WinRT

New Post: Windows Driver Installers for WinRT

mbarooah — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:49:44 GMT

Hello Raf,

Thank you very much for the information.

Thanks

Monisha

From: raffaeler [email removed]
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 10:40 AM
To: Monisha Barooah
Subject: Re: Windows Driver Installers for WinRT [WinRT:395469]

From: raffaeler

mbarooah wrote:

Hello Raf,

Thank you for the information.

Do you have a link to the WinRT APIs that you could share? It would be good to know the APIs that are currently supported in WinRT.

Hi Monisha,
do you mean the WinRT APIs that works in desktop mode?

Look at here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211377.aspx

Windows Runtime These JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic, and C++ APIs provide access to all core platform features.

...

Windows Store apps only:Windows Store app APIs that are expressed as HTML or XAML elements are supported only in Windows Store apps, and are not supported in desktop apps or browsers.

I hope this helps,

Raf

New Post: Windows Driver Installers for WinRT

raffaeler — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:39:55 GMT

mbarooah wrote:

Hello Raf,

Thank you for the information.

Do you have a link to the WinRT APIs that you could share? It would be good to know the APIs that are currently supported in WinRT.

Hi Monisha,
do you mean the WinRT APIs that works in desktop mode?

Look at here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/br211377.aspx

Windows Runtime These JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic, and C++ APIs provide access to all core platform features.
...
Windows Store apps only:Windows Store app APIs that are expressed as HTML or XAML elements are supported only in Windows Store apps, and are not supported in desktop apps or browsers.

I hope this helps,

Raf

New Post: Windows Driver Installers for WinRT

mbarooah — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 17:22:14 GMT

Hello Raf,

Thank you for the information.

Do you have a link to the WinRT APIs that you could share? It would be good to know the APIs that are currently supported in WinRT.

Thanks

Monisha

From: raffaeler [email removed]
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 12:30 AM
To: Monisha Barooah
Subject: Re: Windows Driver Installers for WinRT [WinRT:395469]

From: raffaeler

Hi Monisha,
first of all let me say that I am not from Microsoft. I am an independent developer (MVP) that has a strong passion for WinRT and many other MS technologies.

The "Metro" platform was created only for user applications and not for administrative purposes. This means that you don't have UAC nor any kind of management such as event viewer or device management.

Every administrative application typically require an elevated token (administrator) and consequently must run in the dear old desktop. This means that you can't use WinRT to develop drivers installers.

For your info, please note that a portion of WinRT API can be used from desktop applications such as Windows Forms, WPF or MFC.

As far as I know there is still no info on what will be available for the "Windows RT" devices (the ones the come with ARM CPUs). I suspect that only OEMs will be able to install drivers on that platform (and this does make sense at all).

Cheers,

Raf

New Post: Windows Driver Installers for WinRT

raffaeler — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:29:38 GMT

Hi Monisha,
first of all let me say that I am not from Microsoft. I am an independent developer (MVP) that has a strong passion for WinRT and many other MS technologies.

For your info, please note that a portion of WinRT API can be used from desktop applications such as Windows Forms, WPF or MFC.

Cheers,

Raf

New Post: Windows Driver Installers for WinRT

mbarooah — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:02:05 GMT

Hello Everyone,

We have driver installers for our Win8 x86 and x64 versions and wanted to know if the same driver installers could be used in the WinRT platform as well?

If not, what are the APIs to be used to develop driver installers in the WinRT platform? Does WinRT support driver installation using installers?

I came across the following link in the web.

Limitations

Only software written using the Windows Runtime (Metro style apps) can be used on Windows RT with the exception of Microsoft Office 2013 and the desktop version of Internet Explorer 10. Developers will not be able to create applications to run on Windows RT using the Win32 APIs.^[9]

Could you help let know what are the WinRT APIs that could be used to develop driver installers in WinRT? Will the API that is used for developing driver installers for WinRT work for the x86 and x64 versions of Win8 as well? or is it that there would be separate APIs for driver installers in WinRT(ARM) and for x86, x64 versions of Win8?

Thanks, Monisha

Updated Release: Visual Studio Template for WRL Library (Apr 30, 2012)

raffaeler — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:55:38 GMT

This is a project template for Visual Studio
It generates a Visual C++ DLL using the WRL library for WinRT
Just copy the zip file to:
(My Documents)\Visual Studio 11\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C++ Project\Windows Metro Style

More info here

Released: Visual Studio Template for WRL Library (Apr 30, 2012)

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:55:38 GMT

Updated Wiki: Documentation

raffaeler — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:51:58 GMT

Index:

WinRTDebug examples
WRL Library template for Visual Studio

Created Release: Visual Studio Template for WRL Library (Apr 30, 2012)

raffaeler — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:50:13 GMT

Updated Wiki: Documentation

raffaeler — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:48:31 GMT

Index:

http://winrt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=WinRTDebug%20examples&version=5
http://winrt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Visual%20Studio%20Template%20for%20WRL%20Library&version=1

Updated Wiki: Visual Studio Template for WRL Library

raffaeler — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:46:45 GMT

This is a project template for Visual Studio
It generates a Visual C++ DLL using the WRL library for WinRT

Just copy the zip file to:
(My Documents)\Visual Studio 11\Templates\ProjectTemplates\Visual C++ Project\Windows Metro Style

In order to use the template:

Open Visual Studio
File – new Project
Select Visual C++, Windows Metro Style from the tree on the left
The last item should be WRL Library

Once created, a readme.txt with important informations will open in Visual Studio.

Actually I configurated the following platforms:

x86 (Win32) Debug and Release
x64 Debug and Release
ARM Debug and Release (not working on VS11 beta, I guess for problems related with the beta)

Thanks to Kevin Stumpf for initial settings I started from.

Created Release: Version 1.1 (Oct 19, 2011)

raffaeler — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:41:37 GMT

WinRTDebug is a console application (see also command line examples)

List all the packages installed on the Windows 8 machine
Enable/Disable debugging the package activation
Suspend/Resume a package loaded in memory
Terminate all the processes that host the specified package
Change the SessionId for package-debugging purposes
New in 1.1: verbose error messages
New in 1.1: support aliases for package names ($index instead of full package name)

This tool requires:

Windows 8
Visual C++ runtime files (already installed with Visual Studio 11)
At least one debugger (only if you need to enable debugging)

Released: Version 1.1 (Oct 19, 2011)

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:41:37 GMT

WinRTDebug is a console application (see also command line examples)

List all the packages installed on the Windows 8 machine
Enable/Disable debugging the package activation
Suspend/Resume a package loaded in memory
Terminate all the processes that host the specified package
Change the SessionId for package-debugging purposes
New in 1.1: verbose error messages
New in 1.1: support aliases for package names ($index instead of full package name)

This tool requires:

Windows 8
Visual C++ runtime files (already installed with Visual Studio 11)
At least one debugger (only if you need to enable debugging)

Updated Wiki: WinRTDebug examples

raffaeler — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:32:13 GMT

Here there are some WinRTDebug examples:

Debugging the activation using cdb debugger:
WinRTDebug -d MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe"
Stop debugging (reverse of the -d option)
WinRTDebug -u MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Suspend package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -s MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Resume package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -r MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Terminate package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -t MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
List all of the packages installed on the machine:
WinRTDebug –v

New in 1.1: Package names can be aliased with $index where index is a number obtained with command –v
Every command can substitute the package name with $index
index is a 0-based index. For example $1 is the second package listed with –v

Resume the second package of the list obtained with command –v
WinRTDebug r $1
Suspend the first package
WinRTDebug s $0
Terminate the third package
WinRTDebug t $2
Debug the first package
WinRTDebug –d $0 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe"
Stop debugging the first package
WinRTDebug –u $0

Updated Wiki: WinRTDebug examples

raffaeler — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:31:44 GMT

Here there are some WinRTDebug examples:

Debugging the activation using cdb debugger:
WinRTDebug -d MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe"
Stop debugging (reverse of the -d option)
WinRTDebug -u MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Suspend package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -s MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Resume package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -r MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Terminate package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -t MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
List all of the packages installed on the machine:
WinRTDebug –v

Resume the second package of the list obtained with command –v
WinRTDebug r $1
Suspend the first package
WinRTDebug s $0
Terminate the third package
WinRTDebug t $2
Debug the first package
WinRTDebug –d $0 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe"
Stop debugging the first package
WinRTDebug –u $0

Updated Wiki: WinRTDebug examples

raffaeler — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:31:05 GMT

Here there are some WinRTDebug examples:

Debugging the activation using cdb debugger:
WinRTDebug -d MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe"
Stop debugging (reverse of the -d option)
WinRTDebug -u MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Suspend package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -s MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Resume package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -r MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
Terminate package (look at the task manager):
WinRTDebug -t MyApp_1.0.0.0_neutral_neutral_123456
List all of the packages installed on the machine:
WinRTDebug -v

Resume the second package of the list obtained with command –v
WinRTDebug r $1
Suspend the first package
WinRTDebug s $0
Terminate the third package
WinRTDebug t $2
Debug the first package
WinRTDebug –d $0 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Debuggers\x64\cdb.exe"
Stop debugging the first package
WinRTDebug –u $0

Updated Wiki: Home

raffaeler — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:16:41 GMT

This project host tools/utilities targeted to WinRT development
WinRT is the new Windows Runtime (Windows 8 or above required) that expose Operating System functionality in an object oriented fashion.

Current Utilities

WinRTDebug is a console application (see also command line examples)
- List all the packages installed on the Windows 8 machine
- Enable/Disable debugging the package activation
- Suspend/Resume a package loaded in memory
- Terminate all the processes that host the specified package
- Change the SessionId for package-debugging purposes
- New in 1.1: verbose error messages
- New in 1.1: support aliases for package names ($index instead of full package name)

Please note that Visual Studio 11 Ultimate is required to re-compile the sample(s) as it installs also the latest Windows SDK (include files, libraries, …).
Visual Studio 11 can be installed over the Visual Studio Express edition that is pre-installed in the Windows 8 developer Preview with tools.

Feedbacks and suggestions in the Discussion pages are always welcome.

Project created and mantained by Raffaele Rialdi

English website: http://www.iamraf.net

Italian blog website: http://blogs.ugidotnet.org/raffaele

Member of the board of UGIdotNET user group

Founder of DotNetLiguria user group

Proud member of the MVP Community since 2003

Source code checked in, #998c3021833a

raffaeler — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:05:05 GMT

Version 1.1 Verbose output (either successfull operation or formatted message) Implemented aliases for package name ($n) where n is the index of the package listed with -v option

Updated Wiki: Home

raffaeler — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:44:19 GMT

Current Utilities

WinRTDebug is a console application (see also command line examples)
- List all the packages installed on the Windows 8 machine
- Enable/Disable debugging the package activation
- Suspend/Resume a package loaded in memory
- Terminate all the processes that host the specified package
- Change the SessionId for package-debugging purposes

Feedbacks and suggestions in the Discussion pages are always welcome.

Project created and mantained by Raffaele Rialdi

English website: http://www.iamraf.net

Italian blog website: http://blogs.ugidotnet.org/raffaele

Member of the board of UGIdotNET user group

Founder of DotNetLiguria user group

Proud member of the MVP Community since 2003

New Post: How-to compile WinRT debug source code

raffaeler — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:55:26 GMT

Hi,
first of all stay sure to have installed Visual Studio 11 Ultimate.

The preinstalled express edition only deals with metro-style apps while this utility is a pure Win32 Console COM/ATL application.
I installed also the Device Driver Kit, but it should not be necessary to compile my app.

Anyway the complete path for shobjidl.h is the following:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Include\um\ShObjIdl.h

Let me know if you still have problem in compiling it.

P.S. the binary release is currently version 1.0, while the sources are version 1.1.
There are no difference in functionality but only a few changes in order to respect modern C++ best practices.