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And which one of all your questions is not a programming question?  
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I'd say that "Can we really rely on Windows providing support for mailslots for the foreseeable future?" not to be a programming question.
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Thank you.
You put it more succinctly than I ever could 
But then, context is everything.
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0x01AA wrote: And which one of all your questions is not a programming question?
The lack of "URGENT SEND CODEZ PLZ!!" in my entire message disqualifies it. 
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I'd like to put in a good word for Raymon Chen's book, The Old New Thing, which is a selection of his blog posts in the blog of the same name (The Old New Thing[^]. (If you don't want to spend your money on the book, you can find it all on the blog, but it is so rich that you will then spend quite a few hours of your time instead.)
Quite a few of the stories in the book tell about the efforts of MS to retain backwards compatibility - sometimes to extreme lengths. Most of us would say that a few of the cases goes way over the edge. (It is funny reading, anyway! )
My impression is that this 'backwards compatibility at all costs' has been relaxed somewhat the later years. Yet, mailslots is a general mechanism, used by countless applications; we are not talking about saving a single application (as was the case in some of the stories in the book). The code is there to handle it; the cost of keeping it there is quite limited. The cost of removing it and thereby killing countless existing applications is probably magnitudes larger.
So I wouldn't be too worried. My guess is that if you read the book, you won't be worried either.
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ditto
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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That was my thought as well. They're unlikely to ever remove it...but it's still not something I'd rely on if I were to put together a brand new app...or anything particularly important.
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Find out how many Microsoft Windows exe and services use them. That will help forecast longevity.
Olde Farte poste
I have not used “mail slots” but this name sounds suspiciously like “mailbox” and “network mailbox” from Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) VMS.
Some of the Devs that coded Windows NT kernel came from DEC.
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Yeah, I was going to comment on that too.
As such, I would consider it ancient tech and probably not equivalent to anything in UNIX.
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englebart wrote: Olde Farte poste
I have not used “mail slots” but this name sounds suspiciously like “mailbox” and “network mailbox” from Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) VMS.
Aye! Good ol' TMPMBX and NETMBX privs!
/ravi (worked at HLO, MRO, LMO, DLB and owner of Mass VAXVMS license plate)
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dandy72 wrote: need to broadcast simple notifications to other systems across my LAN
dandy72 wrote: been built into Windows for years, and both client and server
dandy72 wrote: It's using the standard Windows file share port,
dandy72 wrote: It's not inherently secure
Looking for a job writing documentation? Sharky (vkents) resigned so there might be an opening. Other than the 424 byte limitation you pretty much nailed it. 
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Randor wrote: Looking for a job writing documentation? Sharky (vkents) resigned so there might be an opening.
This is purely based on my own observations.
Randor wrote: Other than the 424 byte limitation you pretty much nailed it.
This is news to me. My messages are all pretty short, so this should never be a problem...may I ask what you're basing this assertion on?
[Edit]
Never mind. I just searched for 424 bytes and mailslot, and found a document from MS that spells that out exactly. Interesting. Thanks for that.
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dandy72 wrote: may I ask what you're basing this assertion on?
I might have learned a few things here and there over the years. I can't keep up though, I'm just going to drown myself in red wine. If I were religious I'd probably have a Dionysus pendant.
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dandy72 wrote: does anyone know of a reason to proactively avoid this mechanism?
Obviously if Microsoft announced they were going to remove it that would be of concern.
I usually look for 'end of life' for such concerns.
Example for google of one that does exist.
windows EntityFramework end of life
Searching for mailslots I found nothing that suggests they will be removing it. They evaluate that every year.
One suggestion I would make (and perhaps someone else already suggested this) is to make sure that the usage is very well compartmentalized. That way if it does go away then you can replace the layer without impacting the rest of the app. The general MS page for mailslots suggests named pipes or sockets as alternatives. Based on description of your usage straight UDP would work and there is no way that is going away.
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This is a known computer killer.
I just got a new rig and it has been running great for 1 week now. Installed this update, computer dead.
Microsoft apparently knows that this update is shite and still issues it for install. The only recommended workaround is to WinRE and uninstall latest windows update and then reinstall windows 11.
I am currently in the process of doing this and not sure it will even work.
Windows 11, version 22H2 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Learn[^]
EDIT: Used WinRE to reset my machine to factory install (Asus). All good now. Just won't install the offending windows update....ever.
Another Edit: the WinRE did not work. after a lot of internet research, discovered that the exact error code, was indicative of a conflict with NVidia Console App and G Force Experience apps and the Windows 11 graphics setup injection. Users had noted that after uninstalling those 2 apps, that the update worked. Well, it worked for me and I was able to update to latest Win 11. Re-installed G Force Experience and Nvidia Console app and all is good.
No fresh install needed.
modified 31-Dec-22 11:36am.
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Slacker007,
The December update also clobbered my personal Windows 10 Laptop. I had to go to a restore point prior to the update in order to get the PC operating again. I removed the update from my PC, but Windows keeps trying to reinstall it and have me apply it.
Very frustrating!
Best wishes from Minnesota - Craig
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I/we have seen a lot of crap from Microsoft over the long years, but I have never seen a Windows update to be this broken before.
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Consider this: Nobody at Microsoft these days hardly ever uses a version of Windows for any sort of realistic extended period of time. They wipe/reinstall/restore from preset images on a regular basis. Internally, their latest code never gets to run on systems that have been running for months/years or have been left to accumulate crud over time. As such, it deals rather poorly with anything that deviates from the so-called out-of-the-box experience.
I'm betting if you were to wipe your system, reinstall from a clean ISO and then went directly to the latest update, like most people at Microsoft, you'd remain completely oblivious to any problem of the type you're describing.
I'm not suggesting this is the solution and everybody should be doing this. I'm just stating why I think things are the way they are.
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I would not be surprised if you are correct 
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You are correct, sample size of one. Just took a system running W10 Home and trashed the hard drive. Installed Windows 10. Due to entries in BIOS (I think), it refused to install Pro, installing Home. Converted to Pro, did a gazillion updates and it is running fine (so far). I am now running clonezilla to back it up and will then install applications.
Probably a good idea to check Susan Bradley's advice before installing updates.
I find that my home made beer solves all the problems. Well maybe not solved but I don't seem to care.
Happy New Year.
Lou
>64
Some days the dragon wins. Suck it up.
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You missed Windows Server 2008 R2 SP2 then. If this update installed when any other updates were pending you ended up having to reimage your entire server.
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obermd wrote: You missed Windows Server 2008 R2 SP2 then.
There was an SP2 for 2008 R2?
I maintain my own archive for all Windows versions (for dev testing and such, make sure I have all the latest that was ever published for each OS without having to hunt them down on the internet since they can disappear without any notice), and have never heard of an SP2 for 2008 R2. There is definitely an SP2 for 2008 (I'm looking at an ISO file with SP2 slipstreamed into it right now), but I don't have an equivalent for 2008 R2. I do have an SP1 for R2, but that's where it ends. A quick google search for 2008 R2 SP2 brings back results for 2008 SP2, but R2 is omitted from the results.
This 2008 R2 lifecycle page mentions SP1, but not SP2.
Do you have a link for that 2008 R2 SP2?
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Running Windows 11 v22H2 just fine on my Dell XPS 15. I also have it on a pair of machines at work, one of which is a Surface Pro 8 and it runs fine. In fact on the Surface Pro 8 it runs better than Windows 10.
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Good for you.
Its working fine for my friend as well. But there are a few people I know at work where there laptops had the same issue as me. So, not so good for the rest of us.
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Generally Windows upgrades are fraught with peril. The reason is the registry collects garbage and sometimes the upgrades fail to install registry entries properly.
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