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Microspeak: planful
Every year, Microsoft invites its employees to fill out a poll which asks questions regarding all sorts of things. One of the things Microsoft employees are asked to evaluate is whether they think...
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Of what possible legitimate use are functions like CreateRemoteThread,...
There are a bunch of functions that allow you to manipulate the address space of other processes, like WriteÂProcessÂMemory and VirtualÂAllocÂEx. Of what possible legitimate use could they be? Why...
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What is SysFader and why is it always crashing?
If you type SysFader into your favorite search engine, you'll find lots of hits from people asking, "What is SysFader, and why is it always crashing Internet Explorer?" SysFader: iexplore.exe -...
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How did real-mode Windows implement its LRU algorithm without hardware...
I noted some time ago that real-mode Windows had to do all its memory management without any hardware assistance. And yet, along the way, they managed to implement an LRU-based discard algorithm. Gabe...
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Microspeak: radar
The metaphoric use of the term radar is in general use. It refers to the set of things that some entity is paying attention to. (That entity being the owner of the radar.) To fall off the radar is to...
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What does the HTOBJECT hit-test code do?
Leo Davidson observes that a hit-test code is defined for HTOBJECT, but it is not documented, and wonders what's up. #define HTOBJECT 19 The HTOBJECT is another one of those features that never got...
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What happens when you mark a section as DISCARDABLE?
In the flags you pass to the linker, you can specify that a section be made discardable. What does that mean? If you are a kernel-mode driver, the discardable flag means that the contents will be...
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Of what possible legitimate use are functions like CreateRemoteThread,...
There are a bunch of functions that allow you to manipulate the address space of other processes, like WriteÂProcessÂMemory and VirtualÂAllocÂEx. Of what possible legitimate use could they be? Why...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What is SysFader and why is it always crashing?
If you type SysFader into your favorite search engine, you'll find lots of hits from people asking, "What is SysFader, and why is it always crashing Internet Explorer?" SysFader: iexplore.exe -...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How did real-mode Windows implement its LRU algorithm without hardware...
I noted some time ago that real-mode Windows had to do all its memory management without any hardware assistance. And yet, along the way, they managed to implement an LRU-based discard algorithm. Gabe...
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Why am I in the Quake credits?
Anon wants to know why I am listed in the credits for the video game Quake under the "Special Thanks" section. "Were you an early tester/debugger?" I've never played a game of Quake in my entire life....
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How long does it take for a notification icon to stop appearing in the...
A customer reported that even after uninstalling thier application, the notification icon entry remains in the Notification Area Icons control panel. Yup, that's right. Explorer remembers the icon,...
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What happened to the Windows 2000 "Language settings for the system" control...
In 2011, a customer had a question about migrating from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. (That's right, this customer was still using Windows 2000 in the year 2011.) Specifically, they noted that in...
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What happened to the Windows 2000 "Set default language setting for the...
Last time, we looked at the evolution of the control panel settings which control the language groups for which Windows will install fonts, code page information, and other support collateral. This...
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Charles Petzold's Programming Windows Sixth Edition has reached Release Preview
We interrupt this program for a word from Microsoft Press. A few months ago, I noted that Charles Petzold is coming back with another edition of Programming Windows, and you could have gotten in on...
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What if my application is really two applications bundled into a single file,...
A customer wanted to prevent multiple copies of their program from being grouped on the taskbar. They didn't give an explanation why, but let's assume that they are doing this for honorable purposes...
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My colleague picked a good day to go out and catch a baseball game
I ran into one of my colleagues at the coffee stand and asked him how things were going. He said that Wednesday was his wife's birthday, and he asked her if she wanted to do anything special. "Let's...
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How do I customize how my application windows are grouped in the Taskbar?
Benjamin Smedberg wants to know how to customize the icon used in the Taskbar for applications that are grouped, when the application is a runtime for multiple applications. (This is the other...
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Sorry we got cut off, my phone just auto-rebooted
Some time ago, I was on the phone when the connection suddenly cut out. I looked at the my phone display and it said, Auto-restart in 7 seconds. The seconds counted down, and then the phone rebooted,...
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The shifting sands of "Run as different user"
A customer liaison asked the following question on behalf of his customer. When I do a shift-right-click on a shortcut to a program, I see the following: On Windows Server 2008, shift-right-click does...
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