Eliot's Blog : SDK

The $100 Windows SDK Question

Eliot — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:44:00 GMT

I try to get your attention in devious ways. But this is worth being tricked.

The Windows SDK is looking for feedback about that gigantic product, The Windows SDK. More than feedback, they are dying to know what you'd change and what you want to see added. So, in their own words:

The Windows SDK Team is looking for customer input into what should change/improve in the Windows SDK and how it interfaces with Visual Studio. Please participate in the short surveys:

How would you spend $100 to improve Windows SDK components?
What NEW Windows SDK Features do you want?

Speak up. You want changes and they're listening!!!!!!

Power Management in Windows Vista

Eliot — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:29:00 GMT

Stephen, a program manager on the Windows Kernal team, posted a response to a question in the General Windows Vista Development Issues forum, and I thought it could bear repeating here. The original question was about how to control the processor throttle in Windows Vista. Apparently, some of the calls that used to work in an application geared to Windows XP were not acting the same way in Windows Vista. Here's Stephen's response:

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 use a new power policy infrastructure and API. This page details all the power APIs and indicates what is supported by the various Windows versions:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa373163(VS.85).aspx

While some of the older APIs are supported in Vista, it is recommended that you use the new APIs on Windows Vista and later versions.

To give some background, in Windows Vista a power plan (sometimes called a power scheme) contains the power setting values that are actually in effect on the system. A power plan is uniquely identified by a GUID and contains an AC and DC values for each power setting. There can only be one power plan active at a time on the system. The current plan can be obtained using the PowerGetActiveScheme.

Like power plans, power settings are also identified by unique GUIDs and include a friendly name, description, allowable values, and default values for AC and DC. Power setting values can be modified using the PowerWriteACValueIndex and PowerWriteDCValueIndex routines. Note that you must call PowerSetActiveScheme after modifying any of the power settings in order to activate the new values.

Specifically to your question, there are two settings that allow you to adjust the minimum and maximum state for processor power management. These are expressed as a percentage of the maximum processor frequency. Here is a summary of these two settings:

Description	Minimum processor performance state. The performance state is specified as a percentage of maximum processor frequency.
GUID	893dee8e-2bef-41e0-89c6-b55d0929964c
PowerCfg Alias	PROCTHROTTLEMIN
Minimum Value	0
Maximum Value	100
Label	Percentage (%)
Hidden	No

Description	Maximum processor performance state. The performance state is specified as a percentage of maximum processor frequency.
GUID	bc5038f7-23e0-4960-96da-33abaf5935ec
PowerCfg Alias	PROCTHROTTLEMAX
Minimum Value	0
Maximum Value	100
Label	Percentage (%)
Hidden	No

Additional information on Vista power policy is described in detail in the following whitepaper:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/pnppwr/powermgmt/PMpolicy_Vista.mspx

Cheers,

Stephen [Microsoft]

Microsoft Continues More Openness for Developers

Eliot — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:47:00 GMT

Well, just as I was finishing the last entry, mail comes screaming in from Steve Ballmer. I general take a gander at the CEO's mail, and I was glad I did this morning. There has been an announcement about how Microsoft will continue to drive to make our platforms more open to interoperability and innovation. I'm sure that the words were carefully chosen, so I will let the press release do the talking:

Microsoft today announced a set of broad-reaching changes to its technology and business practices to increase the openness of its products and drive greater interoperability, opportunity and choice. These changes are codified into four new interoperability principles and corresponding actions: 1) ensuring open connections; 2) promoting data portability; 3) enhancing support for industry standards; and 4) fostering more open engagement with customers and the industry, including open source communities.

Highlights:

Press Conference Call with Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Brad Smith: 8:30 am PST, Feb. 21

Video Clip: Tom Robertson, General Manager, Interoperability and Standards (.wmv file, 44 sec)

I have to tell you, as the owner of a large developer documentation set, this makes me both happy and nervous. We've been trying to ensure all of our docs are complete and accurate for years, and I think we've succeeded to a great extent. On the other hand, this sounds like there may be more work heading my way in future releases. That's OK by me. It's a weird sort of job security. Sort of. =:7P

Developer Security Enhancements in Windows Vista SP1

Eliot — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:33:00 GMT

This comes via Michael Howard's Web Log. Take a look at the full post, but here are some salient bits.

New NX APIs added to Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 and Windows Server 2008

In the interests of helping secure the platform, we want more people to opt-in to using Data Execution Prevention (aka DEP aka NX), and we have lowered the barrier to entry for application developers in Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 and Windows Server 2008.

We've added some new APIs that allow a developer to set DEP on their process at runtime rather than using linker options. The new APIs also give developers some more flexibility if your application uses an older version of the Active Template Library (ATL.)

...

The most important API added is SetProcessDEPPolicy, which sets the DEP policy for the running process. You would normally use this function pretty early in main.

The function takes only one argument: the policy setting. The possible values are:

0x00000000 Turn off DEP for this process (Why are you doing this?)
PROCESS_DEP_ENABLE Enable DEP for the process.
PROCESS_DEP_ENABLE | PROCESS_DEP_DISABLE_ATL_THUNK_EMULATION Enable DEP for the process, and disallow ATL thunks.

The last option is the killer argument - if you build an application that hosts components that might not be DEP compatible because they were built using an older version of ATL, you can still use DEP for your process.

RTM of the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5

Eliot — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:19:00 GMT

Wow, this is a mouthful, but if you want the latest and greatest Windows bits this is hot out of the oven:

The Windows SDK team is proud to announce that the RTM release of the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 is now live for customers to install! This SDK is a large product spanning both Windows and the .NET Framework.

Availability:

• The Windows SDK is available to install as either an:

• ISO, or

• Web Setup

Platforms:

This SDK release supports Windows Server 2008, .NET Framework 3.5, and Windows Vista SP1 and is compatible with Visual Studio 2008, and Visual Studio 2005 SP1; including Visual Studio Express Editions.

What’s New:

The following is a small sampling of what’s in this SDK, with a more complete list available in the Getting Started section in the Windows SDK documentation.

• Support for Windows Server 2008 (x86, x64, and Itanuim), .NET Framework 3.5, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista (including SP1), and Windows XP

• Visual Studio 2008 C++ command line compiler toolset (with /analyze support) and matching CRT

• The SDK headers, libs, and tools integrate with VS2008 when both the SDK and VS2008 are installed

• New tools such as XPerf, SqlMetal, xsltc, gc, topoedit, aspnet_merge, and wsdcodegen.

• Documentation and samples (2200+ sample projects) to explain usage of new Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 features as well as previous platform features.

Learn More:

Stayed tuned to the Windows SDK blog as well as the Windows SDK MSDN Developer Center over the coming days and weeks for more information about the Windows SDK. As always, please look over the Release Notes for a description of known issues before you install the SDK.

As always, if you have comments or suggestions, use the MSDN Wiki or the built-in feedback mechanism in the SDK. Have questions, need help finding something? Post to the MSDN forums. There's a whole community there to help.

Happy coding!

Windows Vista Developer Center Updated

Eliot — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:53:00 GMT

The Windows Vista Developer Center on MSDN has been scrubbed, polished, reorganized, blown dry, and is now free to peruse. The developer center now includes easier navigation, links to over fifty "How Do I" videos, RSS feeds for the Windows Shell team's blog, Shell:revealed, and a ton of content about why you should develop applications directly for Windows Vista. Just take a look at the What's New in Windows Vista page, and use that as your springboard to identify useful new technologies and to find relavent materials throughout MSDN and TechNet.

Seriously, the reorganization is a ton of help in getting into where you need to be.