Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by KGIII 3282 days ago
If you really want to see some Windows source code. You can just ask them - and they will send it to you. It's not open source and there are limits to what you can do with it.

They call it their Shared Source Initiative. They want a reason for sharing it with you but I have used, 'I am just curious.' With that excuse, this was a long time ago when I still used Windows, I got the specific code I wanted for Outlook Express.
2 comments
Teever 3282 days ago
Do they share the code for the windows update mechanisms and the code for cortana and other spyware that is installed by default in windows?
link
KGIII 3282 days ago
I have no idea. I haven't used Windows in a years. Give it a shot. The most they can do is tell you no.
link
mmmnn 3281 days ago
Put some effort in and reverse engineer it, if you really want to know how it works.

Complaining about the lack of source code is just sheer laziness.

link
wfunction 3282 days ago
How do you "ask them"? Do they have an email address for this? Or do you have to find the right guy on the team somehow?
link
gtirloni 3282 days ago
Windows Shared Source initiative has existed for what, over 10 years now?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sharedsource/

I think this "leak" is greatly exhagerated.

link
afpx 3282 days ago
I haven't worked directly with Microsoft for well over 15 years, but this sounds similar to what I remember. Back then I worked for a partner who was doing direct integration work against low-level SQL Server and Windows libraries. Often when we encountered obscure bugs, they'd just give us the SQL Server or Windows source code and basically say, "Fix it, and we will release a hot fix." All of the comments would be replaced with white space which made things more difficult.
link
wfunction 3282 days ago
None of those categories seem to include ordinary developers though?
link
KGIII 3282 days ago
If your company, or you, have a relationship with Microsoft, try the Enterprise. They are pretty lenient, though not always rapid in their responses.
link
wfunction 3282 days ago
But the point is you need to already have a relationship, right? It seems you can't just say "I'm curious" (or even better, "I want to track down X bug") and expect to get source access, contrary to what was claimed earlier... Enterprise specifically says you need to "Maintain 10,000 Windows seats" which is not something a lone developer would do...
link
KGIII 3282 days ago
My only tie was having an MSDN subscription.
link
withinrafael 3281 days ago
Even community MVPs get access to this stuff.
link