James @ MS

StickyNotes Professional Edition for Visual Studio

jameslau-MS — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:54:29 GMT

Our good friend Pablo Galiano has just released StickyNotes Professional Edition for Visual Studio over the holidays.

You may think that the Professional Edition is just an improved version of the the previous free CTP edition, but it is actually totally different and improved. The original version has the limitation that the sticky notes can only be associated with a file. I gave Pablo the feedback that in order for it to be useful, each note needed to be associated with a line, much like comments in a Word document.

That’s exactly what Pablo has added in the Professional Edition. Coupled with new UI, and cool Shared Team Note feature, the new StickyNotes Professional Edition is an indispensible tool for Visual Studio!

You can see how StickyNotes Professional Edition works and get it from here.

cheers,
James

Foldable Display

jameslau-MS — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:53:00 GMT

OLED displays are already awesome enough. Here is a foldable one that would even be cooler.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081125-blue-oleds-and-foldable-displays-on-tap.html

Everyone wants a larger screen phone so they can better browsing and user experience, but nobody wants to carry a large phone. Something like this could really change the game.

Update: Maybe foldable OLED displays will find their way into mobile devices in 2009? Check out these 2009 predictions.

Economic downturn requires a scorecard too?

jameslau-MS — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:14:00 GMT

For the past several months, we have been constantly bombarded by bad economic news. The massive evaporation of capital wealth on Wall Street makes for very depressing lunch time conversations. The rollercoaster ride of the Dow Jones index is making people cheer one day and cry the next (unfortunately, there is much more crying than cheering). More recently, layoffs and unemployment have been grabbing more attention, as the average person is tuning out from the market volatility and just praying that the stock market will eventually go back up.

Today on CNET, I found an unemployment "scorecard" for tech companies. A quick look at it will give you a good sense of the scale of our economy's problems.

During these times, I am thankful that Microsoft can still provide us with a safe environment where we can continue to focus on our work and continue to innovate.

After the Long Silence…

jameslau-MS — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:12:05 GMT

I have finally decided to change the name of my blog after radio silence for many weeks. The reason that I haven’t been blogging is that I have moved to a new team within Microsoft. In my new role, there isn’t much to blog about, since the project is confidential. However, I thought I might still be able to blog about things that I have learned along the way while I am working on this project.

If you are looking for VSX-related material, I would refer you to the VSX Team Blog. There is also a list of other VSX team members’ blogs on the main VSX Dev Center page.

I am not sure how much I will be blogging yet, but hopefully, I will have something worthwhile to share with everyone.

- James

Localized VS Shell (w/ SP1) Download Links

jameslau-MS — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:05:02 GMT

Several developers have asked me whether we provide localized versions of the VS Shell. The answer is a resounding YES!

Of course, it’s a little difficult to find the download links, so I have included them below:

	Integrated Mode	Isolated Mode
English	Link	Link
Japanese	Link	Link
Korean	Link	Link
German	Link	Link
Italian	Link	Link
French	Link	Link
Traditional Chinese	Link	Link
Simplified Chinese	Link	Link
Spanish	Link	Link

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Now Available

jameslau-MS — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:47:25 GMT

Yesterday, we posted the RTM release of Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1.

The download links are below:

Downloads

The matching VS 2008 SDK 1.1 RTM will be coming next week. Stay tuned...

- James

How do I pick what features are included in my VS Shell (isolated) based application?

jameslau-MS — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 02:42:27 GMT

Since releasing the VS 2008 Shell (isolated), we have been working on service pack 1 with a number of significant improvements, including a reduced redistributable size. But the most common questions we hear from developers is "How do I go about picking exactly what features and components are included in my isolated Shell based application?"

This is the subject of this post.

Using .pkgundef

When you create an Visual Studio Shell Isolated project, one of the files that gets created for you is called <yourProjectName>.pkgundef.

By default, this file is blank, but you can use this as a reverse registry file. What that means is that any registry keys you put into this file will be removed for you. Of course, this file only works for the registry keys that is owned by your shell based application (i.e. everything under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppEnv\9.0\Apps\<YourShellName+RandomGUID>\).

To give you a concrete example, if I wanted to remove the Class View tool window, I would add this entry in my .pkgundef file:

[$RootKey$\ToolWindows\{C9C0AE26-AA77-11d2-B3F0-0000F87570EE}]

The symbol @ROOTKEY replaces HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppEnv\9.0\Apps\<YourShellName+RandomGUID>\ and you can specify any key under it to be removed.

What to Remove and How?

In the above section, we have talked about how .pkgundef works. But when you are customizing your isolated shell, what are the things you can remove? Here is a list of things you would typically want to remove:

VS Packages
Tool Windows
Menus and Commands

We will discuss each item in its own separate section.

VS Packages

If all the functionality that you don't need is contained inside a VS Package, the cleanest thing to do is to unregister it. Since other things like tool windows, editors, VS Services, menus/commands, etc. that are supplied by that VS package will also be removed when that package is removed, you won't need to remove them separately.

As an example, I can put the following entry in my .pkgundef file to remove the web project system package:

[$RootKey$\Packages\{39c9c826-8ef8-4079-8c95-428f5b1c323f}]

As a result of this, all the related menus/commands, tool windows, editors, VS services, and anything else that's tied to this package will also be removed. If you try the above example to remove the web project system package, you will notice that the command under File > New... > Web Site... will be removed.

So how do I figure what packages can be removed? You can use regedit and enumerate all the packages under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppEnv\9.0\Apps\<YourShellName+RandomGUID>\Packages\. For your convenience, I am including all of them in the table below for you to see.

Feature Area	Raw Package Name	Package GUID
Core IDE Packages	Undo Package	{1D76B2E0-F11B-11d2-AFC3-00105A9991EF}
	Visual Studio Environment Package	{DA9FB551-C724-11d0-AE1F-00A0C90FFFC3}
	Visual Studio Commands Definition Package	{44E07B02-29A5-11D3-B882-00C04F79F802}
	Visual Studio Directory Listing Package	{5010C52F-44AB-4051-8CE1-D36C20D989B4}
	Visual Studio Common IDE Package	{6E87CFAD-6C05-4adf-9CD7-3B7943875B7C}
	Visual Studio Environment Menu Package	{715F10EB-9E99-11D2-BFC2-00C04F990235}
	Visual Studio COM+ Library Manager Package	{ED8979BC-B02F-4da9-A667-D3256C36220A}
	Visual Studio Source Control Integration Package	{53544C4D-E3F8-4AA0-8195-8A8D16019423}
	Visual Studio Solution Build Package	{282BD676-8B5B-11D0-8A34-00A0C91E2ACD}
	Text Management Package	{F5E7E720-1401-11d1-883B-0000F87579D2}
	Visual Studio VsSettings Package	{F74C5077-D848-4630-80C9-B00E68A1CA0C}

Help	Visual Studio Help Package	{4A791146-19E4-11D3-B86B-00C04F79F802}
Task List	Visual Studio Task List Package	{4A9B7E50-AA16-11d0-A8C5-00A0C921A4D2}
Macros	Visual Studio Macros Package	{A659F1B3-AD34-11d1-ABAD-0080C7B89C95}
Class Outline	Class Outline Package	{21af45b0-ffa5-11d0-b63f-00a0c922e851}

Toolbox Controls Installer	Microsoft.VisualStudio.IDE. ToolboxControlsInstaller. ToolboxInstallerPackage	{2c298b35-07da-45f1-96a3-be55d91c8d7a}
	ToolBox Control Installer Package	{36839529-3AF3-47fa-8194-F4A3FA9F0ED7}

Web Projects	Visual Basic Compiler Package	{019971D6-4685-11D2-B48A-0000F87572EB}
	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web. Application.WAPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.Application, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a	{349C5850-65DF-11DA-9384-00065B846F21}
	Visual Web Developer Project System Package	{39c9c826-8ef8-4079-8c95-428f5b1c323f}
	Visual Web Developer Project Persistance Package	{8FF02D1A-C177-4ac8-A62F-88FC6EA65F57}
	Visual Web Developer Web Migration Package	{C1DAB116-2D63-493a-B970-10D7DD0B476E}
	Visual Web Developer Web Package	{e7f851c8-6267-4794-b0fe-7bcab6dacbb4}
	Visual Web Developer Web Application Upgrade Package	{DC7F691A-91FC-4F7b-923E-FE829C3A18DC}

HTML Editor	Visual Studio HTM Editor Package	{1B437D20-F8FE-11D2-A6AE-00104BCC7269}
	Visual Web Developer HTML Source Editor Package	{BFCC0C3C-6F87-4285-A6C8-BB616061800D}

CSS Editor	Visual Studio CSS Editing Package	{A764E895-518D-11d2-9A89-00C04F79EFC3}

XML Editor	Visual Studio XML Editor Package	{87569308-4813-40a0-9cd0-d7a30838ca3f}

Web Browser	Visual Studio Web Browser Package	{e8b06f41-6d01-11d2-aa7d-00c04f990343}

Binary Editor	Visual Studio Binary Editor Package	{5B98C2C0-CD7B-11D0-92DF-00A0C9138C45}

Windows Forms Designer	Windows Forms Designer Hosting Package	{68939055-38e0-4d17-92cb-8909710d8178}
	Windows Forms Designer Package	{7494682b-37a0-11d2-a273-00c04f8ef4ff}
	Windows Forms Designer Resources Package	{7b5d447b-0b12-41ea-a84e-c822034422d4}
	Windows Forms Application Configuration Package	{80c7728b-70a6-4528-8669-73e02d1b9c41}
	ElementHost Designer Package	{7eab3c71-59ff-4571-a5f3-643f255fc2e6}

Debugger UI	Visual Studio Debugger	{C9DD4A57-47FB-11D2-83E7-00C04F9902C1}


Database Tools	Visual Database Tools Package	{220A4C17-7E7C-4663-BBCC-5E607C6543CD}
	Visual Studio Database Tools Designers	{EF828E39-70F5-4b8e-A3A0-4C0ECD28A69A}
	Visual Studio Data Designers	{d6c919aa-1217-41e2-a13b-9b92e1866305}
	Visual Studio Data Package	{E1AA7737-69BE-43d0-A425-E3097651E192}
	Visual Studio Data Designer Extensibility Package	{A8F602E2-40CE-4daf-AE82-A457A91728B9}
	Visual Studio Explorers and Designers Package	{8D8529D3-625D-4496-8354-3DAD630ECC1B}
	Microsoft Report Designer	{F3A96850-E2AE-4e00-9278-8FE23F225A0D}
	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Data.Providers. SqlEverywhere.VsPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Data.Providers. SqlEverywhere, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a	{b65e9356-a4c7-4855-96bb-1d3ec8514e8f}
	Microsoft.VisualStudio.DataDesign. SyncDesigner.DSL.SyncDesignerPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.DataDesign. SyncDesigner.DslPackage, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=B03F5F7F11D50A3A	{c8afb2f4-bff7-4055-926d-d44afecd5832}

DSL Runtime	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Shell. CommonModelingPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Sdk.Shell, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a	{d1091694-ea72-4bdd-8918-78324cc25448}
	Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating. VSHost.OrchestratorPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio. TextTemplating.VSHost, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a	{a9696de6-e209-414d-bbec-a0506fb0e924}

SourceSafe Support	Visual SourceSafe Provider Package	{AA8EB8CD-7A51-11D0-92C3-00A0C9138C45}
	Visual SourceSafe Provider Stub Package	{53544C4D-B03D-4209-A7D0-D9DD13A4019B}

WPF Designer	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Internal. WPFFlavor.WPFPackage, Microsoft.VisualStudio.WPFFlavor, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a	{b3bae735-386c-4030-8329-ef48eeda4036}
	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Xaml	{e58c2a8b-bcc4-4559-ad59-d62eb6d58a22}

	Visual Studio Code Snippets Package	{0B680757-2C29-4531-80FA-535A5178AA98}

Managed Language Project Support	Visual Studio Component Enumerator Package	{588205e0-66e0-11d3-8600-00c04f6123b3}
	Visual Studio Settings and Project Designers Package	{67909B06-91E9-4F3E-AB50-495046BE9A9A}
	Export Template Package	{f1e4cfca-4573-4345-8718-7bde2b1f0be8}

Some caveats about removing packages:

There are some packages that you should never remove. For example, the ones under "Core IDE" should never be removed because there are many other features that take dependencies on them.
The VS Packages above are not refactored in a very granular way right now. What that means is that quite often, you won't be able to remove the entire package. For example, there is no package you can unregister to remove just Class View and all its associated commands/menus, options, services, etc. Class View proffered by the Visual Studio Environment Package, which also proffers other key IDE features Find and Replace, Environment Options pages, Command Window, Output Window, etc.
Since I don't have a nice dependency graph to show you. There will be some trial-and-error on your part to see what packages can be removed.

I know this experience is not ideal, and we are working on tooling to make this much easier in the longer term. However, I hope this will still help in the short term.

Tool Windows

For tool windows that you'd like to remove without removing the associated package, you can just add the entry in the .pkgundef file. You can see a list of tool windows by enumerating the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\AppEnv\9.0\Apps\<YourShellName+RandomGUID>\ToolWindows\

Again, for your convenience, I have listed them here for you.

ToolWindow GUID	ToolWindow Name
{0504FF91-9D61-11D0-A794-00A0C9110051}	Call Stack
{07CD18B4-3BA1-11d2-890A-0060083196C6}	Macro Explorer
{0F887920-C2B6-11d2-9375-0080C747D9A0}	Find 1
{0F887921-C2B6-11d2-9375-0080C747D9A0}	Find 2
{1CBA9826-3184-4799-A184-784E41B56398}	CSS Property Grid
{25f7e850-ffa1-11d0-b63f-00a0c922e851}	Document Outline
{269A02DC-6AF8-11D3-BDC4-00C04F688E50}	Object Browser
{28836128-FC2C-11D2-A433-00C04F72D18A}	Command window
{2D7728C2-DE0A-45b5-99AA-89B609DFDE73}	Resource view
{34E76E81-EE4A-11D0-AE2E-00A0C90FFFC3}	Output window
{350F9856-A72B-11D2-8AD0-00C04F79E479}	Memory
{37ABA9BE-445A-11D3-9949-00C04F68FD0A}	Modules
{38ED9834-0C97-445b-BD1D-F78F3E08AFAC}	CSS Manage Styles Task Pane
{3AE79031-E1BC-11D0-8F78-00A0C9110057}	Solution Explorer
{3FD5E0CC-709A-4f8c-94C3-7F0F8DFF5BB2}	Report Datasets
{402DC223-D700-4029-866F-ACEE803F3F0C}	CSS Apply Styles Task Pane
{46C87F81-5A06-43a8-9E25-85D33BAC49F8}	Help Search
{4A18F9D0-B838-11D0-93EB-00A0C90F2734}	Locals
{4A791147-19E4-11D3-B86B-00C04F79F802}	Table of contents
{4A9B7E51-AA16-11D0-A8C5-00A0C921A4D2}	Task List
{51C76317-9037-4CF2-A20A-6206FD30B4A1}	Processes
{53024D34-0EF5-11d3-87E0-00C04F7971A5}	Find symbol window
{53544C4D-5C18-11d3-AB71-0050040AE094}	LocalChanges
{5415EA3A-D813-4948-B51E-562082CE0887}	Call Browser
{56B32054-DE4D-4de3-8396-BCB6F98BD246}	Behaviors
{57DC5D59-11C2-4955-A7B4-D7699D677E93}	Help Favorites
{588470CC-84F8-4a57-9AC4-86BCA0625FF4}	Code Definition Window
{58875C41-862B-4d6f-B046-03E8A333907E}	Page Layout
{66dba47c-61df-11d2-aa79-00c04f990343}	Dynamic Help
{68487888-204A-11d3-87EB-00C04F7971A5}	Find symbol results window
{6B8E94B5-0949-4d9c-A81F-C1B9B744185C}	Property Manager
{6FB4A4D9-0C08-4663-AF7B-2ECBDF7A20EC}	'Conditional Formatting
{73F6DD58-437E-11d3-B88E-00C04F79F802}	Help index
{73F6DD5B-437E-11d3-B88E-00C04F79F802}	Help Index Results
{74946810-37a0-11d2-a273-00c04f8ef4ff}	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Designer. Interfaces.IVSMDPropertyBrowser
{74946827-37a0-11d2-a273-00c04f8ef4ff}	Server Explorer
{7B8C4981-13EC-4c56-9F24-ABE5FAAA9440}	Layers
{873151D0-CF2E-48cc-B4BF-AD0394F6A3C3}	Data Source Window
{90243340-BD7A-11D0-93EF-00A0C90F2734}	Watch
{A0C5197D-0AC7-4B63-97CD-8872A789D233}	Bookmarks
{A693A243-4743-4034-AED4-BEC4E79E0B3B}	Web Part Gallery
{A764E899-518D-11d2-9A89-00C04F79EFC3}	Style Organizer Tool Window
{A9B00010-7308-415c-95C6-EED62C1B9788}	CSS Properties
{B1E99781-AB81-11D0-B683-00AA00A3EE26}	Toolbox
{BE4D7042-BA3F-11D2-840E-00C04F9902C1}	Breakpoints
{C9C0AE26-AA77-11d2-B3F0-0000F87570EE}	Class view
{CA4B8FF5-BFC7-11D2-9929-00C04F68FDAF}	Registers
{CF2DDC32-8CAD-11d2-9302-005345000000}	FindReplace
{CF577B8C-4134-11D2-83E5-00C04F9902C1}	Disassembly
{D78612C7-9962-4B83-95D9-268046DAD23A}	Error List
{E62CE6A0-B439-11D0-A79D-00A0C9110051}	Threads
{E830EC50-C2B5-11d2-9375-0080C747D9A0}	Find in Files
{e8b06f52-6d01-11d2-aa7d-00c04f990343}	Web Browser Window
{e8b06f53-6d01-11d2-aa7d-00c04f990343}	Web Browser Preview Window
{ECB7191A-597B-41F5-9843-03A4CF275DDE}	Immediate window
{EEFA5220-E298-11D0-8F78-00A0C9110057}	Properties window
{F2E84780-2AF1-11D1-A7FA-00A0C9110051}	Autos
{F62AF5AD-1276-46dd-AE7B-D07AB54D1081}	HTML Property Grid
{F78BCC56-71F7-4e7d-8215-F690CAE4F452}	Call Browser (secondary)

Menus and Commands

Typically, you won't need to use the .pkgundef file if you want to remove menus and commands. Instead, you would use the <YourProjectName>.vsct file.

If you open this file, you will see that it is a large XML file with lots of things commented out. Here is a snippet of what you will see:

The pattern you will see is that each XML element says No_????Command. If you uncomment the element, the corresponding command or menu will disappear. You can do this quickly inside Visual Studio by highlighting the elements you want to uncomment and use the Ctrl+K, Ctrl+U shortcut.

You can go down this list to pick out the commands/menus that you don't want and uncomment them. For the most part, you should be able to figure out which men/command the XML element corresponds to.

Most of the menus/commands can be removed using the .vsct file. But a small number of them cannot be removed this way. The reason is because this .vsct file only controls the "core" environment commands/menus. For example, if you uncomment every element in the VSCT file and run your isolated shell, you will see that you still have File > New... > Web Site... and Tools > Macros... among several other commands. To remove these, you will need to unregister the web project system package and the macros package respectively.

Summary

I hope this post has given you some insight into how to make the isolated shell work for you. Like I said earlier, we will be making this experience easier with tooling over time. Ideally, you wouldn't even need to touch the .pkgundef or the .vsct file. You should be able to do all of that via checking/unchecking components to indicate what you want/don't want. But before we get there, you will need to do some more low-level work to make the shell work for you!

thanks,
James

Get a PLK or SLK without logging into VSIPMembers.com

jameslau-MS — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:57:02 GMT

We know deploying your VS package can be a pain and there are often a lot of pain with getting a PLK. Now getting a PLK is a lot easier with the page we have launched here.

VS Gallery Gets New Features!

jameslau-MS — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:14:12 GMT

I was just going around and talking about the VS Gallery on our European Tour, and on last Friday, we have added several new features. Since Anthony did such a great job in summarizing the new features, let me quote him here: --- Start of Quote --- Today...(read more)

Stop 6 (Final Stop): Budapest, Hungary

jameslau-MS — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 18:27:53 GMT

On Thursday, we had our last VSX European Tour event at the Microsoft office in Budapest. It was wasn't just a talk for a user group this time. It was a half day event focused specifically on VSX. Sandor Nacsa from the Budapest office helped us set up...(read more)

Stop 5: Prague, Czech Republic

jameslau-MS — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:34:51 GMT

Our European Tour has brought us to Prague on Monday. This was the first time for me to visit Prague and I was completely blown away by the beauty of this city. I thought Paris was beautiful; Prague is even more beautiful (to me anyway)! In the afternoon,...(read more)

Stop 4: Zurich, Switzerland

jameslau-MS — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:13:13 GMT

With the help of Rolf and Susan who organized the event, Jean-Marc and I presented to a user group in Zurich yesterday evening in a 3 hour session. We were somewhat disappointed at the low attendance - we only had about 20 people. But the audience was...(read more)

Stop 3: Munich, Germany

jameslau-MS — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:16:57 GMT

We are in Deutschland now and we visited the Microsoft Technology Center at Munich yesterday. It was a very nice set of buildings, and the meeting rooms are much more impressive than building 41 back in Redmond. They have multiple projectors and multiple...(read more)

Update from Brussels

jameslau-MS — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:48:46 GMT

You may have already seen my post about out session at Brussels. Sven Cipido from Ordina has just sent me some more pictures taken during our Brussels section, so I wanted to post them here. Jean-Marc and I in Ordina's office for Vsug.be. See his...(read more)

Stop 2: Amsterdam, Netherlands

jameslau-MS — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:58:39 GMT

Bikes, lots of bikes. And trams too. Then there are also motorcycles, scooters, and cars. You better watch where you are walking while you are in Amsterdam! That was my first impression of this spectacularly amazing and energetic city! Jean-Marc and I...(read more)