Pat's Windows Development Blog

If your developing a new Windows 8 app and you want to test it on another device (e.g. Surface), you’ll need to use a technique called sideloading. This can easily be done through a few steps that I’ll describe in this post. What is Sideloading...

For browsing, IE 10 provides a great touch experience with the Metro style browser. If you don’t have touch enabled hardware available, here’s a quick way to simulate touch behavior to test your site. Visual Studio Simulator Visual Studio...

I had the opportunity to go to TechEd North America 2011 in Atlanta this year. Channel 9 has made all the sessions from TechEd available on their website.  Now you can listen to Ben Farmer and me discuss Windows 7 multitouch development. In the Windows...

In a previous post , I discussed pros and cons of different development platforms for Windows 7 touch applications. In this post, I’ll continue elaborating on each development environment  and discuss common development considerations and issues...

In my previous post , I discussed pros and cons of different development platforms for Windows 7 touch applications. In this post, my goal is to discuss common development considerations and issues for a touch application when using WPF. If you haven’t...

If you are planning on developing a Windows 7 Touch application, you may be wondering what development platform is the right choice for your application. Reviewing your requirements for your application and picking the right platform before you start...

My earlier post on Interactive Services Detection is very popular. It was targeted toward developers. Based on the comments I receive, I think most readers are users looking for some help. If you’re a developer, make sure to check out my previous...

Did you know Windows 7 has built in multi-touch API's? Have you been wondering how to convert your current application to be touch enabled? Perhaps you want to develop the next cool slate PC app? Maybe you would like to start developing for touch but...

When I need to troubleshoot a compatibility problem, there are a handful of tools that I use that are very helpful. In this post, I’ll talk about some of my favorite tools and how to use them to identify compatibility issues. Most applications...

If you haven’t noticed, IE9 public beta has been released ( download it here ). Please, don’t be scared by the title of my post and avoid using the beta. I’m going to step through a few compatibility tricks to make sure you can enjoy the beta until the...

You may have heard of Windows 7 Software Client Logo .  Did you know that it has an automated test? Did you know the toolkit was designed to be scripted so you can add it to your testing process? In this post, I’ll walk though how you might want...

User Account Control (UAC) can seem mysterious. After all, if I’m a member of the Administrators group, shouldn’t I have access to everything? If you’re a developer, you’ll run into a UAC issue sooner or later. In this post, I’ll...

UPDATE : If you're a Windows user trying to figure out what's wrong with your PC, please check out my other post: Troubleshooting Interactive Services Detection . If you are a developer (or want nerdy details), please read on. Have seen this...

If you increase your DPI setting in Windows 7 (or Vista), you may notice your application doesn’t look the way you intended. What’s the Big Deal? You may say, “Nobody changes the default DPI, right?” Well, Windows 7 might. Windows 7 may increase...

Over the past few releases of Windows, you may have noticed common folder locations have moved around a bit. What should you do if you want your code to target multiple OS’s? Perhaps you are updating an application from XP to Windows 7 and wondering...

IE8 has some outstanding developer tools built-in and can be accessed by pressing F12. If you happen to be viewing this in IE8, go ahead and press F12 now. After pressing F12, you may be really excited and have stopped reading this or you may be wondering...

I frequently get asked about IE8 compatibility.  I usually point people to the IE8 Readiness Toolkit’s developer section .  This is a good resource but there are various topics and resources that I’d like to summarize in this post. Three Browsers...

If you run notepad elevated (Right click | Run as Administrator), and you try and drag-and-drop a file from Windows Explorer, nothing happens. It looks like it is going to work because the pointer icon changes but the file doesn’t open. Weird, huh? ...

There are some very common application installer issues developers run into due to UAC .  Most of the issues are easy to fix.  I’ll cover the most common issues in this post. Per Machine Installers Need Admin Privileges Unless you have a ClickOnce...

When a new OS is released, a high percentage of applications don’t install or don’t run because they check for a specific OS version. The application or installer checks for a specific version number and exits if it isn’t what is expected...

When I show this tool to developers or QA guys, their eyes light up with excitement. When you work in Application Compatibility, you spend a lot of time documenting problems ;-). In this post, I’ll talk about some of the tricks and tools I use for documenting...

In most cases, 32-bit applications execute with no issues on 64-bit thanks to WOW64 . However, there are a few cases that you may need to make modifications to your application in order for it to work on 64-bit. I’ll cover the common issues and...

We had a customer in the lab recently and they were quite certain their application was Windows 7 ready. To their surprise, it had several issues in certain situations.  In this post, I’ll talk about one of the situations they encountered as well...

Recently, someone asked me this question in e-mail -- “How do I get my application to run elevated when someone launches it?” Instinctively, I responded with a “You need to manifest it.” I got a nice long e-mail in return. ;-) I quickly realized that...

I had the opportunity to go to Berlin for TechEd Europe 2009 .  I delivered a presentation on Application Compatibility and the rest of the time I hung out in the “Test your app on Win 7” and “Win 7 Developer drop in center”. I got some great questions...