DDE - what is it? Thread last updated on 2003-06-02 03:16:11

Posted by member 6742 on 2003-05-31 01:52:47

This may seem like a retarded question to the more advanced users, but it's an honest one. MSDDE.dll and Liteman.dll deal with DDE servers or DDE Service: what is it, and what's it doing? I've noticed a few themes including liteman.dll, but have absolutely no clue what it does, even after reading the documentation, so I'll risk being a fool and simply ask.

Posted by member 99 on 2003-05-31 04:06:49 link

DDE is "Dynamic-Data Exchange," a method of inter-process communication that dates back to Windows 3.0.

One of the few places where it's still used is to add items to the start menu during installation. Installers used to talk to Program Manager via DDE to create program groups and icons, now they do the same, but with Explorer.

It was also used to open a document in an application that's already running (otherwise the command line is used), but I don't know where else. (I didn't do any Windows programming back then.)

Posted by member 7 on 2003-05-31 09:31:09 link

It's still used in a couple of places... For example if you open the "fonts" folder in the control panel, or if you click on "Open Network and Dial-Up connections" in the DUN icon's menu (this locks up LS if you don't use systray2 from the ShellFront's latest nightly or if you don't run liteman "threaded").

Posted by member 6742 on 2003-05-31 09:40:57 link

Ahh! Thanks for the answers! So I'm guessing thate when putting a new theme together, that DDE type modules won't be something I need to include, right?

Posted by member 7 on 2003-05-31 23:23:20 link

No, it's something that belongs in a user's personal.rc.

Posted by member 33544 on 2003-06-02 03:16:11 link

good question mrbiotech!