The Old New Thing

Why does the compiler generate memory operations on the full variable even though only one byte is involved?

April 28, 2017 Apr 28, 2017 04/28/17

Raymond Chen

Store-to-load forwarding.

Static hooking through predefinition

April 27, 2017 Apr 27, 2017 04/27/17

Raymond Chen

Creating your own hook points.

Why are there two incompatible ways of specifying a serial port baud rate?

April 26, 2017 Apr 26, 2017 04/26/17

Raymond Chen

Toto, I don't think we're on an IBM PC XT any more.

How do I kill a program that hung with an always-on-top fullscreen window?

April 25, 2017 Apr 25, 2017 04/25/17

Raymond Chen

Hey, look at that desktop over there.

Filtering the Browse for Folder dialog so it shows only drive letters

April 24, 2017 Apr 24, 2017 04/24/17

Raymond Chen

An exercise in filtering.

Application crash reported as security vulnerability, but you never crossed the airtight hatchway

April 21, 2017 Apr 21, 2017 04/21/17

Raymond Chen

A crash is not a priori a security vulnerability.

On generating sentinel pointer values in Windows

April 20, 2017 Apr 20, 2017 04/20/17

Raymond Chen

That's not a pointer. This is a pointer.

Under what conditions could a commit of reserved memory fail?

April 19, 2017 Apr 19, 2017 04/19/17

Raymond Chen

Usually because you are out of memory, but really it's when you're out of commit.

That time a customer reported an error in the map used by Flight Simulator

April 18, 2017 Apr 18, 2017 04/18/17

Raymond Chen

But whose map is right?

Why does my __FILE__ macro produce an invalid address, which mysteriously becomes valid a few moments later?

April 17, 2017 Apr 17, 2017 04/17/17

Raymond Chen

It's not there until somebody demands it.