Category: Tips

As you may already know, and as we described in an article on our website, Microsoft removed the Start button in Windows 8. This raised much criticism among Windows users and Microsoft have partly listened to them and re-introduced the Start button in the upcoming Windows 8.1 that will be released later this year. However, there is no traditional Start menu as in earlier versions of Windows. Instead, the Start screen is shown if you click on the Start button (see image to the right). The new Start button is placed at the bottom left of the screen, just like in older Windows versions.

Windows 8.1 – Right-click menu
It is also possible to right-click on the Start button and display a shortcut menu for Control Panel and Windows Explorer among other options. You can also turn off or restart Windows from this menu (see image to the right).

Displays traditional desktop at start
Another new feature in Windows 8.1 is that the computer can be started with the traditional desktop right away instead of clicking around with your mouse or using the keyboard to bring up the traditional desktop as you had to do in the previous version of Windows 8. This is welcome news for many, especially for companies that are still using traditional Windows programs (Windows desktop applications).

Other news
Some other news in Windows 8.1 are:
– Improved support for SkyDrive
– Internet Explorer 11 included
– Improved support for security
– Extended support for VPN
– Improved and more flexible Home screen
– Support for 3D printers

The following YouTube video from Microsoft presents news on Windows 8.1:

More information
More information about the new features in Windows 8.1 can be found on these pages:
> Microsoft: What’s New in Windows 8.1
> Guardian: Windows 8.1 review: Microsoft’s fresh Start?

Download Windows 8.1 Preview
Right now it is possible to download a preview version of Windows 8.1:
> Download English version of Windows 8.1
> Download Swedish version of Windows 8.1

Related information about Windows 8
> Article: New Keyboard Shortcuts (Hot Keys) in Windows 8
> Article: Why Were the Start Button & Start Menu Removed in Windows 8?

Applications (programs) are usually installed to the Program Files folder in Windows. The exact folder path may differ between different versions of Windows. The folder path is for example different between a 32 bit and 64 bit Windows, and for example a Spanish Windows uses a different folder path than an English Windows.

This will make it difficult to hard code the folder path to the Program Files folder. If you use Visual Installer for your setup projects you can use an environment variable to handle the Program Files folder. The name of the variable is %PROGRAMFILES and the variable will be replaced with the current folder path to the Program Files folder during the installation. By using this variable you don’t need to worry about the bitness of the Windows or which country / language version of Windows that is run.

More information
We have published more information about the %PROGRAMFILES variable in the following two Visual Installer related blog posts:

> How to install files in the correct folder using Visual Installer
> How Visual Installer handles 64 bit folders in Windows

In a previous blog thread we published a list of websites that provide free icons (small pictures) that can be used for your newsletter, homepage, blog or program. In this blog thread we bring up a new article that you can find on our homepage which contains links to websites where you can download free images (for example photos) of high quality. Even those pictures will fit well your newsletters, blogs, homepages and programs etc.

There are many websites on the Internet that offer professional images such as photos or computer generated pictures. In an article we have put together a list of links to such websites with high level of standard. Many of these images can be used for free for both private and commercial purposes while others can be bought cheaply. The available image formats usually are JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF and BMP. The article brings also up some search engines – specialized for images – that you can use for finding free images or images you are willing to pay for. You can find the article here:

> Free pictures for newsletters and your blog

In this blog thread we wrote about a good program (Axialis IconWorkshop) that can be used for creating your own icons. An alternative for creating your own icons is to use ready-made icons instead. You can find many websites on the Internet that provide you with ready-made icons of high quality. These icons can be used both for a program and for a webpage. They can even often be used for blogs and newsletters etc. You can use many of the icons for free, i.e. they will not cost you anything, while other icons can be bought for a quite small amount of money.

Search engines that can find icons
There are many good search engines that helps you to look for icons. One good example is IconFinder that can be used for looking up both free icons and icons that you need to pay for. IconFinder contains a large selection of diverse icons. At the time of writing this blog thread there are 214 330 icons available in their database.

Even websites like FindIcons and IconArchive offer many icons for both private and commercial purposes. Both the sites have embedded search engines that make it easy to locate icons of a certain category or look. In certain cases even Google image search can be used for looking up icons.

List of websites with free icons
There is a large number of websites on the Internet that offer you beautiful and well-designed icons. Many of these icons can be used for free for both private and commercial purposes while others will cost you a little bit of money. The available icon formats usually are PNG, GIF, ICO and in some cases even PSD (Abode Photoshop) or BMP. Bellow you can find a list of links with some good websites that we recommend:

1st Webdesigner – Web Design Blog – Over 30 icon sets for designers and developers.
Crystal Clear – Icons from Crystal Clear set by Everaldo Coelho.
Dry icons – Free icons – Many professional icons. They can even design icons at your request.
Fast icon – Many icons with professional look. You can even create icons.
Free Icons Web – Over 28 000 free icons and 950 icon sets.
iCandies Icon Set – 60 free icons for your user interface or your app.
IconDock – Free icon collections rated by users.
IconSpedia – Contains many free icons of high class.
Noupe – Icons in PSD format, but for most of the icons there are even PNG images available.

Some icons require you to link from your homepage to their website or to the designers’ website while others have no such specific demands. Before using an icon, check carefully its license terms of use.

Shutterstock – for you who is willing to pay
For you who is willing to pay a bit extra there is a website that we really can recommend –
Shutterstock. They have an enormous number of icons for commercial purposes and you will probably find every thinkable icon in their collection.

Both SamLogic CD-Menu Creator and SamLogic Visual Installer give you the possibility to add your own icon to your project. To create an icon you need a program that helps you to form icons and in many cases Microsoft Visual Studio is sufficient for that purpose. However, Visual Studio has some flaws concerning icon handling (among others shortfalls with handling the color palettes) so if you want to make creating icons easier and escape those problems, it can be a good idea to use a program that specializes in the task instead.

There are several different programs at the market. We use Axialis IconWorkshop which is easy to use while still being a powerful tool. The program can create icons both for Windows and Mac OS and it can convert between them as well. If you use Visual Studio, you can add Icon Workshop as a plug-in into your Microsoft development environment.

You can read more about Axialis IconWorkshop at their webpage:

> Webpage – Axialis IconWorkshop

The blog post has been updated and moved to:

https://www.samlogic.net/blog/2019/10/tips-and-tricks-pages-for-samlogic-software-products/

In the previous blog posts we have described how to add an ActiveX component (control) to a Microsoft Visual Basic project and to a Microsoft Excel sheet. When you distribute your Visual Basic or Excel application you must remember to distribute the ActiveX component file (.OCX file) together with your other files. It is also important to install the ActiveX component in the correct folder in end-users’ computers’ hard disks, and it is also important to register the ActiveX component in the system.

The ActiveX component must be installed in the correct folder
It is important to install an ActiveX component to the correct folder in Windows. If the ActiveX component is not a side-by-side component (can run side-by-side with a component with same filename) the component must be installed to Windows system folder, or to another shared folder. You should also make a version check before you install the component to the folder. A version check ensures that a component with a lower version number never replaces a component with a higher version number.

If the ActiveX component is installed to a local folder (for example to the same folder as the application) and other versions of the component already exist in other folders, there may be a conflict if two different programs that uses different versions of the ActiveX component are running in the same time. The ActiveX component that is loaded first will prevent the second one be loaded to the memory, and if the second one is a newer version, there may be problem with missing properties, methods or events, which can lead to an unstable program or that the program doesn’t start all.

Most installers install ActiveX components to Windows system folder. That’s why you also should do the same. By installing the ActiveX component to the system folder, the problem described above will not happen. If you install a newer version of the ActiveX component, it will replace the older one. And there will always be only one version of the ActiveX component in the system. There will be no duplicates with different versions numbers.

Special considerations in a 64 bit Windows
Things are getting somewhat more complex in a 64 bit version of Windows operating system. In a 32 bit Windows there is only one system folder, but in a 64 bit Windows there are two system folders. One system folder is intended for 32 bit (executable) files and one system folder is intended for 64 bit (executable) files. It is important to copy the ActiveX component to the correct system folder, otherwise it will not be found by the application. The paths to the two system folders in a 64 bit Windows are the following:

For 64 bit files: C:\Windows\System32
For 32 bit files: C:\Windows\SysWOW64

We explain this further in the following technical article on our website:
> Windows 64-bit: The ‘Program Files (x86)’ and ‘SysWOW64’ folders explained

The ActiveX component must be registered in the system
Copying an ActiveX component to the correct folder in the end-user’s hard disk is just the half of the job. The ActiveX component must also be registered in the system before it can be used. If you use a setup program for the installation of your application and the ActiveX component, the setup program will probably register the ActiveX component for you. But if you distribute your application in another way, there is a special program in Windows that can be used to register the ActiveX component. The name of the program is Regsvr32 and it is quite simple to use the program. If you want to register an ActiveX component you should call the Regsvr32 program with a full file path to the ActiveX component as a command line parameter. For example:

regsvr32.exe c:\windows\system32\SLXCal.ocx

Two versions of the Regsvr32 tool in a 64 bit Windows
If the Windows that you are running is 64 bit, you should be aware of that there is a 32 bit version and a 64 it version of the tool:

The file path to the 64-bit version is: C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe
The file path to the 32-bit version is: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe

If your application and ActiveX component is 32 bit (which is very likely) you should use the Regsvr32 program that is located in the SysWOW64 folder.

You will find more detailed information about the Regsvr32 tool in the following article on Microsoft’s website:
> How to use the Regsvr32 tool and troubleshoot Regsvr32 error messages

It’s a good idea to use a setup tool
As you can see there are lots of things to consider when installing an ActiveX component in Windows. Doing all this manually will take some time. A better idea is to use a setup tool for this purpose. There exists many setup tools on the market today, but we have an easy to use setup tool that we recommend. You can read more here:
> SamLogic Visual Installer – An easy-to-use installation software