GUIDs and UUIDs (Windows CE 5.0)

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A Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) is an identifier standard that provides a unique 128-bit (16 byte) value used to identify objects. The Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) is a Microsoft implementation of the UUID standard.

Objects — such as OLE servers, interfaces, manager entry-point vectors, and client objects — are each assigned a GUID or UUID. Thereafter, the object is identified by that value.

Typically, the GUID or UUID is represented as a string of hexadecimal numbers with the following format:

{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

For example, {4208fb66-e22a-11d1-a7d7-00a0c982c00d}.

Microsoft has defined the following structure as a container for the 16 bytes that are required by a UUID or by a GUID.

typedef struct _GUID
{
  DWORD Data1;
  WORD Data2;
  WORD Data3;
  BYTE Data4[8];
} GUID;

You can use the GUIDGEN tool to create a GUID. GUIDGEN.exe is in the %_WINCEROOT%\Sdk\Bin\i386 directory.

You can dynamically generate a GUID on a device that supports COM. To do so, call CoCreateGuid.

See Also

COM and DCOM OS Design Development

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