Inside the Windows Source Code (E02)

Windows code provided courtesy of Microsoft Corporation; this code is NOT open source and it remains Microsoft copyrighted material, used with permission.

[OldManBOMBIN]

Dude, Dave, that's crazy turnaround on these videos. You were just asking 2 days ago if we wanted more, and now BAM. More. Wild, man.

[jonashansen]

It’s a pleasure to read your code Dave.

Unlike most “enterprise” projects I’ve received, I’m fairly confident I could quickly get productive with your code 👍

[pennyjim]

Your expression for an app hanging when requesting their icons caught me off guard.

Thanks for making me laugh

[teamredstudio]

I have always wondered how this worked. It's amazing to see how real people at Microsoft design and think. I know basic coding but I don't know how to make good and consistent design. Seeing how the stuff from my childhood works is fascinating!

[TheMasonX]

Thanks Dave, it's incredible to see such well designed, readable C++ code. It's been a struggle learning C++ from legacy code, but this gives me a much better idea. Also some useful ideas on crash prevention and interprocess communication. Wasn't expecting a sequel so quick, but can't wait for another!

[BrenIrwin]

Thanks Dave, I love your videos. I appreciate you sharing your stories and knowledge and always come away feeling smarter than when I started watching.

[nathansmith]

i love these videos going over old windows stuff. You should do more windows war stories!!! Also some dev stories would be fun. Like what deving windows XP (or any windows) was like running up to release, or maybe what working on little known Microsoft stuff was like, that kind of thing!

I fancy Windows ME as I grew up on that, maybe a video on that too?
Thanks Dave! We appreciate you sir!

[HugoDahl]

As someone who seldom likes taking his hands off the keyboard, I really appreciate the devs who thought through and went through the effort to make applications as systems as fully usable with the keyboard only as possible.

I for one would be interested in seeing you update and refactor the code you have once the walkthrough is complete. Specifically, to make use of the other and some newer C++ language features you mentioned, or to "do it the right way" as you've learned since.

However, I don't know under what terms the code was given to you, so whether you're allowed to do this in any way. Or make any modifications (for personal or other use), other such legalese reasons, so it may not be possible.

Regardless, I'm enjoying this code walkthrough, and I'm showing up for the next episodes! Thanks Dave :)

[mst]

Some serious flashback moments. When I first started coding in C/C++ for Windows, I was amazed at the clever and actual intuitive design of the messaging system of the API. Thanks for the great review of your software.

[junktionfet]

This episode and the one before have been outstanding. I love the guided tour through the code. I started at Microsoft a few years after you left, but I wish I had been there during your tenure. Please keep doing series like these!

[trevorford]

Another interesting video, keep them coming, I can just about follow your source code, although a lot of it is over my head. I'm always impressed by clean and tidy code. 😊

[korma]

One of the best channel on YT and I'm not a geek either,
you explains things so well.

[davidrush]

Wow. This is Windows programming at its most basic. I typically wrote within a framework like Owl, MFC, or even C#. Very rarely weote anything at this level, but like you said you wanted it to have as few dependencies as possible.

[garycharpenter]

Keep them coming. Systems stuff is always cool, because it has to be.

[hubster]

I know a little code but most of this goes well over my head but your explication still means I get a lot out of this. Thank you for putting this together.

[The_MAC_CAT]

I have never seen a "task" window that first opens up blank they always have something running!! How you did that Dave ?? Is your version of Windows clean ?? I did not think it was possible

[ender-gaming]

Am I the only one who just learned that shift+F10 brings up context menu? I've always had a keyboard with a dedicated key but on some laptops this would have been quite nice.

[paulmichaelfreedman]

Hi dave, great video as usual. Maybe you can tell me why the bottom half of the disk manager (with the graphical views of the disks) will never scroll with the scroll wheel (You MUST use the scroll bar) ? In windows 11, it still has not been fixed and this is something I noticed in windows 2000. Thanks!

[peppigue]

thx for everything you show us, Dave, you are quite the entertainer in addition to your tech savvy. when you are already touching on it by going in depth on windows app code, i wish you could guide us through the os itself in more detail. the kind of stuff i'm already reading about in windows internals 7 part 1 from ms publishing. it would be very helpful to have you go over it with your perspective, perhaps with some comparisons to linux or other oses to emphasize design choices and different ways of doing an os. i love all details of computers and systems, but the most helpful and interesting thing would be if you were able to draw a picture of how different elements relate to each other at some conceptual level.

i understand this sounds like a big ask, but i strongly suspect it is smack dab in the middle of what your audience would love to see.

[RobertM]

Great video, I'm loving this series.