September 2012 | The Old New Thing

2012 Q3 link clearance: Microsoft research edition

Raymond ChenSeptember 28, 2012Sep 28, 201209/28/12

My Q1 and Q3 link clearances are traditionally for links to other Microsoft bloggers, but this time I'm going to link to a few Microsoft research papers I found interesting. Why do Nigerian scammers say they're from Nigeria? Short answer: Because it ensures that the replies come only from the most gullible people on earth. Bonus cha

Data in crash dumps are not a matter of opinion

Raymond ChenSeptember 28, 2012Sep 28, 201209/28/12

A customer reported a problem with the SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTime function. (Gosh, why couldn't they have reported a problem with a function with a shorter name! Now I have to type that thing over and over again.) We're having a problem with the SystemTimeToTzSpecificLocalTim

The Ride to Rio: Bicycling from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro

Raymond ChenSeptember 27, 2012Sep 27, 201209/27/12

An acquaintance of mine remarked that he sold his bicycle in Seattle a few months ago to some guy who explained, "I'm going to ride it to South America." "Okay," my acquaintance said, probably with some degree of skepticism. But it's a real project, and they head out soon! Ride to Rio: Four riders who "share a thirst for being stupid and fi

Why aren't environment variables being expanded in my RGS file?

Raymond ChenSeptember 27, 2012Sep 27, 201209/27/12

A customer was having trouble with their RGS file. I want to include the below line in a .rgs file: When I do this, registering of the dll fails with 80002009. Any help? If I change it to then the registration succeeds (but of course now contains a hard-coded path). A common problem people have when asking a question is assuming th

Sabotaging yourself: Closing a handle and then using it

Raymond ChenSeptember 26, 2012Sep 26, 201209/26/12

A customer reported a problem with the WaitForSingleObject function: I have a DLL with an Initialize() function and an Uninitialize() function. The code goes like this: Under certain conditions, the Initialize() function is called twice, and the Uninitialize() function is correspondingly called twice. Under these conditions, if I run th

Why can't I set "Size all columns to fit" as the default?

Raymond ChenSeptember 25, 2012Sep 25, 201209/25/12

A customer wanted to know how to set Size all columns to fit as the default for all Explorer windows. (I found an MSDN forum thread on the same subject, and apparently, the inability to set Size all columns to fit as the default is "an enormous oversight and usability problem.") The confusion stems from the phrasing of the option; it's not cl

A classification of faces with eyes open and closed in Dr. Seuss's ABC based on the nature of the character

Raymond ChenSeptember 24, 2012Sep 24, 201209/24/12

I brought this process into the world, and I can take it out!

Raymond ChenSeptember 24, 2012Sep 24, 201209/24/12

Clipboard Gadget wants to know why normal processes can kill elevated processes via TerminateProcess, yet they cannot do a trivial ShowWindow(hwnd, SW_MINIMIZE). "Only explorer seems to be able to do so somehow." There are several questions packed into this "suggestion." (As it happens, most of the suggestions are really questions; the

In vollen Zügen genießen

Raymond ChenSeptember 21, 2012Sep 21, 201209/21/12

One of my friends bought me a souvenir one one of his trips to Germany. It is a beer mug from Bayerischer Bahnhof, a restaurant and brewery at the Leipzig Bayerischer Bahnhof. The mug carries the brewery's slogan In vollen Zügen genießen, which is a German idiom meaning "to enjoy to the fullest." Literally, "Das Leben in vollen Z&u

How can I implement SAFEARRAY.ToString() without going insane?