How do I create a SAL annotation for a structure with a variable-length array?

Raymond Chen May 17, 2018 May 17, 2018 05/17/18

Some Windows structures end with an array of size 1. If you try to access any members of that array beyond the first, you may get a static analysis error. How do you tell the Visual Studio static analysis tool that the size of the Things array is specified by the NumberOfThings member? You use the _Field_size_ annotation. The documentation ...

Stupid C++ namespace tricks

Raymond Chen May 16, 2018 May 16, 2018 05/16/18

These tricks may be obvious, but at least I'm going to write them down. It is common to import an entire namespace into the global namespace. I'm not saying it's a good idea, but it is common. The most notorious example is to put to import the std namespace into the global namespace. When working with the Windows Runtime, you often have ...

Why can’t FindWindowEx find another program’s window by name?

Raymond Chen May 11, 2018 May 11, 2018 05/11/18

A customer had a test app that did something. They then wanted to write a test harness for their test app. The idea is that the test harness launches the test app, finds the test app's Start button, waits for it to become enabled, and then presses it, and then does some more stuff. The customer was stuck at the second step: Find the Start ...

On the difficulty of getting pixel-perfect layout in Win32 dialog templates

Raymond Chen May 10, 2018 May 10, 2018 05/10/18

A customer was having trouble getting their dialog box template to produce exactly what they wanted. Our designer has specified the UI design in pixels. When we created a dialog box using DLU units in the .rc file, we are not able to get the same dimensions which the designer has specified. We have tried various combinations of dialog font ...

Why does my shortcut to a nonexistent file end up with spaces changed to underscores?

Raymond Chen May 9, 2018 May 9, 2018 05/9/18

A customer wanted to create shortcuts to a network drive that hadn't yet been mapped. The idea is that they would create these shortcuts pointing at a network drive N: and deploy them. When the user logs in, a script will map the N: drive to an appropriate network server where the files will exist. The customer cannot have the shortcuts point ...

After all, it’s called a hotkey, not a hotcharacter

Raymond Chen May 7, 2018 May 7, 2018 05/7/18

A customer was writing a remote access program, and they were having trouble injecting hotkeys into the system. We are sending the modified key as a scan code, and the base character as a Unicode character. We find that shortcuts of the form Modifier+Letter, such as Ctrl+A, are not working. Are there known limitations for keyboard shortcuts ...