The Old New Thing

December 2012 - Page 2 of 3 - The Old New Thing

Why do I sometimes get classic buttons and sometimes themed buttons depending on the host process?

December 20, 2012 Dec 20, 2012 12/20/12
Raymond Chen
A customer reported that their printer configuration property sheet page looked different depending on the host process. In some processes, the printer configuration dialog had the classic look of Windows 2000, but in other processes it has the themed look of Windows XP and later versions. The printer driver calls the to create the...

Why doesn't SHGetKnownFolderPath return the customized path?

December 19, 2012 Dec 19, 2012 12/19/12
Raymond Chen
A customer reported that the function was not working correctly. They moved their Videos folder to a new location, but when they called , they got the old path rather than the new one. A quick check of the code they provided showed why: Um, you're passing the flag. That flag means "Tell me where this folder would have been if its ...

2012 års Gävlebock gick upp i brand. Igen.

December 17, 2012 Dec 17, 2012 12/17/12
Raymond Chen
The town of Gävle in Sweden erects a large straw goat every year. The Yule Goat is a Scandinavian tradition, but the Gävle goat (Gävlebocken in Swedish) is by far the most famous, or perhaps the most notorious, because it has been the center of conflict from its very beginning, and over the years since its first appearance in ...

Like the cake, WS_EX_TRANSPARENT is a lie, or at least not the entire truth

December 17, 2012 Dec 17, 2012 12/17/12
Raymond Chen
There is an extended window style known as . Explaining what this style does is kind of difficult, but it's been on the list of future topics since 2003. Better late than never, I guess. First of all, there are two unrelated senses of transparent in play. One is visual transparency: Pixels beneath the window can show through. The other is ...

Why is it possible to create a toolbar with the wrong HINSTANCE? And what's the right HINSTANCE anyway?

December 14, 2012 Dec 14, 2012 12/14/12
Raymond Chen
A customer observed that all of the following code fragments are successful in creating a toolbar common control: Furthermore, the customer observed that works regardless of whether you pass the process instance or for the parameter. First of all, what's going on? And second of all, which of the three methods above is most correct...

Why is it so hard to write a program that requires UI Access privilege?

December 13, 2012 Dec 13, 2012 12/13/12
Raymond Chen
If you want your program to have the UI Access privilege, you have to jump through a few hoops. The program needs to be digitally signed, and it needs to go into the directory. Why is it so hard to get UI Access? Because UI Access bypasses User Interface Privilege Isolation (UIPI) security measures. The more valuable the target, the more ...