The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

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How do I prevent my registered hotkey from firing repeatedly due to auto-repeat?
Oct 26, 2017
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How do I prevent my registered hotkey from firing repeatedly due to auto-repeat?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

You can ask for auto-repeat to be ignored.

Why was the Windows 95 precursor project code-named Panther abandoned?
Oct 25, 2017
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Why was the Windows 95 precursor project code-named Panther abandoned?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Didn't fit in a 4-megabyte bag.

When I use Alt+PrtSc to take a screen shot of a maximized window, why does it capture a few pixels from an adjacent monitor?
Oct 24, 2017
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When I use Alt+PrtSc to take a screen shot of a maximized window, why does it capture a few pixels from an adjacent monitor?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Because it's hanging over the edge.

A closer look at the complexity analysis of finding the k’th smallest element in two sorted arrays
Oct 23, 2017
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A closer look at the complexity analysis of finding the k’th smallest element in two sorted arrays

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Let's calculate it properly.

On the gradual improvements in how the system deals with the failure to initialize a critical section
Oct 20, 2017
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On the gradual improvements in how the system deals with the failure to initialize a critical section

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Gradually improve the situation until the problem vanishes completely.

How do I create a shortcut whose target is specified by a relative path?
Oct 19, 2017
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How do I create a shortcut whose target is specified by a relative path?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It's already in there.

I used WS_EX_COMPOSITED to get rid of my redrawing flicker, but it resulted in sluggish response
Oct 18, 2017
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I used WS_EX_COMPOSITED to get rid of my redrawing flicker, but it resulted in sluggish response

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The system needs to know when to present the back-buffer.

When a stopgap solution becomes an undocumented feature some people rely on
Oct 17, 2017
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When a stopgap solution becomes an undocumented feature some people rely on

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It was never meant to be long for this world.

Nasty gotcha: Powershell aliases that match commands you might want to run
Oct 16, 2017
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Nasty gotcha: Powershell aliases that match commands you might want to run

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Because two-letter names would never collide, right?