The Old New Thing

May 2005 - Page 3 of 3 - The Old New Thing

How to query properties of the taskbar

May 6, 2005 May 6, 2005 05/6/05
Raymond Chen
Occasionally, people want to query properties of the taskbar. I don't quite understand why; you should just get on with your life and let the taskbar get on with its life. After all, there might not even be a taskbar, as we discussed last time. But if you really want to know (perhaps you're collecting usability data), here's how: This ...

How do I cover the taskbar with a fullscreen window?

May 5, 2005 May 5, 2005 05/5/05
Raymond Chen
For some reason, people think too hard. If you want to create a fullscreen window that covers the taskbar, just create a fullscreen window and the taskbar will automatically get out of the way. Don't go around hunting for the taskbar and poking it; let it do its thing. As always, start with the scratch program and add the following: ...

When people ask for security holes as features: Stealing passwords

May 4, 2005 May 4, 2005 05/4/05
Raymond Chen
Sometimes people ask for features that are such blatant security holes I don't know what they were thinking. Is there a way to get the current user's password? I have a program that does some stuff, then reboots the system, and I want to have the current user's password so I can log that user back in when I'm done, then my program can resume ...

Another dead computer: My personal laptop

May 2, 2005 May 2, 2005 05/2/05
Raymond Chen
I'm kind of surprised at how much people reacted to my previous dead computer story. I guess there's an audience for stories about dead computers. Today's dead computer is my Sony Vaio PCG-Z505LE laptop, with a 600MHz processor and 192MB of RAM. Certainly a big step up from that 486/50 with 12MB of RAM. Laptop computers have a comparatively...