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Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID
17 days ago
- A teenager's arrest revealed Microsoft's use of a Global Device ID (GDID) to track Windows PCs and online activity, raising surveillance concerns.
- Microsoft provided data linking the hacker to crimes via GDID, which persists across Windows updates but can be reset with a reinstall.
- Experts worry GDID could enable widespread user tracking without cookies, prompting questions about similar identifiers on Apple devices.
- Cybersecurity professionals suggest using Linux or VPNs for anonymity, as GDID may be tied to hardware or other identifiers.
Forced to use a Pin in Windows 11, some alternatives
8 days ago
- You can have a Microsoft account and/or a local account in Windows 10/11.
- Windows 11 typically requires a Microsoft account during setup, but workarounds exist for local account setup.
- Methods to bypass Microsoft account creation vary depending on the Windows build version.
- Provided articles offer guidance for setting up Windows with a local account instead of a Microsoft account.
Pinball on 64-Bit Alpha AXP Windows NT
2 days ago
- Pinball (3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet) was removed from Windows Vista due to a reported collision detection bug in 64-bit versions.
- NCommander challenged the removal in 2021, finding 64-bit versions playable on XP and pre-release Vista, suggesting UI incompatibility with Vista design.
- Raymond Chen later clarified the bug was specific to the 64-bit Alpha AXP version, which had a severe collision detection bug.
- The author debugged Pinball on Alpha NT emulators (QEMU/ES40) after fixes enabled booting the 64-bit build 2210.
- Two bugs were found: a WNDCLASSA struct alignment issue causing crashes in RegisterClassA, and pointer truncation in mciseq.dll due to ZAPNOT instruction misuse.
- Patching these bugs made Pinball work flawlessly on 64-bit Alpha NT, without encountering the original collision detector bug.
- Author speculates the collision bug might have been introduced after build 2210 or only manifests in release builds.
Writing a Debugger from Scratch
5 hours ago
- The author writes a debugger in Rust to learn the language and help others understand debugger internals.
- A debugger uses an event loop: attaches to a process, waits for debug events, and continues execution.
- On Windows, attach via DebugActiveProcess or CreateProcessW with DEBUG_ONLY_THIS_PROCESS flag.
- The event loop calls WaitForDebugEventEx to receive events and ContinueDebugEvent to resume the target.
- Debug events include CreateProcess, LoadDll, CreateThread, Exception, etc., each carrying specific data.
- The initial exception is the breakpoint from ntdll!LdrpDoDebuggerBreak triggered at process startup.
- Future posts will cover handling exceptions, breakpoints, stepping, and other advanced features.

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#windows

Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID

Forced to use a Pin in Windows 11, some alternatives

Pinball on 64-Bit Alpha AXP Windows NT

Writing a Debugger from Scratch