How to color email in Inbox based on sender

I find this very useful. This is how you can do that in Office 2010 beta 2.

For instance:

- Blue: I’m on the To line

- Red: It’s from Luc

- Black regular email

You can follow the procedure underneath. Enjoy! BTW, Luc is my manager :-)

Installing VS2010 Beta 2, Silverlight 4 and Azure Tools (November 2009)

So I’m updating my developer tools. This is what I install today (and since I’m not a real developer anymore, I install everything directly on my machine and not in a VM):

1. Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Edition Beta 2:

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-gb/try/default.mspx#download

2.  Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9fa8afe9-cad6-4090-a7f6-7d9cdc560e2d&displaylang=en

3. Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio (November 2009)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6967FF37-813E-47C7-B987-889124B43ABD&displaylang=en

New resources for Microsoft Surface announced at PDC

Get the Surface SDK today and start playing! http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3db8987b-47c8-46ca-aafb-9c3b36f43bcc

• Surface Web site (http://www.surface.com)
  • A new Technical Resources section to help you connect to the other available resources and support.
• MSDN (http://msdn.microsoft.com)
  • A new Microsoft Surface section of the MSDN Library (under .NET Development), providing the Surface SDK documentation and other topics about developing Surface applications.
  • New Surface-specific forums about designing and developing Surface applications.
• TechNet (http://technet.microsoft.com)
  • A new Microsoft Surface section of the TechNet Library (under Products and Technologies), describing the basics of the Surface software and hardware and how to set up, customize, troubleshoot, and maintain Surface units.
  • New Surface-specific forums about the Surface software platform, hardware, and applications.
• Microsoft Download center (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads)
  • A new product category for all Surface downloads, including the Surface SDK Workstation Edition, applications, documentation, and any software fixes.
• Microsoft Support (http://support.microsoft.com)
  • Public Surface KB articles for fixes, known issues, and workarounds.
  • Surface Solution Center to direct customers to the right self-support and assisted-support options.

The Cloud: Windows Server AppFabric will bring Azure to your servers

This was by far the number 1 request I got when talking about the Windows Azure Platform. Will I get a version of the Fabric that I can run on my own servers so I can very easily move applications from my datacenter to the cloud and back?

The answer is now, yes you will get that! It will be called The Windows Server AppFabric: http://msdn.microsoft.com/nl-be/windowsserver/ee695849(en-us).aspx

You can download and test the beta 1 today. I guess Windows Server is starting to get really interesting for developers now, isn’t it?

This is the AppFabric in a nutshell:

AppFabric is a set of symmetric application services that support building and managing composite applications, available whether you are running your application on-premises with Windows Server or in the cloud with Windows Azure. It includes the capabilities from projects “Dublin” and “Velocity,” as well as the Service Bus and Access Control services that were formerly under the “.NET Services” brand (today, these services are now called Windows Azure platform AppFabric Service Bus and Windows Azure platform AppFabric Access Control services). AppFabric delivers pre-integrated, higher level application services that enable developers to more easily deploy and manage composite applications and services spanning server and cloud, including:

· Out-of-box experience targeting Web and composite apps

· Management and monitoring of services and workflows

· Distributed, in-memory application cache

· Enhanced Visual Studio design and development tools

But remember, it’s a long term vision:

Initially, AppFabric will offer support for on-premise deployments with Windows Server AppFabric. In 2010, we will be offering CTPs of Windows Azure platform AppFabric to provide these capabilities into our cloud platform.

So for full symmetry between on-prem and cloud, you will need to wait just a little longer.

Downloads: Beta 1, Samples

It’s true! Scot Guthrie will be presenting in Belgium on the 4th of December

http://msdn.microsoft.com/nl-be/ee815840.aspx

At this free event on December 4th in the Kinepolis Brussels, Scott will be speaking about Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4 as well as about the latest on web development with ASP.NET 4.0 and the next version of Silverlight.

Scott Guthrie, the man behind ASP.NET, is now Corporate Vice President of Microsoft .NET developer Platform and responsible in addition to ASP.NET for products as IIS, Visual Studio, Silverlight and the Common Language Runtime (CLR).
You can read more on Scott’s popular blog or follow him on Twitter (@scottgu).

Register now!

SQL Server Day 2009 – now with a full developer track

Copying from Katrien:

The SQL Server Day, taking place on December 3rd in Utopolis Mechelen is a full day dedicated to SQL Server 2008 content. Driven by the SQL UG, they have now added a full developer-focused track.

When: December 3rd 2010, keynote starts at 10 AM.
Where: Utopolis Mechelen

Content to expect: check out the full agenda with three separate tracks (Business Intelligence, SQL Data Platform and Development). Sessions include ‘What’s new in Report Builder 3.0, Tracking Changes and Data Movement in SQL Server, Handling XML in SQL Server, Entity Framework in Visual Studio 2010 and more.

If you haven’t registered yet, don’t wait too long!

See you there.

Belgian Microsoft site for ISV’s

Just in case you don’t know our website yet..

http://www.microsoft.be/isv

How to access data today: ORM

ORM, Workflow, Modelling. What do they have in common?

Well they are three areas that seem to have been in transition for ever. Especially in the Microsoft world.

So I decided to take a closer look and I’m starting with ORM, Object Relational Mapping which is the way to access data today. Like it, or not, it is generally the preferred way today.

A great staring point is Eric Nelson’s session which is apparently already from March: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/ORM-LINQ-Entity-Framework-Eric-Nelson

Here’s what I remember: Link to entities (part of ADO.NET Entity Framework) is our strategic technology. This is Microsoft’s and probably your long term bet. Why?

- It is not just there for SQL Server

- Microsoft is investing in this, see for instance the ADO.NET Entity Data Model Designer (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc716685(VS.100).aspx)

- Microsoft is using it in other Microsoft products (SQL Data Services…)

- There are plenty partners building on it (IBM, OpenLink, DevForce, LLBLGen v3…)

Here is Eric’s page with resources on the Entity Framework. Be sure to check it out! http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/archive/2009/09/23/entity-framework-4.0-resources-ndash-documentation-links-best-blog-posts.aspx

At Tech Ed Europe 2009

Day 3 at Tech Ed Europe 2009. No vacation day here like at home in Belgium. You can follow live comments here: http://search.twitter.com/search?max_id=5618541733&page=5&q=%23tee09

Details on the Microsoft Courier

Is it real? http://gizmodo.com/5381011/microsoft-couriers-swipes-snips-and-scribbles-the-leaked-interface I don’t know.

It sure is intriguing. What’s clear is that NUI’s are starting to be implemented. The Microsoft Surface is just scratching the, well…, surface.

This is the time to get your MSDN Premium

Because, if you have this today, you will get more when VS2010 arrives:

Here’s how subscription levels will transition:

See details of the Ultimate Offer for devs

And then there are the Windows Azure Platform benefits! https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/subscriptions/ee461076.aspx

Watch Remix09 sessions online

All content is available online in case you missed it.

1. Watch the sessions here: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/remix09/#agenda

2. Download the tools announced at reMIX here: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/remix09/#resources

3. Follow us here: Twitter (@remixbe),  Facebook, Linkedin

XRM: Interesting session for ISV’s

Overview of the possibilities of Dynamics xRM

xRM (Anything Relationship Management) is the natural evolution of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). In today’s dynamic business environment companies demand the ability to manage anything (X=anything), not simply relationships with customers.
Microsoft CRM sits on the .NET platform and because of that, it is much more than a traditional CRM product. Instead, a better way to think of Microsoft CRM is as a rapid development application with out of the box CRM functionality, capable of instantly leveraging the .NET platform, and a vast array of Microsoft applications.

Target Audience: Business & Technical Decision Makers

Date: November 26—Afternoon

Questions? Send me a message.

Deploying Windows 7

The interest in Windows 7 is huge. Yesterday before noon I was at a customer testing application compatibility with Windows 7 because they wanted to offer their employees the option to jump straight from Windows XP to Windows 7. In the afternoon I was speaking to an IT crowd from local governments lot’s of questions about deployment there too.

So here’s a useful resource:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=EE2A1D38-88A9-43B3-95BC-7E962F0B6030&displaylang=en 

Windows 7 Application Compatibility

The E-ID software you need to run work with your Belgian electronic identity card has been tested on compatibility with Windows 7 32 and 64 bits. The outcome was all green lights so you can now see here (FR) http://eid.belgium.be/fr/Comment_installer_l_eID/Windows/ and here (NL) http://eid.belgium.be/nl/Hoe_installeer_je_de_eID/Windows/ that the software is compatible.

Of course we have many more ISV’s who declared their software compatible. More in fact than was the case at the launch of any previous version of Windows. Here’s a list:

https://partner.microsoft.com/belux-nl/40119619

I’m impressed!