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How to view the stack of threads that were terminated as part of process...
Last time we saw how to view the stack of threads that were terminated as part of process teardown from the kernel debugger. You can do the same thing from a user-mode debugger, and it's actually a...
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What was the registry like in 16-bit Windows?
Commenter Niels wonders when and how the registry was introduced to 16-bit Windows and how much of it carried over to Windows 95. The 16-bit registry was extremely simple. There were just keys, no...
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Why is the Close button in the upper right corner?
Chris wants to know how the close button ended up to the right of the minimize and maximize/restore buttons. "In OS/2, it is on the left, which left the two other buttons in place." I don't know why...
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GUIDs are designed to be unique, not random
A customer liaison asked, "My customer is looking for information on the GUID generation algorithm. They need to select N items randomly from a pool of M (jury selection), and their proposed algorithm...
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How do I prevent unchecked checkboxes in my listview control from disappearing?
A customer asked, "I have a listview control in report view with the LVS_EX_CHECKBOXES extended style. I noticed that unchecked checkboxes are not visible until I hover over the corresponding item....
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The extern "C" specifier disables C++ mangling, but that doesn't mean it...
The MSDN documentation on dllexport contains the following enigmatic paragraph, or at least did at the time I wrote this article: dllexport of a C++ function will expose the function with C++ name...
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If my window hosts multiple windowless ActiveX controls, which one do I call...
Commenter Farproc asks how one goes about hosting two windowless ActiveX controls in a single window. In particular, "none of the documentation explains how to choose which control to send...
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Hazards of spelling autocorrection: defiance
On an internal mailing list, a colleague asked for some recommendations on a webcam. I was wondering if there are any models I should avoid or defiantly get. I got this mental image of my colleague...
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What does a STATUS_OBJECT_TYPE_MISMATCH exception in LeaveCriticalSection mean?
It means the same thing as a STATUS_INVALID_HANDLE exception.
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What happens if I call KillTimer with a NULL hwnd?
A customer discovered a bug in their code and wanted some information on how serious it was, so they could assess how urgently they need to issue a fix. We have code that calls SetTimer with a valid...
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How do I prefetch data into my memory-mapped file?
A customer created a memory mapping on a large file and found that when the memory manager wanted to page in data from that file, it did so in 32KB chunks. The customer wanted to know if there was a...
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The time I watched a total lunar eclipse from the top of a mountain
One of my colleagues loves doing outdoorsy things, and he also loves space and astronomy. Many years ago, he invited a small number of us on an outing that combined both of his interests: A hike up a...
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Why does PrintWindow hate CS_PARENTDC? Because EVERYBODY hates CS_PARENTDC!
Commenter kero wants to know why the PrintWindow function hates CS_PARENTDC. (And CS_CLASSDC, and CS_OWNDC.) Because everybody hates CS_PARENTDC! (And CS_CLASSDC, and CS_OWNDC.) We saw earlier...
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Microspeak: Turds
In Microspeak, a turd is a graphics glitch which results in old pixels appearing on the screen when they shouldn't. Perhaps they are not being erased properly, or instead of being erased, they move to...
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Don't be helpless: What might be the reason for a "Path not found" error?
Internally at Microsoft, we have a programmer's tool which I will call Program Q. On the peer-to-peer mailing list for Program Q, somebody asked the following question: When I try to do a q edit...
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Eventually the window manager simply says that enough is enough
Many window manager operations are recursive, and eventually the window manager will simply say that enough is enough when the recursion goes too deep. We've seen this when you nest windows more than...
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How can I determine the underlying cause of a EXCEPTION_IN_PAGE_ERROR exception?
A customer was using memory-mapped files and installed an exception handler to log in-page errors in the memory-mapped file region. They wanted to know how they could obtain the real disk error that...
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Why do you have to wait for Windows Error Reporting to check for solutions...
Leo Davidson wonders why you have to wait for Windows Error Reporting to check for solutions before it restarts the application. Why not do the two in parallel? Well, for one thing, when the...
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Fabio coming to Redmond. Also: Whey Protein
Mark your calendars: Fabio Lanzoni, better known to the world as simply Fabio, will be at the Redmond Whole Foods Market on June 21 to promote his whey protein product. (Now made with real Fabio!) And...
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Microsoft Dynamics in a soda can, sort of
It is not uncommon for a product team to produce some custom soda cans (really, carbonated water) for distribution at Microsoft cafeterias. Last year, the Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 2011 team put some...
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