The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

Latest posts

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 19, 2012

It's not a good idea to give multiple controls on a dialog box the same ID

When you build a dialog, either from a template or by explicitly calling , one of the pieces of information about each control is a child window identifier. ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 18, 2012

What is the history of the GetRandomRgn function?

An anonymous commenter was curious about how the function arrived at its strange name, what the purpose of the third parameter is, and why it is inconsistent ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 15, 2012

Globalization quiz: In honor of, well, that's part of the quiz

The Corporate Citizenship Tools; Microsoft Local Language Program Web site contains a map of the world, coded by region. There was a bug on the map. See if you...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 14, 2012

Now that Windows makes it harder for your program to block shutdown, how do you block shutdown?

Up until Windows XP, applications could intercept the message and tell Windows, "No, don't shut down." If they were polite about it, they would also ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 13, 2012

Why don't all of my folder customizations roam with my profile?

A customer reported some inconsistency in how folder customizations are handled by roaming profiles. Why doesn't the customization roam? Well, if you ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 12, 2012

Microsoft Dynamics in a soda can, sort of

It is not uncommon for a product team to produce some custom soda cans (really, carbonated water) for distribution at Microsoft cafeterias. Last year, the ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 11, 2012

Fabio coming to Redmond. Also: Whey Protein

Mark your calendars: Fabio Lanzoni, better known to the world as simply Fabio, will be at the Redmond Whole Foods Market on June 21 to promote his whey ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 11, 2012

Why do you have to wait for Windows Error Reporting to check for solutions before it restarts the application?

Leo Davidson wonders why you have to wait for Windows Error Reporting to check for solutions before it restarts the application. Why not do the two in parallel...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Jun 8, 2012

How can I determine the underlying cause of a EXCEPTION_IN_PAGE_ERROR exception?

A customer was using memory-mapped files and installed an exception handler to log in-page errors in the memory-mapped file region. They wanted to know how ...

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