SecAnnotate can be used to analyze your assemblies, especially APTCA assemblies in order to find transparency violations without needing code coverage from a test case.  The static analysis provided by SecAnnotate is valuable in ensuring that your assembly is fully correct from a transparency perspective...

The Function Discovery API, introduced in Vista, serves as an abstraction layer between applications and devices. This API allows applications to discover devices by function rather than lower level details such as bus or connection type. The Function Discovery Browser is a utility that displays information...

The upcoming release of the Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 contains many new tools, some of which are brand new, some which are being reintroduced into the SDK and some of which are being made available via the SDK for the first time. These tools will be found under %ProgramFiles...

Did you ever wonder what Windows SDK tools, headers, libraries, and reference assemblies are included in the different Visual Studio 2008 SKUs? These Windows SDK components are embedded in all Visual Studio 2008 SKUs. If you are looking for a particular file, you may not need to install a separate Windows...

I’ve been writing about some of the useful but sometimes overlooked tools in the Windows Software Development Kit for Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 . For this installment, let’s have look at couple of tools that are related in that they are both used for testing. Check out my other ‘hidden gems...

This article describes the use of the Windows SDK Configuration tool, which is included in the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 and works with Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, including Visual Studio 2008 Express SKUs. A serious bug has been discovered with the...

Charles Oppermann on the Speech team wrote a post on the new Speech-related content that ships in the recently released Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 . The content in this new Windows SDK completely replaces the older SAPI 5.1 SDK and supports development on Windows XP, Windows...

The UI Spy tool did not ship in the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 , released February, 2008. We’re working to get this great tool back into the next SDK release. If you need UISpy, you can find it in the earlier Windows SDK for Vista Update . If you don’t want the entire...

Windows Installer Verbose Log Analyzer (WiLogUtl.exe) I, like many before me, have downloaded the Windows SDK, installed it, and moved on to more pressing problems. Other than digging into header files, I had rarely looked at what else might be included. As the builder of the SDK, I now have a...

This workaround applies to: · The prerelease Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 (RC0), September, 2007 · The prerelease Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 (IDS04), July, 2007 Guidgen.exe fails with the following error: System.ComponentModel...

Microsoft’s prestigious Engineering Excellence Chairman's Award was awarded to Mike Fanning, Krzysztof Cwalina , and Brad Abrams for the design of FxCop , which ships in the Windows SDK, as a standalone tool and in Visual Studio 2005 and later. The Chairman’s Award is given for contributions that...

Do you have feedback for the Windows SDK? We want to hear from you. Email your feedback to us . The Windows SDK provides all of the necessary headers, libraries, and tools needed to build Windows applications that make use of the Win32 API set and the .NET Framework, and includes samples to illustrate...