NicolBlog : NicolTIP

NicolTIP#008: Windows 7 God mode

NicolD — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:30:12 GMT

God Mode is a secret Windows 7 Feature (If you can call so!!), which provides you an extended control panel to control your machine.

Here are the Steps to invoke the God Mode:

Create a new folder (right-click and click on “New Folder”). Right-click on the folder and click on rename, copy and paste this: GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
This folder will now be a shortcut to the Windows 7 God Mode. The Godmode allows you to quickly access many Windows 7 functions via a GUI.

NicolTIP#005: How to show the same content in two ore more positions using master page in ASP.NET

NicolD — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 14:47:39 GMT

To write a web site and give to the entire site a coherent “look” with ASP.NET and master pages is very easy and productive. In brief, into the master page you need to put “placeholders” using the tag <asp:ContentPlaceHolder/> and into the content page, you can map real content with contenplaces (more information).

Sometime can be required to put the same content in more places, an example is the “title” field that you could put both in the header\title field and into a H1 tag into the body.

This means, starting from the following content page:

<%@ Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/MasterPages/Root.Master" AutoEventWireup="true" %>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderID="Title" runat="server">This is my title</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderID="MyContent" runat="server">This is my content</asp:Content>

To obtain the following html output:

<html>
<head>
<title>This is my title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is my title</h1>
This is my content
</body>
</html>

The easy way I found is shown in the following master page:

<%@ Master Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Root.master.cs" Inherits="NicolD.MasterPages.Root" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title><asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="Title" runat="server"></asp:ContentPlaceHolder></title>
</head>
<body>
<h1><span id="TitleOnPage" runat="server"></span></h1>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="MyContent" runat="server" Visible="false"></asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</body>
</html>

the true secret is in the master page’s code behind:-), where I filled “TitleOnPage” with “Title” place holder content.

public partial class Root : System.Web.UI.MasterPage
{
    protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnInit(e);

        this.Page.LoadComplete += new EventHandler(Page_LoadComplete);
    }

    private void Page_LoadComplete(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        LiteralControl lc = (LiteralControl)Title.Controls[0];
        TitleOnPage.InnerText = lc.Text;
    }

}

NicolTIP#004: seven new keyboard shortcuts for Window 7

NicolD — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:43:29 GMT

I love keyboard shortcuts and W7 add some new really cool…

Managing Your Windows. Windows 7 simplifies document and program management by allowing you to “dock” a window or manipulate its size with one mouse maneuver or a simple keystroke. To dock your window on one half of the screen, drag it to the left or right and it will change its size to fit that half of the screen. To manipulate the vertical size of a window, you can drag the window to the top to maximize it, or double-click the window’s top or bottom border to maximize it vertically while keeping the same width.

You can also perform all of these functions with keystrokes:

Windos key+Left Arrow and Windos key+Right Arrow dock to half the screen
Windos key+Up Arrow and Windos key+ Down Arrow maximize and minimize
Windos key+Shift+Up Arrow and Windos key+Shift+Down Arrow maximize

and restore vertical size.

Multi-Monitor Window Management. Windows 7 makes using multiple monitors as convenient as it should be. When you’re working multi-monitor, use the keyboard shortcuts Windos key+Shift+Left Arrow and Windos key+Shift+Right Arrow to move windows from one monitor to another. The rearranged window will keep its relative position to the top-left origin on the new monitor.

Project Your Display With Ease. Plugging in a projector and projecting your display is a snap with the Windows 7 driver display utility, displayswitch.exe. Simply hit Windos key+P and you’ll be rewarded with the following easy-to-navigate pop-up window. By hitting your arrow keys (or Windos key+P) you can switch through multiple display settings, such as “clone”, “extend” or “external only”.

Live Clutter-Free. We live with enough clutter in our lives. Windows 7 gets rid of all the superfluous windows behind your active window. Just hit Windos key+Home to minimize all inactive windows. To restore the windows when you’d like them, just press:

Windos key+Home again

Help the Help Desk Help You. Solving problems unique to a machine can be an arduous task for both the end-user and the help desk. That’s why Windows 7 introduces the Problem Steps Recorder, a screen-capture tool that allows the end-user to record the problems they’re having step-by-step. It’s as simple as hitting “record” then adding in comments as needed. A HTML-based file is converted to a .ZIP folder, which is easily passed on to the help desk. The program is accessible from the Control Panel under “Record steps to reproduce a problem” or run psr.exe from Explorer.

Aero Peek Your Desktop. A lesser-known versatile tool on the taskbar introduced with Windows 7 is the Windows^® Aero^® feature, “Aero Peek” – the small rectangle in the lower right hand corner. It allows you to peek at any of the icons or gadgets on your desktop. The keyboard shortcut Windos key+Space performs the same function.

Shuffling Through Program Windows. If you’re running a number of files from the same program, such as multiple documents in Microsoft Word, Windows 7 allows you to switch through these windows with ease. Simply hold down the Ctrl key while repeatedly clicking the icon from the taskbar. Each click will change the window to the next in the sequence, in the order that you opened them.

NicolTIP#003: How to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools - Visual Studio 2008 Extensions, Version 1.2 on Windows Vista

NicolD — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:46:36 GMT

If you try to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools - Visual Studio 2008 Extensions, Version 1.2 on Windows Vista, you will get an error message telling you that you have to install Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 in order to install the tools. Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) doesn't support non Windows Servers OS, so it's not possible to install WSS 3.0 on Windows Vista, which means you will not be able to install VS 2008 Extensions on your development machine.

This happens because setup just checks on the registry the presence of a specific key. To avoid this behavior and install these extensions on Vista (but should work on XP as well) just write the following key on your machine registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0]
"Sharepoint"="Installed"

NicolTIP#002: Create a manifest.xml extracting content type(s) and columns from a site using Sharepoint Designer

NicolD — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:55:43 GMT

Step to extract a content type and columns to CAML (XML)

Create you content type and columns in the web UI.
Create a list/library item using you new content type.
Load up Sharepoint Designer to the site where you created you item.
From the File menu, click Export -> Personal Web Package.
In the export web package window select the list/library where your create the item using the new content type and click add.
Save the package to your local drive.
Next browse to where you saved the file and rename it from .fwp to .cab.
Extract manifest.xml to your local drive.
Load the file up in your favourite XML viewer (might take a second or two it can be a large file).
Navigate to the UserLists/Field node (Solution/UserLists/Fields).
within this node look for your field, you will be able to see the CAML that describes your field.

NicolTIP#001: edit easily your machine's HOST file

NicolD — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:57:38 GMT

Edit the HOST file in Vista is difficult than ever, thanks to UAC. If you’re a geek that changes HOST file daily this can be a bit frustrating. I circumnavigated the difficulty with a shortcut.

Right click on the folder you want to place the hyperlink (i.e. desktop) and select “new->Shortcut”
As location of the item type: notepad.exe C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
As Shortcut name type “Edit HOST file (as administrator)”
right click on the new shortcut just created and select “properties”
Select “Advanced”
Select “Run as Administrator”

Now, if you need to edit the HOST file (and folder where you put the shortcut is indexed by vista search) just click on start button and type “edit host”