A collection of some functions I wrote for other applications or out of boredom.
From Wikipedia: "The Unicode Standard permits the BOM in UTF-8, but does not require or recommend its use. UTF-8 always has the same byte order[...]"
Unix/Linux consequently writes log files without a BOM (Byte Order Mark) which indicates the endianness of the system writing the file.
When writing utf8 files there are two problems to solve: 1) suppress the BOM mark and 2) use #10 for line breaks. This demo app solves both in a quick and dirty, yet easy way.
Demo how to add translations to your app with GnuGetText for Delphi and compress them with ZLib.
I needed some simple and embeddable progress bar frame... this is what I came up with in less than 1 hour.
Demo project to read a certificate from any executable and show it's owner, issuing CA, fingerprint and decide whether it's trusted by Windows or not.
Find out if your app has been launched by a Shortcut file and retrieve the shortcut's filename. Intention: If the shortcut's parameters are invalid you now have the opportunity to ask the user to delete it.
An extremely simple implementation of Nullable. Consider using Nullable from the Spring4D framework instead which is much more sophisticated.
Providing easy conversion between string representation <-> Enum <-> Integer
Every new Delphi programmer should be aware that in any common IfThen implementation, both return values for the conditions are calculated by the compiler prior to calling the IfThen construct. This poses no problem when working with constants but will when the calculations are costly i.e. when retrieving different rows from a database based on the condition.
Check the IfThen project for a solution using Generics and anonymous functions.
TExecutor executes a binary file either in foreground or background.
- callback functions for success or error
- Various methods to detect ending apps: by process id, image name, or image path
- Option to check if the binary is digitally signed
Windows broadcasts new devices to all applications that have a main window handle using the WM_DEVICECHANGE message. Unfortunately the necessary constants or structures are not included in Delphi 11 Community Edition.
This introduces the missing DBTTypes.pas unit and a sample app that notifies the user when a new drive appears or disappears.
Drop a desktop shortcut on this demo window and it will read the shortcut file, determine and retrieve the appropriate icon.
Now a tough one (I think)
There are hundreds of examples of how to redirect output from a console application to your own application. Basically you pass inheritable anonymous pipe handles to CreateProcess() which will then get attached to the console. It's your app which reads the console app output from the pipe.
However, this solution has a major drawback: The console window is empty. So most people just hide the window with SW_HIDE.
A solution is to attach your own process to the child console applications window and echo the output while it's recorded with a simple call to Write(). You can find an example in InterceptConsoleOutput.dpr.
Refer to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/getconsoleoutputcp if you need to translate the captured output to your codepage (e.g. when German "Umlauts" are broken.)
The problem with WMI is not to get the information extracted, but to find it. There is a huge amount of information about your computer and operating system waiting for you.
Read more about WMI on Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Management_Instrumentation]
Of particular interest is the class Win32_ComputerSystemProduct which is used in this demo:
Name : Parallels Virtual Platform
Version : None
Caption : Computersystemprodukt
Description : Computersystemprodukt
IdentifyingNumber : Parallels-74 88 82 30 DB 3D 4C B0 A7 1D A6 FB FB D2 57 7E
SKUNumber :
Vendor : Parallels International GmbH.
UUID : 30828874-3DDB-B04C-A71D-A6FBFBD2577E
PSComputerName :
CimClass : root/cimv2:Win32_ComputerSystemProduct
CimInstanceProperties : (Caption, Description, IdentifyingNumber, Name...)
CimSystemProperties : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
Also of interest is the Win32_OperatingSystem that is a bag of information about your installed Windows:
Status : OK
Name : Microsoft Windows 11 Pro|C:\WINDOWS|\Device\Harddisk0\Partition3
FreePhysicalMemory : 4773060
FreeSpaceInPagingFiles : 514572
FreeVirtualMemory : 5117040
Caption : Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Description :
InstallDate : 18.06.2024 18:25:45
CreationClassName : Win32_OperatingSystem
CSCreationClassName : Win32_ComputerSystem
CSName : VM-DELPHI-XE
CurrentTimeZone : 120
Distributed : False
LastBootUpTime : 03.09.2024 09:16:26
LocalDateTime : 03.09.2024 09:44:32
MaxNumberOfProcesses : 4294967295
MaxProcessMemorySize : 137438953344
NumberOfLicensedUsers :
NumberOfProcesses : 153
NumberOfUsers : 2
OSType : 18
OtherTypeDescription :
SizeStoredInPagingFiles : 524288
TotalSwapSpaceSize :
TotalVirtualMemorySize : 8893744
TotalVisibleMemorySize : 8369456
Version : 10.0.22631
BootDevice : \Device\HarddiskVolume1
BuildNumber : 22631
BuildType : Multiprocessor Free
CodeSet : 1252
CountryCode : 49
CSDVersion :
DataExecutionPrevention_32BitApplications : True
DataExecutionPrevention_Available : True
DataExecutionPrevention_Drivers : True
DataExecutionPrevention_SupportPolicy : 2
Debug : False
EncryptionLevel : 256
ForegroundApplicationBoost : 2
LargeSystemCache :
Locale : 0407
Manufacturer : Microsoft Corporation
MUILanguages : (de-DE, en-US)
OperatingSystemSKU : 48
Organization :
OSArchitecture : 64-Bit
OSLanguage : 1031
OSProductSuite : 256
PAEEnabled :
PlusProductID :
PlusVersionNumber :
PortableOperatingSystem : False
Primary : True
ProductType : 1
RegisteredUser : Olray
SerialNumber : 12345-10000-00001-12345
ServicePackMajorVersion : 0
ServicePackMinorVersion : 0
SuiteMask : 272
SystemDevice : \Device\HarddiskVolume3
SystemDirectory : C:\WINDOWS\system32
SystemDrive : C:
WindowsDirectory : C:\WINDOWS
PSComputerName :
CimClass : root/cimv2:Win32_OperatingSystem
CimInstanceProperties : (Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name...)
CimSystemProperties : Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimSystemProperties
There are dozens of other classes you can explore. Open a PowerShell window and use the following Cmdlet: Get-CimClass to get a list.
- Win32_Share lists all network shares
- Win32_VideoController fetches information about your video card
If Get-CimClass shows something of interest use the following Cmdlet to display all members of this class:
Get-CimInstance -Class <Class> | Format-List *