corflags <assembly name>

And here’s a sample output:

Version : v2.0.50727
CLR Header: 2.5
PE : PE32
CorFlags : 11
ILONLY : 1
32BIT : 1
Signed : 1

If 32BIT is 1, it means the assembly is compiled as 32-bit.

Turns out that if an application is not running with administrative privilege, and tries to write to a protected location in the registry (HKLM\Software), Windows with UAC (Vista, Windows 2008 Server, Windows 7) has something called registry virtualization that redirects the write operation to a per user location within the user’s profile known as the virtual store (HKEY_USERS\_Classes\VirtualStore\Machine\Software). In my case, the registry key is created under HKCU\Software\Classes\VirtualStore\MACHINE\SOFTWARE.

Registry Virtualization is there for application compatibility reasons. Pre-Vista applications are often run with administrative privilege and have access to protected locations. Instead of breaking those applications, registry virtualization makes it seems like the write operation to the protected location is successful. But what about trying to enumerate all the keys under a particular location? In this case, the registry will return a merged view of both the virtualized values (from the VirtualStore) and non-virtualized values (from the original location).

For more information, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa965884(VS.85).aspx

Note 1: Similar technology is there for file system virtualization, which redirect write operations to protected locations to a user-specific location in the user’s profile folder (%localappdata%\VirtualStore).

Note 2: According to Microsoft, they intend to remove these virtualization technologies once more applications are compatible with UAC. So make sure you app does not rely on virtualization to be there in the future.

<Application x:Class="Windows7Practice.App"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
             StartupUri="MainWindow.xaml">
    <JumpList.JumpList>
        <JumpList ShowRecentCategory="True">
            <JumpTask CustomCategory="Foo" Title="Task 1" />
            <JumpTask CustomCategory="Foo" Title="Task 2" />
        </JumpList>
    </JumpList.JumpList>
</Application>

For more information, refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.shell.jumplist(VS.100).aspx

<Window>
    <Window.TaskbarItemInfo>
        <TaskbarItemInfo>
            <TaskbarItemInfo.ThumbButtonInfos>
                <ThumbButtonInfo x:Name="thumb1" ... />
                <ThumbButtonInfo x:Name="thumb2" ... />
                <ThumbButtonInfo x:Name="thumb3" ... />
            </TaskbarItemInfo.ThumbButtonInfos>
        </TaskbarItemInfo>
    </Window.TaskbarItemInfo>
</Window>

You can add up to 7 ThumbButtonInfo. For each ThumbButtonInfo, you’ll probably want to set the ImageSource and Command property for your custom look and behaviour.

using System;
using System.Management;

namespace BelongsToCluster
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\MSCluster", "SELECT * FROM MSCluster_Cluster");

                foreach (ManagementObject obj in searcher.Get())
                {
                    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(obj["Name"].ToString()))
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("This machine belongs to {0} cluster.", obj["Name"].ToString()));
                        return;
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (ManagementException ex)
            {
                if (ex.ErrorCode == ManagementStatus.InvalidNamespace)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("This machine does not belong to a cluster.");
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

“root\\MSCluster” is the WMI namespace. If the machine is not in the cluster, it should not have this namespace, and a ManagementException will be thrown when the Get() method is executed on the searcher.

“SELECT * FROM MSCluster_Cluster” is just returning all the properties available in the MSCluster_Cluster class of the namespace. Here I’m just looking at the name property of the cluster.

This code is extracted from the WMI Code Creator provided by Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2cc30a64-ea15-4661-8da4-55bbc145c30e&displaylang=en

• China won’t give in.  Is that a big surprise?  You are publicly “black mailing” the coming super power and you expect them to give in?  Yes, China is not as powerful as they think they are, but US isn’t the old US either.  Who’s the biggest debtor nation again?
• Google have no choice but to leave China.  Protectionism and trade war rise to the next level.  Economic recovery gone.  We all go back to recession.  No…more like depression.  Sounds familiar?
• Terrorist war.  Economic war.  US:  “We are the superpower.  We rule. You drool.”  China:  “Oh yeah?  Should we dump your Treasuries?”  US:  “History says economic recovery follows after World War II.”  World War III begins.  Instead of cleaning up the financial system, we clean up the world.
• God decided to punish us all and wipe us out in 2012. 

Good job everyone!

<Window AllowsTransparency="True" Background="Transparent" WindowStyle="None">
  <Border CornerRadius="8" BorderThickness="2" BorderBrush="Blue">
...

On Line 1, we have to set the following attributes on the Window element:

• AllowsTransparency = true
• Background = Transparent
• WindowStyle = None

If not, we will actually see a rounded rectangle (created by the Border element) within the default Window chrome.  Note that without the default window chrome, you will not be able to drag the window around.  So you’ll probably want to implement your own by adding an event handler for MouseLeftButtonDown event on the Border element and call DragMove() in your code-behind.

<ListBox>
  <ListBox.ItemsTemplate>
    <ItemsPanelTemplate>
      <VirtualizingStackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" />
    </ItemsPanelTemplate>
  </ListBox.ItemsTemplate>
</ListBox>

http://blogs.msdn.com/johngossman/archive/2005/10/08/478683.aspx (plus other posts)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/erwinvandervalk/archive/2009/08/12/how-do-i-do-with-the-model-view-viewmodel-pattern.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/mikehillberg/archive/2008/05/21/Model-see_2C00_-model-do.aspx

http://www.imaginativeuniversal.com/blog/MVVMUIDesignPatternsInTheWild.aspx