January 2006

Why does the Recycle Bin have different file system names on FAT and NTFS?

Raymond Chen January 31, 2006 Jan 31, 2006 01/31/06

On FAT drives, the directory that stores files in the Recycle Bin is called C:\RECYCLED, but on NTFS drives, its name is C:\RECYCLER. Why the name change? The FAT and NTFS Recycle Bins have different internal structure because NTFS has this thing called "security" and FAT doesn't. All recycled files on FAT drives are dumped into a single C:\...

"I attack the kobold wearing the headdress made of human ears"

Raymond Chen January 31, 2006 Jan 31, 2006 01/31/06

If you dare, spend eleven minutes of your life watching the most painfully compelling mockumentary on the lives of two basement fantasy role playing gamers. (via Chris Williams...

Liquefied NBA points apparently cannot be sold on eBay

Raymond Chen January 30, 2006 Jan 30, 2006 01/30/06

Of course we don't find this out until somebody tries. (Google cache for a limited time only...

Why does a corrupted binary sometimes result in "Program too big to fit in memory"?

Raymond Chen January 30, 2006 Jan 30, 2006 01/30/06

If you take a program and corrupt the header, or just take a large-ish file that isn't a program at all and give it a ".exe" extension, then try to run it (Warning: Save your work first!), you will typically get the error "Program too big to fit in memory". Why such a confusing error message? Why doesn't it say "Corrupted program"? Because ...

Waiting for all handles with MsgWaitForMultipleObjects is a bug waiting to happen

Raymond Chen January 27, 2006 Jan 27, 2006 01/27/06

The MsgWaitForMultipleObjects and MsgWaitForMultipleObjectsEx functions allow you to specify whether you want to want for any or all of the handles (either by passing bWaitAll = TRUE or by passing dwFlags = MWMO_WAITALL, accordingly). But you never want to wait for all handles. Waiting for all handles means that the call does not return ...

Stephen Tolouse's reminiscences of Windows 95 RTM day

Raymond Chen January 26, 2006 Jan 26, 2006 01/26/06

Stephen Tolouse (known around Microsoft as "stepto", pronounced "step-toe") from the Microsoft Security Response Center reminisces about Windows 95 RTM. Stephen mentions that "the build numbers were artificially inflated to reach 950". There's actually a technical reason for this inflation, which I intend to write about when I have the ...

Pumping messages while waiting for a period of time

Raymond Chen January 26, 2006 Jan 26, 2006 01/26/06

We can use the MsgWaitForMultipleObjects function (or its superset MsgWaitForMultipleObjectsEx) to carry out a non-polling "sleep while processing messages". This function pumps messages for up to dwTimeout milliseconds. The kernel of the idea is merely to use the MsgWaitForMultipleObjects/Ex function as a surrogate for WaitMessageTimeout...

Welcome to the United States, unless you're a Canadian technologist who is an invited guest at a Microsoft conference, in which case, keep out

Raymond Chen January 25, 2006 Jan 25, 2006 01/25/06

Vancouver technologist Darren Barefoot was invited to Redmond by the MSN Search team but was stopped by Immigration and denied entry. Ultimately, the customs agents concluded that because Microsoft was covering my flight and accommodation, I was being compensated for consulting activities. In order to enter the country, I'd need a work ...

You can call MsgWaitForMultipleObjects with zero handles

Raymond Chen January 25, 2006 Jan 25, 2006 01/25/06

There is no WaitMessageTimeout function, but you can create your own with the assistance of the MsgWaitForMultipleObjects function. To wait for a message with timeout, we use the MsgWaitForMultipleObjects in a vacuous sense: You pass it a list of objects you want to wait for, as well as a timeout and a set of queue states, asking that the ...

Creepy messages in your baggage

Raymond Chen January 24, 2006 Jan 24, 2006 01/24/06

Heather Leigh had a creepy experience with her baggage last week. The story continued yesterday. I'm watching to see how things turn out...

The Old New Thing

January 2006 - The Old New Thing