The Old New Thing
Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.
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Sep 10, 2026
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7
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5
Why is the x86 undefined instruction called ud2? Why 2?
It came after <CODE>ud0</CODE> and <CODE>ud1</CODE>.
Sep 9, 2026
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7
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8
What algorithm did Windows XP use to choose your initial user picture?
It's random, really.
Sep 8, 2026
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2
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3
A sample use of the winstart.bat file in Windows 95
For a driver that needs high resolution mode only in Windows.
Sep 7, 2026
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3
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1
Why don’t we allow stacks to be sparse, instead of forcing them to be contiguous?
Imagining how to report a memory allocation failure for a sparse page.
Sep 4, 2026
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2
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2
What happens if you change a window class’s GCL_CBWNDEXTRA ?
You're changing the value for future windows.
Sep 3, 2026
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2
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1
The case of the progress callback that never got called when progress happened
Are you talking to the right guy?
Sep 2, 2026
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6
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2
The perils of binding to value types in XAML
Loss of identity.
Sep 1, 2026
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3
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2
Microspeak: Funded / unfunded
People are our most valuable asset.
Aug 31, 2026
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11
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3
AWE does not require PAE, though PAE makes it much more useful
All dressed up with nowhere to go.