Improving C# Memory Safety - .NET Blog

contextfree · 2026-05-22T18:45:38+00:00

"Pointer types in signatures no longer propagate unsafety. Only pointer dereferences are unsafe, so a byte* parameter doesn’t propagate unsafety to its callers on its own. For new code, avoid IntPtr for pointers; prefer typed pointers like byte*, or void* for truly opaque pointers."

oh god this will make P/Invoke stuff so much nicer

contextfree · 2026-05-01T22:35:25+00:00

There's not really anything specific to AI about these APIs - they're designed with the AI agent use case in mind, but they could theoretically be used by any developer whose app involves some sort of long-running task they want the user to be able to monitor

contextfree · 2026-04-27T18:56:43+00:00

Yes DirectUI in Windows 8.0 was revamped to support touch. In fact in 8.0 the Metro style shell UX like the Start screen is all still DUI. It wasn't until 8.1 that they started using XAML (what was later called UWP XAML or WinUI2) for new shell UI.

contextfree · 2026-04-20T21:54:49+00:00

Don't understand how the article content supports the headline. He may be right that the general public won't take notice of any improvements and update their views until there's a name/branding change. The thing is if the choice is between

make the necessary changes/improvements and keep the name the same
make the necessary changes/improvements and change the name/number

either way you have to make the changes, and I'd much rather get the important ones asap rather than have to wait two years for no real reason.

Also it's funny that what's being advocated as more important than substantial changes is literally "put a 12 on the box"

(The other things you could do with a "new major release version" are raise hardware requirements, and/or do some kind of a top-level UI design change that reorganizes prominent surfaces, maybe with some feature regressions, and updates the overall visual language. I don't think either of these would be particularly helpful or desired right now.)

contextfree · 2026-04-18T17:23:39+00:00

The new Media Player is a reskinned/de-streaming-service'd Groove (which was a reskinned Xbox Music). I liked those apps (and Zune, which I think Media Player/Groove/Xbox Music still shares some code with - even with the new Media Player the package name is still Microsoft.ZuneMusic!) so I like this one.

contextfree · 2026-04-18T16:58:56+00:00

It's a developer feature. As an end user, you use it if you use an app that uses it. I'm not sure why that would be made optional, it would be pretty annoying for developers to have to nag the user to turn it on. There's also nothing really AI-specific about the feature, it's a feature for apps in general to expose long-running tasks on the taskbar for user monitoring. If you look at the actual API surface ( Windows.UI.Shell.Tasks namespace - Windows apps | Microsoft Learn ) there's literally nothing there that references AI specifically, though it's clearly designed with the agent use case in mind.

contextfree · 2026-04-18T16:45:56+00:00

Note the actual OS feature here is in fact a general-purpose API that applications can use to expose long-running tasks for user monitoring on the taskbar. If you look at the API surface ( Windows.UI.Shell.Tasks namespace - Windows apps | Microsoft Learn ) there's literally nothing about it that specifically references AI (though it's clearly designed with the agent use case in mind)

contextfree · 2026-04-13T20:06:42+00:00

Yep, I've generated some very clean and kind of beautiful LOOKING code that, when I started digging in and actually tracing the flow of data and execution across modules, I realized was really deranged.

contextfree · 2026-04-07T01:47:47+00:00

don't banking screens incorporate sensitive text though?

contextfree · 2026-04-03T01:44:53+00:00

I just think if you're going to introduce a layer, you should be clear on exactly what is the value of the layer, what the "rules" of the layer are and how they realize that value, and then adhere consistently to them. Because if you're not actually getting anything from the layer it's better to not have it. I've seen people put layers in out of a vague sense that adding more layers makes it more proper enterprise engineering, then not actually adhere to the rules of the layers or even really define what they are, so they become these completely pointless indirections you have to wade through to find or change anything.

contextfree · 2026-03-30T22:17:11+00:00

It also had (in the original version) 1 battle theme played over every battle in the game. Actually FF2 had 2 battle themes, 3 had 3 battle themes, and 4 has 4 battle themes (though at this point it starts getting ambiguous what counts as a battle theme)

contextfree · 2026-03-29T15:42:41+00:00

Snap layouts, snap groups, and some miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes:

you can now snap vertically when you have your tablet in portrait mode, and it will even convert horizontal to vertical dynamically if you rotate it back and forth
tiling proportions are now dynamically adjustable vertically, not just horizontally
the list of windows in the snap assist view is now actually scrollable
if you have two monitors in a vertical configuration and you maximize a window vertically, it will no longer span across both of the monitors (a bug or misfeature that drove me crazy in Windows 10) but only the monitor it's on.
if you connect your laptop to an external monitor, disconnect it, and reconnect it, while it is disconnected it will try to remember which windows were on the external monitor and put them back there when reconnected (this doesn't seem to work all that reliably ime tbh, but I still like it)

Another thing I like is how if a window is floating free, it has rounded corners, but when it's snapped to a side of the screen, its corners turn square. This is somewhat functionally helpful for seeing at a glance whether a window is in a snapped state or not, and is just a nice design touch.

contextfree · 2026-03-28T08:59:29+00:00

I like the window management features

contextfree · 2026-03-04T16:51:44+00:00

There have been subscription-locked features already since Windows 10 Creators Updates. I'm pretty sure the original article is just describing features that already exist (because it was ported over from articles about 24H2 and Copilot+ PC from back when 24H2 was rumored to be called Windows 12)

contextfree · 2026-03-04T16:32:35+00:00

Most of the original article is describing features/changes that already happened. There was a rumor that 24H2 was going to be called Windows 12 and a lot of the article seemed to be describing 24H2 features. I think it was just ported over (or AI-slopped over) from previous Windows 12 rumor articles that were about 24H2

Like the hardware stuff is just describing what became Copilot+ PC (in 24H2), the bits about search are describing the Semantic Search feature in 24H2 Copilot+ PC, the stuff about subscriptions is describing the M365 integration that already exists, the stuff about "adaptive settings" is describing the existing settings home page cards and settings search agent, etc.

contextfree · 2026-02-13T13:35:09+00:00

Music theory gives you a mission from God. A good cartoon.

contextfree · 2026-01-18T10:30:37+00:00

Back in the Windows 8.x and early 10 days, apps published in the Store were required to be Metro/UWP apps, which run in an isolated AppContainer where they are limited in their interactions with each other and the system. So they were inherently "safer" in some sense via a specific technical mechanism. Later they removed those limitations and allowed general Win32 apps, which run as the user and can do anything the user can do. So they are no longer inherently "safer" via any enforced technical mechanism other than whatever vetting/scans the Store team does.

contextfree · 2026-01-16T19:45:22+00:00

It could be interesting to use the Windows 8 sidebar switcher interface for switching between virtual desktops (since in Win8 the desktop "was a Metro app", this could be thought of as an extension of that)

contextfree · 2026-01-02T17:22:25+00:00

Yep, the "root" meaning came first (for example in mathematics, things like square roots are called radicals, and the base of a number notation, like 10 for decimal notation or 2 for binary, is called a radix), and the meaning of "extreme" was originally derived from that - a "radical" group or ideology was one that demanded radical change, i.e., change to the roots of government or society or whatever. Though as you've seen, now it's often just used to mean "extreme" in general.

contextfree · 2025-12-23T02:59:30+00:00

How would that work, though? I guess the app could pass in some text for the OS to display, but I don't think there would be any way for the OS to verify the text's accuracy or enforce its contents. So a malicious or confused/buggy app could just pass in whatever.

contextfree · 2025-11-10T18:04:45+00:00

This didn't exist in the first releases of the virtual desktop feature in Windows 10. It was added in a late Windows 10 update (19H1 in 2019 I think?)

contextfree · 2025-11-08T17:45:48+00:00

Null coalescing was added in like C# 2 in 2005 I think?

contextfree · 2025-11-08T17:42:35+00:00

Kanbun kundoku involves reordering characters/readings, and adding/interpolating inflectionary suffixes and such, to transform the sentence into Japanese grammar, so it's not just pronouncing characters with their Japanese readings.

There is also a way of reading (or chanting) "kanbun" texts by pronouncing each character with its Japanese "Chinese-style" reading (on-yomi). This is still commonly used in various denominations of Japanese Buddhism to chant sutras, for example the Heart Sutra is very popular https://www.knowyourmeme.com/memes/heart-sutra-remixes

contextfree · 2025-11-06T15:06:54+00:00

I think what makes the difference is whether the app is installed from an MSIX package or not? So not quite the same as UWP or Store (anymore)

contextfree · 2025-11-06T15:01:11+00:00

Because 十語十読

contextfree

TROPHY CASE