Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

November 2003 - Posts

Friday, November 28, 2003 10:00 AM

Hello Sweden, you're on fire

The longstanding tradition of Norwegians telling Swedish jokes and vice versa, was recently refueled by a border story.
Posted by oldnewthing | 8 Comments
Filed under:
Thursday, November 27, 2003 10:00 AM

It's like the Swedes don't want you to learn their language

It's a holiday in the States today and tomorrow, so I'm not going to talk about geek stuff. That'll resume on Monday.
Posted by oldnewthing | 15 Comments
Filed under:
Wednesday, November 26, 2003 10:00 AM

Other tricks with WM_GETDLGCODE

We already discussed DLGC_HASSETSEL. Here are some other things you can do.
Posted by oldnewthing | 8 Comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, November 25, 2003 10:00 AM

What do the letters W and L stand for in WPARAM and LPARAM?

Once upon a time, Windows was 16-bit. Each message could carry with it two pieces of data, called WPARAM and LPARAM. The first one was a 16-bit value ("word"), so it was called W. The second one was a 32-bit value ("long"), so it was called L.
Posted by oldnewthing | 22 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 24, 2003 10:01 AM

A shortcut to the Run dialog

Here's a little script that opens the Run dialog.
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
Filed under: ,
Monday, November 24, 2003 10:01 AM

You can drag/drop to the command prompt

The command prompt is a drop target: Dropping a file onto it inserts the filename.
Posted by oldnewthing | 17 Comments
Filed under:
Friday, November 21, 2003 10:00 AM

Why isn't Fast User Switching enabled on domains?

Windows XP added a new feature called Fast User Switching which lets you switch between users without having to log off. But this feature is disabled if your computer is joined to a domain. Why?
Posted by oldnewthing | 30 Comments
Filed under:
Thursday, November 20, 2003 4:24 PM

What's the deal with the System Volume Information folder?

In the root of every drive is a folder called "System Volume Information". If your drive is NTFS, the permissions on the folder are set so not even administrators can get in there. What's the big secret?
Posted by oldnewthing | 53 Comments
Filed under:
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 10:00 AM

Notepad's geek options require Word Wrap be disabled

If you want to use the "Go To" or "Status Bar" options, you have to turn off word wrap first.
Posted by oldnewthing | 13 Comments
Filed under:
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 10:00 AM

How can I tell if I have the 64-bit edition of Windows?

Answer: Your wallet is empty.
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, November 18, 2003 2:03 PM

Make sure the buttons match the question

When your program displays a dialog box with buttons, please make the buttons match the text.
Posted by oldnewthing | 34 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 17, 2003 3:46 PM

Another favorite from the Grauniad

The world: a primer
Posted by oldnewthing | 18 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 17, 2003 11:34 AM

More stories of bad hardware

My favorite bad CD-ROM drive from Windows 95 was one where the manufacturer cut a corner to save probably twenty-five cents.
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 17, 2003 2:30 AM

Stay healthy: Drink Guinness

Flavenoids in Guinness combat fatty deposits in arteries.
Posted by oldnewthing | 4 Comments
Filed under:
Friday, November 14, 2003 4:18 AM

Preventing edit control text from being autoselected in a dialog box

By default, when the user TABs to an edit control in a dialog box, the entire contents of the edit control are autoselected
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
Filed under:
Thursday, November 13, 2003 11:40 AM

British newspapers are much more fun to read

Newspapers in the States are so stodgy.
Posted by oldnewthing | 14 Comments
Filed under:
Thursday, November 13, 2003 3:29 AM

Another different type of dialog procedure

The other method of using a window-procedure-like dialog box is to change the rules of the game.
Posted by oldnewthing | 4 Comments
Filed under:
Thursday, November 13, 2003 3:28 AM

Answer to previous exercise about m_fRecursing

Short answer: It only needs to be thread-local.
Posted by oldnewthing | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Wednesday, November 12, 2003 3:23 AM

A different type of dialog procedure

In the discussion following my entry about dialog procedure return values, somebody suggested an alternate dialog design where you just call DefDlgProc to do default actions, the same way you write window procedures and call DefWindowProc. So let's do that.
Posted by oldnewthing | 2 Comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, November 11, 2003 2:10 PM

Welcome Martyn Lovell

Martyn Lovell has joined the world of blogging.
Posted by oldnewthing | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, November 11, 2003 11:13 AM

Safer subclassing

Answer to yesterday's homework assignment, with discussion.
Posted by oldnewthing | 5 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 10, 2003 3:53 AM

Homework assignment about window subclassing

Window subclassing is trickier than you think.
Posted by oldnewthing | 6 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 10, 2003 3:52 AM

How much do you expect from a framework layer?

If a framework exposes functionality provided by a lower layer, how hard should the framework try to insulate you from all the quirks and limitations of the lower layer?
Posted by oldnewthing | 10 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 10, 2003 3:52 AM

A warning to people averse to code

This is going to be a code-heavy week. People who are averse to code may want to just lie low until next week. I'll try to make it up by having next week be more storytelling-focused.
Posted by oldnewthing | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Friday, November 07, 2003 4:10 AM

Returning values from a dialog procedure

For some reason, the way values are returned from a dialog procedure confuses people, so I'm going to try to explain it a different way.
Posted by oldnewthing | 15 Comments
Filed under:
Thursday, November 06, 2003 11:51 AM

Little facts you didn't know about concrete

Concrete is stronger once it has hardened.
Posted by oldnewthing | 7 Comments
Filed under: ,
Thursday, November 06, 2003 3:00 AM

Why are companies so worried about retraining costs?

Most people do not view the computer as a world to be explored. It is merely a means to an end.
Posted by oldnewthing | 27 Comments
Filed under:
Wednesday, November 05, 2003 3:20 AM

An anecdote about improper capitalization

The story of Yamada-San's dead body.
Posted by oldnewthing | 8 Comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, November 04, 2003 3:38 AM

Just follow the rules and nobody gets hurt

You got away with not calling VirtualProtect(PAGE_EXECUTE), but no longer.
Posted by oldnewthing | 16 Comments
Filed under:
Monday, November 03, 2003 12:03 PM

The long and sad story of the Shell Folders key

When you are attempting to architect an operating system, backwards compatibility is one of the ones you just have to accept. But when new programs rely on app hacks designed for old programs, that makes you want to scream.
Posted by oldnewthing | 43 Comments
Filed under: ,
 
Page view tracker