Hannes DuPreez

Introduction One of the first questions I get asked by my students is how to play movies or music through Visual Basic. I know of four different ways, depending on which Operating System you are on. Today I will cover the first option: Windows Media Player. Today we will learn how to embed Windows Media […]

Introduction I don’t need to tell most of you how important serialization is in your programs. If today is the first time you come across the term Serialization, I’d suggest reading here before continuing. Being able to serialize and deserialize information in your apps is a very important feature to have. Being able to save […]

Most of the time I feel quite bored at work, even on the forums. I hate routine, and I hate redundant tasks. When you’ve been around as long as I have been, you’d probably feel the same way. Somebody has to do the dirty work I suppose. Sometimes though, I get a project or an […]

Is your knowledge of Visual Basic basic or advanced? Test your knowledge against some basic questions about programming with Visual Basic to see if you are better than a Visual Basic newbie! Do you have the Tech IQ to get a perfect score? Answer each of the following ten questions to see how well you […]

Introduction Sometimes it is necessary to disable titlebar buttons and menus in your programs temporarily. These buttons include your Minimize, Maximize, Close and Restore buttons. It also includes the System menu. This is what we will cover today in two different ways. Design Create a VB.NET application and add two forms. Include an Exit command […]

Introduction Hello again! Today’s topic is a very popular topic on programming forums like CodeGuru. There is always a need to obtain an outside application’s window handle, to be able to manipulate that window from inside your program. This is precisely what we will do today. Some experienced programmers might say use Spy++ to get […]

Introduction Quoted from MSDN : “Counters are used to provide information as to how well the operating system or an application, service, or driver is performing. The counter data can help determine system bottlenecks and fine-tune system and application performance. The operating system, network, and devices provide counter data that an application can consume to […]

Introduction Sometimes it is necessary to prevent your monitor from going asleep while your program is active. At the place I work for, I had to develop a program that counts down the amount of time the student has left on his / her exam. Some of the exams are only theoretical. The problem was […]

Introduction The world of programming is a strange realm of uncertainties. Sometimes a need arises to do a task because “sloppy programmers” didn’t consider all the facts, or “sloppy planning“. I put these terms into quotation marks because these reasons remain open for discussion. Yes, there are times that these reasons are the main reason […]

Introduction Often times the need arises to make use of a C# program’s functionalities inside of a VB.NET program, and vice versa. Usually in this case, a Class Library is created that exposes all the necessary methods to the calling application. If you do not know what a class library is, have a look here. […]

Introduction As you may know, I have always been very curious about how things work. Being a programming teacher also helps because I get a lot of questions from students, and it is always a joy; OK, more like a challenge to work out a simple project based on their questions. Today, I will cover […]

Introduction I love my job as a programming trainer. It always brings with it new people and new challenges. Some challenges are more complicated than others. A little while ago, one of my students asked me whether or not it was possible to have a textbox that can be automatically filled in with the previous […]