- Oct 9, 2002
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Using Windows XP's built-in Compressed Folder (ZIP file) Support, I found a programming oversight which can waste a lot of time and storage space.
When clicking the "Next" button to extract a ZIP archive, I accidentally clicked twice (lousy mouse, either the de-bounce routine is crap, or the mouse is damaged). To my surprise, the "Next" button was not disabled during the extraction process, and two extractions were performed simultaneously, which resulted in several "Overwrite?" prompts. This bug doubles the processing, memory, pagefile, and total storage requirements during the extraction. After choosing "Overwrite" or "Cancel" for each file within the archive, the memory/storage usage should return to normal. If your disk is nearly full, you may actually run out of storage during the extraction process (I have several 600MB+ ZIP files).
If you are trying to duplicate this, make sure you use a large ZIP file. A small file will finish extracting before you can click the "Next" button the second time.
I have discovered other stupid bugs in the past and reported them directly to Microsoft. Some of them even affect all 32bit versions of Windows. What should I do to get them to actually read/confirm my bug report?
When clicking the "Next" button to extract a ZIP archive, I accidentally clicked twice (lousy mouse, either the de-bounce routine is crap, or the mouse is damaged). To my surprise, the "Next" button was not disabled during the extraction process, and two extractions were performed simultaneously, which resulted in several "Overwrite?" prompts. This bug doubles the processing, memory, pagefile, and total storage requirements during the extraction. After choosing "Overwrite" or "Cancel" for each file within the archive, the memory/storage usage should return to normal. If your disk is nearly full, you may actually run out of storage during the extraction process (I have several 600MB+ ZIP files).
If you are trying to duplicate this, make sure you use a large ZIP file. A small file will finish extracting before you can click the "Next" button the second time.
I have discovered other stupid bugs in the past and reported them directly to Microsoft. Some of them even affect all 32bit versions of Windows. What should I do to get them to actually read/confirm my bug report?