Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion
How to create a shortcut for the "wireless network connection" in Windows XP?
superboyac:
You know, maybe it's not worth it if there's no way to get an elegant solution. I can get to it in two clicks. So it's not worth all this trouble to just reduce one click. But at least this cleared up for me why there are no third party wifi managers out there. I always wondered about that. Wifi connections are always a hassle and I keep looking for a helpful utility, but there are none.
Stoic Joker:
It's the spirit of the thing that counts, it doesn't have to be practicle...as long as it's fun. ;)
I've gotten this far with it (and want to try worstje's idea), so I'll just keep playing with it until I (win) can figure out what to do with it. Let me know if you to do anything with it and I'll work that in too.
Wifi connections are always a hassle and I keep looking for a helpful utility, but there are none.
-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 11:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
...Ya never know where this project could end up going.
superboyac:
It's the spirit of the thing that counts, it doesn't have to be practicle...as long as it's fun. ;)
I've gotten this far with it (and want to try worstje's idea), so I'll just keep playing with it until I (win) can figure out what to do with it. Let me know if you to do anything with it and I'll work that in too.
Wifi connections are always a hassle and I keep looking for a helpful utility, but there are none.
-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 11:37 AM)
--- End quote ---
...Ya never know where this project could end up going.
-Stoic Joker (January 25, 2011, 03:39 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hey! If you do actually do this, I can offer a lot of suggestions (as usual), and I think it would be VERY handy for people with laptops. I don't care what anyone says, wifi is a hairy beast once you get involved with all the settings for security and all. And all the interfaces suck for them. But I kind of understand why now if Windows doesn't even have a way to access that one window.
I started a thread asking for this a while back:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=23791.0
See if you get any ideas from there, and I'll be more than happy to offer suggestions, solutions, etc. I'm only limited with programming, that i can't do.
Stoic Joker:
@worstje - I do appreciate the input, but I found another way around the issue using existing code. If you drill into IShellFolder just a tad deeper, it will tell you what the window/display name of the requested GUID is. So even if some clown decided to name their adapter "Barney's Desert WiFi Emporium" I can still test for a window by that name on-the-fly. So the non-cooperative message loop has been replaced with:
--- Code: C++ ---if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) { STRRET pStrRet; ZeroMemory(&pStrRet, sizeof(STRRET)); hr = pShellFolder->GetDisplayNameOf(pidl, NULL, &pStrRet); if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) { hr = StrRetToBuf(&pStrRet, pidl, szTarget, GEN_BUFF); if (SUCCEEDED(hr)) { bGood = TRUE; } } Sleep(2000); while(bGood && FindWindow(NULL, szTarget/*L"Wireless Network Connection"*/)) { // Nothing to Do Really, Just Hang-Out and Watch the Window. }}
...Ya never know where this project could end up going.
-Stoic Joker (January 25, 2011, 03:39 PM)
--- End quote ---
Hey! If you do actually do this, I can offer a lot of suggestions (as usual), and I think it would be VERY handy for people with laptops. I don't care what anyone says, wifi is a hairy beast once you get involved with all the settings for security and all. And all the interfaces suck for them. But I kind of understand why now if Windows doesn't even have a way to access that one window.-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 03:54 PM)
--- End quote ---
It's not so much that Windows can't access that window, it's that the window needs an adapter target specified for it to be opened with. That little detail has been bugging the shit out of me for next to forever ... Which is why I jumped at taking a crack at this after wraith808 dropped an entry point into our laps.
I started a thread asking for this a while back:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=23791.0
See if you get any ideas from there, and I'll be more than happy to offer suggestions, solutions, etc. I'm only limited with programming, that i can't do.
-superboyac (January 25, 2011, 03:54 PM)
--- End quote ---
Yes, I remember that one. For now I just want to turn this into a viable loader widget (so I can get back to the other 9 projects that are hanging over my head). To that end I'm going to add a NIC picking dialog as the (first run) default action if the GUID is not specified in the command line (instead of the error message). Then the the selected GUID can be stored in either the registry, or an .ini file (I'm leaning toward the .ini option). So if you got a preference there let me know.
superboyac:
Well Stoic, if you are planning on making a full fledged program out of this, here are my ideas. I don't know how feasible any of this is programmatically, they're just end user ideas.
Is there a way for you to have a dialog on just the first startup or somwhere in the option settings where the window detects all the adapters currently installed in Windows? Then the user clicks on the adapter desired, and the program runs from there without anymore dialog on startup. Now, if the user wants to change adapters, he can do so from the menu or something.
command line, ini is ok, but it would be better if it could programmed in the interface. So if you need options for autostart, suppressing the startup dialog, exit/minimize on close, system tray, etc., it would be better to have those all as checkboxes or something in a options dialog. But if that's too much work, text file or command line works also.
Also keep in mind having profiles to be used as a portable application? Yeah? Then you can run it on other computers and store the settings when you are done. That would be really cool.
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