MSDN mentions as examples that an invalid HWND and an invalid message pointer can cause GetMessage to -1 instead of 0 and positively nonzero. Being curious about such things, I wondered what exactly causes such a return.
October 4, 2010
August 22, 2010
Things Microsoft Can Do That You Can’t
Fading between desktops is something neat that the Vista+ logon process does after you enter your logon details. Want to make an application that creates desktops and fades between them in the same way? Yes, you say? Well, you ain’t going to.
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August 6, 2010
Packed With Service
Links to every service pack from NT3.1 SP3 to Vista/Server 2008 SP2.
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April 19, 2010
A Token Difference
During the course of an application, there will usually be times when it needs to do something requiring administrative powers. If the user is a true standard user and not just a standard running admin, then any elevated process it launches will be running as a different user.
In this, and every other scenario with a program running under a secondary logon, just how do you figure out who real interactive Slim Shady is, and how do you get him to stand up?
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January 18, 2010
A Whole Heap of Trouble
The heap manager, every program uses it. Whether hidden behind the CRT, COM, OLE, or the crusty old Local/GlobalAlloc, it’s at the centre of the vast majority of memory related operations. Dealing out memory and reclaiming it are no doubt its most common utilities but it has a few more tricks up its sleeve.
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November 16, 2009
Jumping the Queues
Last time out we had a list of the WM_ messages and that got me thinking. Is it possible to see into the future and see what messages will be delivered? The best offered by Windows is the Spy++ model. WH_GETMESSAGE hooks can monitor messages returned by a call to GetMessage or PeekMessage, and WH_CALLWNDPROC(RET) can monitor window procedure activity, but that’s the extent of their powers.
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November 5, 2009
It Seems to be Some Sort of Communiqué
Just what are all the WM_ message names?
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October 18, 2009
download.error is a Symbol Something Went Wrong
Contrary to the name, download.error is the file name all symbol files downloaded via symsrv start out as. They are eventually molded into the requested symbol file, so the presence of these files after trying to download symbols indicates something went wrong somewhere.
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October 3, 2009
Desktop Heap Monitor for Windows Vista, Server 2008 and 7
Desktop Heap Monitor is a debugging tool that displays the consumption of desktop heaps in the current session. Due to its reliance on undocumented internal structures or maybe just because it’s not an efficient use of time, Microsoft has so far decided not to release an update to allow it to work on OS’s post Server 2003. So as I was doing some work in this area, I’ve created an update to let it do just that.
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August 8, 2009
Maximizing the Console Window (Completely)
It seems that when it comes to the web, most people are under the impression that the maximum size for a Windows console is what you get when you “maximize” one. It’s time they thought again…
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