What's That Language..

[Zane]

I wanted to call this thread...Name That Language! but was afraid people would think I'm starting a game.

I'm not trying to start a game or anything.  It's sort of a trend starter but I don't want it to end up to be just a post count upper.

 

So what is it?

There have been many times where I have looked at something and wanted to edit it.  And I wanted to do it without downloading some stupid program that someone made particularly for that one little thing.  Number one thing that comes to mind for an example is MySpace.  People say to themselves...."I want to edit my myspace, How do I do it?" it's not long before they've bumped into things like pimpmyspace.org or lovemyflash.com.  Creatively designed forms used to do all the work for you leaving you learning nothing.  When really you should know that too edit anything in myspace you need to know HTML & CSS, have the source of your profile on hand, be creative.

 

That's where I proclaim...Name that Language!....What's that Language?

 

in order to...."play"....you need to have a really good description of what it is you're working with.  Describe a scenario you might want to create with such a language.

 

Just make sure you use your quote tags when you answer people, so everyone can tell who's answering who.

[Zane]

Of course there's a reason I started this.  Would be pointless not to.

 

 

I want to edit Windows.....yeah pretty blunt.

 

Let's say in a regular explorer folder I highlight a series of files....maybe 9 or 35...doesn't matter,  it's multiple files.

 

Now when I right-click the hightlighted area I have now...I have a context menu.

Say I wanted to add something to the menu, or edit something

 

What language can I use to do such things.  and when I get this language which compiler can I use with it

what would I need to learn to create an icon on my desktop that opens up something box that in the background edits my context menus...everywhere..  Like for instance I wanted to create a batch rename item.

 

im not sure if the registry editor is involved or not.....but I'm looking for a language

 

Hopefully I'm not vague

[trq]

Windows is not open sourced, while it may be possible to edit menu's and the like through something in the registry, you won't be doing any programming to modify windows's behavour.

 

I would however hazard a guess that most of windows would be written in C and C++.

 

If you really want to start OS hacking, get yourself an open source OS. While the desktops used in a typical GNU/Linux OS are not part of the actual operating system, they are all highly configurable and open source. Theres nothing you can't do in/to GNU/Linux providing you have the patience and the know how.

[daperson]

What you're trying to do in widnows requires editing a registry key somewhere - absoloutly no idea which registry key, but a spot of googling should uncover that for you.

[KodeWarrior]

Windows is written in C (the base, at least).  Your Desktop is all C++.  Hacking it requires a lot of knowledge of reverse engineering, with one exception.  C++ utilizes resources (*.res) which are embedded into into every (*.exe).  These can be modified, but be careful, as this can also make the file unuseable.  my suggestion is to create your own add on for windows that generates a context menu and modify the windows messaging system to override and call your app (be careful, this can also cause system instability).  I have done such tricks with a resource hacker and VS 2005.  My XP is pretty personalized with regard to context menus.

 

Kode

[KodeWarrior]

oops one other tidbit - your GUI, as you all know is explorer.exe - that should be enough to tell you that it is nothing more than a c++ app that can be changed.  You can even write your own... I did.  I'd post it but M$ didn't like that idea that my GUI was faster than theirs .

 

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Ok, I don't know if you got help yet for your question, zanus, but you were not being vague and I not only understand what you are trying to do, but I've done it.

 

Let's assume you selected 15 .jpg images, and you wanted a convenient addition in the context menu to convert them all to png's.  Well, you'll need a few things:

 

a commandline app for converting images (google nconvert)

the registry "name" of jpg images

 

1.First go into your registry editor (Start > Run > regedit > OK) and open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
2.Type ctrl+f (to search or Find) and type .jpg
3.The first thing that should be found is the value .jpg, and above it should be .jpeg, you'll need both, fortunately, the registry "names" are the same.
4.You'll see that default is set to jpegfile, remember that
5.Search again but this time for jpegfile, you'll need to search a few times until you find the actual registry key called jpegfile, open that up
6.You'll see at the bottom of the list of keys one called shell, open that
7.Inside you should see at least edit, open, and printto
8.Right click the shell key and click New > Key
9.Name the key "Convert" (without the quotes), then add a new key inside the convert key, name it "command" (no quotes)
10.Click on the command key and double click the (Default) value inside the viewer pane, a window should appear telling you to set that value.
11.Minimize the registry editor for now...
12.Now find the commandline image converter you downloaded (I will use nconvert as an example), and copy it to C:\WINDOWS\
13.(This step is optional) You may create a bat file to minimize what you need to set the default value to in the registry key, open notepad and type this:

nconvert -out png %1

And save it in C:\WINDOWS as "piconvert.bat" (this time with quotes, to force the bat filetype)

Alternately, you can just add that to the end of the line in the default's value.
14.Now that you have nconvert at least copied to the WINDOWS directory, open back up the regedit and put this in the dafault value:

(if you didn't make the bat):
"C:\WINDOWS\nconvert.exe -out png %1"

(if you made the bat):
"C:\WINDOWS\piconvert.bat %1"
15.And then save that value by clicking OK.
16.Close the registry editor.

 

Now test it by right clicking a jpg image and seeing if it comes up in the menu, if it does, then try to actually convert it, if that works, then congratulations, you've done it.

 

Even if this wasn't what you were trying to do, you get the basic jist of how to do it now, I think.

 

Disclaimer: I claim no responsibility for ANYTHING that might go wrong performing this process.  I've tested it and confirmed it to be accurate, but I still take no blame, nor is anything I've told you official information.  Perform this "hack" at your own risk.

[Zane]

Yeah man, that was exactly what I was looking for.  Too the T.

 

now I'm stuck on nconvert and it's syntax.

 

Well, more like regedit and it's syntax. 

I have

"C:\WINDOWS\piconvert.bat %1"

in my value

the command window pops up and all that but does nothing....so I added a pause command to the bat file

 

It's only getting the first word of the filename or whatever....first letter/character....to put it bluntly it's just not getting the full filename as the input.  So, how do I tell regedit to retrieve the full filename of whatever is clicked.

 

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out....enclosed %1 in double quotes

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

You got it.  I was gonna reply, then I saw your edit.  I'm glad you figured it out and that I could help, this has helped me many a time.

[elite_prodigy]

Windows is written in C (the base, at least).  Your Desktop is all C++.  Hacking it requires a lot of knowledge of reverse engineering, with one exception.  C++ utilizes resources (*.res) which are embedded into into every (*.exe).  These can be modified, but be careful, as this can also make the file unuseable.  my suggestion is to create your own add on for windows that generates a context menu and modify the windows messaging system to override and call your app (be careful, this can also cause system instability).  I have done such tricks with a resource hacker and VS 2005.  My XP is pretty personalized with regard to context menus.

 

Kode

 

Windows is not open sourced, while it may be possible to edit menu's and the like through something in the registry, you won't be doing any programming to modify windows's behavour.

 

I would however hazard a guess that most of windows would be written in C and C++.

 

If you really want to start OS hacking, get yourself an open source OS. While the desktops used in a typical GNU/Linux OS are not part of the actual operating system, they are all highly configurable and open source. Theres nothing you can't do in/to GNU/Linux providing you have the patience and the know how.

 

Windows is written in:

C - > "kernel"

C++ - > "kernel", registry, parts of the GUI, shell, MFC, API(?)

Assembly - > actually helps to change the way windows reads its own C/C++, structural uses; low level task switching routines; device drivers, all of DOS

Visual Basic - > puts the windows in Windows

Java - > Vista Only - graphical effects (unconfirmed)

 

 

They mostly use their own compilers. However, they do NOT use sourcesafe. They have a hacked up, er, customized version of Perforce for most stuff, plus some old stuff on a system called SLM (I think).

 

Kinda funny - I got the chance to visit MS's data center about 7 years ago. They actually had a Vax sitting in there; apparently it was their SCC repository.

 

As full rewrites are a "no-no" Windows have been rehashing, hacking, breaking, fixing, screwing around with, bashing, smashing, killing, resurecting, and more explicit things with the old DOS all the way up to XP. I'm almost positive Vista was has an all new Kernel and API