What is the difference between the client and full framework profiles? Which one should I target? The use of profiles has changed considerably from .Net 3.5 to .Net 4. In .Net 3.5 a client profile was introduced for Windows XP to be able to have a...

The December update to .Net Framework 3.5 SP1 data services has been re-released after addressing some issues with the original version. Data Services are REST-based web services that expose a data model that can be consumed by web clients. Data Services...

The thread pool for asynchronous IO threads attempts to automatically regulate the number of idle threads to balance the resource consumption of threads with the responsiveness of servicing tasks. When there is not much work to be done, idle threads are...

Early documentation is available of a walkthrough for building a domain service using WCF RIA services . A domain service uses application logic running on the server to provide data validation and access control in a way that integrates the service with...

Chris Lovett has a nice video demonstrating how to debug managed memory leaks by visualizing the runtime object reference graph produced by the gcroot debugger command. The graph visualization may help you spot cycles or other unexpected references that...

WCF uses the http.sys kernel-mode http driver on most platforms to receive HTTP messages. The kernel-mode driver allows different services to share the same port for HTTP communication and, when running in IIS, allows messages to be received while the...

Visual Studio 2008 added a feature to automatically attach to a service in your solution when the code you're debugging makes a request to that service. By automatically attaching to the service you're able to stop on breakpoints in the service code without...

Can I run code under a flowed-in transaction from within a message inspector? The setup work for the service transaction is done shortly before the actual call to the implementation of the service operation. The service transaction is not guaranteed...

How do I debug calls that go through WCF? The easiest way to get started debugging through the framework is to enable source server support in Visual Studio. Source server support allows you to start debugging and have Visual Studio automatically...

Sometime after .Net 4 is released it will be available as an optional update on Windows Update. You can configure a machine to test this update process now by electing to receive a beta update. After electing to try the beta update, you'll be offered...

The contents of the Visual Studio 2010 and Windows Azure training kits have again gotten an update to add new material. The training kits are collections of presentations, hands on labs, and demos related to the new features in each release. The Visual...

At the MIX 2010 conference Microsoft is inviting several presenters from the community to come and give sessions. You can vote on the entries and speakers you'd like to see at MIX but the deadline for submitting votes ends tomorrow. To vote, go to the...

I've gone ahead and added another category to the technologies of interest to WCF developers . This entry covers the Managed Extensibility Framework. The Managed Extensibility Framework makes it easier to create and reuse extensible applications by...

Why are the code files for a WCF service running in IIS copied to the Temporary ASP.NET Files folder? When an assembly file is loaded, that file is locked to prevent changes while the application is running. A service that is running in IIS will continue...

How can I configure a client or server to handle messages even if a required header isn't understood? The SOAP mustUnderstand attribute on a header is used to indicate that processing the header is required in order to properly handle the message...

The Windows networking team has released a fix for accessing the remote endpoint address of a socket that may affect WCF users. When an asynchronous call is made to a thread working with the socket, and the thread exits before the asynchronous call is...

The Managed Extensibility Framework makes it easier to create and reuse extensibility applications by providing a standardized model for discovering and composing application plugins. This allows you to get an off the shelf component model without having...

How do I asynchronously call a service operation without having a typed service contract on the client? An untyped contract is one where there is a single input or output parameter of type Message. Using the Message class rather than strong types...

TechEd this year runs from June 7th to June 10th in New Orleans, LA. As usual there is also a preconference available that runs a selection of long seminars the day before on June 6th. Registration for TechEd 2010 is available now with the early discount...

How do I remove or change the framing headers used for a TCP connection? By writing a transport channel you can control exactly what information is read or written to the TCP socket. An example of doing this is in the WSE interoperability sample ...