Raymond Chen, Author at The Old New Thing

The Old New Thing

The Old New Thing

Raymond Chen: Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 25 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He currently appears regularly on MSDN Channel 9’s One Dev Minute channel in the One Dev Question video series.

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How did Windows 3.1’s virtual machine manager get the information to show in the text-mode <KBD>Alt</KBD>+<KBD>Tab</KBD> switcher?

How did Windows 3.1’s virtual machine manager get the information to show in the text-mode `Alt`+`Tab` switcher?

November 29th, 2021

Getting by with a little help from a friend.

The two products may be identical, but they are not the same

The two products may be identical, but they are not the same

November 26th, 2021

No price-matching for you.

I called AdjustTokenPrivileges, but I was still told that a necessary privilege was not held, redux

I called AdjustTokenPrivileges, but I was still told that a necessary privilege was not held, redux

November 26th, 2021

Did any privilege adjustment occur at all?

How do I pass an array of variable-sized <CODE>PROPSHEETPAGE</CODE> structures to <CODE>PropertySheet</CODE>?

How do I pass an array of variable-sized `PROPSHEETPAGE` structures to `PropertySheet`?

November 25th, 2021

It's "just" an array of variable-sized structures.

Appending additional payload to a <CODE>PROPSHEETPAGE</CODE> structure

Appending additional payload to a `PROPSHEETPAGE` structure

November 24th, 2021

Taking it along for the ride.

Every business process secretly wants to fail

Every business process secretly wants to fail

November 23rd, 2021

At least, that's how it looks from the outside.

A reminder about the correct way of accessing and manipulating the position of icons on the desktop

A reminder about the correct way of accessing and manipulating the position of icons on the desktop

November 22nd, 2021

There's an interface for that. Please use it.

Why is my C++/CX ref class forbidden from having public methods that are templates or mention, say, std::vector?

Why is my C++/CX ref class forbidden from having public methods that are templates or mention, say, std::vector?

November 19th, 2021

C++/CX overloads the class member access control keywords to control metadata generation.

What does the CompileAsWinRT Visual Studio project option mean?

What does the CompileAsWinRT Visual Studio project option mean?

November 18th, 2021

And why it's badly-named.

The mental model for StartThreadpoolIo

The mental model for StartThreadpoolIo

November 17th, 2021

It's internally managing a reference count.