--- title: "2 possible gems in MS downloads" url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/11/18/2-possible-gems-in-ms-downloads.md" canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2003/11/18/2-possible-gems-in-ms-downloads.html" published: "2003-11-18T09:57:00" updated: "2003-11-18T09:57:00" tags: ["Cool Tools"] author: "Roy Osherove" description: "1. Application Signature Builder 1.0 “The Application Signature Builder (ASB) tool is used by software vendors and IT professionals to generate a Signature File containing file attribute information that allows…" usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)." license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" --- # 2 possible gems in MS downloads By Roy Osherove November 18, 2003 In [Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) **Historical article** · Originally published November 18, 2003; technical details may be outdated. 1\. [Application Signature Builder 1.0](http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7ce6130e-13f8-49f7-ab82-7ffafed0c04f&DisplayLang=en) _“The Application Signature Builder (ASB) tool is used by software vendors and IT professionals to generate a Signature File containing file attribute information that allows Microsoft to discretely identify the program (executable) files added to a Microsoft® Windows® -based system when a particular version of a software application is installed. This information provides Microsoft the ability to programmatically identify discrete variations of an application across multiple versions, which in turn enables Microsoft to deliver dynamic information to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) regarding issues encountered on Microsoft Windows platforms and to provide dynamic resolutions to Windows users, for known application issues on Microsoft Windows.“_ Sounds to me like a possible auto-updating and error reporting service in our future for ISV's [2.CryptoAPI Monitor (CAPIMON)](http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0bfe87a8-4e79-4441-9d4c-0cab35d49a01&DisplayLang=en) _“...In addition, not all applications can report accurate and detailed errors when CryptoAPI returns anything other than a successful completion result. As a result, applications that use CryptoAPI are often difficult to troubleshoot. CryptoAPI Monitor (CAPIMON) is designed specifically to address this issue by allowing the administrator to monitor an application’s CryptoAPI calls and the results. CAPIMON can be used to troubleshoot errors in X.509 version 3 certificate chain building and revocation. It cannot be used to troubleshoot cryptographic service providers (CSP), cryptographic routines, and digital signature operations which are also part of CryptoAPI. “_ Nothing to say about this one. Sounds like if you're going to be doing anything with crypto that could crash (meaning anything really) you might want this. ## More in Cool Tools [All posts in Cool Tools](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-tools) - Nov 19, 2003 ### [\[tool\] Total Commander 6.0 is out](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/11/19/tool-total-commander-60-is-out.html) - Nov 18, 2003 ### [New Regulator version (last one on this blog)](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/11/18/new-regulator-version-last-one-on-this-blog.html) - Nov 14, 2003 ### [Making the F-lock key on your MS keyboard ON by default](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/11/14/making-the-f-lock-key-on-your-ms-keyboard-on-by-default.html) - Nov 14, 2003 ### [The Regulator 1.02b is out](https://osherove.com/blog/2003/11/14/the-regulator-102b-is-out.html) --- ## About the author **Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery. ### Sites - [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership. - [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts. - [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin. - [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model. - [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps. - [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes). ### Social - X: https://x.com/royosherove - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osherove/ ### Contact - Contact form: https://forms.gle/jQSx5KoXvrVA1JCK7 ### License Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/