Microsoft Developer Blogs

Microsoft guide to pirating Harry Potter for LLM training (2024) [removed]

What algorithm did Windows XP use to choose your initial user picture?

It's random, really.

Performance Improvements in .NET 6

Take a rip-roarin' tour through hundreds of PRs worth of performance improvements for .NET 6.

Windows brings out the Rorschach test in everyone (2003)

It seems that no matter what you do, somebody will get offended. Every Windows 95 box has an anti-piracy hologram on the side. The photographer chose his

Performance Improvements in .NET 11

Take a tour through hundreds of performance improvements in .NET 11.

TypeScript 4.1

Today we're proud to release TypeScript 4.1! If you're unfamiliar with TypeScript, it's a language that builds on JavaScript by adding syntax for type

Why does the New menu even exist for creating new empty files?

You have to open the file anyway to make it useful, so why not just open the program directly?

Python in the Windows 10 May update

Python might be hard to install on Windows, but with the latest Windows 10 update, you can type "python" to find it in the Microsoft Store.

.NET Hot Reload Support via CLI

Last week, our blog post and the removal of the Hot Reload capability from the .NET SDK repo led to a lot of feedback from the community. First and foremost, we want to apologize. We made a mistake in executing on our decision and took longer than expected to respond back to the community.

.NET 8

Today Microsoft announced the availability of .NET 8, the latest version of one of the world’s leading programming languages and development platforms.

Remote-Powered Developer Tools

Today we’re excited to announce the private preview of a set of developer services that enable you to work from anywhere, and on any device, complete with the most intelligent productivity and collaboration tools in the industry.

Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

Not an artistic judgement. Just a technical one.

What were the MS-DOS programs that the moricons.dll icons were intended for?

Tallying them up.

Why did Windows 95 setup use three operating systems?

Simplifying the problem to an earlier problem.

Introducing Windows Terminal

We are beyond excited to announce Windows Terminal! Windows Terminal is a new, modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for

TypeScript 3.6

Today we're happy to announce the availability of TypeScript 3.6! For those unfamiliar, TypeScript is a language that builds on JavaScript by adding

Windows Package Manager Preview

We are thrilled to announce the Windows Package Manager preview! If you’re already familiar with what a package manager is, feel free to skip this

Edit is now open source

Edit is a new command-line text editor in Windows. Edit is open source, so you can build the code or install the latest version from GitHub!

Shipping a Linux Kernel with Windows

Beginning with Windows Insiders builds this Summer, we will include an in-house custom-built Linux kernel to underpin the newest version of the Windows

Is there a maximum size for Windows clipboard data?

There is no pre-set maximum size, but that null might be coming from somewhere else.

TypeScript 3.5

Today we're happy to announce the availability of TypeScript 3.5! If you're new to TypeScript, it's a language that builds on JavaScript that adds

Why is the x86 undefined instruction called ud2? Why 2?

It came after ud0 and ud1.

DOS/4GW made Windows 95 game compatibility easier, but with higher stakes

A popular path to protected mode.

Before you try to do something, make sure you can do nothing

If you can't do nothing, then don't expect to be able to do something.

How does Windows decide whether your computer has full Internet access?

Looking for special servers.

Welcome to C# 9.0

Note: This post is out of date. Now that C# 9.0 has been released, an updated version can be found here. C# 9.0 is taking shape, and I’d like to share our thinking on some of the major features we’re adding to this next version of the language. With every new version of C# we […]

API design note: Beware of adding an "Other" enum value

What are you going to do when you add a new kind?

XOR'ing a register with itself is the idiom for zeroing it out. Why not sub?

Somehow xor became the most popular version.

On leading underscores and names reserved by the C and C++ languages

The rules laid out.

Union types in C# 15

C# 15 introduces union types — declare a closed set of case types with implicit conversions and exhaustive pattern matching. Try unions in preview today and see the broader exhaustiveness roadmap.