The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

Latest posts

Some senior executives are afraid to provide feedback, because they know that their feedback will be given too much weight
Jan 26, 2016
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Some senior executives are afraid to provide feedback, because they know that their feedback will be given too much weight

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Excess baggage.

How can I tell whether my console program was launched from Explorer or from a command prompt?
Jan 25, 2016
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How can I tell whether my console program was launched from Explorer or from a command prompt?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

That's not actually what you want to know.

If I’m going to store a SID in a file, should I store the string form or the binary form?
Jan 22, 2016
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If I’m going to store a SID in a file, should I store the string form or the binary form?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Pros and cons.

What does the /V (verify) flag to XCOPY mean, and how did it get that way?
Jan 21, 2016
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What does the /V (verify) flag to XCOPY mean, and how did it get that way?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It doesn't mean much any more.

So how bad is it that I’m calling RegOpenKey instead of RegOpenKeyEx?
Jan 20, 2016
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So how bad is it that I’m calling RegOpenKey instead of RegOpenKeyEx?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Mostly not bad, except for the gotcha.

What makes XCOPY so X?
Jan 19, 2016
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What makes XCOPY so X?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It's extra awesome. But I don't know what the X stands for.

Some notes about the blog migration
Jan 18, 2016
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Some notes about the blog migration

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Put your feedback here.

A puzzle involving dynamic programming, or maybe it doesn’t, episode 2
Jan 18, 2016
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A puzzle involving dynamic programming, or maybe it doesn’t, episode 2

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Once again, the hint is wrong.

What does this crash in TppRaiseHandleStatus mean?
Jan 15, 2016
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What does this crash in TppRaiseHandleStatus mean?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Imagining how a feature was written.