The Old New Thing

Why can't you rename the Recycle Bin?

March 17, 2008 Mar 17, 2008 03/17/08
Raymond Chen
Commenter zd asks, "Why can't you rename the Recycle Bin?" This question, as do many questions, comes with implicit assumptions. In particular, the assumption that everything can be renamed by default and that somebody must have gone to the effort of blocking the rename of the Recycle Bin. Actually, reality is the reverse. Shell namespace ...

If you grant somebody SeDebugPrivilege, you gave away the farm

March 14, 2008 Mar 14, 2008 03/14/08
Raymond Chen
By default, users can debug only processes that they own. In order to debug processes owned by other users, you have to possess the SeDebugPrivilege privilege. But don't grant this privilege casually, because once you do, you gave away the farm. If you let users debug processes owned by other users, then they can debug processes owned by ...

Exercise doesn't have any effect unless you know you're doing it

March 11, 2008 Mar 11, 2008 03/11/08
Raymond Chen
Hotel maids began losing weight once they were informed that their normal job activities counted as exercise. I can't want for somebody to test whether this placebo effect works in reverse; that is, whether you will lose weight if you aren't actually exercising but believe that you are. If it works, then sign me up! (Oh rats, they addressed ...

Why isn't there a GetDlgItemFloat function?

March 10, 2008 Mar 10, 2008 03/10/08
Raymond Chen
Jonathan Wilson asks, "Do you know why there is a GetDlgItemInt and a SetDlgItemInt but not a GetDlgItemFloat and a SetDlgItemFloat?" Give people five dollars and they'll ask why you didn't give them ten. Let's start with the first question. Why is there a function? After all, doesn't do anything you couldn't already do with and . Well...

The art of losing things: Keep moving them around

March 7, 2008 Mar 7, 2008 03/7/08
Raymond Chen
The worst thing about losing things is that when you eventually find them, they're always where you left them. (This assumes you live alone or otherwise can control who touches your stuff.) I have a mental place for most things, and I keep them there, which is great, because when I need, say, my passport, I know where to go. Except that I ...

Why can't I convert a time zone abbreviation into a time zone?

March 7, 2008 Mar 7, 2008 03/7/08
Raymond Chen
Suppose you have a string of the form . How can you parse this into something your program can manipulate, like say a or a ? Basically, you can't in the general case. The time zone abbreviation CST is ambiguous. It could mean U.S./Canada Central Standard Time, Australian Central Standard Time, China Standard Time, or Cuba Summer Time. ...

How do I log on using a dial-up connection on Windows Vista?

March 6, 2008 Mar 6, 2008 03/6/08
Raymond Chen
Mike Stephens from the Group Policy Team Blog explains how to get "Log on using dial-up connections" working on Windows Vista. But I'm posting to respond to a comment on that page, since that falls under the category of "When people ask for security holes as features." The only problem is all users need to have access to an account with ...