June, 2009

ReadyBoost technology takes advantage of the fact that flash memory offers lower seek times than hard disks. Essentially that means that your system can get to a given location on a flash disk more quickly than it can to a corresponding spot on a hard disk. Hard disks are faster for large sequential reads; flash disks are quicker for small, random reads. When a supported external memory device is available, ReadyBoost caches small chunks in flash memory and is thus able to retrieve those chunks, when needed, more quickly than it could if it relied only on the hard disk.

Because an external memory device can be removed without warning to the system, all data cached via ReadyBoost is encrypted and backed up on the hard disk (as well as being compressed). Encryption ensures that the data can’t be read on another system, and backup enables Windows to revert to the hard disk cache in the event that the ReadyBoost drive is removed.

Windows supports the following form factors for ReadyBoost:

•USB 2.0 flash disks

•Secure Digital (SD) cards

•CompactFlash cards

When you connect a device of one of these types to your system, Windows runs a quick performance test to see if the device meets minimum standards required for ReadyBoost. Those standards are:

•2.5 MB / second throughout for 4 KB random reads

•1.75 MB / second throughout for 512 KB random writes

In addition, the device must have at least 256 MB available for the ReadyBoost cache.

Note: ReadyBoost does not support external card readers. If Windows Explorer shows a volume letter for a drive without media (as it does, for example, for card-reader drives or floppy drives), inserting flash media for that volume letter will not give you a ReadyBoost drive. In addition, Windows Vista does not support multiple ReadyBoost drives. (Microsoft has indicated that multiple-drive support is under consideration for future versions.)

How much boost will you get from ReadyBoost?
As with so many other performance issues, it depends. If your internal memory is well above the amount you actually need, ReadyBoost won’t do much for you. If not, you should definitely see some performance improvement. To use ReadyBoost, follow these steps:

1. Plug a suitable external memory device into your computer. An AutoPlay window similar to the following will appear (it won’t say READYBOOST, unless you’ve already assigned that name to the volume, as we have here):

This window appears when you plug a ReadyBoost-compatible memory device into your computer

2. Click Speed up my system. If your system passes an initial ReadyBoost test, the Properties dialog box will appear, with the ReadyBoost tab selected:

Use the slider to set aside space on your memory device for ReadyBoost

•Select Use this device, and then adjust the slider to specify the amount of space you want to use for ReadyBoost. Then click OK.

How much of the external memory device you want to assign to ReadyBoost will depend on whether you also want to use the device for ordinary storage. Microsoft estimates that you can benefit from a ReadyBoost cache equal to approximately 150 percent of your system RAM—for example, a 1.5 GB ReadyBoost cache on a 1 GB systems.

Reference info:
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http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/596fb57f-cc9d-4ac5-a813-5c0830e9156a1033.mspx
Windows Vista Inside Out by Ed Bott, Carl Siechert, and Craig Stinson (Windows Vista Inside Out © 2007 Microsoft Corporation. To learn more about this book, visit the Microsoft Learning website.)

When i was searching for Classic ASP (not ASP.Net) related error code, i found the related information. Please find the list of ASP error codes that may be returned while an Active Server Pages (ASP) page is processing. This may vary depending on the version of Internet Information Services (IIS) that you use. This applies to IIS 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 & 6.0.

In this blogpost, we will try to create the Outlook Categories programmatically using Outlook Object Model API. Also we will assign the relevant colors and shortcuts to that. Whenever we try with Outlook Object Model, it’s relatively simple.

'[Code snippet to create Categories]

Private Sub CreateCategory()

    Dim objNameSpace As NameSpace

    Dim objCategory As Category    

    ' Obtain a NameSpace object reference

    Set objNameSpace = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")

    'Add the Category, set its color and shortcutkey, if any

    Set objCategory = objNameSpace.Categories.Add("SampleCat", OlCategoryColor.olCategoryColorDarkBlue, 
    _OlCategoryShortcutKey.olCategoryShortcutKeyNone)

   ' Clean up

    Set objCategory = Nothing

    Set objNameSpace = Nothing

End Sub

Happy programming!!

In this post, we will create the simple Outlook tasks programmatically using Outlook Object Model API & VBA. We do this by using the code snippet:

'[Code Snippet for creating Simple Tasks using Outlook Object Model API & VBA]

Private Sub CreateTasks()

    'Declare the Task item

    Dim objTask As TaskItem

    ' Create Outlook Task item

    Set objTask = Application.CreateItem(olTaskItem)

    'Define its values

    objTask.Subject = "Test Item"

    objTask.Body = "Test task item"

    objTask.Importance = olImportanceNormal

    objTask.Status = olTaskNotStarted

    objTask.NoAging = True

    'Save the task

    objTask.Save

    MsgBox "Task Created"

    ' Clean up.

    Set objTask = Nothing

End Sub

The Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Help can help you in the day-to-day administration of Exchange. Use this information to guide you through Exchange Server 2007 SP1 features, tasks, and administration procedures. This download contains a standalone version of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Help.

Note: The self extractor default install location is C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin. To view the most recent version of the Help file within Exchange Server, be sure to extract the Help file (exchhelp.chm) to the folder where the Help file is currently installed. You can search your local drive to find the location where the Help file is installed (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\Bin).

The Code Pack is a source-code library that provides access to the new Windows 7 features (and some related Windows Vista features) from managed code. These features are not available to developers today in the .NET Framework. Minimum .NET Framework version required to use this library is 3.5.

The individual features supported in this version (v0.90) of the library are:

• Windows 7 Taskbar Jump Lists, Icon Overlay, Progress Bar, Tabbed Thumbnails, and Thumbnail Toolbars.
• Known Folders, Windows 7 Libraries, non-file system containers, and a hierarchy of Shell Namespace entities.
• Windows 7 Explorer Browser Control.
• Shell property system.
• Windows Vista and Windows 7 Common File Dialogs, including custom controls.
• Windows Vista and Windows 7 Task Dialogs.
• Direct3D 11.0, Direct3D 10.1/10.0, DXGI 1.0/1.1, Direct2D 1.0, DirectWrite, Windows Imaging Component (WIC) APIs. (DirectWrite and WIC have partial support)
• Sensor Platform APIs
• Extended Linguistic Services APIs
• Power Management APIs
• Application Restart and Recovery APIs
• Network List Manager APIs
• Command Link control and System defined Shell icons.

• Tabbed Thumbnail and Thumbnail Toolbar features in Taskbar area.
• Direct3D 10.1/10.0, Direct2D 1.0, DirectWrite and WIC APIs in the DirectX area
• Power Management
• Application Restart and Recovery
• Command Link
• System defined Shell icons
• Network List Manager APIs

• Bug fixes in all areas.
• Many new and improved samples.
• Addition of VB.NET samples in some areas.

Happy programming!!

If you’re a Windows Mobile developer, then this is for you.

While this has been a much-awaited release for the developer community, some confusion has arisen in the media. To clarify, the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit (DTK) is not an SDK. The DTK contains emulators, gesture APIs, and samples useful for developing Windows Mobile 6.5 applications (both Standard & Professional Emulators available). Developers will still need to install Visual Studio and the Windows Mobile 6 SDK prior to running the tool kit installer.

The Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit adds documentation, sample code, header and library files, emulator images and tools to Visual Studio that let you build applications for Windows Mobile 6.5. This document contains important information about this package. The Windows Mobile 6 SDK must also be installed in order to use any of the Windows Mobile 6.5 Gesture API or samples. Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit comes with the following Emulator Images:

• Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional Square Emulator
• Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional QVGA Emulator
• Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional WQVGA Emulator
• Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional VGA Emulator
• Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional WVGA Emulator
• Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard Square Emulator
• Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard QVGA Emulator

Available locales:
0804 CHS Chinese Simplified
0409 USA English
0407 GER German
040c FRA French
0410 ITA Italian
0c0a ESN Spanish

A new set of APIs is being introduced that will enable application developers to take advantage of the new Windows Mobile 6.5 touch gesture framework. The gesture APIs allow an application to handle touch gesture input and provide a visually consistent experience with the rest of the device UI. Note that the gesture APIs are only available on the Windows Mobile Classic and Professional SKUs. The headers and libraries are installed in the Windows Mobile SDK\Pocket PC\ folder. Samples that make use of these APIs are installed into the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit\Samples\ folder.

Happy programming!!

Memory is often the source of performance problems, and you should always rule out memory problems before examining other areas of the system. Here’s an overview of counters that you’ll want to track to uncover memory, caching, and virtual memory (paging) bottlenecks.

I read this wonderful article. You can read the full article online now.

Each Active Directory forest has its own schema, which defines the objects and attributes that the directory service uses to store data.

When organizations have multiple Active Directory forests, IT administrators have to manage multiple Active Directory schemas; ensuring consistency between schemas is vital when managing multiple forests.

In the April issue of TechNet Magazine, John Policelli guides you through a streamlined process to manage multiple Active Directory schemas.

Read the full article online now.