Dear Mike, I have used the piece of code in this link to create a hash of an username and password on the server side and on the client side create another hash of an username and password. However when I compare the hashes they are not similar even though its the same string on both ends. Can you please help. Thank you. vg

Ok, I'm with you. I think the CryptBinaryToString(() API was meant more for converting binary into characters that can be used in HTML/XML/etc. Not necessarily to be human-readable. The problem is that in the encrypted data there's no 'z'. There's just bytes. You'll need to store the length somehow. An easy way is to reserve the first BYTE/WORD/DWORD to hold the length of the following encrypted data. With the length, you can loop through the encrypted bytes, converting each to hex and appending to a string. I'm not sure about converting it back to encrypted though. If you allow the user to make changes then the data won't be able to be unencrypted later. It doesn't make sense really anyway - how can a user understand encrypted data? Mark

If you want a shorter human-readable string, you'll need to have less encrypted data. --Mike-- Visual C++ MVP :cool: LINKS~! Ericahist | PimpFish | CP SearchBar v3.0 | C++ Forum FAQ"); Ford, what's this fish doing in my ear?

You would pad the data out to the DWORD boundary as required.  Using a function like ::strtoul(...) would convert the data back into DWORDs, from which you could get your original data from.    Peace! -=- James Please rate this message - let me know if I helped or not! * * * If you think it costs a lot to do it right, just wait until you find out how much it costs to do it wrong! Avoid driving a vehicle taller than you and remember that Professional Driver on Closed Course does not mean your Dumb Ass on a Public Road! See DeleteFXPFiles

I don't know what you are doing, but perhaps this section of code which I have used several times to add folders and folder items would help you. class ... : public CSplitterWnd { ... ... private: CGfxOutBarCtrl* m_pShortcutBar; //defined in a ... }; BOOL CDesktopSplitterWnd::BuildFolderBar() { long nImageIndex = 0; int nFolder = 0, nItem = 0; m_pShortcutBar = (CGfxOutBarCtrl*) GetPane(0,0); // Employee Info m_pShortcutBar->AddFolder("Employee Info.", nFolder); nItem = 0; m_pShortcutBar->InsertItem(nFolder, nItem++, STR_SEARCH, nImageIndex++, (DWORD)(&STR_SEARCH)); m_pShortcutBar->InsertItem(nFolder, nItem++, STR_EMPLOYEE, nImageIndex++, (DWORD)(&STR_EMPLOYEE)); m_pShortcutBar->InsertItem(nFolder, nItem++, STR_EMPACTIVITY, nImageIndex++, (DWORD)(&STR_EMPACTIVITY)); nItem = 0; ++nFolder; long nImageIndex = 0; m_pShortcutBar->AddFolder("Compensation Info", nFolder); m_pShortcutBar->InsertItem(nFolder, nItem++, STR_EMPCOMPENSATION, nImageIndex++, (DWORD)(&STR_EMPCOMPENSATION)); m_pShortcutBar->InsertItem(nFolder, nItem++, STR_COMPENSATION, nImageIndex++, (DWORD)(&STR_COMPENSATION)); m_pShortcutBar->InsertItem(nFolder, nItem++, STR_ENTERPRISE, nImageIndex++, (DWORD)(&STR_ENTERPRISE)); nItem = 0; ++nFolder; m_pShortcutBar->AddFolder("Applicant Info", nFolder); m_pShortcutBar->InsertItem(nFolder, nItem++, STR_APPLICANT, EmployeeImage, (DWORD)(&STR_APPLICANT)); } Gaul Gaulles Technologies, Inc. http//www.gaulles.com email: info@gaulles.com or gaulles@worldnet.att.net