Undocumented API's

'does a file exist?
Private Declare Function SHFileExists Lib "shell32" Alias "#45" (ByVal szPath As String) As Long
Private Sub Form_Load()
    MsgBox "Does the file exist?" + Str$(SHFileExists("c:\autoexec.bat"))
End Sub

'format a drive
Const SHFD_CAPACITY_DEFAULT = 0 ' default drive capacity
Const SHFD_CAPACITY_360 = 3 ' 360KB, applies to 5.25" drives only
Const SHFD_CAPACITY_720 = 5 ' 720KB, applies to 3.5" drives only
Const SHFD_FORMAT_QUICK = 0 ' quick format
Const SHFD_FORMAT_FULL = 1 ' full format
Const SHFD_FORMAT_SYSONLY = 2 ' copies system files only (Win95 Only!)
Private Declare Function SHFormatDrive Lib "shell32" (ByVal hwndOwner As Long, ByVal iDrive As Long, ByVal iCapacity As Long, ByVal iFormatType As Long) As Long
Private Sub Form_Load()
    'iDrive = The drive number to format. Drive A=0, B=1 (if present, otherwise C=1), and so on.
    SHFormatDrive Me.hwnd, 0, SHFD_CAPACITY_DEFAULT, SHFD_FORMAT_QUICK
End Sub

'change windows password
Private Declare Function PwdChangePassword Lib "mpr" Alias "PwdChangePasswordA" (ByVal lpcRegkeyname As String, ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal uiReserved1 As Long, ByVal uiReserved2 As Long) As Long
Private Sub Form_Load()
    PwdChangePassword "SCRSAVE", Me.hwnd, 0, 0
End Sub

'flash a window more than once
Const FLASHW_STOP = 0 'Stop flashing. The system restores the window to its original state.
Const FLASHW_CAPTION = &H1 'Flash the window caption.
Const FLASHW_TRAY = &H2 'Flash the taskbar button.
Const FLASHW_ALL = (FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY) 'Flash both the window caption and taskbar button. This is equivalent to setting the FLASHW_CAPTION Or FLASHW_TRAY flags.
Const FLASHW_TIMER = &H4 'Flash continuously, until the FLASHW_STOP flag is set.
Const FLASHW_TIMERNOFG = &HC 'Flash continuously until the window comes to the foreground.
Private Type FLASHWINFO
    cbSize As Long
    hwnd As Long
    dwFlags As Long
    uCount As Long
    dwTimeout As Long
End Type
Private Declare Function FlashWindowEx Lib "user32" (pfwi As FLASHWINFO) As Boolean
Private Sub Form_Load()
    Dim FlashInfo As FLASHWINFO
    'Specifies the size of the structure.
    FlashInfo.cbSize = Len(FlashInfo)
    'Specifies the flash status
    FlashInfo.dwFlags = FLASHW_ALL Or FLASHW_TIMER
    'Specifies the rate, in milliseconds, at which the window will be flashed. If dwTimeout is zero, the function uses the default cursor blink rate.
    FlashInfo.dwTimeout = 0
    'Handle to the window to be flashed. The window can be either opened or minimized.
    FlashInfo.hwnd = Me.hwnd
    'Specifies the number of times to flash the window.
    FlashInfo.uCount = 0
    FlashWindowEx FlashInfo
End Sub
Private Sub Form_Paint()
    Me.CurrentX = 0
    Me.CurrentY = 0
    Me.Print "Click me !"
End Sub

those are the only good ones I found, if anybody has any other ones they would like to share, post them, Please!

[oetje]

A while ago, there was a post just like this one. And someone spoke about a site with a lot of undocumented api's.
This is the url: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4942/index.html

I have that place bookmarked in 3 different folders in my favorite places

but that is more of a C++ site.....

and this is a VB Forum...(well this one right here(general vb QA)

There was a topic about this awhile ago. It's in the API forum.

[badgers]

is it possible that these api's are not documented because some of them do not appear to work under NT 4.0?

I think the reason lots of them are undocumented is because they are, for whatever reason, not acceptable i.e:
consume too much resources or they have been supersended by another function. Have any of you Non-C++ programmers
heard of _hread or _lopen?

Another reason that some believe is that Microsoft wants to hide them from the public! lol.

well, All api's are documented, just not publicly

it would be stupid to add a hidden function, and not even write the declaration down.... hehehe.....

[oetje]

Has Microsoft released the source code of Windows to the public?

Not yet. There should have been a headline (or some advertisement) on their website to let people know that it's up.

Dennis: Actually, not all of them are documented. Some people have to dig deep into the dll files to extract the functions.

[badgers]

oetje:
which version of windows are you referring to?

Megatron, you mean M$ put functions in the dll's and didnt even document the declaration??

Yes. They, of course, have a documentation of it, but do not release some of them.

thats what I meant, MS has all of them documented, thats why I said "not publicly" because it is not available to the public, just MS.

[Mad Compie]

I found some interesting pages on the web:

ftp://ftp.uni-mannheim.de/info/OReil...ate/dirty.html

http://yali.citeweb.net/wine/manuel.htm