The Old New Thing
Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.
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Apr 27, 2026
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Looking at consequences of passing too few register parameters to a C function on various architectures
It's bad news no matter how you slice it, but Itanium makes it even worse.
Apr 24, 2026
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Defending against exceptions in a scope_exit RAII type
But maybe it's not worth it.
Apr 23, 2026
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Another crash caused by uninstaller code injection into Explorer
Inadvertently destroying a staircase while standing on it.
Apr 22, 2026
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Mapping the page tables into memory via the page tables
So-called "fractal page mapping".
Apr 21, 2026
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Sure, xor’ing a register with itself is the idiom for zeroing it out, but why not sub?
Somehow xor became the most popular version.
Apr 20, 2026
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How did code handle 24-bit-per-pixel formats when using video cards with bank-switched memory?
You still have to use aligned accesses, even though the pixels might not be aligned.
Apr 17, 2026
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Forgotten message from the past: LB_INITSTORAGE
Preallocating memory to avoid quadratic behavior.
Apr 16, 2026
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What’s up with window message 0x0091? We’re getting it with unexpected parameters
Trespassing on system messages.
Apr 15, 2026
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Why is there a long delay between a thread exiting and the WaitForSingleObject returning?
Maybe it didn't really exit.