Martin Zugec blog

HookApplication technology preview

Hi all,

 maybe you was watching my HookApplication project - just to remind you, HookApplication allows you to hook your specific actions to any process.

Some blog posts I wrote are here:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/martinzugec/archive/2007/03/01/hookapplication-some-real-life-examples.aspx
http://msmvps.com/blogs/martinzugec/archive/2007/02/16/hookapplication-introduction-hope-so-you-will-like-it.aspx

Problem was that after creation of concept itself, I didnt have enough time to work on it :(

I would like to give you access to technology preview - small utility that is providing you with access to all features I mentioned before, however you will need to create your own configuration and it is not really user friendly.

So, how to use it?

1.) Create folder with name of your process inside Configuration folder (msnmsgr.exe for example).
2.) Inside this folder, create file Configuration.ini
3.) Inside this file, specify configuration for particular process

Currently only (very) limited number of options are available:

Run - run specified command

RunWait - run specified command and wait until it finishes

RunHidden - run specified command hidden

RunWaitHidden - run specified command hidden and wait until it finishes

RunMainProgram - run process that is hooked (in this case msnmsgr.exe)

RunWaitMainProgram - run process that is hooked and wait until it finishes

RunMainProgramHidden - run process that is hooked

RunWaitMainProgramHidden - run process that is hooked hidden and wait until it finishes

For example if I would create small script that is killing messenger (taskkill /f /im msnmsgr.exe - reason is that if you run messenger twice, it will get corrupted and you wont see GUI, only multiple processes), my configuration appears as follows:

C:\HA\Configuration\msnmsgr.exe\Configuration.ini:

RunWaitHidden=KillMessenger.cmd
RunMainProgram

Another example - I would like to disable Solitaire.exe. I am using MsgBox.exe utility:

C:\HA\Configuration\Solitaire.exe\Configuration.ini:

Run=MsgBox.exe "Solitaire is not allowed"

We only created configuration so far, but now we must enable these entries - to do it, use script called ActivateHooks with /Add parameter...
/Add supports *, so when you are finished, just use ActivateHooks.cmd /Add * and it should work.

I am sure you will come with more examples... As I said, it is not really usefriendly (as is usual with technology previews), however if you want to test it, you can (and I would really really love to get any feedback ;))

Thinstall sold

Well, it was only matter of time... Thinstall was bought by VMWare - http://vmware.com/company/news/releases/thinstall.html.

 I really like Thinstall - it is agentless based application virtualization, easiest way to describe it is to think about it as AutoIt - runtime is included in single-exe "installation".

To check how it works, just visit http://www.thindownload.com/ and try it yourself.

Download music from Last.FM

So, have you tried last.fm I mentioned in my blog entry below?

If you tried, I think you already love it ;) However sooner or later you would really start thinking about whether it is possible to also download mp3s from Last.fm.

 There is one product - Free Music Filla (http://www.freemusiczilla.com/). This small utility allows you to download music from music communities like last.fm or Pandora.

 Right now question is if it is legal - my legal adviser says no, however download is still available ;) 

Quick access to start menu - and much more!

Real man dont click - and I take it seriously :)

I really prefer to use my keyboard - well, most people that write lot of scripts or are programming prefers the same. There are however some tasks where it is prefered to use mouse - for example start menu. You need to click on start (or hit winkey), navigate to programs, find company, select product, click on correct link...

Well, its not really good. But there is one easy solution for this - it is called Launchy.

This is definition from Launchy`s homepage:
"Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!"

And thats all - you install it, it will index your start menu (plus favorites etc.) and from that moment you can start using it. It is same as start menu indexing you can see in Windows Vista, however does work in Windows XP and it provides you additional features.

Just hit predefined key combination (default Alt+Space is not best, because it is used by system to open window menu (Restore, Minimize etc.), type some text (for example Vis for Visual Studio) and this is what you get:

If it wont automatically show what you want, just hit down key - next time it will remember your selection.

You can also use it for quickly accessing favorites in IE:

You can use it to navigate to different web pages:

You can even use it as calculator :)

Or you can predefine your own shortcuts:

Launchy is really small and simple - but it can completely change the way you access programs on your computer.