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April 2007 - Posts

Monday, April 30, 2007 9:14 PM

Where to get help using WiX to create setup packages for Media Center applications

I haven't been keeping up with the Media Center Sandbox forums as well as I would like to lately, and I apologize for that. Based on the forum posts I've caught up on over the past weekend and the comments I've received on my blog , I've noticed that
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Monday, April 30, 2007 1:32 PM

Viewing MSP files in Orca on Windows Vista

I use Orca from the Windows Installer SDK to view the contents of Windows Installer setup packages (MSI files) and Windows Installer patch packages (MSP files) all the time. When I view MSPs, I typically right-click on the applicable MSI, choose Edit
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Saturday, April 28, 2007 8:28 AM

Standalone installer for .NET Framework 3.5 beta 1 now available for download

Visual Studio codename Orcas beta 1 was recently released, and now a standalone version of the .NET Framework 3.5 beta 1 (which is also installed as a prerequisite during VS Orcas setup) is available as a standalone download on the Microsoft download
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:07 PM

Screenshots and video available for Big Screen Photos v2 for Windows Vista Media Center

Niall Ginsbourg (a Media Center community development expert and the developer behind the Big Screen Blog ) is working on an updated version of his Big Screen Photos Flickr photo viewer for Windows Vista Media Center. You can check out the blog post at
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 8:53 PM

Using Microsoft Vista Media Center book has been released

A while back, I posted an item about a book co-authored by Ian Dixon titled Using Microsoft Vista Media Center that was available for pre-ordering. I just noticed a post on Ian's blog indicating that the book has been released. The book covers a range
Posted by astebner | 1 Comments
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 7:58 PM

Possible cause of Visual Web Designer tools failure during VS Orcas beta 1 setup

As described in this post on S. Somasegar's blog and in other places, Visual Studio codename Orcas beta 1 was recently released. Some customers (such as in this forum post ) have reported that Orcas beta 1 setup is failing on their system while it tries
Posted by astebner | 20 Comments
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 10:28 PM

Standalone VC 8.0 SP1 runtime redistributable packages are available for download

I previously wrote a blog post about updated versions of the Visual C++ 8.0 runtime files that shipped as a part of Visual Studio 2005 SP1 . At the time I wrote that post, the only place that standalone redistributable packages for the VC 8.0 SP1 runtime
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Tuesday, April 24, 2007 12:20 PM

April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista now available for download

There is a new cumulative update package available for download today that applies to Windows Vista Media Center systems. This cumulative update is called the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista, and is also known as KB932818,
Posted by astebner | 5 Comments
Monday, April 23, 2007 9:47 AM

Link with information about Windows Installer custom action guidelines

Heath Stewart has posted an item on his blog that I wanted to link to here so that hopefully more setup developers will find it. The post, located at http://blogs.msdn.com/heaths/archive/2007/04/20/custom-action-guidelines.aspx , provides a set of high-level
Posted by astebner | 5 Comments
Friday, April 20, 2007 3:03 PM

Link to more details about the dangers of managed code custom actions in an MSI

A while back, I wrote a post with my opinion about managed code custom actions - http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/03/10/392280.aspx . Essentially, I recommend avoiding using them in an MSI-based setup because of the extra complexity they introduce
Posted by astebner | 3 Comments
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 1:35 PM

Apply to be a beta tester for a future version of Windows Media Center

If you've ever been interested in trying out beta versions of Windows Media Center and providing feedback that helps determine what features will be included in future editions of the product, now is your chance! As Jessica announced yesterday on this
Posted by astebner | 8 Comments
Sunday, April 15, 2007 7:30 PM

Digital Lifestyle Windows Vista Media Center Developer Blog

Steven Harding has been posting information on a new Windows Media Center developer blog that is being hosted on the Digital Lifestyle website . I wanted to post a link to this blog and encourage Media Center developers to take a look at this blog for
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Friday, April 13, 2007 11:24 AM

More specific post categories now available for my blog content

For a while, I've been trying to figure out how to manage the posts on my blog. When I originally established my blog back in 2005, the blog creation wizard asked me to create one or more categories to classify content that I wrote. I didn't have a clear
Posted by astebner | 5 Comments
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Thursday, April 12, 2007 10:20 PM

The Media Center Show #103 with Francis Hogle

Ian Dixon has posted episode #103 of the Media Center Show. You can view a summary transcript and download the episode from this blog post - http://iandixon.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!36983156CAA83EA9!1953.entry . In this episode, Ian talks with Francis
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Thursday, April 12, 2007 4:27 PM

Links to product roadmap information for WiX v2.0 and WiX v3.0

Rob Mensching wrote a couple of interesting posts this week regarding upcoming plans for WiX development that I wanted to link to here to help make sure setup developers see them. Locking down WiX v2.0 In the first post, located at http://robmensching.com/blog/archive/2007/04/09/WiX-v2-entering-escrow.aspx
Posted by astebner | 3 Comments
Monday, April 09, 2007 9:21 PM

Possible problem registering Media Center applications on Windows Vista x64

Recently, I was helping a friend test an installer for a Windows Vista Media Center application and ran across an interesting issue that I wanted to post here so that other Media Center application developers will think about it when designing their own
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Saturday, April 07, 2007 9:19 PM

NGen service can cause deadlocks during product installation in some scenarios

I was talking recently with Surupa Biswas (a program manager on the NGen team at Microsoft and the author of the MSDN Magazine article describing NGen at http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/05/CLRInsideOut/ ). We were discussing a bug that was
Posted by astebner | 2 Comments
Friday, April 06, 2007 12:33 PM

Ask a Microsoft Media Center Team Member forum on the GreenButton.com

I just came across a link to a forum on The Green Button that I wanted to pass on. The forum is called "Ask Jessica" and the tag line for this forum states taht you can ask questions directly to Jessica Zahn, a program manager on the TV team in Windows
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
Wednesday, April 04, 2007 8:13 PM

Link to article describing how to interpret Windows Installer log files

I often get asked questions about how to read, interpret and find error information in verbose Windows Installer log files. These logs tend to be very long, and it can be difficult to filter out noise in order to find the truly useful information needed
Posted by astebner | 3 Comments
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Tuesday, April 03, 2007 3:24 PM

Mailbag: Clarification about how to build installable layouts for a VS 2005 Express Edition

Question: I have been trying to follow the steps listed in some of your blog posts in order to create a network install point for Visual Web Developer Express Edition . I started by downloading and extracting the Visual Web Developer ISO file to a network
Posted by astebner | 0 Comments
 
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