The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

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Ich habe meinen Computer zu Deutsch gewechselt
Apr 24, 2006
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Ich habe meinen Computer zu Deutsch gewechselt

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

This weekend, I changed my computer's user interface language from Swedish (where it had been since November 2003) to German. Germany is the country I'm most likely to vacation to next, and I figured I should start pseudo-immersing myself. Of course, all it really means is that I'm going to be learning a lot of computer-related German words like Einstellungen and Speicher. The change will also take additional adjustment because I learned German under the old spelling rules, before the controversial spelling reform of 1996 was promulgated. Perhaps the most prominent change is the new rules for the ß char...

Troubleshooting tips are not formal product documentation
Apr 24, 2006
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Troubleshooting tips are not formal product documentation

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The Microsoft Knowledge Base is filled with product support tips, but be careful to understand the scope of those tips. Generally speaking, information provided in the Knowledge Base exists for troubleshooting purposes, not for program design. That's why each article lists specifically which operating system it applies to: There is no guarantee that a particular tip will work on future operating systems. This is particularly true if the tip recommends digging into a program's internal data structures, persistence formats, or files. The Knowledge Base article is for helping you get yourself out of a mess; it is n...

Then again, it might not be overclocking after all
Apr 21, 2006
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Then again, it might not be overclocking after all

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

While it's true that there's an awful lot of overclocking out there, it's also true that not everything that looks like overclocking actually is. Last Thanksgiving, I helped one of my relatives upgrade their computer by scavenging parts from another unused computer (installing more memory and replacing a broken CD drive). When I took the front panel off the machine, I was greeted with a wall of dust. A little wrangling with a vacuum cleaner was called for before I got around to yanking the broken CD drive and installing the replacement. When we go through the failure reports that people submit, we find a lot o...

More about the house in front of Microsoft's RedWest campus
Apr 20, 2006
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More about the house in front of Microsoft's RedWest campus

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

After I mentioned that house in front of Microsoft's RedWest campus, I received an e-mail message from Mike Daly which corrects some of my mistakes and provides additional details: Actually, there were two houses in the strip in front of RedWest. The one you show has not been moved. The other ended up on blocks and parked opposite the RedWest driveway while the parking garage was built. That house eventually was moved north down the street and put on a foundation (about two years ago). You can see it in the middle of this picture. The yard is in straw, and there is a new blacktop drive going down the north s...

The 2006/2007 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance
Apr 19, 2006
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The 2006/2007 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

I put together this little pocket guide to the 2006/2007 Seattle Symphony subscription season for my symphony friends to help them decide which ticket package they wanted. Maybe it'll help you, too. Maybe not. But since I already put it together, I may as well post it. Explanatory notes follow the table. Notes: This chart doesn't include "one-off" concert series such as the Visiting Orchestras or Distinguished Artists series. Two boxes in the Bravo series are marked ½. The Thursday Bravo series includes the Ravel concert, whereas the Saturday Bravo series includes the Beethoven concert. The comments ...

Adding a new flag to enable behavior that previously was on by default
Apr 19, 2006
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Adding a new flag to enable behavior that previously was on by default

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

One of the suggestions for addressing the network compatibility problem was to give up on fast mode and have a new "fast mode 2". (Equivalently, add a flag to the server capabilities that means "I support fast mode, and I'm not buggy.") This is another example of changing the rules after the game is over, by adding a flag to work around driver bugs. Consider a hypothetical program that uses fast mode on Windows XP. It runs against a Windows Server 2003 server and everybody is happy. Suppose you make a change to Windows Vista so that it requires that servers set a new "fast mode 2" flag in ord...

Maybe you don't sound like Carl Kasell, but you can have his job
Apr 18, 2006
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Maybe you don't sound like Carl Kasell, but you can have his job

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

According to the wonderful Mixed Signals, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is searching for radio hosts. They're calling it "American Idol for public radio". I recently stumbled across Mixed Signals and was instantly hooked. Some of my recent favorites: The curatorship of Mixed Signals appears to change hands rather frequently. The last few entries I linked above were from Robert Smith, whom I had the pleasure to meet at KUOW studios when he was stationed in Seattle.

How to fill in that number grouping member of NUMBERFMT
Apr 18, 2006
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How to fill in that number grouping member of NUMBERFMT

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

If you look at the structure, the way groups are expressed by the member do not match the value returned by : expresses grouping as a series of semicolon-separated numbers, each expressing the number of digits in each group (least-significant group first). A trailing zero indicates that the last grouping should be repeated indefinitely. For example, "3;2;0" means "Group the three least significant digits, then in twos until you run out of digits." If there is no trailing ";0", then there are no commas past that point. For example, "3" means "Group the three least significant digits, then stop." The member ...

Merchandise your food with pride
Apr 17, 2006
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Merchandise your food with pride

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

There is a new placard in our cafeteria which reads "Merchandise your food with pride". That's the first time I've seen the word "merchandise" used as a verb. Here, I'll translate that last paragraph into management speak for you: The cafeteria newly signed a placard whose read is "Merchandise your food with pride". That's my first see of a verbed "merchandise". Earlier this year, I was chatting with a Boeing employee who mentioned that he "had to status an action item". I have yet to see the word "status" used as a verb at Microsoft, but it's only a matter of time.