Showing results for August 2010 - Page 2 of 3 - The Old New Thing

Aug 20, 2010
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Why does the primary monitor have (0,0) as its upper left coordinate?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

By definition, the primary monitor is the monitor that has (0,0) as its upper left corner. Why can't the primary monitor be positioned somewhere else? Well, sure you could do that, but then you'd have to invent a new name for the monitor whose upper left corner is at (0,0), and then you're back where you started. In other words, it's just a name....

History
Aug 19, 2010
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I challenge you to come up with an even lamer physics pun

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The other day, I was in the office kitchenette, and two of my colleagues both named Paul happened to be there getting coffee. I quipped, "Oh no, is this legal? I think it's a violation of the Paul Exclusion Principle." It was a horrible physics pun, perhaps one of the worst I've made in a long time. My challenge to you is to come up with an even ...

Non-Computer
Aug 19, 2010
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How do I get the Explorer navigation pane to highlight the current folder all the time?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

In Windows 7, the folder tree in the Explorer navigation pane by default no longer highlights the item in the view pane. This change was based on user testing and feedback, but if, like me, you prefer things the old way, you can play with two new check boxes on the Folder Options dialog. You can get to Folder Options in a variety of ways: ...

Tips/Support
Aug 18, 2010
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Microspeak: The funnel

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

In the Customer Service and Support part of Microsoft, you will often see the term funnel. Here are some citations: Effectively and efficiently solve issues by driving levers across the entire funnel. Putting the Fun in Funnel. Strengthening the front of the funnel. The funnel is a way of viewing customer support engagements. For some reason...

OtherMicrospeak
Aug 17, 2010
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What was that story about the WinHelp pen-writing-in-book animation?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The first time you open a WinHelp file, you get this pen-writing-in-book animation while WinHelp does um something which it passes off as preparing Help file for first use or something similarly vague. I remember a conversation about that animation. The Windows shell team suggested to the author of WinHelp that the program use the shell common a...

Other
Aug 16, 2010
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What happened to WinHelp?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Commenter winhelp (probably not his/her real name) wonders what happened to WinHelp.exe. I don't know, but it turns out the answer was already known to the Internet. At the time the question was posted, the answer was already in the Wikipedia entry for Windows Help—it even had a citation! The question does highlight another one of those n...

History
Aug 13, 2010
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When do I need to use GC.KeepAlive?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Finalization is the crazy wildcard in garbage collection. It operates "behind the GC", running after the GC has declared an object dead. Think about it: Finalizers run on objects that have no active references. How can be a reference to an object that has no references? That's just crazy-talk! Finalizers are a Ouija board, permitting dead objec...

Code
Aug 12, 2010
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How can I find all objects of a particular type?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

More than one customer has asked a question like this: I'm looking for a way to search for all instances of a particular type at runtime. My goal is to invoke a particular method on each of those instances. Note that I did not create these object myself or have any other access to them. Is this possible? Imagine what the world would be like if...

Code
Aug 11, 2010
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How do I get the reference count of a CLR object?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

A customer asked the rather enigmatic question (with no context): Is there a way to get the reference count of an object in .Net? Thanks, Bob Smith Senior Developer Contoso The CLR does not maintain reference counts, so there is no reference count to "get". The garbage collector only cares about whether an object has zero references or at ...

Other