The Old New Thing

August 2003 - Page 2 of 3 - The Old New Thing

The secret life of GetWindowText

August 21, 2003 Aug 21, 2003 08/21/03
Raymond Chen
GetWindowText() is more complicated than you think. The documentation tries to explain its complexity with small words, which is great if you don't understand long words, but it also means that you're not getting the full story. Here's an attempt to give the full story. How windows ...
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What is in the "Windows 95 Special Edition" box?

August 20, 2003 Aug 20, 2003 08/20/03
Raymond Chen
At the Windows 95 Launch and at various other marketing events, guests were given a copy of "Windows 95 Special Edition". What is so special about the box? Answer: The box. The contents of the box are exactly the same as a regular copy of Windows 95. The only thing special ...

Why does Windows 95 have functions called BEAR, BUNNY and PIGLET?

August 18, 2003 Aug 18, 2003 08/18/03
Raymond Chen
If you dig back into your Windows 95 files, you'll find that some internal system functions are given names like , and . Surely there is a story behind these silly names, isn't there? Of course there is. "Bear" is the name of the Windows 3.1 mascot, a stuffed teddy bear seemingly-...

A day in the trenches

August 16, 2003 Aug 16, 2003 08/16/03
Raymond Chen
I got up at 5 this morning to spend the day at Product Support Services answering phones: today was the day the Blaster worm launched its second wave. And by a startling coincidence, the person at the station next to me was Michael Howard our Senior Security Program Manager and author of Writing...

Answer to exercise

August 15, 2003 Aug 15, 2003 08/15/03
Raymond Chen
The WM_SIZING handler intercepts only interactive resizing. If the user right-clicks the taskbar and selects "Cascade Windows", this resizes the window directly without going through the interactive WM_SIZING step...
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Scrollbars part 8 – Integral interactive resizing

August 13, 2003 Aug 13, 2003 08/13/03
Raymond Chen
Enforcing integrality solves the fractional-line problem, but notice that when you grab the top or bottom edge and resize the window, the resize feedback doesn't match the actual window you get back if you drag the window to a non-integral size. (You may need to turn off full window drag to see this effect...
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Why can't I remove "for test/evaluation purposes only"?

August 12, 2003 Aug 12, 2003 08/12/03
Raymond Chen
"Why can't I remove 'for test/evaluation purposes only'? I know I'm running an evaluation edition, I don't need it rubbed in my face." This prevents unscrupulous OEMs from selling machines with the evaluation edition of the product instead of the retail version. (Yes, this has happened before. ...