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February 2007 - Posts

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 2:30 PM

Final version of Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) v5.0 available for download

A while back, I posted a set of instructions that can be used to suppress application compatibility warning dialogs that can appear when installing and/or running Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 on Windows Vista. Those instructions referenced a
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Sunday, February 25, 2007 9:08 PM

Do not use ThumbnailURL when registering a Windows Vista Media Center application

I recently received a question from a friend of mine who is developing a Windows Vista Media Center application. He was registering the application so that it would appear in the Start menu , but was running into a problem getting the application tile's
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:58 PM

Mailbag: Can I update Visual Studio 2005 setup to install SQL Express 2005 SP2?

Question: I have been running silent installations of Visual Studio 2005 on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. However, I have been having trouble on Windows Vista. I get application compatibility warning dialogs during Visual Studio 2005 setup when
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 8:18 PM

Windows XP Embedded SP1 support ends on April 10, 2007

I noticed a post this morning on the Windows XP Embedded team blog that I wanted to link to here to make sure everyone notices so this issue won't catch you by surprise. Official support from Microsoft for Windows XP Embedded SP1 is scheduled to end on
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
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Wednesday, February 21, 2007 9:45 AM

Windows Vista Media Center WebGuide sidebar gadget available for download

I came across an interesting post on Ian Dixon's blog a couple of days ago. He reported that the developer of the WebGuide 4 application for Windows Media Center has just announced a Windows Vista sidebar gadget that can be used to access WebGuide functionality
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Tuesday, February 20, 2007 10:12 AM

Windows Vista Media Center MCMLookalike project now has downloadable source code and markup

I previoulsly posted an introduction to a new open source Media Center Markup Language (MCML) user interface widget library started by Steven Harding that is called MCMLookalike . I found via Niall's blog and Ian's blog that the first downloadable code
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Saturday, February 17, 2007 11:37 AM

Tips for debugging Visual Studio package load failure errors

A while back, I posted a set of steps that can be used to help resolve package load failures in Visual Studio 2005. These steps are only designed to resolve known issues we've seen on systems that previously had beta versions of Visual Studio 2005 installed.
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Friday, February 16, 2007 6:17 PM

Another possible root cause of Visual Studio 2005 hanging while initializing

A while back, I wrote this blog post describing an issue where the Kaspersky anti-virus application can cause Visual Studio 2005 setup to hang while loading installation components. Since then, I have heard from several other customers who have run into
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Thursday, February 15, 2007 8:08 PM

.NET Framework 1.1 hotfixes are not yet offered via Windows Update on Vista

I have heard from a couple of customers who noticed this issue, and I also experienced it on one of my systems yesterday, so I wanted to post an item to give anyone else reading my blog a heads up as well. If you are running Windows Vista and install
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 5:54 PM

Building an MSI using WiX v3.0 that includes the VC 8.0 runtime merge modules

I was recently asked a question by a customer who was building an MSI using WiX v3.0 and the Votive add-in for Visual Studio 2005 . They were trying to consume the VC 8.0 runtime merge modules (MSMs) into their MSI, but were having trouble figuring out
Posted by astebner | 5 Comments
Tuesday, February 13, 2007 3:06 PM

Media Center tips and how to share recorded TV on a domain in Windows Vista

Ian Dixon recently posted an item on his blog introducing a new Windows Media Center tips forum where people can share tips and tricks about configuring and using Windows Media Center. You can find the Windows Media Center Tips forum at http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/forums/34/ShowForum.aspx
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Sunday, February 11, 2007 8:14 PM

Uninstall VS 2005 update to support web application projects before installing VS 2005 SP1

I recently heard from a customer who tried to install Visual Studio 2005 SP1 , but the installation was blocked with a message stating that the Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Project add-in needed to be uninstalled first. However, the system did not
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Saturday, February 10, 2007 10:36 AM

Mailbag: How can I create a multilingual MSI-based setup?

Question: I am building an MSI-based setup for my application. I would like the setup to contain UI strings in multiple languages, and then have setup detect the user's OS language at runtime and display setup UI in the same language. How can I create
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
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Thursday, February 08, 2007 9:02 PM

Assemblies may be missing from the GAC or WinSxS cache after an MSI major upgrade

I recently read about an issue that affects Windows Installer products that use major upgrades and also install assemblies to the GAC or the WinSxS component store using the MsiAssembly and MsiAssemblyName tables. This issue is documented in the Microsoft
Posted by astebner | 7 Comments
Thursday, February 08, 2007 1:07 PM

Mailbag: Does an application built in VS 2005 SP1 require deploying the SP1 VC runtime files?

Question: I have built an application in Visual Studio 2005 that depends on the VC 8.0 runtime files being installed on the system. I have recently installed VS 2005 SP1 on my development system, and when I rebuild my application, it appears that it now
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Wednesday, February 07, 2007 5:31 PM

Update regarding silent install of the VC 8.0 runtime (vcredist) packages

A while back, I posted this item on my blog that describes options for silent installation of the Visual C++ 8.0 runtime redistributable setup packages. When I investigated this issue and wrote that blog post, I based the command line parameters on the
Posted by astebner | 16 Comments
Wednesday, February 07, 2007 5:12 PM

Warning dialog appears when launching Visual Studio 2005 SP1 on Windows Vista

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, Visual Studio 2005 SP1 was made available via Microsoft Update as a recommended update starting sometime last week. I have opted my Windows Vista systems in to receive updates from Microsoft Update (by clicking the
Posted by astebner | 3 Comments
Tuesday, February 06, 2007 4:16 PM

Pre-order available for Using Microsoft Vista Media Center book

Ian Dixon has been working on a book about Windows Vista Media Center with another author (Tony Campbell, the co-author of a book about Windows XP Media Center Edition). This new book, titled Using Microsoft Vista Media Center , is now available for pre-order
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Monday, February 05, 2007 8:36 PM

Visual Studio 2005 SP1 failures can break existing applications

I have heard from a couple of customers who tried to install Visual Studio 2005 SP1 , only to have it fail (possibly due to one of the known installation issues or some other reason that has not yet been documented). After SP1 setup failed and rolled
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Monday, February 05, 2007 10:06 AM

How to workaround install problems with MSN Remote Record on Windows Vista x64

An updated version of MSN Remote Record that works with Windows Media Center for Windows Vista has been released for download. The following links contain more information about the MSN Remote Record service: Detailed feature information - http://tv.msn.com/tv/RR/RRInfo.aspx
Posted by astebner | 7 Comments
Sunday, February 04, 2007 10:13 PM

Mailbag: Can I anchor a custom strip on the Media Center start menu?

Question: I would like to add a new strip to the Windows Vista Media Center start menu. I have followed the instructions in your previous blog post and in the Windows Media Center SDK for Windows Vista , and the start menu strip is created as expected
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:05 AM

Error installing .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1 on Windows Vista caused by Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

A while ago, I described a .NET Framework 1.0 and 1.1 installation failure that can be caused by the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature that was introduced in Windows XP SP2. My previous blog post about this topic stated that this DEP issue can affect
Posted by astebner | 3 Comments
Friday, February 02, 2007 5:08 PM

Mailbag: Benign errors appear in the log file when uninstalling Visual Studio 2005

Question: I recently uninstalled Visual Studio 2005 from one of my systems, and I am trying to determine if the uninstall completed successfully. The setup UI reports success, but when I look at the verbose uninstall log (located at %temp%\vsmsilog*.txt),
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Thursday, February 01, 2007 8:58 PM

Media Center Show Awards 2006 winners announced

Ian Dixon has posted the Media Center Show #93 where he and Ed Bott unveiled the winners of the Media Center Show Awards 2006. You can see the winners in the transcript at this location and you can listen to the show at this location . One of the things
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
 
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