Ever wanted to copy a link from a network file share into an email, and wound up having to traverse the path, click on the address bar, copy the details out, paste it in and then type the filename itself (with the appropriate quotation marks? With Windows...

If you're doing a fresh install of Windows Vista, you'll probably use a bootable DVD so that you're able to reformat the system partition. But sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where you could really use a command prompt as you go through...

Fundamentals of Memory Management Windows has both physical and virtual memory. Memory is managed in pages, with processes demanding it as necessary. Memory pages are 4KB in size (both for physical and virtual memory); but you can also allocate memory...

Not a huge release this one, but we've just shipped an update for Silverlight 2 that fixes a number of minor bugs that have been reported over the last couple of months. Get it while it's hot, here: Silverlight 2 GDR1 end-user runtime Silverlight...

A lot, it turns out. Some long-time readers may remember my post of a year or two back where I set a fun little challenge to test what could be accomplished with just a single element of XAML . In the preparation for MIX09 , the team created a competition...

It's a shame that we have to produce an installation guide to help developers get the various required components for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server up and running, but that's one of the vagaries of beta software. It's clear that not everyone is...

This entry starts by looking at the new features in Windows Forms 2.0, and then proceeds to describe the migration strategy for existing Windows Forms 1.0 applications that are to be migrated to .NET Framework 2.0. New Windows Forms Controls We...

I'm not a heavy Visual FoxPro user - although it is installed on my development machine - but I've often admired some of its capabilities. Although it doesn't mesh desperately closely with the general .NET architecture, it is a relatively powerful database...

A basic question I'm often asked is "where can I go to learn about WPF?" I like to answer this question here on the blog every now and again, both for new readers and to take account of new or changed materials. Here are a few useful resources that...

As everyone must know by now, the Windows 7 Release Candidate is broadly released and available for download from the Windows site . The RC build is essentially our dress rehearsal: we’ve hit feature complete, stabilized the release, followed the active...

The first three days of next week are going to be crammed full of announcements as MIX gets under way (click the hyperlink above to view the virtual conference site, where you'll be able to keep up-to-date on everything that's going on). In any big week...

Enumerating the applications that I'm going to showcase as part of this portfolio on my whiteboard earlier today, I started to panic at what I've just signed myself up for - I've got lots of writing to do over the next week or two! I was quite surprised...

To coincide with the launch of the Silverlight 1.0 Beta, my team has been working hard on a great series of intermediate-level screencasts on Silverlight that are just hitting the wires now. Each video is about five minutes in length, and covers a "how...

Around the world, people are preparing to gather together to celebrate the holiday season, to give and receive gifts and to sing carols. This year sees the start of a new tradition that our children and our grandchildren will preserve and pass on: the...

Here's a consolidated list of all the key downloads you'll need to update your developer workstation to the latest and greatest technologies announced this morning: Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Windows Vista / Windows Server 2008 (x86) Windows Vista / Windows...

I've been holding off from highlighting the New York Times Reader as one of the applications in my portfolio for a few weeks, even though it clearly is a polished example of how WPF can transform user experience. Today, we can finally reveal one more...

It’s been a little while in coming, but I’m delighted to announce that we’ve shipped the latest release of Family.Show , our reference application for WPF development. Family.Show started a couple of years ago, when WPF was in its infancy and a few of...

One of the favorite things about my job is being able to share really cool new content with you all, and so today is a good day to end the week on! Since we completed the Family.Show WPF reference sample, we've been working away in partnership with a...

I've been collating a few notes on installing the PDC05 "The Goods" discs that were distributed to attendees. Hopefully these tips will help get you started. I'll be updating this list based on reader comments or as new issues are discovered. [UPDATE...

As many people will have noticed, we released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 this week ( read about the notable changes here ). Aside from the inevitable bug fixes and enhancements to support new hardware types, one of the underlying changes is that SP1...

Creating Reports Reporting Services is built on SQL Server 2000, and the metadata definitions are stored in a database. On top of that, the Report Server contains a web service and a Windows service. The web service provides the interface into the system...

Over the next week or so, I want to put a bit of context behind some of the announcements from PDC, particularly the ones that got glossed over amidst the excitement over Windows 7 and Windows Azure. I’m going to start with highlighting some of the work...

The Silverlight 1.1 alpha bits don't currently have much in the way of controls. The infrastructure is there (you can derive from System.Windows.Control, for instance), and we include a few early sample controls (button, slider and so on, including source...

I've been playing around with some of the accessibility and UI automation features in Windows Vista recently, with the view to writing a short article on the topic. En route , I came across a somewhat remarkable discovery (to me, at least). I'm sure...

Adam Kinney wrote a good blog entry last week on the importance for site authors of considering the first-time experience of a visitor. I guess most readers of this blog have Silverlight installed today, but at least in these first months as we focus...