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The Old New Thing
The Old New Thing
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    The Old New Thing

    November 2004 | The Old New Thing

    What’s the difference between GetKeyState and GetAsyncKeyState?
    What’s the difference between GetKeyState and GetAsyncKeyState?
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 30, 2004Nov 30, 200411/30/04
    I've seen some confusion over the difference between the GetKeyState function and the GetAsyncKeyState function. GetKeyState returns the virtual key state. In other words, GetKeyState reports the state of the keyboard based on the messages you have retrieved from your input queue. This is not the same as the physical keyboard state: ...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    Why doesn’t the RunAs program accept a password on the command line?
    Why doesn’t the RunAs program accept a password on the command line?
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 29, 2004Nov 29, 200411/29/04
    The RunAs program demands that you type the password manually. Why doesn't it accept a password on the command line? This was a conscious decision. If it were possible to pass the password on the command line, people would start embedding passwords into batch files and logon scripts, which is laughably insecure. In other words, the ...

    Comments are closed.0Other
    Simple things you can do with the ShellExecuteEx function
    Simple things you can do with the ShellExecuteEx function
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 26, 2004Nov 26, 200411/26/04
    Here's a tiny little program: #include <windows.h> #include <shellapi.h> int __cdecl main(int argc, char **argv) { if (argc == 3) { SHELLEXECUTEINFO sei = { sizeof(sei) }; sei.fMask = SEE_MASK_FLAG_DDEWAIT; sei.nShow = SW_SHOWNORMAL; // added 27 Nov sei.lpVerb = argv[1]; sei.lpFile = argv[2]; ...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    A sample of desktop icon text effects
    A sample of desktop icon text effects
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 25, 2004Nov 25, 200411/25/04
    It seems everybody and his brother has an obvious solution to the desktop background problem. Of course, none of these people actually tested their solution to see if it actually was usable. Because geniuses don't need to test their grand pronouncements. That's why they're called geniuses. Let's see how well these geniuses fared. I sat ...

    Comments are closed.0Other
    Why can’t you drop directly onto a taskbar button?
    Why can’t you drop directly onto a taskbar button?
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 24, 2004Nov 24, 200411/24/04
    If you drag a object and drop it onto a taskbar button, you get an error message that says, You cannot drop an item onto a button on the taskbar. However, if you drag the item over a button without releasing the mouse button, the window will open after a moment, allowing you to drop the item inside the window. Why doesn't the taskbar ...

    Comments are closed.0Other
    Why do folders like “My Pictures” come back after I delete them?
    Why do folders like “My Pictures” come back after I delete them?
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 23, 2004Nov 23, 200411/23/04
    Some people are offended by the special folders like "My Pictures" and "My Music" and delete them, only to find them being re-created. What's going on? Windows itself is okay with you deleting those folders. Some corporations, for example, remove those folders from their employees' machines because they don't want the employees looking at ...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    When people ask for security holes as features: World-writable files
    When people ask for security holes as features: World-writable files
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 22, 2004Nov 22, 200411/22/04
    If I had a nickel each time somebody asked for a feature that was a security hole... I'd have a lot of nickels. For example, "I want a file that all users can write to. My program will use it as a common database of goodies." This is a security hole. For a start, there's an obvious denial of service attack by having a user open the ...

    Comments are closed.0HistoryWhen people ask for security holes as features
    The various ways of sending a message
    The various ways of sending a message
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 19, 2004Nov 19, 200411/19/04
    There are several variations on the SendMessage function, but some are special cases of others. The simplest version is SendMessage itself, which sends a message and waits indefinitely for the response. The next level up is SendMessageTimeout which sends a message and waits for the response or until a certain amount of time has elapsed...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    Am I sorry or not?
    Am I sorry or not?
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 18, 2004Nov 18, 200411/18/04
    One of the consequences of the New Internet World Order is that it is very easy to set up a web site like www.sorryeverybody.com and equally easy to set up a response like www.notsorryeverybody.com. This state of affairs clearly calls out for some sort of competition between the two. At dinner last night, someone suggested that there should ...

    Comments are closed.0
    If a program and a folder have the same name, the shell prefers the program
    If a program and a folder have the same name, the shell prefers the program
    Raymond ChenRaymond ChenNovember 18, 2004Nov 18, 200411/18/04
    If you have both a folder named, say, C:\Folder and a program named C:\Folder.exe and you type C:\Folder into the Start.Run dialog, you get the program and not the folder. Why is that? Because it is common to have where there is a setup program in the root, as well as a setup folder containing files needed by the setup program. ...

    Comments are closed.0History
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