Scattered Notes

BizTalk project fails at being created

mapo — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:17:00 GMT

It seems that Visual Studio 2008 updates may break BizTalk projects creation. To fix this situation you need to edit a system registry value. On x86 machines set the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Projects\FAE04EC0-301F-11d3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}\PossibleProjectExtensions="csproj;btproj"

on x64 machines set the following:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\VisualStudio\9.0\Projects\FAE04EC0-301F-11d3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC\PossibleProjectExtensions="csproj;btproj"

Evaluate Biztalk 2009

mapo — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:45:00 GMT

If you are in the process of evaluating the Biztalk 2009 (the Microsoft platform for EAI, B2B and BPM) you might be interesting in reading the "Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 Technical Overview" whitepaper and the "Understanding BizTalk Server 2006" whitepaper by David Chappell, that is still a valid document to provide an overview of the latest Biztalk platform. Finally, if you want to quickly try out a fully installed and configured instance of Biztalk 2009, download the virtual machine over here. The VM has everything you need to evaluate the product (BizTalk Server 2009, SQL Server 2008, SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft .NET 3.5 framework and five hand-on-labs).

Run Wireshark on Windows 7 x64

mapo — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:38:00 GMT

Today I tried installing the latest version of Wireshark (version 1.2.1 rev 29141) on my Windows 7 x64 laptop. What happened is that installation of WinPcap 4.1 beta5, bundled with Wireshark, failed making Wireshark unusable. What I did next was to go on WinPcap's website and download WinPcap 4.1 beta5. On the downloaded WinPcap's setup file I set it to run in "Vista compatibility mode" and then successfully installed it. At this point on the Wireshark shortcut icon I set Wireshark to always be executed in "Vista compatibility mode" and now this nice network monitor works just fine on my Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

Free ebook on Microsoft virtualization technologies

mapo — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:01:00 GMT

Microsoft is offering for free a very interesting ebook (452 pages) covering all MS virtualization technologies, including server virtualization (Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager 2008), application vrtualization (App-V), desktop virtualization (Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), presentation virtualization (Terminal Services) and profile virtualization (roaming user profiles, folder redirection and offline files). Get your own copy of this ebook here.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Developer Training Kit

mapo — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:29:00 GMT

Over 400MB of hands-on-labs, demos and presentations in the "Windows Server 2008 R2 developer resource kit" (July 2009 edition). The following are among the covered topics:

NUMA
The C++ Concurrency Runtime
Server Core Application Development
PowerShell V2 for Developers
Windows Web Services API (Native Web Services with WWSAPI)
Background Services and Tasks
Instrumentation and Performance
File Classification Infrastructure

Get this download here.

"Threading in C#" free ebook

mapo — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:43:00 GMT

You can get a pretty much complete ebook on threading using the C# language from here (the link for downloading the ebook is on the lower left). The ebook content is the same that is also available for you to read online. The ebook content is up-to-date with version 3.0 of the C# language and version 3.5 of the .NET Framework.

Free "Illustrated C# 2008" ebook

mapo — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:04:00 GMT

RedGate is offering for free download of the ebook "Illustrated C# 2008" (730 pages) from Apress. Go here to download your copy.

All MIX09 videos available online

mapo — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:56:00 GMT

MIX is the Microsoft conference for designers and developers who build innovative web sites. At MIX, coders, strategists, information architects, visual designers, UX professionals and digital marketers get exposure to new Microsoft web-related technologies. All the session videos (and most of the session slide decks) are available online here.

"Jit n Run" free ebook on ASP.NET development

mapo — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:26:00 GMT

RedGate (the well known software house that makes a few exceptional SQL Server tools) has published a very interesting free ebook of practical recipes to common needs/issues that arise when developing ASP.NET web applications. You can download this 138 pages long ebook from here.

.NET Framework: adding a separator to a context menu

mapo — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:28:00 GMT

To add a separator menu item to a context menu in a .NET Framework application, you simply have to add a menu item with the Text property set to "-".

Here is an example of the required code:

// creating the context menu
System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu contextMenu = new System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu();

// creating a first menu item
System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem menuItem1 = new System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem();
menuItem1.Click += new EventHandler(MenuItem1_Click);
menuItem1.Index = 0;
menuItem1.Text = "Menu Item 1";

// creating the separator menu item
System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem menuItem2 = new System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem();
menuItem2.Index = 1;
menuItem2.Text = "-";

// creating a second menu item
System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem menuItem3 = new System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem();
menuItem3.Click += new EventHandler(MenuItem2_Click);
menuItem3.Index = 2;
menuItem3.Text = "Menu Item 2";

// adding the menu items to the context menu
contextMenu.MenuItems.AddRange(new System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem[] { menuItem1, menuItem2, menuItem3 });

// assigning the context menu to my UI control
myControl.ContextMenu = contextMenu;

Install the loopback network adapter on Windows 7

mapo — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:49:00 GMT

To install the Loopback Network Adapter you need to run the "Add Hardware Wizard". However control panel on Windows 7 does not provide you the icon to start it. What you need to do is then the following:

1. Click Start - Search for cmd.exe, when found right-click on cmd.exe and select "Run as administrator".
2. From the command prompt window, run “hdwwiz.exe“. This will start the "Add Hardware Wizard".

14 lessons to get you started in C# and .NET

mapo — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:14:00 GMT

On programmersheaven.com you can download a 338 pages long PDF ebook that can help you get started in .NET programming using the C# language. The ebook if free for you to download it.

Chapters cover the following topics:

C# Language Fundamentals
Classes and Objects
Inheritance & Polymorphism
Structures, Enumeration, Garbage Collection & Nested Classes
Abstract Classes & Interfaces
Arrays, Collections & String Manipulation
Exception Handling
Delegates & Events
WinForms & Windows Applications
More Windows Controls & Standard Dialog Boxes
Data Access using ADO.Net
Multithreading
The File System & Streams

Keyboard, mouse, webcam and headset drivers for Windows 7

mapo — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:06:00 GMT

If you are trying out Windows 7 you might want to download specific keyboard, mouse, webcam and headset drivers from here.

How to download the .NET Framework's source code

mapo — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:49:00 GMT

Microsoft's .NET Framework's source code can be downloaded via Visual Studio 2008 on a per-need basis while debugging. Source code for the framework can also be downloaded using tools such as NetMassDownloader. Source code can now also be downloaded via handy MSI bundles.

Want to learn C#?

mapo — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:51:00 GMT

If you are looking for a quick ebook to introduce you to the C# programming language you might want to take a look at the "C# Yellow Book" written by Rob Miles from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hull. It is a 185 pages long PDF document that more or less touches on all necessary elements of a C# application. You can download the ebook for free here.