The Old New Thing
Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.
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May 19, 2026
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What is the history of the ERROR_ARENA_TRASHED error code?
The storage control blocks were destroyed.
May 18, 2026
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Just shows that nobody cares about debugging the parity flag any more
Reported incorrectly since the day it was written.
May 15, 2026
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The case of the CreateFileMapping that always reported ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS
Maybe because it already exists?
May 14, 2026
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A constant-space linear-time algorithm for deleting all but the 10 most recent files in a directory
Using data structures you already knew.
May 13, 2026
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The case of the hang when the user changed keyboard layouts
Keeping things moving.
May 12, 2026
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Why do Windows client editions on 32-bit x86 systems artificially limit RAM to 4 GB?
Compatibility, of course.
May 11, 2026
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Additional notes on controlling which handles are inherited by CreateProcess
Putting the handles in a private container.
May 8, 2026
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Developing more confidence when tracking renames via ReadDirectoryChangesW
You can track the file ID.
May 7, 2026
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When you upgrade your resource strings to Unicode, don’t forget to specify the L prefix
Otherwise, it'll get mapped back down to the 8-bit code page.
