The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

Latest posts

How does Task Manager choose the icon to show for a process?
Mar 1, 2018
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How does Task Manager choose the icon to show for a process?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It uses your window icon, and if you don't have a window, then it starts hunting.

An amusing story about a practical use of the null garbage collector
Feb 28, 2018
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An amusing story about a practical use of the null garbage collector

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The computer itself ceases to exist.

It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Replacing an unsigned writable MSI package
Feb 27, 2018
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It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Replacing an unsigned writable MSI package

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Another case of the insecurely-configured system.

I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my callstack. Debug me maybe.
Feb 26, 2018
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I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my callstack. Debug me maybe.

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

You gave me nothing at all, but still, you're in my way.

The 2018/2019 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance
Feb 23, 2018
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The 2018/2019 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The pocket reference guide for 2018/2019.

How do I make sure that my shell extension is at the top of the context menu?
Feb 23, 2018
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How do I make sure that my shell extension is at the top of the context menu?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The battle for absolute supremacy continues.

Why does IsPathRelative return FALSE for paths that are drive-relative?
Feb 22, 2018
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Why does IsPathRelative return FALSE for paths that are drive-relative?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It's complicated.

How can I call freopen but open the file with shared access instead of exclusive access?
Feb 21, 2018
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How can I call freopen but open the file with shared access instead of exclusive access?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Coming through the back way.

We couldn’t create a new partition or locate an existing one, possible workarounds
Feb 20, 2018
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We couldn’t create a new partition or locate an existing one, possible workarounds

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Well, it worked for me.