Classic VB Corner


Stuffing the Console Keyboard Buffer

Console applications are alive and well in Administrator Land. Here’s how your console application can leave instructions for the command processor upon your exit.

Creating Admin Tools in a Least Privileged World

Administrators get no respect, either, in this world of Least Privileged Users. Here's how you can set aside those precautions, and still get at the information your users need.

VB Community Transition

As Microsoft shuts down its newsgroup server, the community resource lives on. You just need to know where to look for it.

Measuring Optimizations for Classic VB

We all tend to obsess on optimizations at times, often needlessly. Here's how to figure out if all your extra work is paying off.

Honoring Startup Requests

Windows provides numerous ways to tell an application how to size and position itself on startup. Here's how you can honor those requests.

Customizing the Ride Part 2

Karl Peterson returns with another batch of tricks designed to improve the IDE.

Customizing the Ride (Part 1)

There are countless tricks folks have learned to use within the classic Visual Basic IDE over the years. Here are a few of mine.

Easing the Data Cramp

64-bit versions of Windows present perils for Win32 apps, and opportunities too. For example, it's incredibly easy to double your address space.

Searching Within Byte Arrays

Still using Instr to search within binary arrays? Stop that! Use InstrB instead.

Redesign IDE Dialogs

Ever felt the VB IDE dialogs were poorly designed? Here's a way for you to tweak them a bit more to your liking.

The Next Y2K

There's another one coming, and this one's still flying pretty far below the radar. Classic VB apps are only vulnerable to the extent they interact with others.

Creating Nested Folders

Classic VB provides no simple method to create nested directory folders, but it certainly provides the tools to make such a method.

Monitoring System Power Status

With the use of portable devices on the rise, you may find a need to monitor how much life is in the system your application finds itself running on.

Listening to ThunderMain

Windows provides an ongoing stream of general system notifications that you can fairly easily hook into.

No Such Thing as a Windowless VB App

All Classic VB apps have at least one top-level window. Normally out of reach, you can put them to good use if you know how to get to them.