Reading the output of a command into a batch file variable

July 31, 2012 Jul 31, 2012 07/31/12

Raymond C

It's Day Two of Batch File Week. Don't worry, it'll be over in a few days. There is no obvious way to read the output of a command into a batch file variable. In unix-style shells, this is done via backquoting. The Windows command processor does not have direct backquoting, but you can fake it by abusing the FOR command. Here's the ...

Why don't any commands work after I run my batch file? I'm told that they are not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file.

July 30, 2012 Jul 30, 2012 07/30/12

Raymond C

I sort of forgot to celebrate CLR Week last year, so let's say that CLR week is "on hiatus" until next year. To fill the summertime time slot, I'm going to burn off a busted pilot: This week is Batch File Week 2012. Remember, nobody actually enjoys batch programming. It's just something you have to put up with in order to get something done. ...

Psychic debugging: Why your IContextMenu::InvokeCommand never gets called

July 27, 2012 Jul 27, 2012 07/27/12

Raymond C

A customer reported a problem with their shell context menu extension. I have implemented the IContext­Menu shell extension, but when the user selects my custom menu item, my IContext­Menu::Invoke­Command is never called. Can anyone please let me know what the problem could be and how to fix it? Since there really isn't much ...

One way to make sure you pass an array of the correct size

July 25, 2012 Jul 25, 2012 07/25/12

Raymond C

Another entry in the very sporadic series of "very strange code I've seen." The code has been changed to protect the guilty, but the essence has been preserved...

Why do some font names begin with an at-sign?

July 19, 2012 Jul 19, 2012 07/19/12

Raymond C

It was a simple question. For some reason, my font selection dialog (CFont­Dialog) shows a bunch of font names beginning with the at-sign (@). These fonts don't work correctly if I use them. Any idea what they are? (I tried searching the Internet, but search engines don't seem to let you search for @ so it's hard to make much headway...