diff --git a/new/comctl32_windows.c b/new/comctl32_windows.c
index 65473d6..93b3a27 100644
--- a/new/comctl32_windows.c
+++ b/new/comctl32_windows.c
@@ -43,29 +43,28 @@ const char *initCommonControls(void)
 	BOOL (*WINAPI ficc)(const LPINITCOMMONCONTROLSEX);
 
 	if (GetTempPathW(MAX_PATH + 1, temppath) == 0)
-		return "getting temporary path for writing manifest file";
+		return "getting temporary path for writing manifest file in initCommonControls()";
 	if (GetTempFileNameW(temppath, L"manifest", 0, filename) == 0)
-		return "getting temporary filename for writing manifest file";
+		return "getting temporary filename for writing manifest file in initCommonControls()";
 	file = CreateFileW(filename, GENERIC_WRITE,
 		0,			// don't share while writing
 		NULL, CREATE_ALWAYS, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, NULL);
 	if (file == NULL)
-		return "creating manifest file";
+		return "creating manifest file in initCommonControls()";
 	nExpected = (sizeof manifest / sizeof manifest[0]) - 1;		// - 1 to omit the terminating null character)
 	SetLastError(0);		// catch errorless short writes
 	if (WriteFile(file, manifest, nExpected, &nGot, NULL) == 0)
-		return "writing manifest file";
+		return "writing manifest file in initCommonControls()";
 	if (nGot != nExpected) {
 		DWORD lasterr;
 
 		lasterr = GetLastError();
-		// TODO reword these
 		if (lasterr == 0)
-			return "short write to manifest file without error code";
-		return "short write to manifest file";
+			return "writing entire manifest file (short write) without error code in initCommonControls()";
+		return "writing entire manifest file (short write) in initCommonControls()";
 	}
 	if (CloseHandle(file) == 0)
-		return "closing manifest file (this IS an error here because not doing so will prevent Windows from being able to use the manifest file in an activation context)";
+		return "closing manifest file (this IS an error here because not doing so will prevent Windows from being able to use the manifest file in an activation context) in initCommonControls()";
 
 	ZeroMemory(&actctx, sizeof (ACTCTX));
 	actctx.cbSize = sizeof (ACTCTX);
@@ -73,9 +72,9 @@ const char *initCommonControls(void)
 	actctx.lpSource = filename;
 	ac = CreateActCtx(&actctx);
 	if (ac == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
-		return "creating activation context for synthesized manifest file";
+		return "creating activation context for synthesized manifest file in initCommonControls()";
 	if (ActivateActCtx(ac, &comctlManifestCookie) == FALSE)
-		return "activating activation context for synthesized manifest file";
+		return "activating activation context for synthesized manifest file in initCommonControls()";
 
 	ZeroMemory(&icc, sizeof (INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX));
 	icc.dwSize = sizeof (INITCOMMONCONTROLSEX);
@@ -83,12 +82,12 @@ const char *initCommonControls(void)
 
 	comctl32 = LoadLibraryW(L"comctl32.dll");
 	if (comctl32 == NULL)
-		return "loading comctl32.dll";
+		return "loading comctl32.dll in initCommonControls()";
 
 	// GetProcAddress() only takes a multibyte string
 #define LOAD(fn) f = GetProcAddress(comctl32, fn); \
 	if (f == NULL) \
-		return "loading " fn "()";
+		return "loading " fn "() in initCommonControls()";
 
 	LOAD("InitCommonControlsEx");
 	ficc = (BOOL (*WINAPI)(const LPINITCOMMONCONTROLSEX)) f;
@@ -100,7 +99,7 @@ const char *initCommonControls(void)
 	fv_DefSubclassProc = (LRESULT (*WINAPI)(HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM)) f;
 
 	if ((*ficc)(&icc) == FALSE)
-		return "initializing Common Controls (comctl32.dll)";
+		return "initializing Common Controls (comctl32.dll) in initCommonControls()";
 
 	return NULL;
 }
diff --git a/new/container_unix.c b/new/container_unix.c
index f5cd056..047b40a 100644
--- a/new/container_unix.c
+++ b/new/container_unix.c
@@ -12,18 +12,25 @@ static void uiContainer_init(uiContainer *c)
 	gtk_widget_set_has_window(GTK_WIDGET(c), FALSE);
 }
 
-// TODO explain the order here
-// TODO guard against use of forall after the ptr array unref
+// instead of having GtkContainer itself unref all our controls, we'll run our own uiControlDestroy() functions for child, which will do that and more
+// we still chain up because we need to, but by that point there will be no children for GtkContainer to free
 static void uiContainer_dispose(GObject *obj)
 {
-	g_ptr_array_unref(uiContainer(obj)->children);
-	if (uiContainer(obj)->child != NULL) {
-		uiControlDestroy(uiContainer(obj)->child);
-		uiContainer(obj)->child = NULL;
+	uiContainer *c = uiContainer(obj);
+
+	if (c->children != NULL) {
+		g_ptr_array_unref(c->children);
+		c->children = NULL;
+	}
+	if (c->child != NULL) {
+		uiControlDestroy(c->child);
+		c->child = NULL;
 	}
 	G_OBJECT_CLASS(uiContainer_parent_class)->dispose(obj);
 }
 
+// TODO switch from using uiContainer() directly below
+
 static void uiContainer_finalize(GObject *obj)
 {
 	G_OBJECT_CLASS(uiContainer_parent_class)->finalize(obj);
@@ -35,13 +42,15 @@ static void uiContainer_finalize(GObject *obj)
 static void uiContainer_add(GtkContainer *container, GtkWidget *widget)
 {
 	gtk_widget_set_parent(widget, GTK_WIDGET(container));
-	g_ptr_array_add(uiContainer(container)->children, widget);
+	if (uiContainer(container)->children != NULL)
+		g_ptr_array_add(uiContainer(container)->children, widget);
 }
 
 static void uiContainer_remove(GtkContainer *container, GtkWidget *widget)
 {
 	gtk_widget_unparent(widget);
-	g_ptr_array_remove(uiContainer(container)->children, widget);
+	if (uiContainer(container)->children != NULL)
+		g_ptr_array_remove(uiContainer(container)->children, widget);
 }
 
 static void uiContainer_size_allocate(GtkWidget *widget, GtkAllocation *allocation)
@@ -73,7 +82,8 @@ static void uiContainer_forall(GtkContainer *container, gboolean includeInternal
 
 	s.callback = callback;
 	s.data = data;
-	g_ptr_array_foreach(uiContainer(container)->children, doforall, &s);
+	if (uiContainer(container)->children != NULL)
+		g_ptr_array_foreach(uiContainer(container)->children, doforall, &s);
 }
 
 static void uiContainer_class_init(uiContainerClass *class)
diff --git a/new/init_windows.c b/new/init_windows.c
index c484ed3..8a0a9ad 100644
--- a/new/init_windows.c
+++ b/new/init_windows.c
@@ -45,7 +45,6 @@ uiInitError *uiInit(uiInitOptions *o)
 	if ((si.dwFlags & STARTF_USESHOWWINDOW) != 0)
 		nCmdShow = si.wShowWindow;
 
-	// TODO add "in initCommonControls()" to each of the messages this returns
 	ce = initCommonControls();
 	if (ce != NULL)
 		return loadLastError(err, ce);