Software & Services - Bret Grinslade

My team owns the installation experience for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. One difficulty in the setup and deployment space is that the real world is a lot more complicated and messy than we can re-create in the test lab. That is where...

I have been using the MSN Search service in its beta form for several months. To be 100% honest here, I started using it primarily because I work for Microsoft, but I was also very curious to see how the MSN search folks were doing. I know some of the...

I really like MSDN these days. Sure there are a lot of things that could be better or different. Dev centers, docs, samples, www.asp.net , RSS feeds and lots more. I work on the Longhorn SDK. Even though it is very early and things will certainly change...

Web services are still really big at Microsoft. I can't wait for the public releases of Indigo to make this all much easier to do. On the MSDN and SDK teams there has been a lot of talk about exposing web services, adopting RSS as a standard syndication...

It is amazing how big an impact names and terminology have on how we think. If you haven't heard, Soma announced that WinFX has been renamed to .NET Framework 3.0 . I did expect this to cause a reation and it has. However, I didn't anticipate how the...

In a forum post, a user reported that he cannot use the web boot strapper to install since the downloads are blocked by their corporate fire wall. You can use the the "big" redistributable package will allow you to install NETFX without downloading...

MIX 2008 in Las Vegas, the Next web now, is sold out. This promises to be a great event with lots of interesting conversation. The best part of MIX for me is that it is really an open, multi-way dialog and not just a bunch of Microsoft speak. Check...

It is exciting to finally see WinFX as top level part of the dev centers. http://msdn.microsoft.com/winfx/ One question I have for developers, how do you anticipate distributing WinFX Runtime Components with your applications? There are several...

The new (and final) Beta of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework has been released. These are 2008 and 3.5 for folks that keep track of version numbers. Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 and the .NET Framework Beta 2 A cool part about the beta for developers...

Most developers have heard that Visual Studio and the .NET Framework released Beta2 of Orcas at the end of July. However, I have seen a few questions on how to get help or report issues. "Help! I can't figure out this bug or VS won't install!" ...

The setup for VS Orcas and the .NET Framework 3.5 has a list of pre-release installations that must be removed before installing. When you uninstall beta1 or a CTP, it should removed the components that would block; however in some cases you had more...

I have seen quite a few reports of the VS 2008 installation not being able to copy a specific file. This almost always means that there is a corruption on the media or in the ISO. The first trouble shooting step I take is to XCOPY the contents of the...

I am checking out an email tool that looks pretty interesting -- xobni. I have been using Facebook more lately and have been thinking about how email and Facebook are similar types of systems. There is a social graph, a good way to communication async...

This is an outbound link: http://bretrazor.cloudapp.net/ and another http://bretwp.azurewebsites.net/ In adCenter Analytics, there is a mechanism for adding shopping cart and conversion data to your scripts. okay now, track with...

The next phase test here is for paid search conversion tracking. Let's see what happens when you use adCenter first: Note the AdCenter Conversion Tracking is embedded in the page. Here... ::adCenter::

Just wanted to give folks a quick update on adCenter Analytics. We have been doing a lot of work on our next beta refresh and it will be out shortly. I will provide some details... stay tuned. Be sure to check out he community and marketing sites:...

Wow! What a difference a good UI framework and programming model can make in development. We have just implemented several new parts of the adCenter Analytics product in Silverlight in our latest update. These features were written much more quickly...

I am definitely not an expert on Windows 7. I have been using the beta and it is working well for me. I noticed this post from a several weeks ago about the upgrade thinking. Ars Techinca: Upgrading to Windows 7: what XP and Vista users need to know...

Trying out a cool new capability in Azure. It is in preview, and is a great direction IMO. http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/home/features/web-sites/ I am impressed at how easy it was to get started. Here is an example post: http://bretwp.azurewebsites...

Microsoft is continuing to build up the capability in Dynamics CRM. While you hear a lot about Sale Force, there is actually a lot going on in Dynamics. They just acquired a marketing optimization company with a lot of financials and analytical capability...

Really funnel's really are for all devleopers (or for all developers that have humans or other systems actually use their application.) Consider something like a simple task you yourapplication. Say, changing your password. This seems pretty simple...

Okay, so you may not be super impressed. However, appreciating the funnel and how the flow of customers works in our application and especially in our customer acquisition process is really, really important. When you mention The Funnel, most people think...

This Marketing Pilot announcement got me thinking about something pretty simple yet very important to any business. This thing should be understood and appreciated by developers… especially in a start-up but also in the enterprise. It is “The...

Yammer is actually pretty cool. I have started to use it today. It is kind of like Facebook for an enterprise. It is an interesting fusion of email, feeds, groups, sharepoint – get the real product overview here . So, why use it? Because if you...

I don't know about you but all the beta / CTP downloads can just drive you nuts. I work on VS and .NET Framework setup and a lot of issues people hit are by trying to fit a square peg through a round hole (that is, the builds aren't supposed to work together...