This is a technical article, not intended for the general computer user. For a one-click patch to enable Windows Media Player to run multiple times, look here: http://www.lukepaynesoftware.com/other/

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You are able to check if you are running in a 64-bit process, by using Environment.Is64BitProcess, which returns a boolean of true if you are in a 64-bit process, or false if you are not.

You can check if the operating system in 64-bit by using Environment.Is64BitOperatingSystem, which also returns a boolean of true if you are on a 64-bit operating system, or false if you are not.

Another welcome addition is support to specify either a 64-bit or 32-bit version of the Windows Registry. You can specify either view using the Microsoft.Win32.RegistryView enumeration. For example, to open the 64-bit view of the Current User hive:

RegistryKey.OpenBaseKey(RegistryHive.CurrentUser, RegistryView.Registry64);

If you specify 64-bit view on a 32-bit operating system, the 32-bit view will be returned.

Prior to C# 4.0 the best method for optional parameters was method overloading. However, now C# 4.0 ships with the ability to have optional parameters, which are very simple to use.

The biggest impact I think this will have is in COM interop, where you used to have to specify a value for each parameter, optional or not.

Optional parameters are defined at the end of the parameter list, after required ones. Also, you may not specify any gaps in the argument list. If you provide an argument for an optional parameter, you must specify values for the previous parameters. However, if you know the name of the parameters you can get around this. For example here is a method to send an email:

private void SendEmail(string AddressTo, string AddressFrom, string Subject = "Important", string Signature = "Sent From Email Client")
{
// ...
}

So, the following call is not valid and will result in a compile error:

However, the following named call will work fine:

Each optional parameter you specify must have a default value, so if no argument is specified then the default value will be used. These default values must be constants. So, back to our previous method, “Subject” and “Signature” are both optional parameters:

private void SendEmail(string AddressTo, string AddressFrom, string Subject = "Important", string Signature = "Sent From Email Client")
{
// ...
}

Named Parameters

As you saw in optional parameters, another new feature is named parameters. Named parameters are helpful so you do not have to lookup the order of arguments for a method.

There is only one convention for named parameters, being that a named argument can not proceed a positional argument, however the opposite is acceptable.

Here is an example method:

private string ReverseName(string FirstName, string LastName)
{
// ...
}

We can used named parameters to change the order of the arguments:

string ReversedName = ReverseName(LastName: "Payne", FirstName: "Luke");

Using named parameters can increase readibility of your code.

Look out for Part 2, coming soon!

Here is the next installment: Multi-monitor Programming in C#

You can view all of the current tutorials on my tutorial page as I wont always update the blog when there are new ones available.

Whilst I do have a list of ideas I am always looking for more so if there is something you would like to learn more about flick me an email!

Luke