The Old New Thing

What was the code name for 64-bit Windows?

December 5, 2023 Dec 5, 2023 12/5/23

Raymond Chen

Sundown, which was a hidden jab at the competition.

In Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, what is a “grabber”?

November 27, 2023 Nov 27, 2023 11/27/23

Raymond Chen

It grabbed your MS-DOS screen and put it into a window.

What is the thread reaper?

October 31, 2023 Oct 31, 2023 10/31/23

Raymond Chen

Should you fear the thread reaper?

On the failed unrealized promise of Reg­Override­Predef­Key

October 20, 2023 Oct 20, 2023 10/20/23

Raymond Chen

An early attempt to sandbox the registry for a process.

A complaint about Links the Cat, the Office assistant

October 3, 2023 Oct 3, 2023 10/3/23

Raymond Chen

Do all cats do that?

Why is kernel32.dll running in user mode and not kernel mode, like its name implies?

September 26, 2023 Sep 26, 2023 09/26/23

Raymond Chen

It's just a name, and it comes from the days before user-mode/kernel-mode separation.

Why did the 16-bit _lopen and _lcreat function return -1 on failure instead of 0?

September 19, 2023 Sep 19, 2023 09/19/23

Raymond Chen

Trying to look like somebody else.

Just for fun: What happens when you shift a register by more than the register size?

September 4, 2023 Sep 4, 2023 09/4/23

Raymond Chen

A comparative study of processor architectures.

The popularity of DOS/4GW made Windows 95 game compatibility a little easier, but with higher stakes

August 29, 2023 Aug 29, 2023 08/29/23

Raymond Chen

A popular path to protected mode.

Just for fun: Which processors prefer sign-extended loads, and which prefer zero-extended loads?

August 28, 2023 Aug 28, 2023 08/28/23

Raymond Chen

Another pointless chart.