The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

Latest posts

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Sep 7, 2010

How do I customize the order of items in the All Programs section of the Start menu?

The items in the All Programs section of the Start menu are grouped into two sections, although there are no visible divider lines between them. We saw ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Sep 6, 2010

Was there really an Opera billboard outside Microsoft main campus?

Maybe somebody took a picture.c

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Sep 3, 2010

What happens to a named object when all handles to it are closed?

A customer had a question about named kernel objects: I understand that handles in a process if leaked will be destroyed by the kernel when the process exits...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Sep 2, 2010

It rather involved being on the other side of this airtight hatchway: If you grant users full control over critical files, then it's not the fault of the system for letting users modify them

Today's dubious security vulnerability is another example of If you reconfigure your computer to be insecure, don't be surprised that there's a security ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Sep 1, 2010

Yes, the Windows 7 beta wallpaper was a picture of a betta fish

It wasn't long before people realized that the fish in the default wallpaper for the Windows 7 beta was a betta fish. This was intended to be a cute little...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Aug 31, 2010

Shutdown reason codes are reason codes, not error codes or HRESULTs

A customer liaison asked the following question on behalf of his customer: My customer is finding that their Windows Server 2003 system has restarted, and ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Aug 31, 2010

Be on the alert: Mainstream and alternative medicines mixed together on the store shelves, not clearly distinguished

I was in the supermarket looking for cold medicine, and as is my wont, I like to read the fine print before choosing a product. Most of the products listed ...

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Aug 30, 2010

Reflections create Xbox logo on neighbor’s roof

Marketing gone crazy.

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Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen
Aug 30, 2010

On LockWindowUpdate: Locking the taskbar

Andy Visser posted to the Suggestion Box something that wasn't so much a suggestion as a comment, presumably to get around the fact that comments on the ...

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