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Posts Tagged ‘Windows 8’

Windows: “God Mode”

August 10th, 2015 No comments

GodMode is a folder that brings together a long list of customization settings allowing you to change all your settings from one place.

To turn on God Mode, create a new folder on your desktop (or anywhere you’d like) and name it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Additional hidden control options:

  • Action Center.{BB64F8A7-BEE7-4E1A-AB8D-7D8273F7FDB6}
  • Backup and Restore.{B98A2BEA-7D42-4558-8BD1-832F41BAC6FD}
  • Biometric Devices.{0142e4d0-fb7a-11dc-ba4a-000ffe7ab428}
  • Credential Manager.{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70}
  • Default Location.{00C6D95F-329C-409a-81D7-C46C66EA7F33}
  • Devices and Printers.{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A}
  • Display.{C555438B-3C23-4769-A71F-B6D3D9B6053A}
  • HomeGroup.{67CA7650-96E6-4FDD-BB43-A8E774F73A57}
  • Location and Other Sensors.{E9950154-C418-419e-A90A-20C5287AE24B}
  • Notification Area Icons.{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}
  • Recovery.{9FE63AFD-59CF-4419-9775-ABCC3849F861}
  • RemoteApp and Desktop Connections.{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}
  • Speech Recognition.{58E3C745-D971-4081-9034-86E34B30836A}
  • Troubleshooting.{C58C4893-3BE0-4B45-ABB5-A63E4B8C8651}
  • Administrative Tools.{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}
  • All .NET Frameworks and COM Libraries.{1D2680C9-0E2A-469d-B787-065558BC7D43}
  • All Tasks (Control Panel).{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
  • AutoPlay.{9C60DE1E-E5FC-40f4-A487-460851A8D915}
  • BitLocker Drive Encryption.{D9EF8727-CAC2-4e60-809E-86F80A666C91}
  • Computer Folder.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
  • Default Programs.{17cd9488-1228-4b2f-88ce-4298e93e0966}
  • Ease of Access Center.{D555645E-D4F8-4c29-A827-D93C859C4F2A}
  • Font Settings.{93412589-74D4-4E4E-AD0E-E0CB621440FD}
  • Get Programs.{15eae92e-f17a-4431-9f28-805e482dafd4}
  • Manage Wireless Networks.{1FA9085F-25A2-489B-85D4-86326EEDCD87}
  • Network and Sharing Center.{8E908FC9-BECC-40f6-915B-F4CA0E70D03D}
  • Network Connections.{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E}
  • Network Folder.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
  • Parental Controls.{96AE8D84-A250-4520-95A5-A47A7E3C548B}
  • Performance Information and Tools.{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}
  • Personalization.{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}
  • Power Options.{025A5937-A6BE-4686-A844-36FE4BEC8B6D}
  • Programs and Features.{7b81be6a-ce2b-4676-a29e-eb907a5126c5}
  • Sync Center.{9C73F5E5-7AE7-4E32-A8E8-8D23B85255BF}
  • System.{BB06C0E4-D293-4f75-8A90-CB05B6477EEE}
  • User Accounts.{60632754-c523-4b62-b45c-4172da012619}
  • Windows Firewall.{4026492F-2F69-46B8-B9BF-5654FC07E423}
  • Windows SideShow.{E95A4861-D57A-4be1-AD0F-35267E261739}
  • Windows Update.{36eef7db-88ad-4e81-ad49-0e313f0c35f8}

 

How to remove HomeGroup network icon from the Windows 8 desktop

November 29th, 2014 No comments
  1. From the Windows 8 Start Screen, search for ‘Show or hide common icons on the desktop’

or

  1. Alternatively, right-click on the desktop in the bottom-left corner to show the small menu which includes Control Panel. From there, click Appearance and Personalisation, then Personalisation. Finally, click Change desktop icons on the left.
  2. Even if the box next to Network is unticked, click it to enable it, then disable it again. (If it’s ticked to start with, untick it).

more

 

Windows App Store doesn’t load

November 25th, 2014 No comments

Open a Command Prompt as an Administrator and execute following command:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register $Env:SystemRoot\WinStore\AppxManifest.xml

source

Disable Windows Hibernate

August 28th, 2014 No comments

1.Open a command prompt with administrative privileges and execute following command:

powercfg.exe -h off

more info:

Overview of Windows Runtime C++ Template Library

May 26th, 2012 No comments

The Windows Runtime C++ Template Library (WRL) is a COM-based template library that provides a low-level way to use Windows Runtime components.

The Windows Runtime is implemented by using Component Object Model (COM) technology. COM depends on reference-counting to manage the lifetime of objects, and other housekeeping techniques, and on testing HRESULT values to determine whether an operation succeeded or failed. To successfully write a COM app or library, you must carefully follow COM rules and techniques.

The Visual C++ component extensions (C++/CX) is a high-level, language-based way to use Windows Runtime components. Both the WRL and C++/CX simplify the writing of code for the Windows Runtime by automatically performing COM housekeeping tasks on your behalf.

more

Additional info: Visual C++ WinRT FAQ – WRL vs C++/CX

  • WRL is a non-extension-based ISO compliant alternative to using C++/CX when targeting WinRT. It’s fairly obvious that C++/CX is far simpler to use than WRL, specially when creating components (consuming components is relatively easier).
  • The big thing with WRL is that you can use ISO C++. You don’t have to learn a new syntactic extension that you cannot use outside the Microsoft-world. Most C++ devs would feel comfortable using WRL, specially if they’ve used ATL before. That said portability is a myth, since WRL code is as tied into Windows as would be C++/CX code.
  • Do you want to totally avoid exceptions (perhaps to remain in sync with existing code that doesn’t use exceptions)? If so, you have to use WRL since C++/CX uses exceptions.
  • Performance wise, will you see any difference? As stated above, C++/CX uses exceptions while WRL uses HRESULTs. So the performance implications of using exceptions will obviously come into play. There is also the non-trivial conversion between HRESULTs and RT exceptions. Outide of that, I don’t think there’s going to be any noticable difference in performance.
  • Not sure to what extent you can do this, but since WRL exposes the underlying COM architecture, you can fine-tune your code to some degree (since WinRT is built on top of COM). I haven’t read or heard about any scenarios where this has actually made a difference.
  • The psycological aspect. While this is the least technical of the reasons, it might be the biggest factor here. Many C++ devs would simply hate anything that they see as foreign syntax. And C++/CX is certainly not ISO C++. Its close similarity with C++/CLI (which many C++ devs found disgusting) doesn’t help either. If your C++ dev team comprises mainly of a bunch of these guys, I reckon it’d be wise to just use WRL.

 

Windows 8: Unit testing native code

May 23rd, 2012 No comments

Unit testing native code with Unit Test Explorer

In Visual Studio, you can create unit tests for unmanaged code written in C++. Unmanaged code is sometimes referred to as native code.

The following procedure contains the essential information that will get you started. The later sections provide a walkthrough that describes the steps in more detail.

patterns & practices – Hilo: dev a Windows Metro style app using C++ & XAML

Hilo guides you though the development of a Windows Metro style app. The Hilo sample is a photo viewing and tagging app using C++ and XAML. Hilo demonstrates how to create live tiles, virtualize scrolling, suspend and resume the app, implement search, share and other contracts.

Verifying Code by Using Unit Tests

The Visual Studio 11 unit test tools are designed to support developers and teams who incorporate unit testing in their software development practices. Unit tests give developers and testers a quick way to look for logic errors in the methods of classes in Visual C#, Visual Basic, and Visual C++ projects.

Windows Runtime (WinRT)

September 16th, 2011 No comments

Windows Runtime, or shortly WinRT, is a new runtime (siting on top of the Windows kernel) that allows developers to write Metro style applications for Windows 8, using a variety of languages including C/C++, C#, VB.NET or JavaScript/HTML5.

WinRT is a native layer (written in C++ and being COM-based) that is intended as a replacement, or alternative, to Win32, and enables development of “immersive” applications, using the Metro style. Its API is object oriented and can be consumed both from native or managed languages, as well as JavaScript. At the same time the old Win32 applications will continue to run just as before and you can still (and most certainly will) develop Win32 applications.

Microsoft has created a new language called C++ Component Extension, or simply C++/CX. While the syntax is very similar to C++/CLI, the language is not managed, it’s still native. WinRT components built in C++/CX do not compile to managed code, but to 100% native code. A good news for C++ developers is that they can use XAML now to build the UI for immersive applications. However, this is not available for classical, Win32 applications.

Before you start here are several additional articles that you might want to read:

Windows Runtime reference