The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

API expert claims Windows Explorer app breakthrough

More secrets exposed, says Devos

  • print
  • alert

Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Whirling Dervishes Software, the company founded by Windows API expert Henk Devos, claims to have broken Microsoft's monopoly on applications that reside in Windows Explorer. Microsoft allegedly opened up Windows APIs last year, and Devos had some pithy comments on the subject. Now, Devos claims that Microsoft's disclosures remain sufficiently inaccurate and incomplete for developers to continue using his own documentation.

His 'monopoly-breaking' software is the latest version of NSELib, the Namespace Extension Library. Namspace extensions are virtual folders within Windows Explorer, and are used for example in Control Panel, the Internet Explorer FTP client and the Compressed Folders application.

Devos claims that Whirling Dervishes has discovered hidden Windows interfaces that are crucial for the development of such applications, but whose existence is denied by Microsoft. Not much change there then, post-lawsuit. These and other interfaces which Devos says should have been part of the API disclosures are used in NSELib, and he proposes to make public full documentation on how to use them. More info at Whirling Dervishes Software. ®

Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery

More from The Register

SCO vs. IBM battle resumes over ownership of Unix
Zombie lawsuit back and wants to suck the brains out of Linux
Bjarne Again: Hallelujah for C++
Plus: Now officially OK to admit you never used STL algorithms
Interwebs taunt Sir Jony over Apple eye candy makeover
Hey Ive, Ive... add more unicorns, willya?
Apple: iOS7 dayglo Barbie makeover is UNFINISHED - report
Plus: You don't like the icons? Blame marketing
Red Hat to ditch MySQL for MariaDB in RHEL 7
So long, Oracle! Don't let the door hit you on the way out
Shy? Socially inadequate? Fiddling with your phone could help
App 'tells the brutal truth' about social inadequates' chatup lines
Java EE 7 melds HTML5 with enterprise apps
New release arrives with GlassFish, NetBeans support
 breaking news
'Office Facebook' firm Tibbr wants you to PAY for mobe-meetings app
Great idea. Punters won't cough for it though
 breaking news
The only Waze is Google: Ad giant tipped to gobble map app 'for $1.3bn'
Pac-Man-satnav-ish upstart in bidding war with Apple, Facebook
 breaking news
PM Cameron calls for modern, programmable computers! (We think)
IT education musings to G8 chiefs to mystify IT industry