The Old New Thing

History - The Old New Thing

When people ask for security holes as features: Silent install of uncertified drivers

August 16, 2005 Aug 16, 2005 08/16/05
Raymond Chen
Probably the single greatest source of bluescreen crashes in Windows XP is buggy device drivers. Since drivers run in kernel mode, there is no higher authority checking what they're doing. If some user-mode code runs amok and corrupts memory, it's just corrupting its own memory. The process eventually crashes, but the system stays up. On ...

Why is Windows Error Reporting nicknamed “Dr. Watson”?

August 10, 2005 Aug 10, 2005 08/10/05
Raymond Chen
The nickname for the feature known as Windows Error Reporting is "Dr. Watson". Where did that name come from? As you have probably guessed, The name Dr. Watson was inspired by the character of Dr. Watson, the assistant to Sherlock Holmes in the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. It is my understanding that the doctor was ...

What is this “web site” thing you are talking about?

July 28, 2005 Jul 28, 2005 07/28/05
Raymond Chen
One reaction I've seen when people learn about all the compatibility work done in the Windows 95 kernel is to say, Why not add code to the installer wizard [alas, page is now 404] which checks to see if you're installing SimCity and, if so, informs you of a known design flaw, then asks you to visit Electronic Arts' webpage for a patch...

Why does FindFirstFile find short names?

July 20, 2005 Jul 20, 2005 07/20/05
Raymond Chen
The function matches both the short and long names. This can produce somewhat surprising results. For example, if you ask for "*.htm", this also gives you the file "x.html" since its short name is "X~1.HTM". Why does it bother matching short names? Shouldn't it match only long names? After all, only old 16-bit programs use short names. ...

What is the deal with the ES_OEMCONVERT flag?

July 19, 2005 Jul 19, 2005 07/19/05
Raymond Chen
The edit control style is a holdover from 16-bit Windows. This ancient MSDN article from the Windows 3.1 SDK describes the flag thus: ES_OEMCONVERT causes text entered into the edit control to be converted from ANSI to OEM and then back to ANSI. This ensures proper character conversion when the application calls the AnsiToOem function to ...

If InitCommonControls doesn’t do anything, why do you have to call it?

July 18, 2005 Jul 18, 2005 07/18/05
Raymond Chen
One of the problems beginners run into when they start using shell common controls is that they forget to call the function. But if you were to disassemble the function itself, you'll see that it, like the function, doesn't actually do anything. Then why do you need to call it? As with , what's important is not what it performs, but ...

What are SYSTEM_FONT and DEFAULT_GUI_FONT?

July 7, 2005 Jul 7, 2005 07/7/05
Raymond Chen
Among the things you can get with the function are two fonts called and . What are they? They are fonts nobody uses any more. Back in the old days of Windows 2.0, the font used for dialog boxes was a bitmap font called System. This is the font that retrieves, and it is still the default dialog box font for compatibility reasons. ...

Why are there broadcast-based mechanisms in Windows?

June 27, 2005 Jun 27, 2005 06/27/05
Raymond Chen
Many Windows information mechanisms are based on message broadcasts, among them DDE, WM_FONTCHANGE, and changes in system settings. Why do these mechanisms use broadcasts, when we know that broadcasts can result in the system grinding to a halt due to windows that have stopped processing messages? Because in 16-bit Windows, you didn't have...