Windows's configuration

Fabiana · Apr 14, 2000

I'm programming in Visual Basic and I have problems when users change the windows's configuration (date's format, decimal separator, separator of thousands). How can I do in Visual Basic to change theese settings according to my needs? Thanks. Fabiana

chiph · Apr 17, 2000

Fabiana - Not much you can do.  You can put the burden in one of two places -- on yourself, or on the user. If you put the burden on yourself, you would use the standard Windows controls for date, currency, etc., and have to parse them out into year/month/day, and whole part/decimal part/currency symbol, etc. yourself.  The good news is you can centralize this into a function.  The bad news is it's a real pain to get it 100% correct. If you put the burden on the user, you would design your own controls for date/time and currency.  The user would have to conform to your format for entering values.  The good news is your coding becomes much easier.  The bad news is the users hate you for it. We chose to use the 2nd method, because we don't anticipate our application being used in Europe or the Far East.  We can enforce the m/d/y (vs. the European style d/m/y) date format without too much danger of cheesing off the residents of Quebec (since we don't provide a French-Canadian version, that's OK with us). Chip H.

ColinC · Apr 17, 2000

I've had similar problems with users changeing screen resolution. I found this code posted on a site somewhere. Hope it helps. Changing the Display Resolution from Visual Basic Visual Basic System Services Posted Tuesday September 1, 1998 Updated Saturday June 12, 1999 Applies to: VB4-32, VB5, VB6  Prerequisites: none. This routine,like the ListView method in Enumerating the Available Display Resolutions, uses Windows' EnumDisplaySettings API to retrieve all the available screen resolutions supported by the display. Here, the results are used to createa "QuickRes-style menu", replete with the option of displaying the users display settings dialog. While changing form one screen resolution to another within the same screen depth poses no problems, changing to another display depth may produce undesirable results. Memorize the locations of the settings option on the display properties in case you find yourself fumbling in the dark, so to speak. The display enum and resolution changing code contained here was authored by Joe LeVasseur.  BAS Module Code Add the following code to a BAS module: Option Explicit Public Declare Function EnumDisplaySettings Lib "user32" _     Alias "EnumDisplaySettingsA" _    (ByVal lpszDeviceName As Long, _     ByVal iModeNum As Long, _     lpDevMode As Any) As Boolean Public Declare Function GetDeviceCaps Lib "gdi32" _    (ByVal hdc As Long, _     ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long Public Declare Function ChangeDisplaySettings Lib "user32" _     Alias "ChangeDisplaySettingsA" _    (lpDevMode As Any, _     ByVal dwflags As Long) As Long Public Declare Function SetMenuDefaultItem Lib "user32" _    (ByVal hMenu As Long, _     ByVal uItem As Long, _     ByVal fByPos As Long) As Long Public Declare Function GetMenu Lib "user32" _    (ByVal hWnd As Long) As Long Public Declare Function GetSubMenu Lib "user32" _    (ByVal hMenu As Long, _    ByVal nPos As Long) As Long Public Const LOGPIXELSX As Long = 88 Public Const LOGPIXELSY As Long = 90 Public Const BITSPIXEL As Long = 12 Public Const HORZRES As Long = 8 Public Const VERTRES As Long = 10 Public Const CCDEVICENAME As Long = 32 Public Const CCFORMNAME As Long = 32 Public Const DM_GRAYSCALE As Long = &H1 Public Const DM_INTERLACED As Long = &H2 Public Const DM_BITSPERPEL As Long = &H40000 Public Const DM_PELSWIDTH As Long = &H80000 Public Const DM_PELSHEIGHT As Long = &H100000 Public Const DM_DISPLAYFLAGS As Long = &H200000 Public Const CDS_UPDATEREGISTRY As Long = &H1 Public Const CDS_TEST As Long = &H2 Public Const CDS_FULLSCREEN As Long = &H4 Public Const CDS_GLOBAL As Long = &H8 Public Const CDS_SET_PRIMARY As Long = &H10 Public Const CDS_NORESET As Long = &H10000000 Public Const CDS_SETRECT As Long = &H20000000 Public Const CDS_RESET As Long = &H40000000 Public Const CDS_FORCE As Long = &H80000000 'Return values for ChangeDisplaySettings 'Public Const DISP_CHANGE_SUCCESSFUL = 0 'Public Const DISP_CHANGE_RESTART = 1 'Public Const DISP_CHANGE_FAILED = -1 'Public Const DISP_CHANGE_BADMODE = -2 'Public Const DISP_CHANGE_NOTUPDATED = -3 'Public Const DISP_CHANGE_BADFLAGS = -4 'Public Const DISP_CHANGE_BADPARAM = -5 Public Type DEVMODE    dmDeviceName      As String * CCDEVICENAME    dmSpecVersion     As Integer    dmDriverVersion   As Integer    dmSize            As Integer    dmDriverExtra     As Integer    dmFields          As Long    dmOrientation     As Integer    dmPaperSize       As Integer    dmPaperLength     As Integer    dmPaperWidth      As Integer    dmScale           As Integer    dmCopies          As Integer    dmDefaultSource   As Integer    dmPrintQuality    As Integer    dmColor           As Integer    dmDuplex          As Integer    dmYResolution     As Integer    dmTTOption        As Integer    dmCollate         As Integer    dmFormName        As String * CCFORMNAME    dmUnusedPadding   As Integer    dmBitsPerPel      As Integer    dmPelsWidth       As Long    dmPelsHeight      As Long    dmDisplayFlags    As Long    dmDisplayFrequency As Long End Type '--end block--'  Form Code To a new form, add a top-level menu item, and name it "mnuDisplayModes". Add a single submenu item under this, and name this menuitem "mnuModes". Set it's index to 0 to create the necessary menu array. Add the following to the form: Option Explicit 'vars set in load Dim currHRes As Long Dim currVRes As Long Dim currBPP As Long 'var set in mnuModes Dim currMenuItem As Long 'array of valid resolutions & colour depths Dim resArray() As Long 'const for the members of the array 'i.e. resArray(resWidth, Index) = 1024 'i.e. resArray(resHeight, Index) = 768 'i.e. resArray(resDepth, Index)= 16  'Bits per pixel Const resWidth = 1 Const resHeight = 2 Const resDepth = 3 Private Sub Form_Load()   'retrieves the current screen resolution for   'later comparison against DEVMODE values in   'CompareSettings.    currHRes = GetDeviceCaps(hdc, HORZRES)    currVRes = GetDeviceCaps(hdc, VERTRES)    currBPP = GetDeviceCaps(hdc, BITSPIXEL)    Dim maxItems As Long    InitializeDisplayMenu maxItems    FinalizeDisplayMenu maxItems End Sub Private Sub FinalizeDisplayMenu(maxItems As Long)   'This adds a separator and a final menu item,   'providing the ability to open the control panel   'display settings page from the app.    If maxItems > 0 Then       Dim hMenu As Long       Dim r As Long      'add the separator       maxItems = maxItems + 1       Load mnuModes(maxItems)       mnuModes(maxItems).Caption = "-"      'add the final item       maxItems = maxItems + 1       Load mnuModes(maxItems)       mnuModes(maxItems).Caption = "Show Display Settings"      'finally, bold the newly-added menuitem       hMenu = GetSubMenu(GetMenu(Me.hWnd), 0)       Call SetMenuDefaultItem(hMenu, maxItems - 1, True)    End If End Sub Private Sub InitializeDisplayMenu(maxItems As Long)    Dim DM As DEVMODE    Dim dMode As Long   '36 should be enough to hold your settings.   'It's trimmed back at the end of this routine.    ReDim resArray(1 To 3, 0 To 35)   'set the DEVMODE flags and structure size    DM.dmFields = DM_PELSWIDTH Or DM_PELSHEIGHT Or DM_BITSPERPEL    DM.dmSize = LenB(DM)   'The first mode is 0    dMode = 0   'call the API to retrieve the values for the   'specified dMode    Do While EnumDisplaySettings(0&, dMode, DM) > 0      'if the BitsPerPixel is greater than 4      '(16 colours), then add the item to a menu       If DM.dmBitsPerPel >= 4 Then          Call MenuAdd(DM, resArray(), maxItems)       End If      'increment and call again. Continue until      'EnumDisplaySettings returns 0 (no more settings)       dMode = dMode + 1    Loop   'trim back the resArray to fit the number of actual entries.    ReDim Preserve resArray(1 To 3, 0 To maxItems) End Sub Private Function CompareSettings(DM As DEVMODE) As Long   'compares the current screen resolution with   'the current DEVMODE values.   Returns TRUE if   'the horizontal and vertical resolutions, and   'the bits per pixel colour depth, are the same.    CompareSettings = (DM.dmBitsPerPel = currBPP) And _                       DM.dmPelsHeight = currVRes And _                       DM.dmPelsWidth = currHRes End Function Private Sub MenuAdd(DM As DEVMODE, resArray() As Long, mnuCount As Long)    Dim mType As String   'used to determine when the colour depth has   'changed, so we can add a separator to the menu.    Static lastBitsPerPel As Long   'select the appropriate text string based on   'the colour depth    Select Case DM.dmBitsPerPel       Case 4:      mType = "16 Color"       Case 8:      mType = "256 Color"       Case 16:     mType = "High Color"       Case 24, 32: mType = "True Color"    End Select   'if this is the first item, we can't load the menu   'array item, and it will not require a separator.    If mnuCount > 0 Then      'load a new menu item to the array       Load mnuModes(mnuCount)      'determine if the colour depth has changed. If so,      'make the caption a separator, and load a new item      'to hold the item.       If lastBitsPerPel <> DM.dmBitsPerPel Then          mnuModes(mnuCount).Caption = "-"          mnuCount = mnuCount + 1          Load mnuModes(mnuCount)       End If    End If   'create the menu caption    mnuModes(mnuCount).Caption = DM.dmPelsWidth & "x" & _                                 DM.dmPelsHeight & "  [" & _                                 DM.dmBitsPerPel & " bit " & _                                 mType & "]"   'see if this is the current resolution,   'and if so, check the menu item    mnuModes(mnuCount).Checked = CompareSettings(DM)    If mnuModes(mnuCount).Checked Then currMenuItem = mnuCount    resArray(resWidth, mnuCount) = DM.dmPelsWidth    resArray(resHeight, mnuCount) = DM.dmPelsHeight    resArray(resDepth, mnuCount) = DM.dmBitsPerPel   'save the current DEVMODE value for depth   'and increment the menu item count, ready for   'the next call    lastBitsPerPel = DM.dmBitsPerPel    mnuCount = mnuCount + 1 End Sub Private Sub cmdLoadMenu_Click()    Dim maxItems As Long    InitializeDisplayMenu maxItems    cmdLoadMenu.Enabled = False    FinalizeDisplayMenu maxItems End Sub Private Sub mnuModes_Click(Index As Integer)    Dim DM As DEVMODE    Select Case Index       Case mnuModes.Count         'show the display control panel          Call Shell("rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,3", 1)       Case Else         'change the current resolution, no prompting         'BE CAREFUL .. you could set your system to a         'setting which renders the display difficult to read.          With DM             .dmPelsWidth = resArray(resWidth, Index)             .dmPelsHeight = resArray(resHeight, Index)             .dmBitsPerPel = resArray(resDepth, Index)             .dmFields = DM_PELSWIDTH Or DM_PELSHEIGHT Or DM_BITSPERPEL             .dmSize = LenB(DM)          End With          If ChangeDisplaySettings(DM, CDS_FORCE) <> 0 Then              MsgBox "Error! Perhaps your hardware is not up to the task?"          End If         'indicate the current menu selection          mnuModes(currMenuItem).Checked = False          mnuModes(Index).Checked = True          currMenuItem = Index    End Select End Sub '--end block--'  Comments On running, the menu should contain all your available settings, similar to those displayed in the ListView example. The current resolution will be checked. Selecting another resolution or colour depth will cause the display to change without prompting.  Be careful. Colin Chevrier <a href=mailto:colin.chevrier@ca.jdsunph.com>colin.chevrier@ca.jdsunph.com</a> <a href= > </a>

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Windows's configuration

Fabiana

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chiph

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ColinC

Programmer

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