Those who are thinking Microsoft is not thinking for future then you are wrong!

Here is a good video from Microsoft which tells about how we leave in future, the advance concepts of future.

They have not just thinking for corporate world but for personal use as well! This is really good and we can surely say Microsoft is yet not died

Enjoy the video

Productive future vision by Microsoft

Microsoft WebMatrix–Easy to use IDE for Web Development

Hello Friends,

In resent years Microsoft is coming with lot more things for developers, specially web developers. They have introduced various development tools and IDE’s.

Now I am going to tell you about new IDE from Microsoft, it is called as “Microsoft® WebMatrix”, following are the details.

Microsoft® WebMatrix is a brand new web development tool from Microsoft that includes everything you need for website development. Start from open source web applications, built-in web templates or just start writing code yourself. It’s all-inclusive, simple and best of all free. Developing websites has never been easier.

WebMatrix is a free Web development tool that installs in minutes and elegantly brings together a Web server, a database, and programming frameworks into a single, integrated experience. WebMatrix lets you code, test, and deploy both ASP.NET and PHP applications side by side.

Look at the following Video to get more insight in ‘Microsoft WebMatrix’

WebMatrix connects you to a world of popular and free open-source Web applications, including DotNetNuke, Umbraco, WordPress, Joomla!, and more. Simply select an application from the built-in gallery, and WebMatrix handles the downloading and installation of your new Web site. The days of hand-editing configuration files and making sure you have all the right components are long gone. Customize your site using the built in code editor and make it yours.

I am exited to try this IDE, hope it will support my favorite HTML 5

Microsoft Windows 8 and HTML 5 – The future of Microsoft technologies

windows-8

Hello Guys,

You know new version of Microsoft is coming soon which is Windows 8! In this  Microsoft has revamp entire user interface.

User interface is now more user friendly, touch friendly and platform friendly too! We can run this OS on any platform like PC, Mobile or Tablets looking good na.

Interesting thing is, nice UI applications are built in HTML5 and Java scripts. Microsoft is really promoting HTML 5 support in Windows 8 and even in IE 10. This is really good, so I am sure now every developer will have to upgrade with there technology skills and will have to learn HTML5.

Have a look at following video from Microsoft, this will clear more of your doubts

Microsoft has finally announced the Visual Studio LightSwitch, which is featured as the newest member of the Visual Studio product family.

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch gives you a simpler and faster way to create professional-quality business applications for the desktop, the web, and the cloud.

Microsoft has revealed that LightSwitch dramatically decreases the time it takes to build a custom application by automatically handling routine code; it’s a rapid application development tool that offers application shells and screen templates to allow the developer to concentrate on the core business logic. The tool is also provided with “drag and drop” functionality, but the full access to the .NET framework is still available. Thus, “if you need to tinker under the hood, you can do so by opening your LightSwitch application in the “full” version of Visual Studio.”

Look at the following Video, this will help you to get basics of ‘LightSwitch’

Following are the some features of ‘Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch’

QUICKLY CREATE PROFESSIONAL-QUALITY BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

With LightSwitch, you can build custom applications that rival off-the-shelf solutions. Get a head start by using pre-configured screen templates that give your application a familiar look and feel. LightSwitch also provides prewritten code and other reusable components to handle routine application tasks, along with helpful step-by-step guidance. However, if you need to write custom code, you can use Visual Basic .NET or C#. You can deploy to the desktop, browser, or cloud (post-Beta) to share your application with others more easily without the cumbersome installation processes.

EASILY ACCESS EXISTING SYSTEMS AND DATA

Applications created with LightSwitch support exporting data to Microsoft Office Excel for fast and easy sharing and reporting. You can also attach your application to existing data sources, which makes it easy to collect, analyze, and reuse information from a variety of data sources including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Azure, SharePoint, Microsoft Office Access (post-Beta), and other third-party data sources.

BUILD FOR TODAY, PREPARE FOR TOMORROW

With LightSwitch you can create custom applications for the way you do business. Keep your technology and business options open, while building a practical yet scalable application that matches your current needs now and in the future. The pre-built templates and components in LightSwitch are fully extensible, so you can get the specific functionality your application demands. In addition, your application can grow to meet the increasing demands of popular applications using the Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud Hosting option.

We know that Microsoft has too many products and services.

From them, there are only few which gives revenue to Microsoft.

Microsoft has eight core focus areas to focus on, General Manager of Investor Relations Bill Koefoed, told the Wall Street analysts.

The eight, according to Koefoed:

• Xbox and TV
• Bing
• Office
• Windows Server
• Windows Phone
• Windows
• Business users
• SQL Server

Taken from: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-we-are-focusing-on-eight-core-businesses/6937

Today, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 9 Preview. There are many features added in it.

Following are the list of features added in IE 9

On HTML 5: Microsoft was coy about whether it would support all of the HTML 5 standards, the next generation of HTML. The company doesn’t seem willing to commit to the standard until it is set in stone, but “wants to be responsible” about supporting it.

- On Java script: They admit that their previous browsers don’t match the speed of Firefox or Chrome. However, it appears that IE9 looks to narrow this gap. From some of the data they presented, it looks like they’re getting closer to matching the other browsers (though they don’t beat them).

- On CSS Support: It looks like IE9 will finally get better CSS support, especially for rounded corners. It’s a disappointment though, when you consider the other browsers have supported these things for years.

- On Hardware Acceleration: IE9 will utilize DirectX hardware acceleration to improve graphic and AJAX rendering. It will push more work towards the GPU. This is actually looks pretty slick from first appearances.

If we test IE 9 as per Acid3 test then we will get following results

Acid3 is a test page from the Web Standards Project that checks how well a web browser follows certain selected elements from web standards, especially relating to the Document Object Model (DOM) and JavaScript.

Acid3 Test for IE 9

Acid3 Test for IE 8

Acid3 test for Google Chrome 4

This shows, Google Chrome is more compliant to web standards !!!

If you want to be always updated with Microsoft and Microsoft Technologies, then twitter is good way.

Following are some ‘List of Official Microsoft Twitter Accounts’, so start following those account and be connected to ‘World of Microsoft’ !.

• @Bill Gates – Official twitter account of Bill Gates
• @Microsoft – Official twitter account of Microsoft
• @MSWindows – Announcing Windows 7
• @WindowsLive – Official Twitter account of Microsoft Windows Live
• @MajorNelson – Major Nelson, a.k.a. Larry Hryb of the Xbox 360 group.
• @liveframework – liveframework
• @livemesh – Sync, share, and access the information you care about—wherever you happen to be.
• @SharePoint – The official tweetstream of the SharePoint product group – managed by @LLiu
• @bizspark – Microsoft BizSpark – Software, Support, Visibility
• @zunemarketplace – Zune Marketplace is a store for the way you love music, with brand-new releases every week and a huge selection of music in every style imaginable
• @wmdev – Windows Mobile
• @microsofttag – Microsoft Tag
• @ch9 – listen to the cockpit, help us fly the plane
• @ch10 – Channel 10 is Microsoft’s online community for the technology enthusiast
• @ch8 – Microsoft’s community for students
• @mixonline – Come check us out at www.visitmix.com
• @MIX09 – The Next Web Now, pre-empted by @MIX07, @MIX08 and @PDC08
• @SiteNamedDesire – Want a copy of A Website Named Desire? This li’l birdie will tell you how. Wait for the tweets.
• @MicrsftTech4All – News from Microsoft Accessibility team, which strives for technology to be usable by everyone & complements our physical & cognitive abilities.
• @MSDN – Updates from the MSDN site team.
• @adCenterBlog – News, Tips, Tricks & Best Practices From The Guys At Microsoft adCenter

We have developed many windows application using C# or VB.NET.

In that we stored connection string and other required data in ‘app.config’ file, and we modify that file using our application to store latest connection or other information.

This is standard practice and works as well.

But in ‘Windows 7’ OS architecture is changed in teams of security and other features.

So we can’t modify files which are in % program file % application directory %.

There are there options, run application as administrator. We can run it as admin, but we can’t guarantee that all of our customer will !!!

Other option is keep it same, means write in app.config which will be there in program files.

It will work as desired but ‘content will not be modified in config file from program files’, this is due to one feature of windows 7 called as ‘Common file and registry virtualization’

Whatever you modify in app.config or program files, it will be get modified in virtual file which stored in ‘%userprofile%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore’. And when you try read app.config, it will be read from virtual space rather from program files.

There is no harm with this approach, but you will have to delete the virtual file when you uninstall the application.

The other and safe way for this issue is to use ‘application data’ space of windows OS. All the major applications including word, outlook stores there data in app data.

So it is good habit to store your data there.

A comprehensive coding standard is essential for a successful product delivery. The standard helps in enforcing best practices and avoiding pitfalls, and makes knowledge dissemination across the team easier. The C# coding standard presented here is very thin on the “why” and very detailed on the “what” and the “how.” The coding standard presented next captures best practices, dos and don’ts, pitfalls, guidelines, and recommendations, as well as naming conventions and styles, project settings and structure, and framework specific guidelines.

Standard Coding Practices in .NET

·         Avoid putting multiple classes in a single file. 

·         A single file should contribute types to only a single namespace. Avoid having multiple namespaces in the same file.

·         Avoid files with more than 500 lines (excluding machine-generated code).

·         Avoid methods with more than 200 lines.

·         Avoid methods with more than 5 arguments. Use structures for passing multiple arguments.  

·         Lines should not exceed 120 characters.

·         Do not manually edit any machine-generated code. 

    o   If modifying machine generated code, modify the format and style to match this coding standard.

    o   Use partial classes whenever possible to factor out the maintained portions.

·         Avoid comments that explain the obvious. Code should be self-explanatory. Good code with readable variable and method names should not require comments.

·         Document only operational assumptions, algorithm insights and so on.  

·         Avoid method-level documentation.

    o   Use extensive external documentation for API documentation.

    o   Use method-level comments only as tool tips for other developers.

·         With the exception of zero and one, never hard-code a numeric value; always declare a constant instead. 

·         Use the const directive only on natural constants such as the number of days of the week. 

·         Avoid using const on read-only variables. For that, use the readonly directive.

·         Assert every assumption. On average, every fifth line is an assertion.

·         Every line of code should be walked through in a “white box” testing manner. 

·         Catch only exceptions for which you have explicit handling.

·         In a catch statement that throws an exception, always throw the original exception (or another exception constructed from the original exception) to maintain the stack location of the original error:

Catch (Exception exception)

{   

   MessageBox.Show(exception.Message);

   throw;

}

·         Avoid error codes as method return values. 

·         Avoid defining custom exception classes.

·         When defining custom exceptions:

   o   Derive the custom exception from Exception.

   o   Provide custom serialization. 

·         Avoid multiple Main () methods in a single assembly.

·         Make only the most necessary types public, mark others as internal.

·         Avoid friend assemblies, as they increase inter-assembly coupling.

·         Avoid code that relies on an assembly running from a particular location.

·         Minimize code in application assemblies (EXE client assemblies). Use class libraries instead to contain business logic.

RESTRICTED_USER allows for only members of the db_owner fixed database role and dbcreator and sysadmin fixed server roles to connect to the database, but does not limit their number. All connections to the database are disconnected in the timeframe specified by the termination clause of the ALTER DATABASE statement. After the database has transitioned to the RESTRICTED_USER state, connection attempts by unqualified users are refused.
RESTRICTED_USER allows for only members of the db_owner fixed database role and dbcreator and sysadmin fixed server roles to connect to the database, but does not limit their number. All connections to the database are disconnected in the timeframe specified by the termination clause of the ALTER DATABASE statement. After the database has transitioned to the RESTRICTED_USER state, connection attempts by unqualified users are refused.

Syntax is as follows:

alter database dbname
set RESTRICTED_USER

Microsoft DreamSpark enables students to download Microsoft developer and design tools at no charge.

Free Microsoft Office 2007

Free Microsoft Office 2007 Full Version

Free Microsoft Visual Sudio 2008

Free Microsoft Visual Sudio 2008 Proffesional edition

Free Microsoft Visual Sudio 2008 Express edition

Free Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Now, for the first time, Microsoft is giving its valuable software developer and design tools directly to students worldwide at no charge! This site enables students like you to download professional-level Microsoft developer and design tools to unlock your creative potential and set you on the path to academic and career success, by supporting and advancing your learning and skills through technical design, technology, math, science and engineering activities.
In order to get this software from Microsoft at no charge, you will be asked to establish or verify your student status once every 12 months. This process is built into this DreamSpark site itself. Verification of valid student status will enable students from around the globe to download Microsoft developer and design tools at no charge. Note: You must be at least 18 years old or have otherwise reached the age of majority in the place (province, state or country) where you live, or if not, your parent or legal guardian must accept the Microsoft DreamSpark software license terms on your behalf, in order for you to download and use the software.
It is our hope that the DreamSpark program will spark your creativity and help you harness software’s transformative magic to turn your good ideas into reality, by equipping you with the tools you need to succeed and excel during your academic experience and skills you will need after graduation.

Students, Now all the software you will be getting free, then why to use pirated software right?

How to use Regsvr32

REGSVR 32

Register or unregister a DLL. You can use the Regsvr32 tool (Regsvr32.exe) to register and unregister OLE controls such as DLL or ActiveX Controls (OCX) files that are self-registerable.

Syntax
REGSVR32 [/U] [/S] [/C] [/I:[Command_Line]] DLL_Name
REGSVR32 [/U] [/S] [/C] /N /I:[Command_Line] DLL_Name
Key
/u          Unregister Server.
/s          Silent – no dialogue boxes.
/c          Console output.
/n          Don’t call DllRegisterServer
/i          Call DllInstall (or DllUninstall if /u is specified)
Command_Line An optional command line for DllInstall
Examples
Unregister (disable) XP Zip folders
REGSVR32 /u C:\Windows\System32\zipfldr.dll
Unregister (Disable) CAB file viewer:
REGSVR32 /u C:\Windows\System32\cabview.dll
Register (enable) XP Zip folders
REGSVR32 zipfldr.dll
Register (enable) CAB file viewer:
REGSVR32 cabview.dll

1. Express your ideas more visually

2. Accomplish more when working together

3. Enjoy the familiar Office experience from more locations and more devices

4. Create powerful data insights and visuals

5. Deliver compelling presentations

6. Manage large volumes of e-mail with ease

7. Store and track all your ideas and notes in one place

8. Get your message out instantly

9. Get things done faster and easier

10. Access work across devices and platforms

#1. Save Office Documents to the Cloud

#2. Embed Web Videos in your Presentations

#3. Quick Steps in Outlook

#4. Built-in PDF Writer

#5. Document printing made simple!

#6. Broadcast Slideshows within PowerPoint

#7. Video Editing meets PowerPoint

#8. Distribute your slides as video

#9. Built-in Screen Capture

#10. Outlook gets social

· 32bit Only (Must use slower PC)

· 1 CPU Supported Only (Must use crappy PC)

· Cannot Create a Home Group (Don’t Share)

· Cannot Backup to Network (No network back)

· No Multiple Monitor Support

· No Fast user switching

· No Changeable Desktop Wallpaper

· No Desktop Window Manager

· No Windows Mobility Center

· No Windows Aero Glass Themes

· No Aero glass remoting

· No Multitouch

· No Premium Games Included

· No Windows Media Center

· No Windows Media Player Remote Media Experience

· No Encrypting File System

· No Location Aware Printing

· No Remote Desktop Host

· No Presentation Mode

· No Windows Server domain joining

· No Windows XP Mode

· No AppLocker

· No BitLocker Drive Encryption

· No BranchCache Distributed Cache

· No Direct Access

· No Subsystem for Unix-based Applications

· No Multilingual User Interface Pack

· No Virtual Hard Disk Booting

Windows Azure Development in VS 2010

Microsoft announced Windows® Azure™ the comprehensive cloud environment which is becoming more and more popular. With Windows® Azure™ Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2010 we can build debug and deploy services and applications for Windows Azure.

As per Microsoft “Windows Azure offers a scalable hosting environment for the Internet, built on geographically distributed data centres’. It handles load balancing and resource management, and automatically manages the life cycle of a service based on requirements that you establish. With the service, you include code specifications for the service topology, the number of instances to deploy, and any configuration settings. Windows® Azureâ„¢ deploys the service and manages upgrades and failures to maintain availability.”

Windows Azure Tools provide the means to create services and applications within the framework of Visual Studio. So we can create debug and test application for Windows Azure in Visual Studio 2010

You can take a look at Windows Azure at www.microsoft.com/azure/

It come-up with .NET framework 4.0

VS 2010 is coming up with .NET framework 4.0, there are lots of enhancement in .NET framework 4.0 like

• More fast – Improvement in CLR
• Support multi threaded architecture with lot of enhancement
• Parallel computing
• Lots of improvements and additions in WCF and web-service handling
• Enhancement in WPF
• RESTful enhancements
• Enhancements in workflow modelling
• Performance and Scalability Improvement

We will take a look at .NET framework 4.0 with more details in my next article.

VS 2010 Editor or IDE

Visual studio 2010 editor is really cool. Microsoft has developed this totally in ‘WPF’ i.e. windows presentation foundation. So you can think how reach user interface it will have . WPF enables the editor to richly present information about the code in the context of presenting the actual source. This ability enables features such as the “Document Map Margin” to render a graphical view of the source file including information such as layout, code coverage, symbol highlights and comments.

Quick Search Editor highlights references

Look at ‘http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/concept_ide.aspx’ for more images of Visual Studio 2010 Concept IDE.

 

VS 2010 and web development

Yes, as you guess there is lot of enhancement for web developers also. VS 2010 has enhanced its IDE to support rapid and efficient web development. Following are some key enhancement in it

• More standard web development tools are provided
• For CSS design, there are lots of improvement like property window etc
• We can develop MVC (model-view-control) kind of websites with ease
• OnClick deployment
• Intellisense for java script

  And many more.
  

   

Architecture Explorer

 

The new Architecture Explorer enables individuals to create a visual representation of existing code assets

 

Identify the Test Impact

As developers make changes to code, it’s critical for them to effectively test their changes – not only to prove the new code works, but to ensure there’s no unexpected downstream effect. Test impact analysis and test prioritization identify the tests that must be run to validate the code changes. This helps developers quickly check-in code with confidence by running only the necessary tests and reduces churn created by unexpected failures. The new Test Impact View window enables a developer to view a list of tests that need to be run as the result of a code change. The developer can toggle between an Impacted Tests view and a Code Changes view. • The Impacted Tests view provides a list of tests that need to be run and which code changes are covered by each of the tests. • The Code Changes view provides a list of code changes and which tests must be run in order to validate each of them. These two views provide an easy way to discover what tests must be run in order to validate the changes to the code base without having to run all of the tests. This ensures that all changes are tested effectively.

(Adapted from Microsoft’s document for VS 2010)

Visual Studio 2010 videos

Are you keen to look VS 2010? There are some videos are available for VS 2010. Following are some links for VS 2010 videos

Visual Studio 2010 – Web Development Overview

In this talk we provided the glimpse of the major investment areas in VS 2010.  The talk is divided into following key areas

Design View – Improved CSS 2.1 Support &  standards compliance

Source View, HTML Snippets, JScript Intellisense, Web Deployment, Web.Config Transformation, Web 1-Click Publish

Jeff did a great presentation at PDC on this topic which can be viewed at the link below:

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL48/ (77.32 mins)

I also presented a similar talk at TechEd EMEA which is available for viewing below:

 http://www.vimeo.com/2667207 (62.42 mins)

 

Visual Studio 2010 – Web Deployment

In this talk we talk about Web Deployment in detail and how next wave of Web Deployment technologies will make deployment a much easier task.  The key focus areas of this talk are:

Web Packaging – Packaging your web applications into .zip files

Web.Config Transformation – Transforming your web.config file (i.e. connection string, debug flags etc) from dev environment to production environment

DB Deployment – Packaging and deploying your SQL Server databases along with your web application

Web Publishing – Using Web 1-Click Publish functionality to deploy your web application with ease.

I did a presentation on web deployment at PDC and TechEd EMEA; the PDC presentation can be viewed at the below link:

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC33/  (84.42 mins)

If you would like to see a more compressed version of the talk then I also did a talk with Jason Olson in Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 Week! you can view this video at the below link:

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/VisualStudio/Web-Development-and-Deployment-with-Visual-Studio-2010/ (34.40 mins)