Geoff Chappell - Software Analyst
INTRODUCTION IN OCCASIONAL PROGRESS: There always seem to be more interesting things to do than write introductions.
The List-View control is far and away the main tool through which Windows applications, including the Windows shell, display serially-ordered information. Perhaps the most familiar List-View is the Windows desktop, with its array of icons. But List-Views can present their contents in a rich variety of styles, even to look like a spreadsheet.
Windows XP and especially Windows Vista have greatly expanded the functionality of List-View controls. Windows Vista introduces the efficiency of by-passing the windowing system, which is surely a huge gain for working with large lists. Yet, surprise, surprise, many of these enhancements seem not to have got documented, at least not by Microsoft, not in time for the January 2007 edition of the Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows Vista.
These notes can’t possibly cover the whole of this rich functionality in detail.