Most Viewed in March 2017

This site had 21,949 visits in March 2017, from 16,023 unique visitors. The list below is of pages that were each viewed at least 100 times in March 2017.

Last month brought a surprise from the distant past and this month brings two!

I remember that when I wrote in 2006 about Microsoft’s extension of C++ by way of allowing for attributes in square brackets I was excited to be breaking new ground and unhappy that I didn’t have the resources to see it through. Microsoft’s extensible (but, of course, undocumented) scheme of attribute providers even provides for an attribute provider provider. The latter’s attributes can then be used to describe attributes that are provided by other providers. Someone has evidently discovered my more or less mechanical extraction of the compiler’s own descriptions of the built-in attributes. Thus did a page that languished in obscurity for 10 years suddenly get nearly 300 visits in a few days.

Also getting noticeable attention for the first time in a decade is one of the site’s smallest pages. It’s just a quick note from 2007 to introduce my even earlier documentation of an undocumented SHLWAPI function that plainly and indisputably can have existed only as special support for Internet Explorer. That this Windows API function did not get documented by Microsoft for settlement of an anti-trust suit about using Windows to help Internet Explorer is a lasting testament to the utter incompetence, at best, of the court’s supervision. Of more interest to me these days, however, is that out of 226 visits to the introduction, not even 10 proceeded to the documentation, e.g., to find out what (little) the undocumented function actually did.

I can’t avoid mixed feelings about the appearance in this month’s list of more than a mere few pages that were entirely new from last year’s commitment to research and writing. It’s gratifying that they get attention, less so that it has taken so long—and they are anyway not the year’s best work.

Rank Page Visits
1 (1) Geoff Chappell, Software Analyst 4,666
2 (3) Licensed Memory in Windows Vista 1,469
3 (2) The Windows Explorer Command Line 1,400
4 (4) KERNEL32 Functions 1,077
5 (5) Edit Boot Options in Windows Vista 901
6 (6) The First Run Page in Internet Explorer 897
7 (8) NTDLL Functions 625
8 (10) ADVAPI32 Functions 530
9 (9) Kernel Versions 486
10 (13) Kernel 474
11 (11) Win32 441
12 (29) MSHTML Versions 389
13 (14) Boot Configuration Data (BCD) 330
14 (21) Visual C++ 301
15 (19) Boot Options: nx 294
16   Built-In C++ Attributes 283
17 (15) BCD Elements 272
18 (18) Shell 257
18 (16) SHELL32 Functions 257
20 (24) Consultation 251
21 (12) Bug Check From User Mode By Profiling 244
22 (23) NTDLL Versions 240
23 (34) The API Set Schema 236
24 (25) Notes 232
25 (17) The Advanced Boot Options Menu in Windows Vista 228
26 (33) About This Site 226
26   Supporting the About Internet Explorer Dialog 226
28 (33) Windows Diagnostic Infrastructure 219
29 (26) BCD Objects 216
30 (30) What’s New? 215
31 (27) KERNEL32 Versions 202
32 (42) Internet Explorer 197
33 (20) Boot Options: detecthal 193
34 (22) Windows Kernel Exports 190
35 (45) Terms 187
36 (28) The Boot Status Data Log 186
37   Native API Functions 178
38 (43) Feedback 174
38 (38) Windows API Sets 174
40 (39) KERNELBASE Functions 169
41 (36) Disable Global Hot Keys 166
42 (40) Problems With Tables in Expression Web 163
43 (54) America Online Exploits Bug in Own Software 159
44 (51) Script Languages in Internet Explorer 156
44 (37) Software Analysis By Reverse Engineering 156
46 (31) Boot Options: truncatememory 155
47 (44) Feature Control in Internet Explorer 151
48   WININET Versions 140
49   SVCHOST 138
50   Diagnostic Provider for SERVICES.EXE 136
51   DWMAPI Functions 133
52   The Shell Core Provider 130
53 (47) SYSTEM_PROCESS_INFORMATION 128
54   SYSENTER and SYSEXIT in Windows 127
55 (48) API Sets Added For Windows 10.0 123
56   Browsing This Website 119
56 (50) Install a Boot Logo for Windows XP 119
58   KPCR 116
59   KUSER_SHARED_DATA 115
60   IERAPI 114
61 (41) Boot Options: numproc 112
62   TEB 111
63   RtlSetProcessIsCritical 105
64   The Service Control Manager Eventlog Provider 104
64   ZwQuerySystemInformation 104
64 (52) LINK /IGNORE 104
64   Predefined C++ Types 104
68   HAL Versions 103
69   PEB 102
69   Boot Options: hal 102
71   LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY 101
71   API Sets Added For Windows 6.1 101
73   Boot Options: kernel 100
73   C1XX Errors 100

The faded titles are just index pages which I presume are viewed only or mainly on the way to others, especially while moving from one Table of Contents (TOC) to another. One of those index pages is just the skimpiest of placeholders, pending my writing an introduction, which I likely never will get round to. The TOCs are omitted entirely. The rank in brackets is from the previous month.