The Old New Thing

I bet somebody is looking to get a really nice bonus for that feature: Attention

December 19, 2006 Dec 19, 2006 12/19/06

Raymond Chen

"I bet somebody is looking to get a really nice bonus for that feature." A customer was having trouble with one of their features that scans for resources that their program can use, and, well, the details aren't important. What's important is that their feature ran in the Startup group, and as soon as it found a suitable resource, it ...

Some call it context, others call it reference data, but whatever it is, it's yours

December 18, 2006 Dec 18, 2006 12/18/06

Raymond Chen

Different functions call it different things. calls it . calls it reference data. calls it . just calls it a parameter! But whatever its name is, it means the same thing: It's a value the function doesn't care about. All the function does is hand that value back to you. What the value means is up to you. What if you need to pass more ...

Do not write in-process shell extensions in managed code

December 18, 2006 Dec 18, 2006 12/18/06

Raymond Chen

Jesse Kaplan, one of the CLR program managers, explains why you shouldn't write in-process shell extensions in managed code. The short version is that doing so introduces a CLR version dependency which may conflict with the CLR version expected by the host process. Remember that shell extensions are injected into all processes that use the ...

Why do user interface actions tend to occur on the release, not on the press?

December 16, 2006 Dec 16, 2006 12/16/06

Raymond Chen

If you pay close attention, you'll notice that most user interface actions tend to occur on the release, not on the press. When you click on a button, the action occurs when the mouse button is released. When you press the Windows key, the Start menu pops up when you release it. When you tap the Alt key, the menu becomes active when you ...

Computing listview infotips in the background

December 14, 2006 Dec 14, 2006 12/14/06

Raymond Chen

When the listview control asks you for an infotip, it sends you then notification, and when you return, the result is displayed as the infotip. But what if computing the infotip takes a long time? You don't want to stall the UI thread on a long operation, after all. This is where comes in. If you want to say, "Um, I'm not ready with that ...

Maybe if it had characters and stuff and different levels, it would be OK

December 13, 2006 Dec 13, 2006 12/13/06

Raymond Chen

In a classic series, Electronic Games Monthly plopped modern kids, ages 9 through 12, in front of classic video games: Pong, Donkey Kong, Tetris. And then recorded their reactions. Here, the kids are playing Tetris and appear to be obsessed with stuff blowing up. Tim: Which button do I press to make the blocks explode? EGM: Sorry, they ...

Displaying infotips for folded and unfolded listview items

December 13, 2006 Dec 13, 2006 12/13/06

Raymond Chen

When displaying infotips for listview items, you have to deal with both the folded and unfolded case. "Folded" is the term used to describe a listview item in large icon mode whose text has been truncated due to length. When the user selects the item, the full text is revealed, a process known as "unfolding". Take our scratch program and ...

Jeanne Martinet teaches you how to survive a party where you don't know anybody

December 12, 2006 Dec 12, 2006 12/12/06

Raymond Chen

It's the time of year where you may find yourself attending a party where you know hardly anyone. Jeanne Martinet, author of The Art of Mingling, walks Steve Inskeep through a mock-party with tips on how to join a conversation, and (perhaps more importantly) exit one. Don't just read the article; you need to listen to the story. The mock-...

A high waiter count on a free critical section may indicate a lock convoy

December 12, 2006 Dec 12, 2006 12/12/06

Raymond Chen

Nobody can make any progress because they keep getting stuck.

What does an invalid handle exception in LeaveCriticalSection mean?

December 11, 2006 Dec 11, 2006 12/11/06

Raymond Chen

Internally, a critical section is a bunch of counters and flags, and possibly an event. (Note that the internal structure of a critical section is subject to change at any time—in fact, it changed between Windows XP and Windows 2003. The information provided here is therefore intended for troubleshooting and debugging purposes...