How to tell if you can run Windows Vista 64 bit

This is from the link below:

http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/content.aspx?ctId=396

 

Confirm that your PC is capable of running 64-bit software.

1.Open the "System Properties" window
 a.If your Start menu is configured for Classic Start menu, right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, and click Properties.
 b.If your Start menu is the Windows default Start menu, click the Start button, then right-click the My Computer icon in your Start menu, and click Properties.
2.Click the Advanced tab.
3.Click Environment Variables.
4.In the "System variables" list at the bottom of the Environment Variables window, look for a variable called "PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE". If your PC has a 32-bit processor, this variable will have a value of "x86". If it has a 64-bit processor this variable will have a value of "x64".

Problems on Vista 64 bit operating systems

I have an application that has some COM references and it gives problems on Windows Vista 64 bit.  Apparently the solution is to build the application to specifically target x86 machines rather than "Any CPU" and when your application will run on a 64 bit operating system, it will run as a 32 bit WoW.  More information on

 

This is from the link below, but this is how you do it:

First:
   1.Click on Tools...Options
   2.Select Projects and Solutions
   3.Check the Show advanced build configurations option and click the OK button

To compile for x86:
   1.Click on Build...Configuration Manager
   2.Click on the Platform dropdown for your project in the list and select <New...>
   3.In the Project Platform dialog select x86 from the new Platform dropdown and click OK

 

The message board item where I got the above information is below

https://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3966202&SiteID=1

 

What is WoW mean

WoW in the context of 32-bit WoW means Windows on Windows.  It basically means a emulating a type of windows on another windows platform.

 

More information can be found here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/gauravseth/archive/2006/04/24/582091.aspx

 

Interpolate an array to twice its size in VB.NET

I had an array that I wanted to "interpolate".  The simplified version is the array (one-dimensional) had the following values:

011000

Now this array is a one dimensional array that contains values for an image. For this example, the width of the image is 2 digits.  I wanted to interpolate this array so that the width of the image is 4 digits.

Initially my thought was just to do this:

001111000000

This was simple as I just looped through the original array as such:

for index = 0 to oldarray.length - 1
    newarray[index*2] = oldarray[index]
    newarray[index*2 + 1] = oldarray[index]
end for


But the problem with this is that the old image looked like this:

01
10
00

The new image looks like this:
0011
1100
0000

Which is fine, except when I realized that I interpolated ONLY the WIDTH of the array, and not the height.  What I wanted was something like this:

001100111100110000000000

0011
0011
1100
1100
0000
0000

Now for some reason I couldn't figure this out.  But the solution is actually quite simple.  You have to set 4 values for each one in the old array.  In the above example, I interpolate the width, now I just need to interpolate the height.  Below is the example.

     For index As Integer = 0 To oldarray.length - 1
        If (index > 0 AndAlso (index Mod NEWARRAYWIDTH/ 2))) = 0) Then // I know what the width of the new image will be, and the old one is half as large
          row = row + 1
        End If
        newIndex = index Mod CInt((NEWARRAYWIDTH / 2))
        nearray((row * 2) * NEWARRAYWIDTH + (newIndex * 2)) = oldarray(index)
        nearray((row * 2) * NEWARRAYWIDTH + ((newIndex * 2) + 1)) = oldarray(index)
        nearray(((row * 2) + 1) * NEWARRAYWIDTH + (newIndex * 2)) = oldarray(index)
        nearray(((row * 2) + 1) * NEWARRAYWIDTH + ((newIndex * 2) + 1)) = oldarray(index)
      Next

I installed VS 2003 after VS 2005

 I initially has VS 2003 and then installed VS 2005, no problems.  However, I had to re-install my operating system and because I had deadlines, when I got back up and running, I just installed VS 2005 because most of my work was with that.  But recently, I had a program that wouldn't convert from vs 2003 to vs 2005, so I needed to look at it in 2003.  So I went back and installed VS 2003.  Nothing really bad happened, except when I doubled on a VS 2005 solution, it tries to open it in VS 2003 and I get an error.  I have to right click on the solution and select Microsoft Visual Studio Version Selector which then opens the solution in VS 2005.  I haven't found a better solution.

Missing MSVCR80.dll and COREDLL.DLL

I built an application in VS2005 and in dependency walker it shows that it was missing MSVCR80.dll, so I did a search on my machine and got one that was in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\VC\cd\DLL\mipsiv\.  But in dependency walker, the MSVCR80.dll was missing another dll called COREDLL.DLL, when I searched for this file on my machine I couldn't find it.  I figured I was screwed.

 

But then I realized that I had multiple copies of MSVCR80.dll on my machine, the one in the above directory was 47 KB, there was another one in the C:\Windows\WinSxS\x80_Microsoft.VC80....... directory that was 612K, and it seemed that I had a lot of versions that were 612 KB.  When I opened this in dependency walker it didn't need th COREDLL.DLL.  So I was golden.

 

How to Save the Output of a Paint Routine in .NET to a Bitmap File or save the image from a picturebox to a bitmap file

Another way to say this is how to save the image from a picturebox to a bitmap file.

I have a Picture box where I load an image at design time.  At runtime, I allow the user the doodle on the image.  I would like to save this image to a bitmap file.  The way I allow the user to draw on the image is through the mousedown and mousemove event I write to an arraylist, and in the PictureBox's paint routine I draw out the contents of the arraylist.  When I try to do a Picturebox1.Image.Save, it doesn't work in that it saves the original image that I loaded at design time, not the one that I just drew on in mousedown and mousemove.  There are two ways the do this.  The harder method is below.  What it does is it creates a tempimage, then it draws to this temp image (what I am assuming here is that you've moved the code from your PictureBox1.Paint routine to a stand alone routine called PaintPictureBox1, this way you can call it from two places), and finally it returns the temp image.

Public Function CurrentPictureBox() as Bitmap

        Dim iNewWidth As Integer, iNewHeight As Integer
        iNewWidth = Int(PictureBox1.Image.Width)
        iNewHeight = Int(PictureBox1.Image.Height)

        tempImage = New Bitmap(iNewWidth, iNewHeight, System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format32bppRgb)        
        g = Graphics.FromImage(tempImage)      

        g.DrawImage(PictureBox1.Image, 0, 0, iNewWidth, iNewHeight)
        PaintPictureBox1(g)
    return tempImage
End Sub

The second method is simpler, in that it takes advantage of .NETs DrawToBitmap routine.

Public Function CurrentPictureBox() as Bitmap
            Dim tempImageAs New Drawing.Bitmap(PictureBox1.Image.Width, PictureBox1.Image.Height)
            PictureBox1.DrawToBitmap(tempImage, New Rectangle(0, 0, bmp.Width, bmp.Height))
            return tempImage
End Sub