DDE on XP/2003

Ever tried porting a DDE app to Windows XP/2003 that you know worked under Windows NT/9x? It just won't communicate. Having found the problem twice and then forgotten again, here's the note on what is (normally) wrong:

The NetDDE services (Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Services) need to be started. Set startup type to automatic (they are disabled by default), and to avoid rebooting the first time, start them as well.

VB.NET: Shell32 code compiled on Vista does not run on XP/2003

This was a tricky one, and I had a hard time finding a working solution. I finally found the solution by reading comments in differnt forum. I had to mix it together myself - here's the finished soup:

Situation: I had a VB.NET code that was based on VBscript code from "Hey, scripting guy" to programmatically pin shortcuts from the desktop onto the start menu. This line of code created a bit of a headache:

Dim oShell As Shell32.Shell = New Shell32.Shell
Dim oFolder As Shell32.Folder = oShell.NameSpace(0) '0 refers to user desktop

Problem: The code compiled and ran on my Vista computer, but once I moved the .exe file to a Server 2003 computer, it threw a runtime exception stating: Unable to cast COM object of type 'Shell32.ShellClass' to interface type 'Shell32.IShellDispatch5 and then the usual garble (actually, the garble did reveal the line of code in question)

Cause: The Shell32 library comes in a new version in Vista compared to XP/2003 - or that is my conception of what I could find on the subject. The problem is that under XP/2003, the Shell32.ShellClass is not casted to Shell32.IShellDispatch5, but to its predecessor, Shell32.IShellDispatch4. Now I knew the difference, but it meant that the program needs to reference the right one.

Solution: I found the two first lines of code below buried in a comment in a forum - when they replace the first line of code above, voilla: It works on all platforms (the term 'all' referring to XP, Server 2003 and Vista):

Dim ShellAppType As Type = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Shell.Application")
Dim oShell As Object = Activator.CreateInstance(ShellAppType)
Dim oFolder As Shell32.Folder = oShell.NameSpace(0) '0 refers to user desktop

Nerds like me may be simple to please - it certainly made my day!

CheckPoint VPN keepalive kills the tunnel

I had the strangest experience when setting up a CheckPoint VPN device the other day. The tunnel built fine, but sometime between a few seconds and 1-2 minutes after coming up fine, it logged a "no proposal chosen" and went dead again. I researched every parameter with no luck, until I came to a checkbox on the last screen of the CheckPoint's VPN tunnel wizard stating something like "Keep this tunnel alive." Naturally I had wanted to keep the tunnel up, so I had checked it.

Funny thing, not until I cleared it again, the tunnel became rock stable. So, as long as you don't ask it to, it keeps your tunnel alive. I guess it just does not like being pushed around...