The Old New Thing

Why do some shortcuts not support editing the command line and other properties?

December 10, 2012 Dec 10, 2012 12/10/12

Raymond Chen

Ben L observed that some shortcuts do not permit the command line and other options to be edited. "Where is this feature controlled? Is there a way to override this mode?" This question is echoed by "Anonymous (Mosquito buzzing around)" (and don't think we don't know who you are), who in a huge laundry list of questions adds, "Why does ...

It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Writing to the application directory

December 7, 2012 Dec 7, 2012 12/7/12

Raymond Chen

We received a security vulnerability report that went roughly like this: There is a security vulnerability in the X component. It loads from the current directory, thereby making it vulnerable to a current directory attack. Here is a sample program that illustrates the problem. Copy a rogue into the current directory and run the ...

Replaying input is not the same as reprocessing it

December 6, 2012 Dec 6, 2012 12/6/12

Raymond Chen

Once upon a time, there was an application that received some input and said, "Okay, this input cancels my temporary state. I want to exit my temporary state, but I also want the input that took me out of the temporary state to go to whatever control would have received the input if I hadn't been in the temporary state in the first place." (...

Why do I get notified for changes to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT when nobody is writing to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT?

December 5, 2012 Dec 5, 2012 12/5/12

Raymond Chen

A customer had a question about the function. We are using it to monitor the tree as follows: If I understand the documentation correctly, this registers for notifications when subkeys are added, deleted, or when values are changed. However, it seems that my event becomes signaled at many other times, for example, when I switch ...

The QuickCD PowerToy, a brief look back

December 4, 2012 Dec 4, 2012 12/4/12

Raymond Chen

One of the original Windows 95 PowerToys was a tool called QuickCD. Though that wasn't its original name. The original name of the QuickCD PowerToy was FlexiCD. You'd think that it was short for "Flexible CD Player", but you'd be wrong. FlexiCD was actually named after its author, whose name is Felix, but who uses the "Flexi" anagram as ...

Have you found any TheDailyWTF-worthy code during the development of Windows 95?

December 3, 2012 Dec 3, 2012 12/3/12

Raymond Chen

Mott555 is interested in some sloppy/ugly code or strange workarounds or code comments during the development of Windows 95, like "anything TheDailyWTF-worthy." I discovered that opening a particular program churned the hard drive a lot when you opened it. I decided to hook up the debugger to see what the problem was. What I ...

The Old New Thing

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