Windows API Code Pack v1.1 Released (Think “Bug fix, new Shell/Thumbnail/Preview features, VS2010, xUnit, string localization, signed assemblies and more” release)

Arik Poznanski's Blog - Windows API Code Pack v1.1 Released!

“Last Tuesday (31.08.2010) Microsoft released a new version for the excellent managed library, Windows API Code Pack.

For those who don’t know, this library serves as a managed wrapper for many Windows APIs which are not included in .NET framework, especially new features from Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I’ve been working with this library for quite some time now and I must say it is “.NET missing piece”. Most of Windows features which doesn’t exists in .NET are at your fingertips =, without handling all the Interop stuff yourself.

With the coming of .NET Framework v4.0 which support side by side execution, we finally can write managed shell extensions without to worry about race conditions between the installed CLRs. And what could be a better starting point for such a shell extension than Windows API Code Pack?

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MSDN Code Gallery - Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework

“Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework provides a source code library that can be used to access some features of Windows 7 and Windows Vista from managed code. These Windows features are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework.

The individual features supported in this version (v1.1) of the library are:

…

What’s New in this update (v1.1):
The enhancements in this update of Code Pack are:

• Many FxCop violations and PREfast warnings have been addressed
• Bug fixes across various features and samples
  • Includes many API improvements
• New features
  • Shell Object Watcher
  • Preview Handler APIs
  • Thumbnail Handler APIs
• New samples for the new features
• Visual Studio 2010 compliance
• Initial xUnit test coverage
• String localization
• Signed assemblies

Requirements:

• Minimum .NET Framework version required to use this library is 3.5 SP1. The APIs for Shell Extensions require .NET 4.
• This library targets the Windows 7 RTM version, though many of the features will work on Windows Vista as well.
• …

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I like Arik’s statement that the Windows API Code Pack is “.Net’s Missing piece.”…

 

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