At the Windows 95 Launch and at various other marketing events, guests were given a copy of "Windows 95 Special Edition". What is so special about the box? Answer: The box. The contents of the box are exactly the same as a regular copy of Windows 95. The only thing special about it...
If you dig back into your Windows 95 files, you'll find that some internal system functions are given names like , and . Surely there is a story behind these silly names, isn't there? Of course there is. "Bear" is the name of the Windows 3.1 mascot, a stuffed teddy bear seemingly-obsessively ...
The inner workings of the Windows 95 memory manager's bootstrap algorithm.
"Why can't I remove 'for test/evaluation purposes only'? I know I'm running an evaluation edition, I don't need it rubbed in my face." This prevents unscrupulous OEMs from selling machines with the evaluation edition of the product instead of the retail version. (Yes, this has happened before. Many ...
Useless trivia day. Why is a registry file called a "hive"? Because one of the original developers of Windows NT hated bees. So the developer who was responsible for the registry snuck in as many bee references as he could. A registry file is called a "hive", and registry...
Ancient history lesson. When Win9x loads a 32-bit DLL, it creates a shadow 16-bit DLL so 16-bit code (like USER) can access resources in it. The shadow DLL is effectively a resource-only 16-bit DLL, created by taking the 32-bit resources and converting them to 16-bit format. If the...
This is the answer I give to IT people when they ask if it's okay to customize the Windows boot logo. DO NOT DO THIS ON A PRODUCTION MACHINE OR YOU WILL REGRET IT. If you hack the bitmap everything will seem fine until six months down the road when you decide to install the latest ...
Common request: I want to be able to turn on personalized menus (Intellimenus) when in XP Start Menu mode. Imagine if Intellimenus were enabled with the XP Start Menu. You use 5 apps; the rest are not used much. (Studies show that 5 is the typical number of unique applications us...
We often get requests like this: There should be a slider bar somewhere, say on the Performance Tab, that ranges from Novice to Advanced. At the highest level, all the geek settings are turned on. At the Novice level, all the settings for beginners are turned on. In between, we can gradually enable stuff. ...
Short answer: The same reason you turn the ignition key to shut off your car. Long answer: Back in the early days, the taskbar didn't have a Start button. (In a future history column, you'll learn that back in the early days, the taskbar wasn't called the taskbar.) Instead of the S...
