NSA Backdoor in Windows? This and more from the guy who created Windows Task Manager!

So many stories and so much advice from Dave Plummer - the original creator of task manager and other interesting software like unzip on Microsoft Windows. Did the NSA have a backdoor in Microsoft Windows? Should you learn Rust or GoLang? Learn from someone who has years of development experience! // Dave’s Social // Youtube: youtube.com/@DavesGarage Twitter: twitter.com/davepl1968 LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidplummer // Great videos on Dave's channel // Windows Task Manager: https://youtu.be/Ve95Nh690l0 Windows Clock: https://youtu.be/Ve95Nh690l0 Windows Start Menu: https://youtu.be/HrDovsqJT3U Windows Zip Folders; https://youtu.be/aQUtUQ_L8Yk Windows Activation: https://youtu.be/FpKNFCFABp0 // Great Playlist on Dave's channel // youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF2KJ6Gy3cZ7jCgV1VEAIcr… // David's SOCIAL // Discord: discord.gg/davidbombal Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbombal Instagram: www.instagram.com/davidbombal LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidbombal Facebook: www.facebook.com/davidbombal.co TikTok: tiktok.com/@davidbombal // MY STUFF // www.amazon.com/shop/davidbombal // SPONSORS // Interested in sponsoring my videos? Reach out to my team here: sponsors@davidbombal.com/ // Menu // 00:00- Coming up 01:01- Dave Plummer's history 02:26- Dave's Garage 03:33- How Dave started at MicroSoft 06:15- Task Manager 10:36- Other Operating Systems 11:06- What OS is Dave coding on? 11:30- How Dave got into coding 13:14- Advice to younger people 14:18- Sell your work, not yourself 15:38- Still coding long after Microsoft 16:22- Visual Zip 18:40- Show your work 19:31- Was it easier in the old days? 21:07- Would you use Rust today? 21:43- Should I learn C? 22:10- What language is Windows written in? 23:14- ZIG and other programming languages 25:05- Start with Python 26:32- Write your code right 27:00- Windows 95 vs NT 30:00- 20-year-old code still in Windows 30:47- Task manager is still the same 31:11- Politics between Win 95 and NT team 31:48- Product Activation 33:42- Loved for task manager; hated for Windows activation 35:05- Open Source 36:00- Who is looking at your code? 37:15- NSA and backdoor access to Windows 38:07- Sneaking code into Windows 38:53- Windows Easter eggs 39:54- Doom on Excel 40:17- Secret messages in MS DOS 40:46- Pinball 43:49- The Start menu 45:08- Calculator and Clock 47:58- Blue screen of death 48:59- Chat GPT 51:01- Chat GPT and bad code 51:30- Plans with your channel 52:27- Meeting Dave in person 52:45- Outro

No way, it’s Dave’s Garage!

Dave is a treasure. Discovered his channel a couple years ago with his fire fans code for the ESP32 and the GIM fans. Thanks for sharing.

Dave is a legend. In the late 90s/early 00s, we used to joke about the initials for Windows CE, ME & NT: "CEMENT".

love the honesty. I'm not as old as Dave, but I've been working as a software engineer for 25 years. It's so true the first version "we don't know" what the code needs to be. You're lucky if you get to the third version. Today it's more common to have moved to some other project and someone else is rewriting it. One reason I love doing open source work, I get to go back and clean things up. When I get to delete code to cleanup/simplify, it feels great.

Great to see you interview Dave, it helps to add another dimension to what we know about him, many thanks hope to see many more great videos from both of you

I love watching Dave's videos. It was a treat to see him interviewed; you asked several great questions that I was interested in. Excellent video, thanks for putting it together!

This is so my era too. My MCSE was in NT4 too and seen Dave on his channel discussing some of the integral Windows tools in the past. Great guest and collab!

Writing a task manager helps one learn internals. Back in '75-'76, writing a view into IBM VS1's job queue, running jobs, and output queue taught me a lot about VS1's internals. Later updated it for MVS and a view into TCAM's internal control blocks. This upset operations when the programmers saw what was or more importantly, why their jobs were sitting in the job queue while other jobs were jumping in ahead of theirs.

Programmer since 1970, now retired. I was always working on embedded systems, but like Dave I stuck to the code and avoided several offers to go into management. Started on an IBM 360, but moved to microprocessors as soon as they became available. Started with a 6502, and my last processor was a 256-core AI chip. I also enjoyed custom chip verification before they went to the foundry. I was actually one of the first Commodore 64 users, because they sent me a prototype (called the VIC-40 at the time), so I could write a book on it that went beyond writing aps in BASIC. Fun times.

I'm not a tech guy but happened upon Dave Plummer's channel, for the love of YouTube algorithm. I very much enjoyed how he explains history. I had to watch two back to back episodes and subscribed. I also took an interest in all the chat that follows from his viewers. Thank you Dave for sharing.

Man, thank you two. What an awesome interview love both of these channels!🎉

The best people to interview about coding adventures you can learn from are absolutely those who like Dave are comfortable telling the story but without omitting the mistakes. Such a wealth of information you can miss out on when those details are glossed over. This was a dope video man. Watching this whileon the cusp of putting my toes in the infosec pool. Helps immensely to guide me a bit or confirm Im taking the right next steps, especially with being a complete unknown in any of these circles. Ive outgrown anonymity anyways, so thesr next steps are crucially important. Thanks man

Hey David - I just want to say that you produce wonderful content and communicate ideas and thoughts better than most of us in tech. Thanks for this great interview with another incredible human. I really enjoy listening to you both and watching all your videos. I'm a full-stack developer/engineer/coding dude and your content is a great reprieve from work! Keep it up!

Excellent chat with Dave, I've been following Dave's Garage for the past year or so and it's nice to see you spending some time with him. He reminds me of the type of guy you could sit down with a nice cup of tea and while away the afternoon solving the mysterys of the world together. Absolutely follow Dave's Garage, it's fun and entertaining.

I just like listening to pretty much anything Dave has to say about programming, life and Microsoft work. It's just enlightening

This brought back a lot of memories. In the 90s I was a software director at Dialogic Corp. (later bought by Intel), known for their invention of corporate voicemail and telephone automated voice response (AVR) systems. Our systems used custom boards in industrial Intel-based chassis under Windows, and later, Linux. I remember when NT came out and what a big deal it was. Thanks, Dave!

Haha...my very first experience with computers was when I was told by my mom I MUST take Computer Class as an elective (she was hoping I'd get into IT, which I was uninterested at the time...bad move on my part). Thus, the very first program that existed I learned with MS DOS which existed LONG before Windows did. Thank you for inventing the Task Manager! Super handy! We've come a long ways from DOS!

One of the best podcasts I've ever watched. The stories are liquid gold! You guys are awesome. 🤣👌

Awesome content! 2 of my best technical You-Tubers in one video! Great work!