The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

Latest posts

Dec 19, 2023
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Microspeak: Locked and loaded

Raymond Chen

Armed and ready, with the suggestion that no further changes will be needed (or accepted).

Dec 18, 2023
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In 2023, the Gävle Goat faces a new threat to its survival

Raymond Chen

It's bock.

Dec 18, 2023
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If the RegisterClass function takes ownership of the custom background brush, why is it leaking?

Raymond Chen

It takes ownership only on success.

Dec 15, 2023
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How do I specify an optional string parameter to a Windows Runtime method?

Raymond Chen

Strings are sort of reference but sort of values.

Dec 14, 2023
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How do I specify an optional parameter to a Windows Runtime method?

Raymond Chen

There is no way to express explicit optionality, but there are implicit ways.

Dec 13, 2023
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How can I work around the absence of default parameters in the Windows Runtime?

Raymond Chen

You can fake it with overloads.

Dec 12, 2023
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What happens if I define one environment variable in terms of the value of another environment variable?

Raymond Chen

Only certain types of dependencies are supported.

Dec 11, 2023
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The mysterious second parameter to the x86 ENTER instruction

Raymond Chen

For an ABI that probably nobody uses.

Dec 8, 2023
Post comments count 6
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A simpler version of the task sequencer that doesn’t promise fairness

Raymond Chen

Just let a kernel object control the access.