Windows 98 is the culmination of many improvements to what is now a fully-fledged, 32-bit, COM-based operating system. With suitable instruction, you can push the Windows shell to performing complex actions, and customize it using C++/ATL programs. Until now, the documentation for Windows shell programming has been poor. This book is about telling you exactly how to use the tools available, and when each tool is appropriate. There's coverage of the Windows API, the Windows Scripting Host, and shell and namespace extensions that use ATL and the shell's COM object model. Information on these topics at this level has been scarce, but the author brings them all together in this volume. n/a
Table of Contents:
1. What is the Windows Shell? 2. The Structure of the Shell 3. Working with Files 4. Investigating the Nature of Files 5. Browsing for Folders 6. The Shortest Path to Shortcuts 7. Shell Invaders 8. Program Executors 9. Icons and the Windows Taskbar 10. Windows Helper Libraries 11. Exploring the Shell 12. Scriptable Shell Objects 13. The Windows Scripting Host 14. Designing a Shell-Integrated Application 15. Shell Extensions 16. Namespace Extensions A. A Programmer's Toolkit
