The Old New Thing

Practical development throughout the evolution of Windows.

Latest posts

How can my process read its own standard output?
Dec 5, 2025
Post comments count 7
Post likes count 2

How can my process read its own standard output?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

You'll have to trick yourself before anybody notices, which may not be possible.

How can I read the standard output of an already-running process?
Dec 4, 2025
Post comments count 3
Post likes count 1

How can I read the standard output of an already-running process?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

You can't. You'll have to do it before the process starts.

How do I check whether the user has permission to create files in a directory?
Dec 3, 2025
Post comments count 5
Post likes count 4

How do I check whether the user has permission to create files in a directory?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Request the directory security attributes that correspond to your proposed operation.

Microspeak: Big rocks
Dec 2, 2025
Post comments count 3
Post likes count 2

Microspeak: Big rocks

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The large obstacles.

How do I get my edit control text to be autoselected when I choose it to be the default focus in my dialog?
Dec 1, 2025
Post comments count 0
Post likes count 2

How do I get my edit control text to be autoselected when I choose it to be the default focus in my dialog?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Remembering some old APIs.

How can I have a Win32 drop-down combo box with a read-only edit control?
Nov 28, 2025
Post comments count 8
Post likes count 4

How can I have a Win32 drop-down combo box with a read-only edit control?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

You can ask for its handle and mark it read-only.

Message-only windows are for messaging, not as a convenient victim for hosting UI
Nov 27, 2025
Post comments count 3
Post likes count 4

Message-only windows are for messaging, not as a convenient victim for hosting UI

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

If you want to host UI, use a real window (possibly hidden).

At what point in the Windows development cycle is it too late to change the text of a translatable string?
Nov 26, 2025
Post comments count 9
Post likes count 2

At what point in the Windows development cycle is it too late to change the text of a translatable string?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

The translation team sets the deadline.

The apocryphal origins of the Hot Dog Stand color scheme
Nov 25, 2025
Post comments count 7
Post likes count 5

The apocryphal origins of the Hot Dog Stand color scheme

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Challenge accepted.