David Boschmans Weblog

David Boschmans

tommer — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:03:00 GMT

This post was written by Tom Mertens of Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg.

It's with deep sadness that we inform you that David Boschmans has unexpectedly passed away on 7 August at the age of 32. David was a fantastic colleague and friend, always prepared to help others, motivating everyone with his enthusiasm and energy. During his career at Microsoft, he received recognition and admiration from the developer community, customers and partners, from his local colleagues as well as colleagues at Microsoft EMEA and Corp.

Our hearts and thoughts go out to David's wife and daughter. You can leave a message to David's family at http://david.vsdotnet.be.

Thanks David, for everything! We will never forget you...

The employees of Microsoft Belgium & Luxembourg,
and especially his nearest colleagues of the Belux DPE team.

Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2.0

MSDNArchive — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:56:35 GMT

[Via Michael] Information Architects Japan Interface & Strategy has created a v2 of the web trend map. It shows the 200 most successful websites on the web, ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective.

Technorati tags: Web Trend Map v2, Web 2.0

New Microsoft Partner Portal for Belux

MSDNArchive — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:27:46 GMT

An & Lien, both members of the Partner Team in Microsoft Belux, intensively worked on re-vamping the partner portal.

A snapshot of the major changes:

A clear structure which allows to find easily what you are looking for;
More content available in Dutch & French, so reduced linking to the worldwide partner portal;
One standard homepage, figuring as a newspaper, where partners can find the latest information;
Clear, complete and new sections on Licensing & the Partner Program;
A new event registration tool within the marketing factory;
An overview of the trainings per competency, which allows partners to easily find the appropriate training;

You can go check it out at:

Dutch site: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/partner/
French site: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/fr/partner/

From Tuesday on the portal will be accessible through the following URL: www.microsoft.be/partner. Till then the exisiting portal remains on-line.

Technorati tags: Microsoft Partner portal, Microsoft Partner Program

Link dump: User Experience, Web Platform, Office System and more

MSDNArchive — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:47:36 GMT

Here are some interesting links that I found while catching up on blogs:

User Experience:

Your Britain in pictures: BBC + Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth: The BBC is collaborating with Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth to create three- dimensional representations of some of the most dramatic buildings in Britain by combining hundreds of different photographs. Sit back and enjoy a virtual tour of some of Britain's most striking buildings.
Bart has a list of Microsoft Virtual Earth updates for Belgium
Rebuilding Microsoft Outlook with WPF: This Hands-On Lab will take you to the next level of Windows user interface development. Through the power of WPF (.NET 3.0, Blend and Visual Studio 2005) you will be able to build a replica of the Outlook 2007 UI in a couple of hours.
2x Brad Abrams: a) Introducing Acropolis on .NET Rocks! #248 and b) Brad on Silverlight in Tom's PodLeaders podcast
Lynda.com are now offering free Expression training which can be downloaded without a login [Via Ed Dunhill]:

Web Platform

Silverlight with JavaScript tutorials from wynapse.com: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06
A sample for Controlling Page Flow with Workflow Foundation from Matthew Winkler.
New ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit Release [via ScottGu]

Office System

Maarten has a compilation of OpenXML News. Also, a good read to stay up to date with the latest developments in the OpenXML space.
Productivity from Microsoft at Work:
- Audiocast: Top 10 tips for Microsoft Office Excel 2007 - Be more productive when working on spreadsheets by using tips in this 60-minute podcast.
- Audiocast: Top 10 tips for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 - Create better presentations by using tips in this 60-minute podcast.
- Audiocast: Top 10 tips for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 - Get tips on how to better manage your e-mail in this 60-minute podcast.
Microsoft SDK for Open XML Formats: strongly typed part classes for use with Open XML documents

Security

Windows Vista - 6 Month Vulnerability Report

Windows Server

Windows Home Server goes RC - Sign up via Microsoft Connect
Windows Server 2008: some general information & webcasts and a set of links for developers & it pro's

Sample App

.NET StockTrader Sample Application: An End-to-End Sample Application Illustrating Windows Communication Foundation and .NET Enterprise Technologies

Technorati tags: User Experience, Expression, WPF, Acropolis, Silverlight, ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Office, Open XML, Security, Windows Server 2008

Exposing a Workflow as a WCF Service in Visual Studio 2008 beta 1

MSDNArchive — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:20:02 GMT

Serge Luca has created a walkthrough on "Exposing a Workflow as a WCF Service in Visual Studio 2008 beta 1". In this post he guides the reader step-by-step through the new Send and Receive activities in Visual Studio 2008 beta 1 (formerly "Orcas") and in the .Net Framework 3.5. From creating the service contract, adding a workflow component, hosting the service and finally consuming it from a client application; all steps are illustrated with screen shots.

This is basically a summary of a session Serge delivered for Microsoft Belux. The article can be considered as an update to this article.

Technorati tags: Visual Studio 2008 beta 1, .NET Framework 3.5, WF, WCF

Developing for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: 2 new articles

MSDNArchive — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:08:46 GMT

A couple of weeks ago I reported that Patrick Tisseghem's book on SharePoint Server 2007 was available in bookstores. Well it looks he just couldn't stop writing! Now two new articles on "Development Tools and Techniques for Working with Code in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0" are available on MSDN.

Part 1: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530302.aspx

Summary: Learn the skills you need to develop for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, about the differences from traditional ASP.NET development, about the required development environment, and the steps to build a Windows SharePoint Services solution with Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

Part 2: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530301.aspx

Summary: Explore Windows SharePoint Services solutions, solution architecture, and techniques for creating, deploying, maintaining, and upgrading Windows SharePoint Services solutions.

This first article provides insight into the skills you need to develop for Windows SharePoint Services, the differences from traditional ASP.NET development, the development environment that is required, and the steps you must take to build a Windows SharePoint Services solution with Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. The second part of the article explores the concept of Windows SharePoint Services solutions, addressing the architecture of a solution, and the techniques for creating, deploying, maintaining, and upgrading Windows SharePoint Services solutions. This article also includes walkthroughs that show the different approaches developers and administrators can take.

Technorati tags: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

June Update for the Office Compatibility Pack

MSDNArchive — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:45:42 GMT

There's an updated version of the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats available. By installing the Compatibility Pack in addition to Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, or Office 2003, you will be able open, edit, and save files using the file formats new to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007.

This update of the Office Compatibility Pack include the fixes that were provided in the file format updates for Word 2007 and the existing Office Compatibility Pack in May. This KB "Issues that are fixed in the update to the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats" lists the changes.

The link for the download on Microsoft Download Center has not changed: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en.

Technorati tags: Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, Office File Formats

Outlook Connector joins Outlook 2007 and Windows Live Hotmail

MSDNArchive — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:44:23 GMT

While still recovering at home after surgery I'm catching up on blogs and mail. I came accross a new connector to connect my Windows Live account with Outlook 2007 (my default email client). So far I've been using Windows Live Mail to read the email of my WIndows Live Hotmail account. Today I decided to install the Outlook Connector.

Microsoft Office Outlook Connector: With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free! Calendar, tasks and notes can also be accessed and managed in Outlook for accounts with a paid subscription. And the Outlook Team is now blogging!

Here's a quick walkthrough on installing the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector on top of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007. Run (as administrator) the OutlookConnector.exe that can be downloaded from here and follow the screen shots below.

Accept the License Terms:

Fill out your customer information and make sure Microsoft Outlook 2007 (in this case) is not running; the "outlook.exe" process should not appear in the processes list of the WIndows Task Manager.

Complete the installation wizard and your done!

The next time when starting up Microsoft Outlook 2007 a new "Microsoft Office Outlook Connector" screen (see below) will popup. Fill out your e-mail address & password and fill out the name you want to appear in the receiver's inbox.

Filling out the Name field like this results in this when sending a mail:

After hitting the "OK" button a new account was added to Microsoft Outlook 2007. Restart Outlook. (Note: Clicking OK on this dialog does NOT automatically closes Outlook).

After restarting Outlook 2007 the new created account is being synched into Outlook.

You can see the details of your Windows Live Hotmail account popping up in the status bar (you can move the toolbar around) of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

The mailbox shows up in the Mail Folders area through which you can access e-mail messages and contacts for free.

Access to your contacts:

"Calendar, tasks and notes can also be accessed and managed in Outlook for accounts with a paid subscription."

While the Outlook Connector is free, it only synchronizes Mail and Contacts at no charge. For Calendar synchronization, a premium subscription is required. You can still use the Outlook Connector calendar in Outlook, however appointments and meetings won't synchronize to the Hotmail calendar. You can upgrade your account to a Premium Subscription service via a) MSN Premium or b) Office Live Essentials/Premium.

In this case I already own a MSN Premium account (or a full version of Windows Live Hotmail) and can access synchronize my tasks and notes.

In can also access the calendar of my Windows Live Hotmail account in Outlook 2007 and book meetings. When sharing your calendar with someone else there's a full approval workflow triggered that lets you choose to "Show all of your appointment details" or "Only when you are free or busy".

I now have all my Windows Live Hotmail data stored in an .OST file. This file is by default located in "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook" when using Windows Vista. This offline folder keeps a local copy of my mailbox on my computer.

The big advantage is that I can use all my favorite Outlook 2007 features like search (you can include the .ost file in the index!), categories, category search folders, color coding, quick click flags and the to do bar, etc on my Hotmail mailbox items. I also have shared my agenda with my wife's Windows Live account agenda . No need anymore to have a weekly/daily sync meeting. I will keep it installed and assess how I'll be using this. I've been pretty happy so far with Windows Live Mail so it's still uncertain if I spend enough time in my Hotmail mailbox to use the Outlook 2007 features. Also, I already have quite overloaded e-mail box setup in Outlook 2007 as primary account. Additionally I do read all my RSS feeds (700+) from within Outlook. This works very good but I fear that the amounts of data to be loaded everytime I start Outlook will slow down my machine. In the end installing a productivity tool like the Outlook Connector shouldn't negatively impact my productivity ...

Despite it's still in beta it's worth giving a try. I installed the English version but it's also available in other languages. I also installed it on my wife's laptop. She's very happy with this as she was using Outlook for her "school" email (Exchange based) and the web client for her Hotmail account. Now she has access to all her data from one place: Outlook 2007.
On the download page is also a link to the "Microsoft Office Outlook Connector 12.0 Beta FAQ" which contains some more tips & tricks.

Technorati tags: Microsoft Office Outlook Connector, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Mail, MSN Premium, Outlook 2007

5 Belgian User Groups to host Community Day 2007 (June 28)

MSDNArchive — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 22:29:38 GMT

Later this week the Belgian Community organizes its first Belgian Community Day.

The Belgian community has a very strong reputation internationally with many individuals making their mark in their fields of expertise. Lots of individuals, like yourself, are hungry for more information about the many Microsoft products and technologies. In addition to the technical information, there is also very often the need to just socialize with other persons within the same domain of expertise.

Five belgian usergroups, BIWUG, VISUG, SQLUG, IT-Talks, and Pro-Exchange, have decided to combine their efforts to organize a joint-event just before summer starts. This event will be the biggest community event in Belgium! So if you are eager to learn, eager to get answers to your questions and eager to socialize, come and join us for our very first Belgian Community Day.

The event will take place at the premises of SemCom in Keerbergen on Thursday, the 28th of June 2007.

Want to attend? Register now!

Technorati tags: Community Day, BIWUG, VISUG, SQLUG, IT-Talks, Pro-Exchange

New downloads: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD and Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD

MSDNArchive — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:09:43 GMT

Using the power of virtualization, you can now quickly evaluate Microsoft and partner solutions through a series of pre-configured Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs). You can download the VHDs and evaluate them for free in your own environment without the need for dedicated servers or complex installations. Check out the VHDs from "Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk".

Since last week 2 new Microsoft Office VHDs are available for download. The details can be found below:

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 VHD

Brief Description
This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Overview
The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd.
This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight. Office SharePoint Server 2007 supports all intranet, extranet, and Web applications across an enterprise within one integrated platform, instead of relying on separate fragmented systems. Additionally, this collaboration and content management server provides IT professionals and developers with the platform and tools they need for server administration, application extensibility, and interoperability.
This fully functional pre-configured VHD provides you a trial software will automatically expire after 30 days.
This is a preconfigured virtual machine contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. Virtual Server 2005 R2 is required to run this VHD. Please refer to the system requirements section for more details.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=67f93dcb-ada8-4db5-a47b-df17e14b2c74&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD

Brief Description
Test Drive two new Microsoft platforms, Windows Vista Enterprise and Office 2007 Professional, and experience how they work better together.

Overview
This VHD contains both the 30 day edition of Windows Vista Enterprise Edition and an evaluation of Office 2007 Professional which includes Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Word. See how with these new platforms can simplify how people work together, find information and improve business insight, help protect and manage content, and reduce IT costs and improve security. Test drive today to experience how Windows Vista and Office 2007 work better together!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f9956176-cf66-478b-b20d-b9b92dd0dbfa&DisplayLang=en

Technorati tags: VHD, Microsoft Office SharePöint Server 2007, Microsoft Office 2007 Professional