This component encapsulates an About Box in a non-visual component. It has various string properties to display five different pieces of information in the about box.

Alternatively, the about box can display information extracted from the program's version information resource. This is accessed using a linked TPJVersionInfo component - available from DSP and my website.

Note: The TPJVersionInfo component must be installed before this component.

The About box also displays an icon. This is the icon defined for the application (see the Icon property of TApplication). If no icon has been specified for the application the default Delphi icon is used.

The display attributes and location on the screen can also be customised.

A help file is included that integrates into the IDE for Delphi 3 to 7. It does not integrate with the Delphi 1, 2 and 2005 or later IDEs but can be used independently of the IDE.

This code defines a property editor for properties of type HKEY - i.e. registry root keys. The editor causes a drop-down list of all the registry root keys supported by Delphi to be displayed in the object inspector for any property of type HKEY.

Such a property is exposed by my TPJRegWdwState component (available on DSP or from my website). This property editor is included with current releases of that component.

TPJVersionInfo is a 32 bit non-visual component for all Win32 versions of Delphi and C++Builder that encapsulates the version information contained in an executable file's resources.

The component reads information from a designated file's VERSIONINFO resource. The required file is specified in the component's FileName property. Setting FileName to the empty string fetches version information for the executable containing the component. The boolean HaveInfo property indicates whether the file contains version information. This component can access variable file information for each language provided in the resource.

Run-time properties enable access to to version information. Properties enable:

• Access to fixed file information, either by field or the whole record.
• Access to the number of translations stored in the version information.
• Selection of the translation for which information is to be returned by other properties.
• Access to the language and code page of the current translation - by code and by name.
• Access to the string file information for the current translation - named properties access the Microsoft-defined string information, while an array property gives access to any string item by name.

The component makes calls to the Windows API. Therefore the version information being read must follow the Microsoft guidelines - be warned that not all software complies!

For detailed information about version information refer to the Win32 SDK.

A help file is provided that integrates with the help system of Delphi 3 to 7. An a-link keyword file is provided for integration with Delphi 6 and 7.

Source code of two demo programs is also provided.