---
created_at: '2015-12-18T21:22:30.000Z'
title: My First Death Threat (2004)
url: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040603-00/?p=39033
author: wkoszek
points: 129
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num_comments: 42
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objectID: '10761035'

---
[Source](https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040603-00/?p=39033 "Permalink to My first death threat &#8211; The Old New Thing")

# My first death threat &#8211; The Old New Thing

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# My first death threat

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![avatar of oldnewthing][6][Raymond Chen - MSFT][7]June 3, 2004[32][8]
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Actual feedback submitted to [ the microsoft.com web site][11] many years ago.

> **id**: 13726  
**Date**: 1996-07-29 17:27:41.997  
**Name**: ***********  
**Email**: *************  
**Area**: Windows 95  
**Comments**:  
PLEASE read this entire email as it is quite serious. I just discovered today that in the Windows 95 operating system, there are no switches, command line options, or any way whatsoever to have the XCOPY command include hidden/system files in it's operations. It is clear that at some point in the development of the Windows 95 product, that somebody made a conscious decision to implement the xcopy command in this manner. It is also clear from looking at the Windows NT XCOPY command that it can be implemented in the manner I describe. Therefore, let me give fair warning. This may not be easy, and I will expect no help from Microsoft in finding out who this person (or persons) was that made this decision, but....eventually I will find out who made this decision, and I will kill them. This is not an idle threat - I will pursue this matter until it is resolved...whoever is responsible for this incredibly ridiculous implementation of what would be an otherwise useful tool will die at my hands, hopefully in a bloody, painful fashion. You will not get away. -J*hn ****** 

J*hn, if you're still out there... the switch for copying hidden files on Windows 95 is /H. Same as Windows NT. 

Please don't kill me. 

Tags  [History][12]

* * *

Comments (32) 

1. ![][13] Anon says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 7:14 am][14]

"the switch for copying hidden files on Windows 95 is /H. Same as Windows NT."

HAhahahahahahaha. Raymond I haven’t laughed so hard in ages … apart from the actual threat it is so so funny. Absolutely classic.

2. ![][13] Ben Hutchings says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 7:21 am][15]

Undocumented feature or PEBCAK?

3. ![][13] Cooney says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 7:35 am][16]

My vote is on steroid abuse.

4. ![][13] [Doug Thews][17] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 7:48 am][18]

Absolutely incredible. With all the sickos out in the world today, I hate to even elect to think that this is funny.

5. ![][13] OmegaSupreme says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 7:49 am][19]

LMAO, classic.

6. ![][13] kevin white says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 8:06 am][20]

I wouldn’t worry. It’s been eight years. There’s a fairly good chance the guy has gotten laid by now.

7. ![][13] [Phil Scott][21] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 8:24 am][22]

Oh my, that’s the funniest thing I’ve read all week. Followed up by Kevin’s comment, I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing during my class.

8. ![][13] g)-(ost says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 9:40 am][23]

Pure Classic! I can see it now "Computer Nerd Kills Microsft Devolper Over The XCOMPY Command" LMAO!

9. ![][13] [James Curran][24] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 9:43 am][25]

My first death threat:  
  
Message on my telephone answering machine left by an unrecognized voice (in it’s entirety):  
  
"You @ssh*le! You’ll kill you!"

Since it was left in the days before Caller-Id, I never did find out if it was a wrong number…..

10. ![][13] [Mike Dunn][26] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 9:56 am][27]

My favorite xcopy tidbit is the switches you use to copy everything from one drive to another: /h /e /c /k /y which you can remember as "heck yeah!"

11. ![][13] [Larry Osterman][28] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 10:43 am][29]

Mike, it’s not nearly as good as:

xcopy /diskfech 

This copies all the newer files from the source to the destination.

I use this ALL the time.  

12. ![][13] [Open-node.net][30] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 10:46 am][31]

13. ![][13] James Day says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 11:05 am][32]

Mine: I have a concealed carry license and his address. I’m going to pay him a visit. Told to an off duty police dispatcher.  

14. ![][13] [Phil Scott][21] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 11:09 am][33]

You know, I’d probably pay money for a book full of the weird stuff e-mail and mailed to microsoft. There must be some crazy stuff.

15. ![][13] [senses0][34] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 1:39 pm][35]

This guy threaten to kill you in 1996 and you are still alive?

I can’t believe it!!!!

16. ![][13] Ryan Beesley says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 1:51 pm][36]

xcopy /qdickher

Does not display file names while copying, copies only those files whose source time is newer than the destination time, if destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory, continues copying even if errors occur, copies attributes, copies hidden and system files, copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones, and overwrites read-only files.

You can’t go wrong with it. If you want to see the filenames as you copy, just use /dickher. It’s pretty easy to remember too. :)

17. ![][13] [SyntaxError][37] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 3:22 pm][38]

hahahhaa…. so cool… I almost should put this into my site ( <http://www.iwanttobelieve.com> )!

loool…

ps. Hm, I’m a geek!

18. ![][13] Reuben Harris says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 9:45 am][39]

Your *first* death threat?

What were the others like?? 8-0

19. ![][13] [Ian Hanschen][40] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 10:17 pm][41]

At Stardock I once received a personal email saying we should die bleeding from every orifice. I won’t even go into all the ‘fan mail’ we got when a user created the first skin that allowed WindowBlinds to make windows look like OS X.

20. ![][13] [Robert MacLean][42] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 11:03 pm][43]

Join a support dept, get daily threats of death and abuse :D

21. ![][13] [Stoyan][44] says:

[ June 4, 2004 at 12:32 am][45]

MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH :)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

22. ![][13] [Tim Scarfe][46] says:

[ June 4, 2004 at 1:21 am][47]

Raymond

He could be any one of your close office friends just waiting to attack. At any time. You may have just made him nervous…

Please facilitate some kind of time operated "I must be dead if you are reading this" on your blog so we know.

23. ![][13] [Delphi Developers' Asia][48] says:

[ June 4, 2004 at 4:11 am][49]

And who’s the genius who wrote TextBox.AppendText such that you can’t even exceed 32767 characters?

<http://chuacw.hn.org/chuacw/archive/2004/06/04/686.aspx>

24. ![][13] [Nicolai A. Kollner][50] says:

[ June 3, 2004 at 11:47 pm][51]

*lol*

25. ![][13] mannubhai says:

[ June 4, 2004 at 9:11 am][52]

not everybody loves raymond

26. ![][13] [jeffdav][53] says:

[ June 4, 2004 at 10:49 am][54]

You don’t know that; it seems possible to love raymond and still want to kill him.

27. ![][13] [david o sulluman (the org dos)][55] says:

[ June 4, 2004 at 11:22 am][56]

I found out who it is, it is the same person running longhorn! Lots of promise, no actions.

28. ![][13] [Steven M. Cohn's WebLog][57] says:

[ June 6, 2004 at 8:10 pm][58]

29. ![][13] Ryan Beesley says:

[ June 18, 2004 at 7:12 pm][59]

Actually Raymond, wasn’t there a difference between XCOPY and XCOPY32? Perhaps J*hn is refering to the version of XCOPY that ran from "DOS 7.0" (you know, that old thing). I seem to remember some limitations with that version that I found really aggrivating too… not to the point of murder though. ;)

30. ![][13] [Raymond Chen][60] says:

[ June 18, 2004 at 7:21 pm][61]

Xcopy32 was a mistake. I should’ve called it "xcopy32.mod" or something. You were never supposed to run it directly.

31. ![][13] [Anonymous][62] says:

[ June 18, 2004 at 9:44 pm][63]

My Blog &raquo; LOL!!!!

32. ![][13] [appelgren : bits and pieces.. » Blog Archive » Hilarious The Old New Thing post][64] says:

[ December 29, 2006 at 3:42 am][65]

PingBack from <http://blog.appelgren.org/2006/12/29/hilarious-the-old-new-thing-post/>

Comments are closed.

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