The Old New Thing

2007 Q3 link clearance: Microsoft blogger edition

September 28, 2007 Sep 28, 2007 09/28/07

Raymond Chen

A few random links that I've collected from other Microsoft bloggers...

How do I put a different wallpaper on each monitor?

September 24, 2007 Sep 24, 2007 09/24/07

Raymond Chen

When you set a wallpaper on a multi-monitor system, that wallpaper goes onto each monitor. For example, if your wallpaper is a picture of a flower, each monitor shows that same flower. Commenter David Phillips wonders whether there is a way to set a different wallpaper on each monitor, or whether it is some sort of trick. It's some sort of ...

With a new Start menu come new keyboard shortcuts

August 28, 2007 Aug 28, 2007 08/28/07

Raymond Chen

With the new Windows Vista Start menu, the keyboard shortcuts have once again been reorganized. You used to be able to hit the Windows key and then type L to call up the Log off menu, and then L again to trigger the logoff. Or you can hit the Windows key and then type I to launch Internet Explorer if you've been so careful to ensure ...

Windows Vista has more extended options on the context menu

August 22, 2007 Aug 22, 2007 08/22/07

Raymond Chen

As we saw when we discussed context menus, holding down the shift key when opening a context menu adds so-called extended verbs to the menu. These are verbs that are less frequently used whose presence would clutter up the menu or pose an attractive nuisance. For example, the "Command Prompt Here" command is an extended command since your ...

At last you can turn off the USB 2.0 balloon

August 21, 2007 Aug 21, 2007 08/21/07

Raymond Chen

Yes, I know already.

How do the names in the file security dialog map to access control masks?

July 26, 2007 Jul 26, 2007 07/26/07

Raymond Chen

When you call up the file security dialog, you'll see options like "Full Control" and "Read and Execute". That's really nice as friendly names go, but when you're digging into the security descriptor, you may need to know what those permissions really map to when it comes down to bits. First, the summary attributes: If you go to the ...

Why does canonical order for ACEs put deny ACEs ahead of allow ACEs?

June 8, 2007 Jun 8, 2007 06/8/07

Raymond Chen

So-called canonical order for ACEs in an access control list places deny ACEs ahead of allow ACEs. Why is this the canonical order? Because it gives results that are sensible. The algorithm for determining whether a user has access to an object protected by an ACL is as follows: let access-still-needed = access-requested for each ACE...

Performing an operation in each subdirectory of a directory tree from batch

May 11, 2007 May 11, 2007 05/11/07

Raymond Chen

To execute a command in each subdirectory of a directory tree from a batch file, you can adapt the following: (If you want to play with this command from the command prompt, then undouble the percent signs.) The option enables various special behaviors of the command. The most important change is that a string in single-quotation marks...

What do the colors in the elevation dialog mean?

March 30, 2007 Mar 30, 2007 03/30/07

Raymond Chen

On Windows Vista with User Account Control enabled, when you right-click a program and select Run as Administrator, the elevation prompt contains a particular snippet of warning text and a corresponding color-coding. Here are what the four colors mean. You can learn about the philosophy behind UAC in this Channel9 interview. Pre-emptive ...

More Vista wallpapers from Hamad Darwish

February 28, 2007 Feb 28, 2007 02/28/07

Raymond Chen

Long Zheng does it again. He follows up his interview with Hamad Darwish with a report on what Hamad has been doing lately, as well as links to high resolution versions of the entire Vista wallpaper photo shoot, including photos that didn't make the final cut...