This is what the Delphi [WayBack] System.Classes.TThread.NameThreadForDebugging (introduced in Delphi 2010) is based on:

// // Usage: SetThreadName (-1, "MainThread"); // #include <windows.h> const DWORD MS_VC_EXCEPTION=0x406D1388; #pragma pack(push,8) typedef struct tagTHREADNAME_INFO { DWORD dwType; // Must be 0x1000. LPCSTR szName; // Pointer to name (in user addr space). DWORD dwThreadID; // Thread ID (-1=caller thread). DWORD dwFlags; // Reserved for future use, must be zero. } THREADNAME_INFO; #pragma pack(pop) void SetThreadName( DWORD dwThreadID, char* threadName) { THREADNAME_INFO info; info.dwType = 0x1000; info.szName = threadName; info.dwThreadID = dwThreadID; info.dwFlags = 0; __try { RaiseException( MS_VC_EXCEPTION, 0, sizeof(info)/sizeof(ULONG_PTR), (ULONG_PTR*)&info ); } __except(EXCEPTION_EXECUTE_HANDLER) { } }

Related:

For Delphi 2009 and 2007: It is implemented in the SetThreadName method of the IdGlobal unit.

–jeroen