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    The Old New Thing

    September 2016 | The Old New Thing

    When are global objects constructed and destructed by Visual C++?, redux
    When are global objects constructed and destructed by Visual C++?, redux
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 30, 2016 Sep 30, 2016 09/30/16
    Today we're going to make some clarifications to this table, which came from an earlier article: It turns out that the upper right corner of the diagram actually splits into two cases. The table lists what happens if the process terminates by calling Exit­Process. The thing that makes termination with Exit­Process interesting is that...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    The lackey catastrophe
    The lackey catastrophe
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 29, 2016 Sep 29, 2016 09/29/16
    We encountered a real problem with global object destruction in Explorer. The object in question was an RAII container for a graphics object, so its destructor destroyed the graphics object. But the call to destroy the object was crashing. What's going on? The call to Delete­Object was occurring after GDI32 had already run its ...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    When can you free the memory backing the HSTRING you created with WindowsCreateStringReference?
    When can you free the memory backing the HSTRING you created with WindowsCreateStringReference?
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 28, 2016 Sep 28, 2016 09/28/16
    A little while back, I posted my complete guide to HSTRING semantics (a rip-off of Eric's complete guide to BSTR semantics). A discussion of security descriptor lifetime somehow triggered the question "When can you free the memory backing the HSTRING you created with Windows­Create­String­Reference?" You can free the memory ...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    What’s up with Windows developer tools being written in perl?
    What’s up with Windows developer tools being written in perl?
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 27, 2016 Sep 27, 2016 09/27/16
    Worf noticed that a number of developer tools are written in perl and wonders what's up with that. Simple: Perl is a socially-acceptable form of Visual Basic. In other words, just like how Visual Basic is a great way to throw together a quick little GUI program, perl is a great way to throw together a quick little developer tool. In both ...

    Comments are closed.0Other
    It says that I should use USB usage page 1 and usage 6 to get raw keyboard data, but what if I have a PS/2 keyboard?
    It says that I should use USB usage page 1 and usage 6 to get raw keyboard data, but what if I have a PS/2 keyboard?
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 26, 2016 Sep 26, 2016 09/26/16
    Some time ago, I wrote about raw input and noted that if you want to receive raw keyboard input, you set the usage page to 1 and the usage to 6, noting that these numbers come from the USB HID specification. Commenter onodera asks, "Does this work for PS/2 input devices as well?" Let's try it. I happen to have a laptop within easy reach, so I...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    When you break into a user-mode application in the kernel debugger, how do you connect a user-mode debugger?
    When you break into a user-mode application in the kernel debugger, how do you connect a user-mode debugger?
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 23, 2016 Sep 23, 2016 09/23/16
    If you need to transfer control from one user-mode debugger to another, you can use a non-invasive debugger as a bridge. But what if you are broken into the kernel debugger, and you want to connect a user-mode debugger to the process? Since the system is broken into the kernel debugger, it is completely frozen. How do you unfreeze the system ...

    Comments are closed.0Other
    Dither me this
    Dither me this
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 22, 2016 Sep 22, 2016 09/22/16
    For some reason, the Internet got all excited about dithering a few months ago, linking primarily to this article about eleven dithering algorithms. (Here's another article about dithering.) Which reminded me of a dithering story. The folks at Microsoft Research, when not working on their time machine, occasionally produce code for product ...

    Comments are closed.0History
    The case of the system() call that returned before finishing
    The case of the system() call that returned before finishing
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 21, 2016 Sep 21, 2016 09/21/16
    A customer was having trouble with some code that copies a bunch of files and then processes the copy. Here's the code they shared (suitably redacted): The customer reported that "It appears that Find­First­FileA does not wait for system() to finish copying the files. Here's a sample log file: "Observe that Find­First­FileA ...

    Comments are closed.0Code
    The social skills of a thermonuclear device: Ruining a conversation
    The social skills of a thermonuclear device: Ruining a conversation
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 20, 2016 Sep 20, 2016 09/20/16
    On an internal distribution list that a bunch of Microsoft bloggers hang out on, somebody asked a question about how to accomplish X, and another person suggested using the Y plug-in. I replied to the thread by saying, "The Y plug-in is not allowed on Microsoft-hosted properties for legal reasons. See this Web site for more information." Ned ...

    Comments are closed.0Non-ComputerThe social skills of a thermonuclear device
    It’s an unfortunate choice of data type for the file system redirection cookie
    It’s an unfortunate choice of data type for the file system redirection cookie
    Raymond Chen Raymond Chen September 19, 2016 Sep 19, 2016 09/19/16
    If you want to disable 64-bit file system redirection, you call the Wow64­Disable­Wow64­Fs­Redirection function. This function gives you a cookie. When you are finished, you call Wow64­Revert­Wow64­Fs­Redirection, passing the cookie you received from the previous call. Like this: The unfortunate thing is that ...

    Comments are closed.0Code
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