Some Windows features you probably didn’t know

1.- Console (command line) applications’ parameters have an upper limit in the size of the input: 8192 bytes. If their input is greater, you’ll see an error like the following in Windows Vista.

Length of parameters exceed limit

2.- Alt + Print Screen make a screen capture of the current active window. It is very useful when you are writing tutorials, books or whatsoever… As far as I know, many people don’t know this and they insert badly cropped pictures into documents.

3.- MsgBox (MessageBox) text can be copied in spite of not being selectable. Press Ctrl + C as usual and you get a result like this:
[Window Title]
D:ResearchVargSatbinReleaseVargSat.exe

[Content]
D:ResearchVargSatbinReleaseVargSat.exe

The data area passed to a system call is too small.

[OK]

I’ve read so many times people asking in development forums how can they implement a MessageBox-like form in order to allow copy the message. Even people from Sql Server develop their own MessageBox class to allow this. I think they didn’t know this trick has existed since the early days of Windows 95.

1 Response to “Some Windows features you probably didn’t know”


  1. 1 Juanma March 7, 2008 at 09:55

    I always forget the second one.


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About me


My name is Rafa Vargas. I'm an undergraduate student of Computer Science at University of Seville, Spain. I am mainly interested in computer security, usability and the business of software.

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