If you've got a Windows Mobile device such as a Pocket PC or Smartphone attached to your computer, you might want to take a moment or two out to check that you've got the latest version of ActiveSync installed. I thought mine was up to date, but it seems...

1. Creating an n-Tier Design Firstly, create a data layer as a class library that encapsulates your SQL. This layer will typically return DataSets or DataReaders , or indeed your own object that implements IListSource or another bindable interface. If...

Michele Leroux Bustamente presented an insightful guide to the extensible capabilities of the ASP.NET architecture. IIS and ASP.NET Configuration HTTP requests in IIS arrive at the appropriate extension: aspnet_isapi.dll or asp.dll . ASP.NET requests...

SQL Server 2005 contains a completely rearchitected web services layer. Rather than relying on IIS to provide the web protocol stack, Yukon merely uses HTTP.SYS (the new kernel mode driver in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Service Pack 2). This means...

We're delighted to announce the arrival of Esther Alice Sneath, born at 9:50pm BST, 9th May 2004 by Caesarean section. She weighs 8lb 7.5ozs, and is beautiful! Louise and Esther are doing very well and all of us are very thankful to God for the second...

I've already blogged about this topic in some depth ( 1 2 3 4 ), so I've highlighted a few notes of interest from Ramachandran and Makesh's session: Restricting the CLR Not all of the Base Class Libraries in the .NET Framework are available in the...

ClickOnce (a new runtime feature in Whidbey) is designed to solve many of the traditional problems associated with the deployment and maintenance of a .NET client application. It takes away much of the traditional pain of generating installer files and...

I posted a little while back about the changes to Windows XP Service Pack 2 . At the time we shipped a document that described those changes in great detail. Yesterday a new version of this document was released that added a ton of updates and extra details...

As I'm sure most people know by now, we've made an updated build of Windows "Longhorn" (build 4074) available. My colleague Mike Taulty pointed to a webcast from Dave Massy that highlights the progress that's been made since the bits we handed out at...

Tips for OneNote Create separate work and personal folders and store everything else below that level Can create custom note flags and then search easily for them; for example, to store items for follow-up with your line manager or (for academic...

You might have noticed that the Microsoft UK site has had a bit of a make-over. The intentions behind this reworking are all good: to take full advantage of ASP.NET and to provide personalised information relevant to the profile you choose (for example...

Visual Studio is moving from a developer -focused to a development -focused environment. Visual Studio Team System is an extensible life-cycle tools platform that helps software teams collaborate to reduce the complexity of delivering solutions. The three...

After someone posted a question internally about getting hold of the limited edition Xbox Crystal Clear Edition, someone replied with an amusing link to an Ebay auction that made wildly more than the seller had possibly imagined. Read the advert then...

I'm currently sitting next to Roger Jennings, who's the author of the forthcoming Microsoft Press book Introducing Microsoft InfoPath . Roger tells me that this is the only book on the market that includes the significant changes in the programming model...

Don Box and Doug Purdy kicked off the Connected Systems track with a typically off-the wall, outspoken thesis of development. Although this session was nominally described as a technology overview, it would better have been described as a philosophy,...

Steve McConnell is the author of Code Complete , one of the classic software engineering titles that should be on the bookshelf of any professional developer. I first read this book when I started out in software development, and rediscovered it again...

OK, so I'm heading off to TechEd US in San Diego tomorrow. Obviously this conference will be but a pale imitation of the main event - call it a dress rehearsal, if you will! There's a pre-conference press workshop on Whidbey to which I'll be accompanying...

There are some really cool new capabilities for smart device development in Visual Studio 2005. This is one area of Whidbey that I've barely touched up until now, but I've just been wowed by the breadth and range of improvements. For example: Skins...

I've been pondering about the perpetual problem of cost for attendees for TechEd Europe - I've heard from a number of people directly or indirectly that they'd love to go to the conference, but in the current economic climate for contractors etc. etc...