SHChangeNotify

I recently had the requirement to refresh the Windows desktop after certain changes had been made to Explorer’s registry entries. This seems simple at first: klick on any item on the desktop and then press F5. It wasn’t, though. The registry changes would be made upon logon by a software installation agent. It was expected by the customer that the end user see the the effects of the change immediately without any user intervention. That sent me hunting for a solution on the internet. I came across many forum posts that showed that many others already had exactly the same requirement. Interestingly, none of the proposed solutions actually worked. Except for one, which I found at last.