I would start with any A+ certification book and go from there into your specific area of interest. PS Real computers interface with real hardware - don't let anybody tell you that you do not need hardware knowledge to be a computer geek! Cheers Vaclav

It's amazing what a little Google can do. Click[^] I don't know of any tool that will do this, let alone do it reliably. A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^] Dave Kreskowiak Microsoft MVP Visual Developer - Visual Basic      2006, 2007

How many times are you intending to cross post across all the forums? Your other post is here: http://www.codeproject.com/script/comments/forums.asp?msg=2328542&forumid=1159#xx2328542xx[^] Vasudevan Deepak Kumar Personal Homepage Tech Gossips A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson

OK. If you make it a Console App you get a Console and you can't stop this as far as I know. If you make it a Windows App and check the command line in WinMain then choose to call the CreateWindow GUI code for some commands and AllocConsole console code for other command lines then you have options 1, 2 & 3 covered. What I don't see is why the user won't be able to run it from the command line. Windows deals with this just fine, try opening a command prompt and typing 'notepad' and you'll see what I mean. Is there some other reason why it won't launch like not being able to find dependent dlls? Nothing is exactly what it seems but everything with seems can be unpicked.

Yes, you need to do what is reported on the web.  The core issue with Vista is, you need to make sure you run programs like VS and installers as admin Christian Graus - C++ MVP 'Why don't we jump on a fad that hasn't already been widely discredited ?' - Dilbert