Articles and projects

Here you'll find some of the useful tools, libraries and controls I've written as well as a bunch of bits that have no real home. Some have been written for fun and some have been written to solve particular problems I've encountered. I hope you enjoy them.

Windows control related stuff

QHTM - Free version of the powerful Win32 HTML QHTM: It may be free but you can still use it in your applications royalty free. Try it and you'll see how powerful it is for yourself.
Origin Window ^Source: A custom solution for any window to provide the little origin window similar to the one you get when you press the wheel button in Internet Explorer.
GSMessageBox - An Enhanced MessageBox API ^Source: MessageBox is great but wouldn't it be wonderful ot have all of the MessageBox functionality as well as an auto-kill timer and a checkbox so the user can say "don't show me this again". Now you can.
News Ticker - Horizontally scrolling items ^Source: Horizontally scrolling news items, status text or whatever you like. Complete with ability to set fonts, colours and many others. Also allows owner drawn items just like listboxes.
Buddy Button ^Source: Have you ever wanted to put a browse button inside and edit control. This simple tutorial shows you how.
Global Subclassing - adding a horizontal scrollbar to all listboxes ^Source: Adding a horizontal scrollbar to LISTBOX controls is a pain. Here we present a technique for modifying standards controls globally and with it we end up with a single function to enable horizontal scrollbars for all LISTBOX controls.
Tray Message ^Source: Show a HTML message from the tray using an assortment of animation effects.

Utility tools and functions

EasyGoo - Simple little application to make quick web searches: I got tired of having to launch a web browser to do a simple google search so here's something to make it faster/easier.
Zoom+ - Small, light, but incredibly powerful developers magnifier ^Source: A complete Win32 application created to help when developing GUI stuff. I find it indispensible and I'm sure you will too!
Winspector - Powerful, yet small, Spy++ replacement ^{Work in progress!!}: A replacemnt for the Windows message spy tool Spy++. Fixes many of the annoyances associated with Spy++ and adds some powerful features that I've wanted for a long time.
Easy window resizing ^Source: An easy-peasy way to add sizing capabilities to your dialogs, property sheets and main windows. Works with Win32 API and MFC. Simple interface, clean implementation, what more could you ask for.
AutoLogon NT ^Source: An AutoLogon tool that you drop in your Startup folder and never again have to Ctrl+Alt+Del to login to your NT workstation or server.
Source code - a big bag of useful functions ^Source: A bunch of functions and classes that I thought others might find useful.
Debug Help ^Source: A complete debug helper library, provides ASSERT and TRACE API similar to MFC but with some really useful extensions. I can't live without it. This is required by many projects on this site, generally because I like to use ASSERT - if you use MFC then you won't need it but the MFC versions are sadly lacking!
DigiGuide 'Just Starting' Add-in: An Add-in for the fabulous PC TV guide DigiGuide.
Some handy macros ^Source: Some macros that I find quite useful.
Multithreaded queue template ^Source: A template class that implements a generic multi-threaded queue. Very useful for processing a lot of jobs concurrently.
DragEdit ^Source: A utility function that enables you to drag and drop files or folders onto an edit control. The edit will then display the file or folder name(s).

Articles and discussions

10 essential debugging rules: A discussion of some debugging rules that may help you to keep hold of your sanity when even the worst bugs are trying the last remnants of your patience.
Flicker Free Drawing: A discussion and some code examples for obtaining a flicker free application.
Faster Compiles/Less Dependence: A discussion of why compilation speed drops and how to fix the issues.
My coding guidelines: It's a personal thing, but if you are looking for a starting point to develop your own then why not hack someone else's
Project Layout: My own personal project layout and directory structure. A good, clean system to follow.

Other

All software has bugs: Even Apple can't seem to get it right.
Win32 FAQs: Some answers to frequently asked questions.
Book list: Looking for software development books? Check out my recommendations
Links: Everyone has some links to share. Here's some of mine.