Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help

November 2006 - Posts

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 6:36 PM

Vote for the Media Center Show Awards 2006

Ian Dixon has posted the voting page for the Media Center Show Awards 2006. If you haven't already, I encourage you to visit the voting page at http://iandixon.co.uk/nuke/TheMediaCenterShowAwards/tabid/81/Default.aspx and vote on entries in the following
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 11:18 PM

Return codes for .NET Framework 3.0 setup

A while back, I posted a list of possible return codes for the .NET Framework 2.0 . I recently found out that the setup wrapper for the .NET Framework 3.0 can return a couple of other error codes in certain scenarios, so I wanted to list those here as
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Monday, November 27, 2006 11:21 PM

Windows Vista OS image creation and deployment guide

I was looking at some of the Windows Vista information on the main Microsoft site this weekend, and I found an interesting document describing the process for creating and deploying OS images that I wanted to post here. Windows Vista OS setup is built
Posted by astebner | 4 Comments
Sunday, November 26, 2006 8:57 PM

Design considerations for Windows Media Center applications on 64-bit operating systems

A little while ago, I wrote this blog post describing some changes that were made to the Q podcast and video blog client sample application that is included in the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista . Those changes were made to better support
Posted by astebner | 4 Comments
Saturday, November 25, 2006 9:13 AM

Disabling services with MSConfig to work around setup failures

I was talking recently with a colleague who works on the .NET Framework setup and Windows Installer technical support team here at Microsoft. He told me about a set of steps that his team typically has customers try when they call in to report failed
Posted by astebner | 6 Comments
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 12:12 PM

Updated warning - .NET Framework 3.0 cleanup tool removes MSDN and SQL Express

Yesterday, I posted a warning that the .NET Framework 3.0 pre-release version uninstall tool will remove the final release of SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. A customer posted a comment on that blog post indicating that they ran the uninstall tool and
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Monday, November 20, 2006 4:45 PM

Media Center Show Extra #4 - the Z sample application

Ian Dixon wrote a blog post over the weekend on the Media Center Show site about the new Z sample application that is included in the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista . In addition, he posted Media Center Show Extra #4 today where he demonstrates
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Monday, November 20, 2006 3:12 PM

Warning - .NET Framework 3.0 cleanup tool removes final release of SQL Express

When preparing to install the final version of the .NET Framework 3.0 on a system, it is necessary to uninstall any previous beta versions that are installed. In order to make the beta uninstall process as painful as possible, we released a .NET Framework
Posted by astebner | 5 Comments
Monday, November 20, 2006 1:40 PM

New Windows Media Center applications for Windows Vista from OABsoftware

OABsoftware has released 3 new Windows Media Center applications for Windows Vista . All 3 are written in Media Center Markup Language (MCML), which is one of the new technologies introduced in the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista . Here is
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Sunday, November 19, 2006 9:23 PM

How the Q sample application was redesigned to support Media Center Extenders

The Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista was released yesterday. One of the changes that was made since the RC2 release that I didn't mention in my previous blog post is a rewrite of large portions of the Q podcast and video blog sample application.
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Saturday, November 18, 2006 1:07 PM

How to automatically suppress application compatibility warnings on Windows Vista

Recently, a fellow employee contacted me with a question about unattended installation of Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista . They were following the instructions that I posted in this blog post to prevent unattended installation from trying to install
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Friday, November 17, 2006 4:49 PM

Final version of Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista available for download!!

Today is a really exciting day for me. After a lot of work, a ton of great beta feedback and a couple of last minute fire drills, we have released the final version of the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista today. Since the RC2 build , we have
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Friday, November 17, 2006 1:56 PM

Using and customizing the Visual Studio 2005 setup bootstrapper

As many of you probably already know, Visual Studio 2005 ships with a setup bootstrapper that can be used to create a setup package that chains together prerequisite packages and then installs the product that you create an MSI for within Visual Studio.
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 5:34 PM

How to fix error code 25015 with access denied message during .NET Framework 2.0 setup

Recently, I saw a post on the MSDN .NET Framework Setup Forum indicating that a customer was having trouble getting the .NET Framework 3.0 to install on his system. How to diagnose this error The error log for the .NET Framework 3.0 setup (%temp%\dd_dotnetfx3error.txt)
Posted by astebner | 6 Comments
Tuesday, November 14, 2006 4:37 PM

Mailbag: More information about Workflow extensions for VS 2005 setup

Question: I would like to automate the installation of the Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation) setup package. How can I install this package in silent mode? Also, if this package fails to install, where can
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Sunday, November 12, 2006 8:35 PM

New Windows Media Center development blog by Niall Ginsbourg

Niall Ginsbourg, the developer behind several Windows Media Center applications, including Big Screen Headlines , Big Screen Contacts , and several others, has started a blog about Windows Media Center development. The blog is called Big Screen Blog and
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Saturday, November 11, 2006 2:38 PM

Complete list of keyboard shortcuts that can be used in Windows Media Center

The Windows Media Center user interface is optimized for television displays and remote control-based navigation. However, there are a lot of computers running Windows Media Center that are configured as standard desktop systems or laptops. I find myself
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Saturday, November 11, 2006 1:38 PM

White paper with UAC development information for Windows Vista

Recently, a friend of mine asked me a question about an installer that his team was working on. They have an MSI that is launched by a lightweight bootstrapper that is named something like ProductSetup.exe. When running this installer on Windows Vista,
Posted by astebner | 3 Comments
Friday, November 10, 2006 4:24 PM

More details about how .NET Framework 2.0 setup reduces system reboots

A while back, Quan To posted an item on his blog that briefly described a project he worked on to help reduce the number of reboots in the .NET Framework 2.0 setup. Recently, I learned more details about how this feature works, and I wanted to post them
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Thursday, November 09, 2006 5:06 PM

Clarification about .NET Framework 3.0 detection registry key on a 64-bit OS

There is information in the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 deployment guide that describes how to read registry values to detect whether or not the .NET Framework 3.0 is installed on a system. I just noticed a subtle point that I wanted to clarify in case
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Wednesday, November 08, 2006 8:37 PM

How to fix Application Data folder error when launching Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista

I have heard of a few instances recently where customers have installed Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista , and then every time they tried to launch Visual Studio, they received an error dialog with the following text: The Application Data folder for
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Tuesday, November 07, 2006 10:03 PM

Windows SDK for Windows Vista has been released

Today has been an exciting day for developers. First, the final version of the .NET Framework 3.0 was released, and I just recently found out that the final version of the Windows SDK for Windows Vista has been released today as well. Here are the download
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Tuesday, November 07, 2006 9:43 AM

The final version of the .NET Framework 3.0 is now available for download

I'm sure this is already old news by now, but the final version of the .NET Framework 3.0 has been released to the web and can be downloaded and installed now. Here are the download locations: Web download bootstrapper - http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Saturday, November 04, 2006 6:53 PM

Download Visual Studio 2005 hotfixes without contacting Microsoft Developer Support

I just heard about a pilot project that was introduced this past week and I wanted to let folks know about. The Visual Studio team is making the top 10 most requested hotfixes for Visual Studio 2005 available for download on the Microsoft Connect site
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Saturday, November 04, 2006 9:31 AM

Why to not use gacutil.exe in an application setup

I read the article titled Using the .NET fusion API to manipulate the GAC yesterday. That article describes how to call fusion APIs from C++ code to programatically add assemblies to the global assembly cache (GAC) instead of using the .NET configuration
Posted by astebner | 25 Comments
Filed under:
Friday, November 03, 2006 9:06 PM

Why you should check the Installed property in the LaunchCondition table of an MSI

Recently, I was looking at an MSI that installs a set of Visual Studio project templates. This MSI contains a condition in the LaunchCondition table that blocks users from installing the package on a system that did not have Visual Studio 2005 installed.
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Filed under:
Friday, November 03, 2006 5:44 PM

Mailbag: How are images displayed for custom tiles on the Media Center Start menu?

Question: I have read through the collection of posts that you wrote that describe how to customize the Windows Media Center Start menu in Windows Vista, and now I'm trying to create my own application and add it to the Start menu. What are the guidelines
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Wednesday, November 01, 2006 10:39 PM

Windows XP Embedded SP2 Feature Pack 2007 has been released

This morning, the Windows XP Embedded team announced that the final release of the Windows XP Embedded SP2 Feature Pack 2007 is now available for download. You can download the evalution version at this location: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9bdf1dea-a37e-4d25-83df-aabbaa78914f&displaylang=en&displaylang=en
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Filed under:
 
Page view tracker