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There are times when you might want to change your default browser; especially if you are a developer and want to make sure that something works as it should with both IE and Firefox.

To change your default browser:

• Go to: Start/Control Panels/Add or Remove Programs
• Click on "Set Program Access and Defaults", the last button in the left-hand nav
• Click on the "Custom" set of options
• You will see an expanded list of items, Web Browser, E-mail Program, etc.

If you have ever tried to do a simple getURL() command in Flash from an .exe projector you’ll notice that it fails when Firefox is your default browser.

Following is the solution to the problem in both AS 2.0 and AS 3.0

Here’s the code for the fix in AS 2.0:

// code on a keyframe on the main timeline

var swfUrl:String = _root._url;
var lastSlashIndex:Number = swfUrl.lastIndexOf("/");
var pipeIndex:Number = swfUrl.indexOf("|");
var baseUrl:String;
if (pipeIndex >= 0)
{
    baseUrl 

Here’s a quick how to on running Firefox 2 and 3 at the same time under Windows

1. Right click the shortcut of the Firefox 2, click "Properties". Add "-profilemanager" at the end of the shortcut path. Click OK. Then run this shortcut to launch Firefox Profile Manager.
2. Create a new profile, name it "firefox3". And uncheck the "Don’t ask at startup"
3. Go to Properties of the Firefox 2 shortcut again, remove the "-profilemanager" and add "-p default" at the end

Here is a code snippet used to center a form on the screen.

Private Sub Form_Load()
    ‘ Centering the form on the screen
    Me.Move (Screen.Width – Me.Width) \ 2, (Screen.Height – Me.Height) \ 2
End Sub→ Continue reading “VB6, Centering a Form on the Screen”

The following VB6 code will open an external file with it’s associated application.  This assumes that there is an application on the system that is already associated with a specific executable.
Under your General Declarations:

‘ Runs an external file/launches it’s associated app
Private Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long

On whatever Form/Button/Event→ Continue reading “VB6 Code for Openning an External File”

Here is a quick tutorial on how to create MovieClips that act like buttons using ActionScript 2.0.  Attached is a sample .fla file with a complete, working example.

1. Create a new Flash document for AS 2.0
2. Create whatever graphic/shape that you would like and convert it to a symbol.  Double click on on it with the selection tool, and then press F8 to open the create symbol dialog box, or right click on it and select "Create Symbol".  Make sure