Software & Services Bret Grinslade

Vista and Windows XP Upgrade to Windows 7

bretgrinslade — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:09:00 GMT

I am definitely not an expert on Windows 7. I have been using the beta and it is working well for me. I noticed this post from a several weeks ago about the upgrade thinking.

Ars Techinca: Upgrading to Windows 7: what XP and Vista users need to know

On a related note, I have been using more and more ClickOnce apps. It is really great when app deployment just works. I think we all appreciate that.

All of this got me thinking about Silverlight. As I have posted before, we are actively developing much of our new UI in Silverlight. With MIX09 just around the corner there are a lot of good resources popping up on Silverlight. Check out the Robert Hess interview of Brad Abrams on Silverligth 3.0

Silverlight - A big step for development

bretgrinslade — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:20:00 GMT

Wow! What a difference a good UI framework and programming model can make in development.

We have just implemented several new parts of the adCenter Analytics product in Silverlight in our latest update. These features were written much more quickly than in our AJAX implementation, the look better, perform faster, and were much easier to debug.

Here is a deeper look at how we used Silverlight in adCenter Analytics.

This is a bit of an experiment for adCenter. We haven't moved the whole web UI over ... yet. But it has been a great development productivity gain and improved our overall user experience. Given that we can leverage this in a WPF client if we want in the future, I suspect we will push more this direction.

adCenter Analytics Update

bretgrinslade — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:33:00 GMT

Just wanted to give folks a quick update on adCenter Analytics. We have been doing a lot of work on our next beta refresh and it will be out shortly. I will provide some details... stay tuned.

Be sure to check out he community and marketing sites:

http://adcentercommunity.com/blogs/analytics/

and

http://advertising.microsoft.com/search-advertising/adcenter-analytics

Paid Search Conversion Tracking

bretgrinslade — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 22:01:00 GMT

The next phase test here is for paid search conversion tracking.

Let's see what happens when you use adCenter first:

Note the AdCenter Conversion Tracking is embedded in the page. Here... ::adCenter::

Conversion tracking

bretgrinslade — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:44:00 GMT

In adCenter Analytics, there is a mechanism for adding shopping cart and conversion data to your scripts.

okay now, track with cart:
okay now, just the cart:

Email tools?

bretgrinslade — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:37:00 GMT

I am checking out an email tool that looks pretty interesting -- xobni. I have been using Facebook more lately and have been thinking about how email and Facebook are similar types of systems. There is a social graph, a good way to communication async, and a sense of dealing first with "who" then what. I pretty much always read the name of the person before I think about the contact/mail message. Same in Facebook.

Have you used xobni yet? What is good about it? What is bad? Do you use facebook too? How are they different?

Here is a link if you want to check it out.

Try adCenter Analytics Today!

bretgrinslade — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:45:00 GMT

Microsoft’s web analytics product, Gatineau, has been updated and branded as adCenter Analytics. You can request an invite code to the controlled beta at:

http://advertising.microsoft.com/advertising/adcenter-analytics-registration

Mel Carlson has posted some information about the product on the adCenter blog . Ian Thomas has posted a good review of the top adCenter Analytics features.

Silverlight and Web Analytics at MIX08

bretgrinslade — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 23:18:00 GMT

MIX 2008 in Las Vegas, the Next web now, is sold out. This promises to be a great event with lots of interesting conversation. The best part of MIX for me is that it is really an open, multi-way dialog and not just a bunch of Microsoft speak.

Check out some of the cool sessions and news at MIX 2008

I will be doing a presentation with Aaron Fossum from Omniture, William Garrison from WebTrends, and Michael Scherotter from Microsoft. We will be discussing now RIA and Silverlight in particular can be tracked and understood through web analytics.

Here are the details from https://content.visitmix.com/public/sessions.aspx

Silverlight and Web Analytics

Friday, March 7 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM, Delfino 4101A

Speaker(s): Aaron Fossum, William Garrison, Bret Grinslade, Michael Scherotter

Audience(s): Business, Technical

Session Type: Panel

Rich Interactive Applications (RIAs) and media players built with Microsoft Silverlight are easily integrated with web analytics services like WebTrends On Demand, Omniture SiteCatalyst, and Microsoft AdCenter Analytics. In this panel, you will learn from experts at each of these companies about the different ways that Web analytics services collect data about web usage behavior and allow businesses to measure how web sites perform against business goals. Each panelist will discuss how to incorporate their company's web analytics services into Silverlight applications and then take advantage of the separation between the design in XAML and code in JavaScript to do effective A/B testing.

Please bring your questions or come by to say if you are at MIX.

Working for Atlas?

bretgrinslade — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:06:00 GMT

There has been a lot written recently about Yahoo and Microsoft. Right now, I won’t go in to that, but I did run across a fun page. Microsoft recently joined with AQuantive and one of the key sets of technology and interesting people to work with are from Atlas which are amazing tools for Advertisers and publishers. I have had the pleasure of working with these guys in my new role working on Media and Website Analytics on a new team called Audience Intelligence. We are working to build a true end-to-end platform for interacting with customers through the internet… and there is a lot of work to do. My role is to help people that own websites and other media to understand how customers interact with them so they can provide the best experiences.

However, the real point of this post is to show that there is really some genuine benefit to Microsoft in bringing in these new folks with different points of view. Here is an example of what I mean. Check out this fun game from our friends in Atlas….

Beat The Man Down

This is not really your typical Microsoft recruiting piece and … well hopefully this kind of spirit is infusing Microsoft’s culture and will help us work better for everyone that uses our software.

Thoughts and comments always appreciated.

.NET Framework 3.5 install layout

bretgrinslade — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:54:00 GMT

In a forum post, a user reported that he cannot use the web boot strapper to install since the downloads are blocked by their corporate fire wall.

You can use the the "big" redistributable package will allow you to install NETFX without downloading anything. There is another trick you can use once if you can get the You can run the full bootstrapper with the /x command line option which will extract all of the files to a local or network location. From there you can install the .NET Framework 3.5 and will install from that local layout.

.NET Framework 3.5 full install package (x86 and x64) - http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/0/f/60fc5854-3cb8-4892-b6db-bd4f42510f28/dotnetfx35.exe

dotnetfx35.exe /x

\wcu\dotNetFramework\dotNetFx35setup.exe

Let me know if you try this and if it works for you.

-Bret

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 are released!

bretgrinslade — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 03:27:00 GMT

The release formerly known as Orcas has shipped. This is a great release and builds on the foundation of the .NET Framework 2.0. This release also includes the .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0 SP1 bits.

Aaron Stebner has a great post with the download links for Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 and some details. Aaron's blog is always the first place to check for trouble shoot advice and the most current links.

A few notable setup changes in this release.

Visual Studio Trial upgrades work. So install the trial today, and when you get your full copy, just insert the key via setup on the DVD or Add/Remove programs
The .NET Framework installer only downloads the components your computer needs in order to install... so no Vista bits on XP and not 64 files for x86 etc.

So check it out and have fun. There are so many new things in the product... but I really love LINQ and having designers for WPF in Visual Studio!

Let us know hwo it works.

-Bret

BTW, please post setup issues on the forums.

Visual Studio -- http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=26&SiteID=1

.NET Framework -- http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=1020&SiteID=1

How to report an installation or setup problem with VS2008 beta or .NET Framework 3.5 beta

bretgrinslade — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:33:00 GMT

My team owns the installation experience for Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. One difficulty in the setup and deployment space is that the real world is a lot more complicated and messy than we can re-create in the test lab.

That is where you can help.

If you have run VS2008 or NETFX 3.5 setup and have had a problem, you can send your setup logs to our team. Aaron has a good post on "understanding the setup logs." We don’t promise to know what the fix is for your issue, but we will try to come up with a work around and to identify the problem. We add the work-arounds to our blogs and to the online readme.

To make this easy, we have created a Hotmail mailbox you can mail your logs to:

vs2008deployment@hotmail.com

And we have posted a tool you can use to collect the logs.

VS and NETFX Setup Log Collection Tool

So, if you are seeing a setup problem. You can go the forums to post a question. You can review Aaron Stebner's blog and review the readme to see if this is a know issue. Here are some of the recent issues Aaron has documented.

If you are still stuck, this is probably not a known issue. In that case, please send us your logs.

BTW, we do allow you to send logs via the check box that sends feedback to Microsoft. However, the way we have implemented that on Vista, they don’t get uploaded immediately and they take 30 days before Vista prompts you to allow them to be uploaded. So, logs from Vista are especially appreciated!

Installing VS 2008 Beta2 VSSetupWatson\DW20.EXE cannot copy…

bretgrinslade — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:49:00 GMT

I have seen quite a few reports of the VS 2008 installation not being able to copy a specific file. This almost always means that there is a corruption on the media or in the ISO.

The first trouble shooting step I take is to XCOPY the contents of the DVD or ISO to a local hard drive. If the xcopy succeeds, then the media is probably not corrupted. In this case, you can just install from the hard drive by running the setup.exe from the folder you copied the files into. VS and NETFX can install from a network location or from a local media in a sub-directory.

If the XCOPY fails, you probably have a corruption. Basically you will need to re-download the ISO or get a new media.

One option is to try the Microsoft Secure Content Downloader from Microsoft Research. This is a limited time trial, so it might not be available when you check the link.

Pre-Release software blocking Visual Studio Beta2 installation

bretgrinslade — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 22:38:00 GMT

The setup for VS Orcas and the .NET Framework 3.5 has a list of pre-release installations that must be removed before installing. When you uninstall beta1 or a CTP, it should removed the components that would block; however in some cases you had more than one product installed or there was some issue or problem on uninstall.

You might see an error message like this -- "These pre-release products might include, but are not limited to, the following: - MDSN Library for Visual Studio Orcas - ENU".

You can look in Add/Remove programs or Programs and Features on Vista and above to remove any of the Orcas pre-release software (most likely beta1).

If you don’t see any, you can use this tool that Aaron Stebner has posted called msiinv.exe which will enumerate your installed programs.

Msiinv.exe tool or http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2005/07/01/434814.aspx

If it still doesn’t install after removing all of the VS Orcas or VS 2008 bits from the output of msiinv.exe, you might have a different issue.

Getting Help with Visual Studio

bretgrinslade — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:42:00 GMT

Most developers have heard that Visual Studio and the .NET Framework released Beta2 of Orcas at the end of July.

However, I have seen a few questions on how to get help or report issues.

"Help! I can't figure out this bug or VS won't install!"

First, the MSDN or ASP.NET forums are a good place to discuss issues. Remember this is COMMUNITY and not a support center. Good behavior here is to post issues and questions, respond to other people if you can help, and not use this for mission critical stuff!

MSDN Forums (all): http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?SiteID=1

MSDN Orcas: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/default.aspx?ForumGroupID=153&SiteID=1

ASP.NET Forums http://forums.asp.net/

There is also Microsoft Connect. This is more for filing bugs or reporting issues.

http://connect.microsoft.com/

Of course, search is a good way to find issues that folks already are discussing. Be a bit on guard here. I often see posts were a person thinks they have one issue and it has a very different root cause. Try to be sure the issue is actually the same before making to much investment in the work arounds or fixes... especially if they mean doing things like hacking the registry, etc.

Finally, for VS and NETFX setup, Aaron Stebner maintains on of the best blogs going on issue. I almost always check his blog before I post (and I work on the VS and NETFX deployment technology team!)

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/

Have fun with VS and NETFX 3.5! -Bret