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How much gets localized in a localized version of Windows?
ErikF wonders, "Do the localized versions of Windows translate these weird, out of the way resources? My guess is "no", but I don't have a localized copy of Windows to look at right now." There are two...
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Why doesn't the Low Disk Space warning balloon show up as soon as I run low...
A customer reported an issue with the title "The notification balloon for Low Disk Space does not appear even if the free disk is very low." They provided the following steps: Install Windows 7 64-bit...
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Why don't per-item custom icons work when I open a Zip file or some other...
A customer observed that when they opened a Zip file containing an Excel spreadsheet saved as XML, the icon for the spreadsheet in the Zip folder is just a plain XML icon rather than a fancy Excel-XML...
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Why do some font names begin with an at-sign?
It was a simple question. For some reason, my font selection dialog (CFontDialog) shows a bunch of font names beginning with the at-sign (@). These fonts don't work correctly if I use them. Any idea...
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The format of icon resources
It's been a long time since my last entry in the continuing sporadic series on resources formats. Today we'll look at icons. Recall that an icon file consists of two parts, an icon directory...
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What's the story behind the WM_SYNCPAINT message?
Danail wants to know the story behind the WM_SYNCPAINT message. The documentation pretty much tells the story. When a window has been hidden, shown, moved or sized, the system may determine that it...
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Taking flexitarianism to another, perhaps unintended, level
Our cafeteria has been trying to encourage flexitarianism, which it defines as eating one meat-free meal per week. But in their effort to make the concept more appealing, they may have lost sight of...
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One way to make sure you pass an array of the correct size
Another entry in the very sporadic series of "very strange code I've seen." The code has been changed to protect the guilty, but the essence has been preserved. class Store { public: // Retrieve...
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A brief and also incomplete history of Windows localization
The process by which Windows has been localized has changed over the years. Back in the days of 16-bit Windows, Windows was developed with a single target language: English. Just English. After Windows...
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Psychic debugging: Why your IContextMenu::InvokeCommand never gets called
A customer reported a problem with their shell context menu extension. I have implemented the IContextMenu shell extension, but when the user selects my custom menu item, my...
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Why don't any commands work after I run my batch file? I'm told that they are...
I sort of forgot to celebrate CLR Week last year, so let's say that CLR week is "on hiatus" until next year. To fill the summertime time slot, I'm going to burn off a busted pilot: This week is Batch...
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Raymond's subjective, unfair, and completely wrong impressions of the opening...
Like many other people, I watched the opening ceremonies of a major athletic event which took place a few days ago. (The organization responsible for the event has taken the step of blocking the...
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Reading the output of a command into a batch file variable
It's Day Two of Batch File Week. Don't worry, it'll be over in a few days. There is no obvious way to read the output of a command into a batch file variable. In unix-style shells, this is done via...
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How do I find the most recently created file in a directory from a batch file?
We've reached Hump Day of Batch File Week. Remember, nobody actually likes batch programming. You merely tolerate it. Today, we'll find the most recently-created item in a directory. (For example, we...
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You gotta fight for your right to parry
(The headline was stolen from one of my cleverer friends.) I'm taking time out of my busy vacation to draw your attention (if it hasn't been already) to the story of South Korean fencer Shin A Lam,...
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Exiting a batch file without exiting the command shell -and- batch file...
Prepare your party hats: Batch File Week is almost over. In your batch file, you may want to exit batch file processing (say, you encountered an error and want to give up), but if you use the exit...
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If you're going to throw a badminton match, you have to be less obvious about it
It may be possible based on your location to view what NBC euphemistically calls "highlights" from the women's badminton doubles match between China's Yu Yang/Wang Xiaoli and South Korea's Jung Kyung...
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FORFILES, for your fancier batch file enumeration needs
Crack open open the champagne: Batch File Week is finally over! Variations on the for /f %%i in ('dir /b ...') will let you repeat an operation on the contents of a directory, possibly even...
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Get your Contoso-branded merchandise while you can
Long-time observers are familiar with Contoso, the fake company name used in Microsoft samples and demonstrations. The Windows Phone folks have started running with the joke and creating their own...
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Why is the desktop treated so special in window ordering?
Clipboarder Gadget wants to know why the desktop is treated so special in window ordering. Specifically, when you double-click a folder icon on the desktop, and the immediately close it, why does...
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