MSINVALIDATE

MSINVALIDATE is a term found in various Microsoft-oriented software projects. In general, it denotes an invalidation action—marking a previously valid state, resource, or cached data as no longer current. In practice, MSINVALIDATE often appears as a macro, enumeration value, or function name used to trigger such invalidation within a codebase.

Because MSINVALIDATE is not part of a standardized public API, its exact contract is project-specific. It is not documented in official Microsoft developer resources, and implementations can differ across languages, platforms, and toolchains. This means the meaning of MSINVALIDATE—what gets invalidated, what cleanup or reload steps occur, and when it is invoked—depends on the surrounding code.

Common contexts where MSINVALIDATE appears include graphics pipelines, where cached textures or render targets may need to be invalidated and refreshed; data caching layers, where stale entries must be discarded; and state machines or resource managers that require a refresh of dependent resources after a change in state. Some implementations treat MSINVALIDATE as a simple flag that is checked periodically, while others implement a full procedure that flushes queues, frees resources, and triggers reloads.

Origins of the term are informal and rooted in general software development practice rather than a canonical Microsoft standard. As with many project-local identifiers, readers should consult the specific codebase or accompanying documentation to understand the exact semantics and requirements of MSINVALIDATE in that context.

See also: cache invalidation, resource management, invalidation.