An error occurred, and the wizard could not generate the project. Verify that the programming language is properly installed.

Then double check where you are creating your addin. If it is in a child folder of the solution, then this error can occur. The solution – add the addin project to the solution root. Then if you need to, you can move it afterwards.

This issue occurs in Visual Studio 2012, but a bit of googling suggests that it may also be an issue in 2010.

To get the path of the root of your test project, you can use the snippet below. Make sure you call it in a unit test fixture that’s actually in your test project, not from a class referenced in another project!

This class, ‘TestHelper’ can be included in a Unit Test project to let you quickly get the path to the test project.

public static class TestHelper
{
    public static string GetTestsPath()
    {
        return Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase).Replace(@"file:\", string.Empty);
    }
}

So I wrote FireKeys – a lightweight application that lets you assign hotkeys to actions. These actions could be opening program, a folder or a URL, but the underlying model is designed to be extensible.

You can get the tool from the FireKeys page. There’s an article on how it was developed on the CodeProject, FireKeys – Open Programs, Folders and URLs with Hot Keys.

Anyway, just recently I got a very interesting message from rupam rupam, who has made an augmented reality version of the project! In his application, you use your webcam to play the game physically by picking up cards with gestures. Other gestures, like thumbs up and thumbs down are bound to commands in the game – here’s a screenshot:

The project is called GesCard and as far as I know there isn’t a page showing the code – but there are more links on the YouTube video for the page. Check out the YouTube video with the link here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCOjuPdBooI. Thanks to rupam for getting in touch and sharing this very cool code!

You can find out more about this extension on the Switch Page.

The Experimental Instance

Very useful to know – the experimental instance loads its extensions from a special folder, and debugging extensions drops them there. The location is:

%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0Exp\Extensions\

Samsung have begun to recruit software engineers, mostly in India, with the intention of being able to start developing their own software and thus staying at the top of the market. While many people consume data through Apple products, such as talking to business customers on their iPhones or playing partycasino.com on their Mac computers, Samsung still have a good share of the mobile phone market. They are hoping that they will be able to create software to compete successfully with the iPhone, which is known for always being ahead of the game.

This move by Samsung to not only develop their own hardware, but their own software as well is a positive one for the company. They have announced that they are now open to mergers, as they are looking to combine with high-quality research and development companies.

The fact that Samsung’s own software ‘Bada’ has failed to become popular by consumers in the past, means that they have been running most of their devices on Google’s Android. Their plan now is to continue with this arrangement as well as working with several other software types and developing their own in the future. After Samsung overtook Nokia as leading phone manufacturer, their confidence no doubt increased and these new developments are only set to raise their prominence in the smartphone market.

The article shows how you can use SharpShell to very quickly create these extensions, you can find it at: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/527058/NET-Shell-Extensions-Shell-Info-Tip-Handlers.

So just how easy does SharpShell make creating Shell Info Tip Handlers? The answer is pretty easy indeed. The code below shows the full implementation of a Shell Info Tip Handler that changes the tooltips for folders to show the name of the folder and the number of items it contains:

/// <summary>
/// The FolderInfoTip handler is an example SharpInfoTipHandler that provides an info tip
/// for folders that shows the number of items in the folder.
/// </summary>
[ComVisible(true)]
[COMServerAssociation(AssociationType.Directory)]
public class FolderInfoTipHandler : SharpInfoTipHandler
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets info for the selected item (SelectedItemPath).
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="infoType">Type of info to return.</param>
    /// <param name="singleLine">if set to <c>true</c>, put the info in a single line.</param>
    /// <returns>
    /// Specified info for the selected file.
    /// </returns>
    protected override string GetInfo(RequestedInfoType infoType, bool singleLine)
    {
        //  Switch on the tip of info we need to provide.
        switch (infoType)
        {
            case RequestedInfoType.InfoTip:
 
                //  Format the formatted info tip.
                return string.Format(singleLine
                                       ? "{0} - {1} Items"
                                       : "{0}" + Environment.NewLine + "Contains {1} Items",
                                       Path.GetFileName(SelectedItemPath), Directory.GetFiles(SelectedItemPath).Length);
 
            case RequestedInfoType.Name:
                
                //  Return the name of the folder.
                return string.Format("Folder '{0}'", Path.GetFileName(SelectedItemPath));
                
            default:
 
                //  We won't be asked for anything else, like shortcut paths, for folders, so we 
                //  can return an empty string in the default case.
                return string.Empty;
        }
    }
} 

As you can see, all of the COM interfaces are hidden away and handled for you, there is no ugly pinvoke code and no use of strange structures imported from Win32. SharpShell handles all of the plumbing for you.

Anyway, the code is all at sharpshell.codeplex.com. You can also see a nice article on the CodeProject that show’s how to create a Shell Context Menu Extension using C#, the article is at: .NET Shell Extensions – Shell Context Menus.

Above: An example of a Managed Shell Extension. This sample colours the icons for dlls differently, depending on whether they are native dlls or assemblies.

So far, in the repo on CodePlex there are also samples for Shell Icon Handlers (which customise icons in Explorer) and Shell Info Tip Handlers (which customise tooltips). Both of these extension types are fully supported in the current dev version and will be released in the next few days. There’s also a partially functioning Shell Property Sheet implementation which will be delivered in the subsequent version. The Shell Property Sheet introduces some particularly strange code – 32 and 64 bit C++ dlls are embedded as manifest resource streams and extracted as needed to provide access to C++ function pointers – ouch.

More to follow – check out the project and the article.

This will also be the first release of SharpGL that will be published on Nuget.