The Old New Thing

History - The Old New Thing

Why isn't QuickEdit on by default in console windows?

September 13, 2007 Sep 13, 2007 09/13/07
Raymond Chen
In the properties of console windows, you can turn on QuickEdit mode, which allows the mouse to be used to select text without having to go explicitly into Mark mode. (In a sense, the console window is permanently in Mark mode.) Why isn't this on by default? It's so useful! Somebody thought the same thing and changed the default in one of the...

Knock knock. Who's there? Not you any more.

September 3, 2007 Sep 3, 2007 09/3/07
Raymond Chen
One of my many favorite Dilbert cartoons is also one of the earlier ones. It's the first strip reprinted in this article. It may not actually have happened, but I was told that that one project many years ago replaced its lead manager. While noteworthy, this sort of thing happens often enough that people take it in stride. What put it into a...

Which Windows font is named after a tabloid headline?

August 23, 2007 Aug 23, 2007 08/23/07
Raymond Chen
Daniel Will-Harris explains the background of several Windows fonts, including the story of where the names for some of the fonts came from. Do you know which Windows font is named after a tabloid headline about aliens? On the topic of font history, the designer of Comic Sans, Vincent Connare, has written a bit on the font's history on ...

Why is the blog's subtitle "Not actually a .NET blog"?

August 13, 2007 Aug 13, 2007 08/13/07
Raymond Chen
Based on the feedback from my last CLR week, I think one CLR week a year is about right, Welcome to CLR Week 2007. I'll kick off the week with something not actually technical, but which might be puzzling to the newcomers: Why is the blog's subtitle "Not actually a .NET blog"? When I started, the blog hosting site for Microsoft technical ...

What is the lpdwHandle parameter in GetFileVersionInfoSize used for?

July 31, 2007 Jul 31, 2007 07/31/07
Raymond Chen
The function returns two pieces of information. The return value is the amount of memory needed to record the version information of a file, and the pointed to by the parameter is set to zero. What's the deal with this strange parameter? That parameter used to do something. The documentation for used to read dwHandle: The value ...

What is Dave's frame class?

July 25, 2007 Jul 25, 2007 07/25/07
Raymond Chen
Back in 2004, we lost Dave's frame class. Dave's frame class, or more accurately, DavesFrameClass, was the window class that drew the CPU meter on the Performance page of Task Manager. As you might have guessed, Dave was the name of the original author of Task Manager. (If the checked version of Task Manager from NT 4 encountered an ...

Why is the limit of window handles per process 10,000?

July 18, 2007 Jul 18, 2007 07/18/07
Raymond Chen
If your program runs haywire, you will find that it manages to create about 10,000 window manager objects and then the system won't let it have any more. Why stop at 10,000? The first answer is "If you have to ask, you're probably doing something wrong." Programs shouldn't be creating anywhere near ten thousands window manager objects in the ...

How are window manager handles determined in Windows NT?

July 17, 2007 Jul 17, 2007 07/17/07
Raymond Chen
We left off our story last time by raising the problem of programs that send messages to windows that have already been destroyed and how window handle re-use exacerbates the problem. Although this is clearly a bug in the programs that use window handles after destroying the window, the problem is so widespread that the window manager folks in...