The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

Latest posts

Hacking the law: On the role of the marriage officiant in the State of Washington
Oct 2, 2015
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Hacking the law: On the role of the marriage officiant in the State of Washington

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Strange rules that basically mean there are no meaningful rules.

Calling ShutdownBlockReasonCreate from my service doesn’t stop the user from shutting down
Oct 2, 2015
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Calling ShutdownBlockReasonCreate from my service doesn’t stop the user from shutting down

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

That's not how to do it from a service.

If you can’t remember the exact text of a dialog box (so you can search for it), you can ask the Internet
Oct 1, 2015
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If you can’t remember the exact text of a dialog box (so you can search for it), you can ask the Internet

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Search ju-jitsu, v2.

Why can’t I create a file equal to the available disk space?
Sep 30, 2015
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Why can’t I create a file equal to the available disk space?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Gotta save the metadata somewhere.

The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed, what does this mean?
Sep 29, 2015
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The trust relationship between this workstation and the primary domain failed, what does this mean?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The secret password every machine has.

What happens to lost timer messages if I don’t process them fast enough?
Sep 28, 2015
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What happens to lost timer messages if I don’t process them fast enough?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

They never existed.

Why doesn’t my keyboard hook get called for keyboard messages I manually posted?
Sep 25, 2015
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Why doesn’t my keyboard hook get called for keyboard messages I manually posted?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Because that's not input.

How do I call SetTimer with a timer ID that is guaranteed not to conflict with any other timer ID?
Sep 24, 2015
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How do I call SetTimer with a timer ID that is guaranteed not to conflict with any other timer ID?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Put it in its own window.

It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Elevation from Administrator to SYSTEM
Sep 23, 2015
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It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: Elevation from Administrator to SYSTEM

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

But you're already there.