The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

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Some helper functions for interlocked pointer operations
Nov 9, 2015
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Some helper functions for interlocked pointer operations

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Template-o-rama.

Why does the access violation error message put the operation in quotation marks, redux
Nov 6, 2015
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Why does the access violation error message put the operation in quotation marks, redux

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It could be.

Sometimes a function returns NULL because NULL really is the answer
Nov 5, 2015
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Sometimes a function returns NULL because NULL really is the answer

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

There is nothing there.

Changing the conditions under which ReadFile produces fewer bytes than requested
Nov 4, 2015
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Changing the conditions under which ReadFile produces fewer bytes than requested

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Where's the rest of me?

Microspeak: North star
Nov 3, 2015
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Microspeak: North star

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Guiding principle.

How can I make my custom namespace extension get categorized correctly in My Computer?
Nov 2, 2015
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How can I make my custom namespace extension get categorized correctly in My Computer?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Give it the appropriate description ID.

Why does the timestamp of a file increase by up to 2 seconds when I put it in a ZIP archive, then extract it?
Oct 30, 2015
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Why does the timestamp of a file increase by up to 2 seconds when I put it in a ZIP archive, then extract it?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The MS-DOS time format again.

When you open a securable object, make sure you pass the security mask you actually want (no more, no less)
Oct 29, 2015
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When you open a securable object, make sure you pass the security mask you actually want (no more, no less)

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

You will get all you want, but you have to ask for it.

How do I create a wizard that contains none of the things that makes a wizard a wizard?
Oct 28, 2015
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How do I create a wizard that contains none of the things that makes a wizard a wizard?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

It's not a wizard, so don't use a wizard.