The Old New Thing

Poisoning your own DNS for fun and profit

January 29, 2013 Jan 29, 2013 01/29/13

Raymond Chen

When you type a phrase into the Windows Vista Start menu's search box and click Search the Internet, then the Start menu hands the query off to your default Internet search provider. Or at least that's what the Illuminati would have you believe. A customer reported that when they typed a phrase into the Search box and clicked Search the ...

Please hold your head perfectly still while you write up that memo

January 28, 2013 Jan 28, 2013 01/28/13

Raymond Chen

I dreamed that the original Volkswagen Beetle factory was so cramped that the office workers had to move their desks to the factory floor, with heavy equipment swinging around just inches from their faces. To prevent serious injuries, a template passed through every so often to make sure nothing was out of place...

Finding a printer, and then creating a shortcut to that printer

January 28, 2013 Jan 28, 2013 01/28/13

Raymond Chen

Today's "Little Program" does two things: It looks for a printer in the Printers folder, and then once it finds it, it creates a shortcut to that printer. As is common with "Little Programs", I don't bother with error checking. I'll leave you to do that. Second part first, since it is handy on its own: Creating a shortcut to an arbitrary ...

When you have a SAFEARRAY, you need to know what it is a SAFEARRAY *of*

January 25, 2013 Jan 25, 2013 01/25/13

Raymond Chen

A customer had a problem with SAFEARRAY, or more specifically, with CComSafeArray. CComSafeArray<VARIANT> sa; GetAwesomeArray(&sa); LONG lb = sa.GetLowerBound(); LONG ub = sa.GetUpperBound(); for (LONG i = lb; i <= ub; i++) { CComVariant item = sa.GetAt(i); ... use the item ... } The GetAt method returns a VARIANT&, ...

STRICT_TYPED_ITEMIDS is the shell namespace version of the STRICT macro used by USER and GDI

January 24, 2013 Jan 24, 2013 01/24/13

Raymond Chen

Starting with the Windows Vista PlatformSDK, defining the symbol before including shell header files changes declarations that previously had simply used now use one of various types which are more clear about what type of ID list is being used. Think of it as the macro for the shell. The more precise names emphasize the form of the ...

Eliot Chang’s list of things Asians hate

January 23, 2013 Jan 23, 2013 01/23/13

Raymond Chen

Where are you really from?

Why was WHEEL_DELTA chosen to be 120 instead of a much more convenient value like 100 or even 10?

January 23, 2013 Jan 23, 2013 01/23/13

Raymond Chen

We saw some time ago that the nominal mouse wheel amount for one click (known as a "detent") is specified by the constant , which has the value 120. Why 120? Why not a much more convenient number like 100, or even 10? Because the value 120 made it easier to create higher-resolution mouse wheels. As noted in the documentation: The ...

Heads-up: Phone scammers pretending to be JPMorgan Chase MasterCard security

January 22, 2013 Jan 22, 2013 01/22/13

Raymond Chen

Recently, a round of phone scammers have been dialing through our area with a caller-ID of (000) 000-0000, which should already raise suspicions. When you answer, a synthesized voice says that they are calling from JPMorgan Chase MasterCard security. They claim that your credit card has been disabled due to suspicious activity, and in order ...

Microspeak: pivot

January 22, 2013 Jan 22, 2013 01/22/13

Raymond Chen

A great word to use at Microsoft to make it sound like you're one of the cool insiders is pivot. Mostly because the meaning of the word varies from place to place, so you can use it to mean whatever you like while still sounding hip and jargony. In Windows Phone, the term pivot is a technical term which refers to a type of control that lets...

The 2013/2014 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance

January 21, 2013 Jan 21, 2013 01/21/13

Raymond Chen

The pocket reference guide for 2013/2014.