win7utils.h and win7utils.cpp you can see the final result.

Initializing

Firstly the program has to register the TaskbarButtonCreated message. This will create a taskbar button for this application. Without this it is impossible to use the new Windows 7 features.

After having the taskbar button created the application has to initialize an ITaskbarList3 or ITaskbarList4 interface in order to be able to access the new features.

In our event filter:

bool MyClass::eventFilter(void *message_, long *result)
{
    static unsigned int taskBarCreatedId = WM_NULL;

    MSG* message = static_cast(message_);

    if (taskBarCreatedId == WM_NULL) {
        taskBarCreatedId = RegisterWindowMessage(L"TaskbarButtonCreated");
        return false;
    }

    if (message->message == taskBarCreatedId &&
        message->hwnd == parent->winId()) 
        //very important to check to which window this message is address
        //since it is possible to get a dozen of them
        //the parent can be a QMainWindow or any other QWidget which acts as a 
        //tab container
    {
        //init the ITaskbarList3  interface
        //announce that the interface is ready
        return true;
    }
    //...
}

Adding tabs

The most important ITaskbarList3 functions to work with in this case are: RegisterTab, SetTabActive, SetTabOrder and UnregisterTab.

You should not register the window or widget which contains these tabs as a tab.

First thing to do is to capture all messages sent to the application. This can be achieved by substituting the current application's event filter with ours.
This will route all messages to our own function.

// MyClass.h
class MyClass {
//..
  static bool eventFilter(void *message_, long *result);
  static QCoreApplication::EventFilter m_oldEventFilter;
//..
};

//MyClass.cpp
QCoreApplication::EventFilter TabsManager::m_oldEventFilter = NULL;

MyClass::MyClass {
//..
   m_oldEventFilter = qApp->setEventFilter(&MyClass::eventFilter);
}

Before registering a widget as a tab it is necessary to set two attributes to the window handle. This can be achieved by setting the DWMWA_FORCE_ICONIC_REPRESENTATION and DWMWA_HAS_ICONIC_BITMAP to true:

void EnableWidgetIconicPreview(QWidget* widget) {
    BOOL enable = TRUE;

    DwmSetWindowAttribute(
        widget->winId(),
        DWMWA_FORCE_ICONIC_REPRESENTATION,
        &enable,
        sizeof(enable));

    DwmSetWindowAttribute(
        widget->winId(),
        DWMWA_HAS_ICONIC_BITMAP,
        &enable,
        sizeof(enable));
}

This code will make the application receive WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL and WM_DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP messages when a thumbnail is requested for the registered widget.

Another important thing which is related to Qt, you SHOULD NOT REGISTER AS A TAB A WIDGET WHICH IS BEING USED IN THE MAINWINDOW OR DIALOG.
This will not work.
The solution is to create a new blank widget, register it, and map the real widget to this blank widget. The thumbnails in the taskbar will be provided by the real widgets but the messages will be addressed to the blank ones.

So each time when a WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL or WM_DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP message is received, it is addressed to the blank registered widget, not the real one.

The steps:
1) Create a new QWidget*
2) Map this created QWidget to the real QWidget is being used. This is apt to you.
3) Set iconic preview enabled to the created QWidget
4) Register the created QWidget as a tab
5) Set tab order
6) Set it as the active tab

//ITaskbarList3*  m_taskbarHandler;
//QMap<WId, QWidget*> m_widgetMap;
//QWidget* m_parent;

void MyClass::addTab(QWidget* widget) {

    QWidget* tab_widget = new QWidget();

    //enable iconic preview
    EnableWidgetIconicPreview(tab_widget->winId(), true);

    //map it
    m_widgetMap[tab_widget->winId()] = widget;


    //register it
    m_taskbarHandler->RegisterTab(tab_widget->winId(), m_parent->winId());
    m_taskbarHandler->SetTabOrder(tab_widget->winId(), NULL);
    m_taskbarHandler->SetTabActive(NULL, tab_widget->winId(), 0);
}

Processing the received messages

In our own event filter we'll receive many messages, the most important ones are:

The message code provided by the RegisterWindowMessage function. When the "TaskbarButtonCreated" message was registered - When this happens our tab manager will initialize the ITaskbarList3 interface.

WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL - from MSDN: "instructs a window to provide a static bitmap to use as a thumbnail representation of that window."

WM_DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP - from MSDN: "Instructs a window to provide a static bitmap to use as a live preview (also known as a Peek preview) of that window."

WM_ACTIVATE - when a thumbnail was clicked.

WM_CLOSE - when a thumbnail is about to be closed.

Providing the static bitmap

When a WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL message is received first thing it is checked if this is addressed to one of our registered widgets. This check can be done by comparing widget->winId() to message->hwnd. If they match we have to provide a static bitmap.
The created bitmap is set by calling the DwmSetIconicThumbnail function

Providing the live preview

Basically is almost the same as in the first case, except that the DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap function is called.

An example:

case WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL:
     //check if this is message is addressed to one of our widgets
     if (!m_widgetMap.contains(message.hwnd)) return false;
     
     //get the real widget
     widget = m_widgetMap[message.hwnd];

     QPixmap thumbnail = QPixmap::grabWidget(widget).scaled(size, Qt::KeepAspectRatio);

     //QPixmap::Alpha in case the image has transparent regions
     HBITMAP hbitmap = thumbnail.toWinHBITMAP(QPixmap::Alpha);

     DwmSetIconicThumbnail(id, hbitmap, 0);
     DeleteObject(hbitmap);
     return true;

case WM_DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP:
     //check if this is message is addressed to one of our widgets
     if (!m_widgetMap.contains(message.hwnd)) return false;
     
     //we want to grap the main window and show as a live preview
     widget = parent;

     QPixmap thumbnail = QPixmap::grabWidget(widget).scaled(size, Qt::KeepAspectRatio);

     HBITMAP hbitmap = thumbnail.toWinHBITMAP(QPixmap::NoAlpha);

     DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap(id, hbitmap, 0);
     DeleteObject(hbitmap);
     return true;

case WM_ACTIVATE :
     if (LOWORD(message->wParam) == WA_ACTIVE) {
        //check if this is message is addressed to one of our widgets
        if (!m_widgetMap.contains(message->hwnd)) return false;
   
         //get the real widget
         widget = m_widgetMap[message->hwnd];
         
         //announce that widget was activated
         //..
     }
     //route message further
     return false;

case WM_CLOSE :
      //The same as for WM_ACTIVE except ..
      //announce that widget is about to be removed
      //..
      
      return false;

Updating the tab

When the content of the tab has changed, the thumbnail bitmap will not change by itself. That is why is needed to call DwmInvalidateIconicBitmaps. This will update the taskbar thumbnail for the specified tab.

The source code can be downloaded from here.

Strix Code Blog: Windows 7 or Vista UAC Shield Icon in Qt

2011-03-31T11:17:00.000+03:00

Strix Code Blog: Windows 7 or Vista UAC Shield Icon in Qt: "(For a way to embed an application manifest with QtCreator see here) In a Qt application you cannot use the BCM_SETSHIELD message to show t..."

Windows 7 Taskbar Extensions in Qt: Window Thumbnail Image

2011-03-24T16:56:00.004+02:00

In this tutorial I'll explain how to set a iconic bitmap on a window to use as a thumbnail representation using Qt with MINGW.

Missing definitions and declarations

To be able to set a custom thumbnail, the following functions are required:
- DwmSetIconicThumbnail
- DwmSetWindowAttribute
- DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap

These functions can be found in the Dwmapi.h header file. Unfortunately this file is not present in MINGW.

The solution is to call them directly from Dwmapi.dll.

Firstly it is needed to typedef a function pointer type to these functions.

extern "C"
{
    typedef HRESULT (WINAPI *t_DwmSetIconicThumbnail)(HWND hwnd, HBITMAP hbmp, DWORD dwSITFlags);
    typedef HRESULT (WINAPI *t_DwmSetWindowAttribute)(HWND hwnd, DWORD dwAttribute, LPCVOID pvAttribute, DWORD cbAttribute);
    typedef HRESULT (WINAPI *t_DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap)(HWND hwnd, HBITMAP hbmp, POINT *pptClient, DWORD dwSITFlags);
}

Then, make wrappers which will call these functions directly from the dll.

void DwmSetIconicThumbnail(HWND hwnd, HBITMAP hbmp, DWORD dwSITFlags) {
    HMODULE shell;

    shell = LoadLibrary(L"dwmapi.dll");
    if (shell) {
        t_DwmSetIconicThumbnail set_iconic_thumbnail = reinterpret_cast<t_DwmSetIconicThumbnail>(GetProcAddress (shell, "DwmSetIconicThumbnail"));
        set_iconic_thumbnail(hwnd, hbmp, dwSITFlags);

        FreeLibrary (shell);
    }
}

void DwmSetWindowAttribute(HWND hwnd, DWORD dwAttribute, LPCVOID pvAttribute, DWORD cbAttribute) {
    HMODULE shell;

    shell = LoadLibrary(L"dwmapi.dll");
    if (shell) {
        t_DwmSetWindowAttribute set_window_attribute = reinterpret_cast<t_DwmSetWindowAttribute>(GetProcAddress (shell, "DwmSetWindowAttribute"));
        set_window_attribute(hwnd, dwAttribute, pvAttribute, cbAttribute);

        FreeLibrary (shell);
    }
}

void DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap(HWND hwnd, HBITMAP hbmp, POINT *pptClient, DWORD dwSITFlags) {
    HMODULE shell;

    shell = LoadLibrary(L"dwmapi.dll");
    if (shell) {
        t_DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap set_live_preview = reinterpret_cast<t_DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap>(GetProcAddress (shell, "DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap"));
        set_live_preview(hwnd, hbmp, pptClient, dwSITFlags);

        FreeLibrary (shell);
    }
}

Project settings

It is needed to add extra linkage libraries options to the linker.

LIBS += libgdi32

Setting the thumbnail

You need to do the following:
1) Call the DwmSetWindowAttribute function to set window attributes for non-client rendering to DWMWA_FORCE_ICONIC_REPRESENTATION and DWMWA_HAS_ICONIC_BITMAP
2) Catch WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL and WM_DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP Windows events
3) Call DwmSetIconicThumbnail, on WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL event, to set thumbnail bitmap
4) Call DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap, on DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP event, to set the window live preview bitmap

Firslty, set window attributes:

void MainWindow::EnableIconicPreview(bool enable) {
    BOOL fForceIconic = enable ? TRUE : FALSE;
    BOOL fHasIconicBitmap = enable ? TRUE : FALSE;

    DwmSetWindowAttribute(
        this->winId(),
        DWMWA_FORCE_ICONIC_REPRESENTATION,
        &fForceIconic,
        sizeof(fForceIconic));


    DwmSetWindowAttribute(
        this->winId(),
        DWMWA_HAS_ICONIC_BITMAP,
        &fHasIconicBitmap,
        sizeof(fHasIconicBitmap));
}

Secondly, re-implement the QMainWindow winEvent protected function:

class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
//..

protected:
    bool winEvent(MSG * message, long * result);

//..
};

bool MainWindow::winEvent(MSG * message, long * result)
{
    switch (message->message)
    {
    case WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL:
        //call DwmSetIconicThumbnail
        break;

    case WM_DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP:
        //call  DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap
        break;
    default:
        return false;
    }

    return false;
}

On WM_DWMSENDICONICTHUMBNAIL event

Convert a QPixmap image to HBITMAP, and call DwmSetIconicThumbnail for this window:

QPixmap image(":/qtlogo.png");
HBITMAP hbitmap = m_image.toWinHBITMAP();
DwmSetIconicThumbnail(this->winId(), hbitmap, 0);
DeleteObject(hbitmap);

On WM_DWMSENDICONICLIVEPREVIEWBITMAP event

In this case it is required to provide the taskbar with a custom image of the selected window:

HBITMAP hbitmap = QPixmap::grabWidget(this).scaled(this->size(), Qt::KeepAspectRatio).toWinHBITMAP();
DwmSetIconicLivePreviewBitmap(this->winId(), hbitmap, 0, 0);

DeleteObject(hbitmap);

The result:

The code can be downloaded from here.

Useful link.

Windows 7 Taskbar Extensions in Qt: Thumbnail Toolbar

2011-03-24T12:26:00.001+02:00

In this tutorial I'll explain how to create a Windows 7 thumbnail toolbar using Qt with MINGW GCC. At the end of the post you'll find the link to the project's code.

Missing definitions and declarations

MINGW GCC doesn't have all needed definitions and declarations to create a windows 7 thumbnail toolbar. That is why they need to be defined. I've explained how I did it in my previous post. You can browse the definitions file here.

Project settings

It is needed to add extra linkage libraries options to the linker.

LIBS += libcomctl32 libole32

Creating the thumbnail toolbar

In short you need to do the following:
1) Create an instance to the ITaskbarList3 COM interface
2) Create a list of images and add it to the thumbnail toolbar
3) Create a list of thumbnail toolbar buttons and add it to the toolbar
4) Update the buttons or the images when needed

What you can do:
1) Show/hide, disable/enable, change button details, update the image list
2) Have a thumbnail toolbar per program's window

What you can't do:
1) Add more than 7 buttons to the toolbar
2) Remove the toolbar (it will be destroyed when the window associated to it will be destroyed.)

Initialize the ITaskbarList3 COM interface

Firstly you need to implement your own winEvent function. This can be done by overriding the QMainWindow's winEvent protected function.

class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
//...
protected:
     bool winEvent(MSG * message, long * result);
//...
};

In order to initialize the ITaskbarList3 COM interface it is needed to register the
"TaskbarButtonCreated" event.

//..
unsigned int messageId = RegisterWindowMessage(L"TaskbarButtonCreated");
//..

When the event is registered, it is possible to obtain access to ITaskbarList3.

Putting all together:

//...
bool MainWindow::winEvent(MSG * message, long * result)
{
    static UINT taskBarCreatedId = WM_NULL;
    if (taskBarCreatedId == WM_NULL) {
        taskBarCreatedId = RegisterWindowMessage(L"TaskbarButtonCreated");
    }

    if (message->message == taskBarCreatedId) {
        //initialize the ITaskbarList3 interface
    } 

    return false;
}

Initializing the Interface

//..
void MainWindow::W7ToolbarInit() {
    HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_TaskbarList, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ITaskbarList3,
                                  reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(m_w7toolbar)));

    if (SUCCEEDED(hr)){

        hr = m_w7toolbar->HrInit();

        if (FAILED(hr)) {
            m_w7toolbar->Release();
            m_w7toolbar = NULL;
        }
    }
}
//..

Create the list of images

The images I used in the project were PNG files 20x20 pixels, 32 bit, with transparency.

Create the image list to hold 4 images:

HIMAGELIST himl = ImageList_Create(20, 20, ILC_COLOR32, 4, 0);

Add the images to the list:

QPixmap img;
QBitmap mask;

img = QIcon(":/back.png").pixmap(20);
mask  = img.createMaskFromColor(Qt::transparent);
ImageList_Add(himl, img.toWinHBITMAP(QPixmap::PremultipliedAlpha), mask.toWinHBITMAP());

//repeat the same thing for the rest of the images

Set the thumbnailtoolbar's image list to the :

m_w7toolbar->ThumbBarSetImageList(this->winId(), himl);

"this" is a pointer to a QMainWindow object, but it also can be a QWidget pointer.

Free the allocated memory:

ImageList_Destroy(himl);

Add the buttons

Each button structure holds information about the button. Such as image index, the index from the image list, tool tip text, state, visibility and other flags.

It is important to remember, the thumbnail toolbar can't hold more than 7 buttons.

Let's say we want to have three buttons:

class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
//..
     THUMBBUTTON m_thbButtons[3];
//..
};

Initializing and adding the buttons:

#define IDTB_FIRST 3000

void MainWindow::W7ToolbarButtonsInit() {
    QString tooltips[3] = {"Prev", "Play", "Next"};

    for (int index = 0; index < 3; index++) {
        wcscpy(m_thbButtons[index].szTip, tooltips[index].toStdWString().c_str());

        //the ID of the button
        m_thbButtons[index].iId = IDTB_FIRST + index;
        //the image of the button, index from the image list
        m_thbButtons[index].iBitmap = index;
        
        //show tooltip and use the bitmpap index
        m_thbButtons[index].dwMask = (THUMBBUTTONMASK)(THB_BITMAP | THB_FLAGS | THB_TOOLTIP);

        //set the button enabled
        m_thbButtons[index].dwFlags = (THUMBBUTTONFLAGS)(THBF_ENABLED);

    }

    //set the buttons
    m_w7toolbar->ThumbBarAddButtons(this->winId(), 3, m_thbButtons);
}

Once the buttons are added, they should be visible.

Catching the thumbnailtoolbar click events

When a button is pressed, an event with the button's id is generated. These events can be caught in the winEvent function.

//...
bool MainWindow::winEvent(MSG * message, long * result)
{
    static UINT taskBarCreatedId = WM_NULL;
    if (taskBarCreatedId == WM_NULL) {
        taskBarCreatedId = RegisterWindowMessage(L"TaskbarButtonCreated");
    }

    if (message->message == taskBarCreatedId) {
        W7ToolbarInit();
        W7ToolbarSetImages();
        W7ToolbarButtonsInit();

    } else switch (message->message){
    case WM_COMMAND:
        {
            //get the button index
            int buttonId = LOWORD(message->wParam) - IDTB_FIRST;

            if ((buttonId >= 0) && (buttonId < 3)) {

                qDebug() << "Button " << buttonId << " was pressed";
                if (buttonId == 1) { //if "Play|Pause" was pressed

                    if (m_thbButtons[1].iBitmap == 1) {
                        //set the Pause image index
                        m_thbButtons[1].iBitmap = 3;
                        wcscpy(m_thbButtons[1].szTip, L"Pause");
                    } else {
                        //set the Play image index
                        m_thbButtons[1].iBitmap = 1;
                        wcscpy(m_thbButtons[1].szTip, L"Play");
                    }

                    //update the thumbnailtoolbar
                    m_w7toolbar->ThumbBarUpdateButtons(this->winId(), 3, m_thbButtons);
                }

            }


            break;
        }

    default:
        return false;

    }

    return false;
}

The code can be downloaded from here.
The screenshot can be seen below:

Windows 7 Taskbar Extensions in Qt: Taskbar Overlay Icon and Progress bar

2011-01-27T11:48:00.026+02:00

Contents

ITaskbarList3 and GCC
Preparation
Initializing the Interface
Setting the Overlay Icon
Set the Progress Bar State and Value

ITaskbarList3 and GCC

To access the Taskbar button from Qt with MINGW it is needed to declare the ITaskbarList3 COM interface, define CLSID_TaskbarList and IID_ITaskbarList3. And to declare used structs (THUMBBUTTON) and enums (TBPFLAG, THUMBBUTTONFLAGS, THUMBBUTTONMASK). All this can be done by finding their declarations in the Windows 7 SDK header file ShObjIdl.h, and adapting them for MINGW GCC in a separate header file.
In my previous post I have explained how this can be accomplished.
The result can be viewed here.

ITaskbarList3 COM interface adapted for MINGW GCC:

//MIDL_INTERFACE("56FDF342-FD6D-11d0-958A-006097C9A090")
DECLARE_INTERFACE_(ITaskbarList, IUnknown)
{
    STDMETHOD (HrInit) (THIS) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (AddTab) (THIS_ HWND hwnd) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (DeleteTab) (THIS_ HWND hwnd) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (ActivateTab) (THIS_ HWND hwnd) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (SetActiveAlt) (THIS_ HWND hwnd) PURE;
};
typedef ITaskbarList *LPITaskbarList;

//MIDL_INTERFACE("602D4995-B13A-429b-A66E-1935E44F4317")
DECLARE_INTERFACE_(ITaskbarList2, ITaskbarList)
{
    STDMETHOD (MarkFullscreenWindow) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, int fFullscreen) PURE;
};
typedef ITaskbarList2 *LPITaskbarList2;

//MIDL_INTERFACE("ea1afb91-9e28-4b86-90e9-9e9f8a5eefaf")
DECLARE_INTERFACE_(ITaskbarList3, ITaskbarList2)
{
    STDMETHOD (SetProgressValue) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, ULONGLONG ullCompleted, ULONGLONG ullTotal) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (SetProgressState) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, TBPFLAG tbpFlags) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (RegisterTab) (THIS_ HWND hwndTab,HWND hwndMDI) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (UnregisterTab) (THIS_ HWND hwndTab) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (SetTabOrder) (THIS_ HWND hwndTab, HWND hwndInsertBefore) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (SetTabActive) (THIS_ HWND hwndTab, HWND hwndMDI, DWORD dwReserved) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (ThumbBarAddButtons) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, UINT cButtons, LPTHUMBBUTTON pButton) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (ThumbBarUpdateButtons) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, UINT cButtons, LPTHUMBBUTTON pButton) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (ThumbBarSetImageList) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, HIMAGELIST himl) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (SetOverlayIcon) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, HICON hIcon, LPCWSTR pszDescription) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (SetThumbnailTooltip) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, LPCWSTR pszTip) PURE;
    STDMETHOD (SetThumbnailClip) (THIS_ HWND hwnd, RECT *prcClip) PURE;
};
typedef ITaskbarList3 *LPITaskbarList3;

//MIDL_INTERFACE("c43dc798-95d1-4bea-9030-bb99e2983a1a")
DECLARE_INTERFACE_(ITaskbarList4, ITaskbarList3)
{
    STDMETHOD (SetTabProperties) (HWND hwndTab, STPFLAG stpFlags) PURE;
};
typedef ITaskbarList4 *LPITaskbarList4;

Also is important to add to your project settings (the .pro file) the needed libraries to link with:

LIBS +=  libole32

Preparation

In my example I'm using an object derived from QMainWindow.

First thing I did, I re-implemented the protected virtual function of the QMainWindow in my derived class:

protected:
bool winEvent(MSG * message, long * result);

This functions is needed in order to catch the message which says that the taskbar button is created and ready to be used.

In order to make Windows to initialize the taskbar button for my application, it is needed to call the following function:

RegisterWindowMessage(L"TaskbarButtonCreated");

This function returns the message id which I'm waiting in winEvent.
When I get this message id, I know I can initialize and use the taskbar button.

//...
//some where in the constructor of the MainWindow
messageId = RegisterWindowMessage(L"TaskbarButtonCreated");

//...
bool MainWindow::winEvent(MSG * message, long * result)
{
if (message->message == messageId) {

//get taskbar handle interface
//do stuff
}

return false;
}
//...

Initializing the Interface

When the message id is received in winEvent, it is possible to initialize the interface

//...
ITaskbarList3* m_taskbarInterface;
//...

HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_TaskbarList, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ITaskbarList3, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(m_taskbarInterface)));

if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) {
hr = m_taskbarInterface->HrInit();

if (FAILED(hr)) {
m_taskbarInterface->Release();
m_taskbarInterface = NULL;
}
}

Setting the Overlay Icon

This operation is very simple, once we have the taskbar interface intialized.

Step 1: Create a QIcon:

QIcon icon(":/icon.png")

Step 2: Convert QIcon to HICON:

HICON overlay_icon = icon.isNull() ? NULL : icon.pixmap(48).toWinHICON();

Step 3: Set the HICON as overlay icon. If NULL, the previous overlay icon will be removed

m_taskbarInterface->SetOverlayIcon(winId(), overlay_icon, L"Icon description");

Step 4: Release HICON resources

DestroyIcon(overlay_icon);

One important thing, is that overlay icons are not shown if the Taskbar is set to use small icons.

Set the Progress Bar State and Value

The progress bar has five states, they are defined in the TBPFLAG enum.

Setting the desired state:

//set no progress
m_taskbarInterface->SetProgressState(winId(), TBPF_NOPROGRESS);

//set normal
m_taskbarInterface->SetProgressState(winId(), TBPF_NORMAL);

//set indeterminate
m_taskbarInterface->SetProgressState(winId(), TBPF_INDETERMINATE);

//set paused
m_taskbarInterface->SetProgressState(winId(), TBPF_PAUSED);

//set error
m_taskbarInterface->SetProgressState(winId(), TBPF_ERROR);

Setting the current value:

m_taskbarInterface->SetProgressValue(winId(), current_value, max_value);

It is important to release the allocated resources, when the application is being closed:

m_taskbarInterface->Release();

Below is a screen shot of the application:

The Qt Project can be found here.

Links:
Link to EcWin7, from here I understood how to import COM declarations from Windows SDK headers and about RegisterWindowMessage

Windows 7 Taskbar Extensions in Qt: Jump List

2011-01-26T14:36:00.039+02:00

Contents

Preparation
Working With Jump Lists

As of Windows 7 the taskbar has become more efficient, and has a lot of new features. Such as Jump List, Thumbnails, Thumbnail toolbar, Overlay Icons, Progress bar and other things.

This article focuses on how to manage/customize a Jump List using Qt with GCC.

A Jump List is like a customized Start menu for your application. It can contain Destinations and Tasks. A Destination can be a link to a file, location, URL. A Task can be viewed as an action or command which the application can perform.

It contains two built-in Destinations categories, Recent and Frequent. These lists are managed automatically.
By default a Jump List contains a Recent category. Each time a file is opened with the application, or file-based applications through SHAddToRecentDocs, or the common file dialog, it will be added automatically to Recent and Frequent.

Preparation

1) Register your application to handle a file type

To enable the Recent category it is enough to register a file type with your application, and it is not necessary to be the default file-type handler.

Below is a simple example of registry keys and values needed to register a .rgm file extension to C:\Path\to\bin\app.exe application.

It is possible to copy this into a .reg file and import it.


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.rgm]
@="rgm_auto_file"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rgm_auto_file]
@="RGM file"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rgm_auto_file\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Path\\to\\bin\\app.exe,1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rgm_auto_file\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rgm_auto_file\shell\Open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\rgm_auto_file\shell\Open\Command]
@="C:\\Path\\to\\bin\\app.exe '%1'"

2) Find and declare missing declarations of the needed COM interfaces, their CLSID and IID, and “friends” (enums, typedefs).

In order to be able to manage the Jump List from your application it is necessary to have access to different COM interfaces. Not all of them are accessible within MINGW with GCC.
This can be done by finding their definitions in Windows 7 SDK header files.

For instance:
ICustomDestinationList is declared in c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Include\ShObjIdl.h:


EXTERN_C const CLSID CLSID_DestinationList;
#ifdef __cplusplus
class DECLSPEC_UUID("77f10cf0-3db5-4966-b520-b7c54fd35ed6")
DestinationList;
#endif

MIDL_INTERFACE("6332debf-87b5-4670-90c0-5e57b408a49e")
ICustomDestinationList : public IUnknown
{
public:
virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE SetAppID(
/* [string][in] */ __RPC__in_string LPCWSTR pszAppID) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE BeginList(
/* [out] */ __RPC__out UINT *pcMinSlots,
/* [in] */ __RPC__in REFIID riid,
/* [iid_is][out] */ __RPC__deref_out_opt void **ppv) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE AppendCategory(
/* [string][in] */ __RPC__in_string LPCWSTR pszCategory,
/* [in] */ __RPC__in_opt IObjectArray *poa) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE AppendKnownCategory(
/* [in] */ KNOWNDESTCATEGORY category) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE AddUserTasks(
/* [in] */ __RPC__in_opt IObjectArray *poa) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE CommitList( void) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE GetRemovedDestinations(
/* [in] */ __RPC__in REFIID riid,
/* [iid_is][out] */ __RPC__deref_out_opt void **ppv) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE DeleteList(
/* [string][unique][in] */ __RPC__in_opt_string LPCWSTR pszAppID) = 0;

virtual HRESULT STDMETHODCALLTYPE AbortList( void) = 0;

};

will become:


DEFINE_GUID(CLSID_DestinationList,0x77f10cf0,0x3db5,0x4966,0xb5,0x20,0xb7,0xc5,0x4f,0xd3,0x5e,0xd6);
DEFINE_GUID(IID_ICustomDestinationList,0x6332debf,0x87b5,0x4670,0x90,0xc0,0x5e,0x57,0xb4,0x08,0xa4,0x9e);

DECLARE_INTERFACE_(ICustomDestinationList, IUnknown)
{
STDMETHOD (SetAppID) (LPCWSTR pszAppID);
STDMETHOD (BeginList) (UINT *pcMinSlots, REFIID riid, void **ppv) PURE;
STDMETHOD (AppendCategory) (LPCWSTR pszCategory, IObjectArray *poa) PURE;
STDMETHOD (AppendKnownCategory) (KNOWNDESTCATEGORY category) PURE;
STDMETHOD (AddUserTasks) (IObjectArray *poa) PURE;
STDMETHOD (CommitList) (void) PURE;
STDMETHOD (GetRemovedDestinations) (REFIID riid, void **ppv) PURE;
STDMETHOD (DeleteList) (LPCWSTR pszAppID) PURE;
STDMETHOD (AbortList)  (void) PURE;

};
typedef ICustomDestinationList *LPICustomDestinationList;

Here you cand find more.

To perform different jobs on a Jump List you’ll need to declare more interfaces.

Minimum needed to add items to Recent or/and create custom category:

ICustomDestinationList, IObjectArray

To create Tasks or/and to add customized items to Recent/Frequent/Custom list:

ICustomDestinationList, IObjectArray, IShellItem, IShellLink, IPropertyStore

One other helpful hint, each time you encounter the following macro in Windows 7 SDK examples:

IID_PPV_ARGS(&pItem)

you can substitute it with

IID_Of_The_Item’s_Class, reinterpret_cast<void**>(&(pItem))

3) Add to your Qt project file the needed libraries to link with

LIBS +=  libole32

Working With Jump Lists

How to Add Items to Recent/Frequent list

The simplest way to do this is to call

QString filePath("c:\\file.rgm");
SHAddToRecentDocs(0x00000003, filePath.toStdWString().c_str());

If the file extension of the filePath is not registered to this application, this call will have no effect.

Show/hide Recent or/and Frequent list

- Create the custom jump list object

ICustomDestinationList* destinationList;
CoCreateInstance(CLSID_DestinationList, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ICustomDestinationList, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(destinationList)));

- Initialize the list


UINT max_count;
IObjectArray* objectArray;
destinationList->BeginList(&max_count, IID_IObjectArray, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(objectArray)));

This function will start a “transaction”.

Returned values through max_count represents the max allowed recent items to display in Jump List, and objectArray holds the items which have been removed by the user.

- Enable the Frequent list

destinationList->AppendKnownCategory(KDC_FREQUENT);

- Enable the Recent list

destinationList->AppendKnownCategory(KDC_RECENT);

- Commit the menu “transaction”

destinationList->CommitList();

The whole example can be found here :
https://github.com/xfreebird/blogstuff/tree/master/qt/jumplist_example1
For simplicity there are no checks for valid pointers or initialization results.

Creating a Custom Jump List Cateogry

- The first step is to declare the COM interfaces, enums and typedefs for:

ICustomDestinationList, IObjectCollection, IObjectArray, IShellItem, IShellLink, IPropertyStore

All the details can be found here.

- It is needed to find a way to initialize a IShellItem, providing just a valid file path.
I chose to call SHCreateItemFromParsingName. But since it is declared in Shobjidl.h, I can’t include this file with GCC. So I have to load this function from the shell32.dll itself.

Typedef a function pointer type:

extern "C"
{
typedef HRESULT (WINAPI *t_SHCreateItemFromParsingName)(PCWSTR pszPath, IBindCtx *pbc, REFIID riid, void **ppv);
}

then use it:


  IShellItem* FilePath2ShellItem(QString path) {
  HMODULE shell;
  IShellItem *shell_item = NULL;
  t_SHCreateItemFromParsingName SHCreateItemFromParsingName = NULL;

  shell = LoadLibrary(L"shell32.dll");

  if (shell) {
         SHCreateItemFromParsingName = reinterpret_cast<t_SHCreateItemFromParsingName>(GetProcAddress (shell, "SHCreateItemFromParsingName"));

         if (SHCreateItemFromParsingName != NULL) {
             SHCreateItemFromParsingName(path.toStdWString().c_str(), NULL, IID_IShellItem, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(shell_item)));
         }

         FreeLibrary (shell);
  }

  return shell_item;
}

- Init a ICustomDestinationList:

UINT max_count = 0;
IObjectArray* objectArray;
ICustomDestinationList* destinationList;

//create the custom jump list object
CoCreateInstance(CLSID_DestinationList, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_ICustomDestinationList, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(destinationList)));

- Start the “transaction” :

destinationList->BeginList(&max_count, IID_IObjectArray, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(objectArray)));

IObjectCollection* obj_collection;
CoCreateInstance(CLSID_EnumerableObjectCollection, NULL,
    CLSCTX_INPROC, IID_IObjectCollection, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(obj_collection)));

- Init an object array from obj_collection:

IObjectArray* object_array;

obj_collection->QueryInterface(IID_IObjectArray, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(object_array)));

- Create and add shell items to this object_array. It is important to know, if the file path is not valid, or the file extension is not registered to this application, SHCreateItemFromParsingName will fail to create a valid IShellItem.

obj_collection->AddObject(FilePath2ShellItem("C:\\file1.rgm"));
obj_collection->AddObject(FilePath2ShellItem("C:\\file2.rgm"));

- Add the object array as a new category in the Jump List:

destinationList->AppendCategory(L“Custom entry”, object_array);

- Commit the changes:

destinationList->CommitList();

- Release the resources:

object_array->Release();
obj_collection->Release();
objectArray->Release();
destinationList->Release();

The Result

The code can be found here https://github.com/xfreebird/blogstuff/tree/master/qt/jumplist_example2

Adding Tasks

To populate the Tasks list it is needed to create a collection of IShellLinks and call ICustomDestinationList::AddUserTasks.

As previously this must be done after calling ICustomDestinationList::BeginList,
and applying it by calling ICustomDestinationList::CommiList after.

A task is a shortcut.

To create a task item can be used the code below:

IShellLink* shell_link = NULL;
CoCreateInstance(CLSID_ShellLink, NULL, CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER, IID_IShellLink, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(shell_link)));

Set the values:

shell_link->SetPath(L"C:\\path\\to\\app.exe");
shell_link->SetArguments(L"Some args");
shell_link->SetIconLocation(L"C:\\path\\to\\app.exe", app_index);
shell_link->SetDescription(L"Description");

To set the title we need to use a IPropertyStore object.

PROPVARIANT pv;
IPropertyStore* prop_store = NULL;
shell_link->QueryInterface(IID_IPropertyStore, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(prop_store)));

InitPropVariantFromString(L"Title", &pv);
prop_store->SetValue(PKEY_Title, pv);
prop_store->Commit();

If we want this item to be a separator:

PROPVARIANT pv;
IPropertyStore* prop_store = NULL;
shell_link->QueryInterface(IID_IPropertyStore, reinterpret_cast<void**> (&(prop_store)));

InitPropVariantFromBoolean(TRUE, &pv);
prop_store->SetValue(PKEY_AppUserModel_IsDestListSeparator, pv);
prop_store->Commit();

The rest is almost similar to the example of creating a custom category.

Instead of:


obj_collection->AddObject(FilePath2ShellItem("C:\\file1.rgm"));
obj_collection->AddObject(FilePath2ShellItem("C:\\file2.rgm"));
destinationList->AppendCategory(L“Custom entry”, object_array);

will be


obj_collection->AddObject(CreateShellLink("Task 1", "Task Description", "C:\\path\\to\\app.exe", "app args", "c:\\path\\to\\ico\\resources", 0));

destinationList->AddUserTasks(object_array);

The created tasks from the example3

The sources for the example 3 can be found here https://github.com/xfreebird/blogstuff/tree/master/qt/jumplist_example3

Useful links:

Taskbar Extensions
Hilo: Developing C++ Applications for Windows 7
Chapter 14: Adding Support for Windows 7 Jump Lists & Taskbar Tabs
Windows 7 Taskbar – Part 1, The Basics
Windows 7 SDK Examples
CodeProject article on JumpLists
CodeProject article on JumpLists Tasks
Link to EcWin7, from here I understood how to import COM declarations from Windows SDK headers

A new laptop !!!

2008-11-08T21:00:00.026+02:00

After I've been analyzing the notebook market since august, last week I made my final choice.
My next laptop will be an ASUS M50VC-AS006. I am very excited about this laptop. It has almost everything I need and it meets all my minimal requirements.
The HDD is the only part which I'll change with a 7200RPM HDD of the same capacity.
My only compromise was on the brand of the CPU and video card. I wanted an AMD/ATI, but this laptop has Intel/nVIDIA. Anyway it was not a bad choice.
In december my brother will bring me this laptop. Then I'll test it :D.
I'll try Fedora 10 x64 & x32, MacOSX Leopard, Vista x64 & x32 and XP.
My experience with all these OS's I'll post in this blog.

I think I have to wait about 25 days until I'll be holding it in my hands. But till then work, work and work.

UPDATE:

It has passed a very long time since I wrote this post.
A short update :)

I managed to install Fedora 15 64bit, Windows 7 64bit and Mac OS X (Snow Leopard 10.6.8 64bit) on this laptop. Although Fedora is my preferred default target.

Now I have triple-boot. I'm using grub and chameleon bootloaders (for loading OSX kernel).

I have a new job

2008-11-08T20:41:00.004+02:00

I have to admit, this year is the worst from the perspective of planned/realized ratio.

My biggest failures are:

trying to work in Romania as a software developer (my previous employer could not pay me anymore)
finishing my thesis (is rescheduled for the next year)
trying to sleep less

Since it is almost impossible to retry this year to get a job in Romania (because of the process, it takes a lot of time). I began to search a job in Moldova. Finally I found one.

I'll be working at Popshore as a C++ developer from Monday.

The advantages working at this company are:

Coding C++
Working in Linux environment
...

Disadvantages:

Small salaries
...

Hope I'll have fun working there :). Otherwise it will be a psychological a suicide.

Searching for an IT job in Moldova ?

2008-06-30T22:57:00.011+03:00

I don't want to work in Moldova.

Why ?

I'm searching for a new place where I can see a different society.
The offers are not diverse ( Is like in a shop from the soviet era. Where you buy what they have, not what you want. And the offer is limited.)
Employees are greedy
Small salaries
Bla bla bla ...

I'm going to work in Romania !!!
Romania is not heaven. The Romanian IT job offers compared to those from Moldova are much better.

In Moldova are few online job resources:

http://www.joburi.md/
http://moldovajob.md/
http://www.hr.md/
http://www.jobmarket.gov.md/

http://joburi.md/

A good resource, it has Romanian and Russian web interface. You can place your CV, or if you are an employer , job offers.
I like their searching system, a very intuitive one and easy to use.
But it lacks new offers. The latest IT offer was placed on 23rd of June.
Hence, not very useful.

On a scale of 0 to 5 points, this site gets from me for:

User interface experience - 5 points
The flow of new IT job offers - 3 points

http://moldovajob.md/

It is very rich in new IT offers, this is very cool. But the web interface is very poor designed.
No search engine !!! The offers are like a bunch of Google adds on a web site.
If you ever entered a Chinese or a Japanese web site, then you now what I'm talking about.
The page layout has two columns, and on both sides thronged with job offers.
I think they don't understand that a web page is not a printed paper where such information is placed.
Yes, you can place your CV. But I think that this is useless, since it has no search engine deployed. Available only in Russian.

User interface experience - 1 point
The flow of new IT job offers - 5 points

http://www.hr.md/

As joburi.md it has a very good user interface, available in three languages Romanian, English and Russian. But it does not have the flow of new IT job offers as moldovajob.md.

User interface experience - 5 points
The flow of new IT job offers - 3 points

http://www.jobmarket.gov.md

The web site is very well done. It has an intuitive search engine. It is available in Romanian and Russian language. It gives the ability to place your CV. But ... it has no IT job offers.
The funny experience was when I selected the IT category http://jobmarket.gov.md/ro/searchwork/jobs/search/?Category=ittehnology , when I pressed "Cauta" search, it said
"Selectati professia!" select you profession. Huh !? Excuse me, which one ?! :)) Did I miss something

User interface experience - 5 points
The flow of new IT job offers - 0 points

In Romania such kind of web sites are much better. For example eJobs.ro or MyJob.ro.
There is a very big leap between Moldova and Romania.

References:

First image original source http://www.biojobblog.com/JobSearchNewspaper.jpg

If I feel lazy about doing something that means I'd better not do it

2008-06-27T23:32:00.005+03:00

What a day...

Today I learnt a lesson , If I feel lazy about doing something that means I'd better not do it. :)

I had to send the malfunctioning stereo to Bucharest. It was bought from there, and its guarantee
license is still good.
My task was to go to the railway station to ask a conductor to take that stereo, and give it
to my brother.
I put the stereo into my rucksack, took my bike and went to the railway station.

At a crossroads with no semaphores ,I had the priority, a taxi decided to cut my way,
although it had to wait for me to pass the crossroads. I had a high velocity. When I saw
the situation, the only good action which I was thinking, in that fraction of a second, was to
make a full stop...

Well , it was a good solution, but my fault was that I did a full stop on both wheels.
Bigggg mistake. As a result for a second I was superman with a lot of kryptonite in his pockets :)) .
To my luck , I had protection gloves and a helmet. But my chin was not protected :( .
So, I've got a skin cut under my chin, and a few scratches on my arms and legs.
The stereo had just a little shock , nothing more.

At that moment I did not feel the skin cut, the taxi even did not stop to ask me how I feel.
So, I decided continue to bike to the railway station.

While being on the road I noticed that the cut was bleeding.

When I've arrived at the station, no conductor wanted to accept to take the stereo. Shit,
,what for did I do all that ?!

Then I went home. There I saw how serious my cut was , but I decided to lay down and wait.
When my mother came home, she alerted my father. Then me with my father went to the
emergency hospital. There the doctors sutured my cut.

After seven days , they will cut the sutures.

Imaginary numbers ...

2008-05-19T12:56:00.001+03:00

Google translate adds Romanian language

2008-05-19T12:31:00.004+03:00

Googe translate finally added support for the Romanian language. I'm very happy about this :D .

While compiling ...

2008-05-17T20:16:00.000+03:00

The Anime Laws of Physics

2008-05-17T14:20:00.004+03:00

Today I found out that beside Laws of Physics exists and the Anime Laws of Physics ... wha.. !?

#1 - Law of Metaphysical Irregularity

The normal laws of physics do not apply. #2 - Law of Differentiated Gravitation

Whenever someone or something jumps, is thrown, or otherwise is rendered airborne, gravity is reduced by a factor of 4. #3 - Law of Sonic Amplification, First Law of Anime Acoustics

In space, loud sounds, like explosions, are even louder because there is no air to get in the way. #4 - Law of Constant Thrust, First Law of Anime Motion

In space, constant thrust equals constant velocity. #5 - Law of Mechanical Mobility, Second Law of Anime Motion

The larger a mechanical device is, the faster it moves. Armored Mecha are the fastest objects known to human science. #6 - Law of Temporal Variability

Time is not a constant. Time stops for the hero whenever he does something 'cool' or 'impressive'. Time slows down when friends and lovers are being killed and speeds up whenever there is a fight.......

Read more here

Create your own live usb

2008-05-17T01:39:00.005+03:00

With the new release of the Fedora, comes and a tool for installing the LiveCD on a usb stick.
After installing it, you will get a fully functional operating system that boots from your usb stick.

Prerequisites

at least 1G flash stick
for windows users this tool https://fedorahosted.org/releases/l/i/liveusb-creator/liveusb-creator-2.3.zip
for linux users ( $ su -c 'yum install livecd-tools' )

For windows users

Unpack the archive you have downloaded
Launch liveusb-creator.exe
Choose which version of Fedora you want
Choose the usb stick on which you want to install Fedora
Set Persistent Overlay size, is the space which will be preserved for saving files, settings etc.
Press Create Live USB button

For linux users

# livecd-iso-to-disk Fedora--Live-i686.iso /dev/sdb1

where  is the release number (i.e. 8 or 9 )

References:

https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/USBHowTo

Coding Secure

2008-05-16T21:27:00.001+03:00

Get the facts : Microsoft strangehood

2008-05-16T16:05:00.007+03:00

You can't create a folder named CON,
also for PRN, AUX, CLOCK$, NUL,COM0, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9,LPT0, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9
Try to create a new file with notepad and write the following sentence "Bush hid the facts", without ". Save the file. Now, re-open it. Did you notice something strange ? Well, I did :).

The bug can be triggered by many sentences, including those that follow a particular structure: one word with 4 letters, two or more words with 3 letters, one word with 5 letters.
Some phrases that will trigger this oddity are:
"Bill can not dance", "John has the parts", "This app can break", "This pad has bugzs", "Feel the new power", "Matrix can not lie", and even long phrases like
"Einstein's thought regarding mathematics motivated Dhilung Kirat thinkin mathematics wonderfully amazing languagez".
Open microsoft Word, and type =rand(200,99) and press Enter.

Resource

romania ]at[ macadamian [dot] com

What is like for a computer ...

2008-05-16T03:46:00.006+03:00

Fedora 9 PXE boot + HTTP install using Linux and Windows as host

2008-05-15T23:47:00.033+03:00

Being a Fedora user since version 1, and a Red Hat 9 user, I did many installs.
My first experience was installing RedHat 9, I used 3 CD's.
In that era I had poor dial-up connection and zero knowledge about linux.

Ok , so far , I tried :

CD install ( RedHat 9, FC 2,3 )
DVD install ( FC 6, FC 7, FC 8 )
Hard disk install ( FC 2,3,4,5 )
NFS install ( FC 5,6,7,8 )
PXE boot + HTTP, NFS install ( FC 9 )

Since PXE boot install was the most challenging, I'll talk about this one.

Software prerequisites:

a tftp daemon
a dhcp daemon
linux PXE boot images and bootloader
a Linux or Windows OS

The Linux Way

In my case I have on my laptop Fedora 9, and I want to install on my PC the same OS.

Step 1:

Install the tftp-server , dhcp , and syslinux packages (there is the PXE boot loader)
as root

# yum install tftp-server dhcp syslinux

Step 2:

Setup the dhcp server
as root

# nano /etc/dhcpd.conf

The following example is a minimal configuration for a network that uses the following configuration:

192.168.0.0/24 addressing
Dynamic addresses provided between 192.168.0.3 and 192.168.0.200
DHCP/PXE server at IP address 192.168.0.2

ddns-update-style interim;
ignore client-updates;
allow bootp;
allow booting;
subnet 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range 192.168.0.3 192.168.0.200;
option subnet-mask 255.255.255.0;
next-server 192.168.0.2;
default-lease-time 21600; max-lease-time 43200;
option root-path "/tftpboot/";
filename "pxelinux.0";
}

Step 3:

Setup the tftp server
as root

# nano /etc/xinetd.d/tftp
service tftp
{
disable = no
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = root
server = /usr/sbin/in.tftpd
server_args = -s /tftpboot
per_source = 11
cps = 100 2
flags = IPv4
}

make a dir, tftpboot, in the root directory

# mkdir /tftpboot # cd /tftpboot

copy the needed boot loader file in the created folder
this file will be loaded in the memory of the remote host

# cp /usr/lib/syslinux/pxelinux.0 .

alternatively, the latest pxelinux.0 , it can be downloaded from here .

copy the linux kernel files for PXE booting

# wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/initrd.img
# wget http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz

create a pxelinux configuration file, named “default”, this file must be located in
/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/ folder

# mkdir /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
# cd /tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg
# nano default

and add the following configuration

DEFAULT pxeboot
TIMEOUT 50
LABEL pxeboot
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.img
ONERROR LOCALBOOT 0

Now, we have everything set up.

It remains only to start the daemons and shutdown the firewall

# iptables -F
# service dhcpd start
# service xinetd start

The last setup is to set the BIOS of the remote PC to boot from PXE.
Further, when you get to the point when installers asks install source, you can
choose what you want. But I have chosen the HTTP install, the only thing needed
is a repository.

The list of complete Fedora 9 repositories can be found here .
I used this one http://repo.fedoramd.org/fedora/linux/releases/9/Fedora/i386/os/

The Windows Way

If you don't have a Linux desktop , but want to try this, follow the steps below:

Download the tftp server for windows http://tftpd32.jounin.net/
Install it
Get the pxelinux.0 boot loader image from this package http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-3.63.tar.bz2
Create folder C:\PXE
Copy pxelinux.0 in C:\PXE
Copy tftpd32.exe in C:\PXE , this file is located in C:\Program Files\Tftpd32
Create folder C:\PXE\pxelinux.cfg
Create file C:\PXE\pxelinux.cfg\default
In the file C:\PXE\pxelinux.cfg\default add the following configuration
DEFAULT pxeboot
TIMEOUT 50
LABEL pxeboot
KERNEL vmlinuz
APPEND initrd=initrd.img
ONERROR LOCALBOOT 0
Download the linux kernel files for PXE booting, this initrd.img and vmlinuz
Copy them in C:\PXE
Launch tftpd32.exe, from C:\PXE
Setup the DHCP server :
IP pool starting address : 192.168.0.2
Size of pool : 30
Boot file : pxelinux.0
WINS/DNS server : 192.168.0.1
Default router : 192.168.0.1
Mask : 255.255.255.0

And press the save button.

This configuration is for a 192.168.0.0/24 addressing network (e.g. your computer must have an IP ranging from 192.168.0.1 - 192.168.0.32 .

It is very important to launch the tftpd server from the C:\PXE folder !!!
In any case stop the windows firewall or any other kind of network protection, it might cause a boot fail on the remote host, due to possible restrictions imposed.

So, here is what the C:\PXE folder must contain :

C:\PXE\tftpd32.exe
C:\PXE\pxelinux.0
C:\PXE\vmlinuz
C:\PXE\intird.img
C:\PXE\pxelinux.cfg\default

To test, you can by using a virtual machine or a real machine.

Free virtual machines for windows:

The cool thing about this way of installation is that I don't need to by a DVD or CD's.
What is needed, is a broadband internet connection and desire to do it.

Below I made video snapshots, the remote host is a vmware virtual machine,
but I made the same thing on a real PC.

Resources: