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July 2006 - Posts

Thursday, July 20, 2006 10:51 AM

Training on Expression Interactive Designer and WPF

We have training companies covering WPF with the content targeted firmly at Developers. UK based Ian Griffiths is delivering 4 day training courses for Pluralsight and we have skilled up UK trainers in http://www.xpertise.co.uk and http://www.pygmalion.com
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Thursday, July 20, 2006 9:38 AM

Search and Organise in Windows Vista

An area I have not really explored in Vista is Search - until an ISV just asked me "how can I work with Vista search". The opportunity with Windows Vista is described nicely in our Top 10 Ways to Light Up Your Windows Vista Apps . The challenge for an
Posted by Eric Nelson | 3 Comments
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Thursday, July 20, 2006 8:11 AM

Imagine a world where.... rich applications could deploy and run side by side on your desktop with no issues! Nada! Zero! Zip!

A colleague of mine tried to explain to me late 2005 why http://www.softricity.com/ should be hugely interesting to my ISVs. At the time I gave my best nod - and promptly blanked it from my mind. My mistake. This appears to be superb technology tackling
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 3:21 PM

Updated Getting Started with .NET Framework 3.0 and Vista - and Worflow Foundation folks get RC4

I have updated my short article on getting started with .NET Framework 3.0 and Windows Vista to reflect the recent releases of Beta 2, June CTPs and July CTPs. Tom has done a great job at explaining the choices you have in more detail. For the moment
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Tuesday, July 18, 2006 2:09 PM

Just a few words on MSDE, Vista, blogging etc etc

I have been watching carefully traffic around "MSDE doesn't run on Windows Vista". In the main I have been pleased to see constructive comments coming in - but I have also seen a fair share of comments along the lines of "This proves it - Microsoft is
Posted by Eric Nelson | 2 Comments
Tuesday, July 18, 2006 8:24 AM

Upgrading MSDE to SQL Server 2005 Express

In my previous post I explained that MSDE would not be supported on Windows Vista . I have answered a number of questions inline - but I wanted to move the dicussion on from "why?!" to "how do we do that?". When I owned the UK efforts on early adoption
Posted by Eric Nelson | 1 Comments
Monday, July 17, 2006 9:25 AM

Does Windows Vista mark the end of the native Windows API?

I have been asked the same question enough times to realise that a more "public answer" would be useful. The question is roughly: "Has Microsoft deprecated the native Windows API in Vista in favor of a Class based API?" or "Is all functionality in Windows
Posted by Eric Nelson | 4 Comments
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Wednesday, July 12, 2006 4:14 PM

Are you UK based, old and slow - and fancy a little Monday night online gaming fun with us?

A few years back we had a nice little online PC FPS (if you read that as frames per second then read no further...) gaming club on Monday nights made up of a few UK Microsoft staff, real life friends and folks in ISVs we were working with. Since then
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Wednesday, July 12, 2006 3:50 PM

Windows Vista Sideshow - something different for an ISV to target?

On Tuesday I met with a few of our ISVs technical architects to think through opportunities for ISVs with Vista other than the "obvious" ones (which really meant - what interesting stuff could we do that was not .NET Framework 3.0). One topic we got onto
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Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:51 AM

Great site for WinFX (.NET Framework 3.0) - by just two chaps in the UK

I was horrified to realise I have not mentioned http://www.winfxguide.com before as I use it regularly. This is a great example of pulling into one place links to the best content - articles, videos, samples etc. Well done to Francesco and Stuart - and
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Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:34 AM

Lifecycle information of our product - or - "when will support stop"

I seem to get asked more and more questions from my ISVs around "when will Microsoft stop supporting ..." I have just the site for you http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/ e.g. Visual Basic http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/?sort=PN&alpha=Visual+Basic
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Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:25 AM

Time to move on from MSDE to SQL Server 2005 Express (you do want to run on Windows Vista - don't you?)

[Updated 22nd July to expand on MSDE on Vista] MSDE is the free lightweight version of SQL Server 2000 which many ISV use as part of their overall architecture - typically for roaming users or "edge" data synch. Its limitations are that it is purely a
Posted by Eric Nelson | 30 Comments
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 11:19 AM

Office 2007 Ribbons - I bet you would like a control for your application

As I keep getting asked this by my ISVs :-) There is a sample out there that would be well worth a look (Thanks to http://mentas.spaces.msn.com/ ) http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=7858dbb6-6f4a-4a9d-b1b4-03c73aa16d1
Posted by Eric Nelson | 2 Comments
Wednesday, July 12, 2006 10:59 AM

WPF and powerful 3D - introducing Shaxam, a Lightwave 3D converter

My colleague and good friend Richard ( http://blogs.msdn.com/rgodfrey/ ) has been working with the developers of www.shaxam.com who are doing some great stuff with WPF. Shaxam is a converter from Lightwave 3D to XAML and came about because the development
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Tuesday, July 04, 2006 2:16 PM

Would you like to send us feedback on 2007 Office? Send us a smile. (Also Windows Vista Feedback)

This little tool missed me - hence I am guessing it missed others. If you are running Beta 2 and would like to send us feedback then we have a small tool which adds two icons to the notifications area of the taskbar over by the clock: a happy face to
Posted by Eric Nelson | 0 Comments
Tuesday, July 04, 2006 1:11 PM

Is the "software CD" about to become a collectors piece? Oh - and Microsofts Digital Locker for Software Download...

I have seen many changes impact on UK ISVs over the last 10 years - everything from customers "demanding" browser access with identical functionality to rich client :-), to the impact of offshoreing. One of the more recent changes is the digital download
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Monday, July 03, 2006 3:04 PM

A brief explanation of what is happening to WinFS

A number of my early adopters have been asking me about WinFS and the announcement we made on June 23rd. In short WinFS will not be released as a stand alone product - but several strands of the technology that were part of WinFS will appear - most obviously
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Monday, July 03, 2006 12:05 PM

WPF and Windows Vista MCE - sample controls just released

Back in May I blogged about the possibilities for developing in WPF for Windows Vista MCE . I just spotted some examples of just that up on netfx3.com. Check them out at http://wpf.netfx3.com/files/folders/controls/entry3955.aspx . They include: 1) Soft
Posted by Eric Nelson | 0 Comments
Monday, July 03, 2006 11:49 AM

Beta 2 of Vista has proven to be hugely popular - and regrettably we are now full

On Friday we stopped folks from requesting Beta 2 from our public site (either as a download or DVD). My colleague Ian has blogged on it . This does not affect MSDN Subscribers who can still download Vista Beta 2. P.S. I gather Office has also been hugely
Posted by Eric Nelson | 0 Comments
Monday, July 03, 2006 11:33 AM

A new June CTP of .NET Framework 3.0 and Vista and a Release Candidate 2 for Workflow Foundation

In May we delivered a good Beta 2 for .NET Framework 3.0, Windows Vista and 2007 Microsoft Office System. All work together (my main machine is now Windows Vista and Office 2007) just fine - with some niggles. But nothing major that has affected my productivity
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Monday, July 03, 2006 11:06 AM

A new financial year - a new start.... a time to reflect? Anyone for a "retrospective"...

July 1st is the start of our Finanical year - this has two significant impacts: June becomes very busy as we try to ensure we close out the FY in good shape - and hence limited time to do blogging/look at technology July feels artifically quiet in comparison
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