Seeking Advice/Guidance in Window UI development and tools

Terry Milewski

Hi,

This is my first posting at codeproject.com, so I apologize in advanced for any mistakes. I want to develop a simple C++ applications which can run for Windows XP, 7, 8. I want application to be simple to install and run on these platforms without a need for .net framework. Key here is nice skinned UI.

I did some research on topic and checked various applications you can download from the Internet and one that caught my eye is SlimCleaner at https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimcleaner.php . If you click on Screenshot you can see the UI. I installed it on Win XP, 7 and 8 and it looks the same on all three platforms. From the .exe and included DLL it does not appear to be a .net application. This is the listing of the installed folder:

cleaner.db 649 KB 9/15/2014 9:22 PM Data Base File
MyDefragDll.dll 649 KB 7/18/2012 6:47 AM Application Exte
service.db 7 KB 9/15/2014 9:22 PM Data Base File
SlimCleaner.exe 29,623 KB 7/10/2013 9:53 AM Application
SlimShell64.dll 673 KB 7/10/2013 9:53 AM Application Exten
SlimShell.dll 559 KB 7/10/2013 9:53 AM Application Exten
startup.db 10,841 KB 9/15/2014 9:22 PM Data Base File

My question is can somebody please help me understand what tools they used, what development environment, and API. Is it MFC, Winforms or WPF? The later two are .net, as far as I understand, but maybe they are just complied as stand alone application. Thing that this caught my sys is that .exe is 30MB is size. It appears that the whole application is in that single file!

As a new to Windows development I do not have a lot experience and if somebody also can give some hints and ideas when I see an application with the UI I like how to figure out what they used to develop it. I am not interested in reverse engineering the application, just to figure out is it MCF base, Winforms or WPF, is it done in Visual Studio or C++ Builder etc. Maybe what tools they used for skinning etc.

My knowledge in this area is limited at present so I apologize if I said something stupid.

Regards,
Terry

Lost User

It is not possible to tell from the above information what tools were used to create the application. If you are interested in developing C++ applications (with or without MFC) there are many samples, tutorials etc to be found by a few Google searches. CodeProject articles[^], http://www.functionx.com/win32/index.htm[^], http://www.winprog.org/[^], http://www.flipcode.com/articles/article_win32skins.shtml[^] are just a few at random.

Terry Milewski

Thank you for your response. It is not an issue of weather to learning MFC or not, it is an issue of wanting to make a right choice up from. If I pick MFC and then later on I find out the Winforms would have been a batter choice it would not be a pleasant realization. MFC is being depreciated by Microsoft so it makes sense to pick something that is going to be around. Further due to the requirement to run on Windows XP, 7 and 8 without .net framework makes it questionable if Winforms or WPF can be used. On the other hand from what I have read it appears that there may be a way to compile a Winforms or WPF into a stand alone application which can be run without .net frameworks. So before embarking on these adventures I thought to seek some advice and pointers from those who have sailed these waters before me. If I know for sure that let’s say Winforms can be compiled into a stand alone application which does not needs .net frameworks than that would be a good choice to pick. Thank you for your replay anyway.

Lost User

Terry Milewski wrote:

from what I have read it appears that there may be a way to compile a Winforms or WPF into a stand alone application which can be run without .net frameworks.

Since both rely totally on the .NET framework I do not think that is correct. If you do not want to rely on .NET then C++ (with or without MFC) is your only real choice.