Paul Cornell

MSDN Subscriber Benefit Changes

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:36:00 GMT

The following e-mail just went out to all MSDN subscribers. Here's a copy of the e-mail in case you're an MSDN subscriber and didn't receive it, or in case you aren't currently an MSDN subscriber and are wondering how an MSDN subscription might benefit you.

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Dear MSDN Subscriber:

On Monday, October 19th, we announced a lot of news. As you have surely noticed, the MSDN site got a serious overhaul. We released a whole new look, updated the Dev Center layout and experience, and capped it off with the new MSDN logo signifying how the future of development is today. As an MSDN subscriber, you should be aware of the key changes we’re making - both now and when Visual Studio 2010 releases - and how these will benefit you. We get a lot of great feedback from our subscribers on a regular basis and this really was the foundation for the changes we’re making. First of all, here are the things you can enjoy right away:

Microsoft E-Learning: Take advantage of this new benefit for all MSDN subscribers and stay up to date on Microsoft technologies to keep your skills fresh. (Oh, and that might help make that training budget go a bit farther too.) Think of this as MSDN’s investment in your future, just because you’re a subscriber.
Priority support in MSDN Forums: You spoke and we listened. Subscribers are making very regular use of MSDN Forums instead of newsgroups because the experience is so much better in Forums. We’re now providing 2-business-day guaranteed response to your questions in many MSDN Forums, with more coming in early 2010 as we transition our support over from newsgroups.

We’ve also made a number of more subtle changes to improve your experience, including 3 different versions of the MSDN Library (classic, script-free, and lightweight) for faster responsiveness. Try it and see for yourself. And we added support for downloading from MSDN Subscriber Downloads using a Mac and other platforms and browsers.

Windows® Azure™: A very important part of our announcements have to do with Windows Azure. Please read this one carefully. This is a huge investment we’re making in our MSDN subscribers and some very interesting new territory. Windows Azure is our new cloud computing platform. We’re making a bet that the people who will really be able to take advantage of this new application paradigm will be MSDN subscribers like you, people who build applications for a living and out of a personal passion for great apps.

Key points for Windows Azure:

Get started using the Windows Azure CTP today.
Know that when we launch Windows Azure commercially (i.e., when we formally launch and start charging for the services), our MSDN Premium subscribers will get a whole lot of free service as part of the subscription. See details.

So what do I get when Visual Studio 2010 launches? Visual Studio 2010 is a very significant release. Tons of new features. Significant improvements in many, many areas. This is big. And we’re really simplifying the product line like many of you asked us to. A key announcement that you need to know about is what we’re calling the “Ultimate Offer” - making sure that every MSDN subscriber gets equal or greater value (in many cases, a lot greater) as we transition subscriptions into the new and simplified Visual Studio 2010 product lineup.

Here’s how subscription levels will transition:

If you have this active subscription on March 22, 2010 > then your subscription will become this > and you’ll get everything you had before, plus:

Visual Studio Team System Team Suite with MSDN Premium > Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN > Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Team System editions with MSDN Premium (Architecture, Database, Development, Test) > Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN > Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Premium > Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN > Visual Studio 2010 Premium, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Professional > Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN > Visual Studio 2010 Professional, Team Foundation Server 2010 + CAL
Visual Studio Professional with MSDN Embedded > Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN Embedded >Visual Studio 2010 Professional
MSDN Operating Systems > MSDN Operating Systems

See details of the Ultimate Offer for devs.

As you can see, it really pays to have MSDN Premium - that’s how you can get our most powerful and advanced tools when Visual Studio 2010 releases. This is a serious upgrade.

Team Foundation Server 2010: As you can see above, most subscribers will get Team Foundation Server as part of their subscription. No, not Workgroup Edition with a 5-user limit. The full version. TFS 2010 offers two set up choices: Basic and Advanced. Basic is quick and ideal for replacing Visual SourceSafe. Advanced provides all the power of TFS for source control, builds, work-item tracking, reporting, testing, and more. Up until now, TFS had to be purchased separately so this is a big new benefit. Start using the Team Foundation Server 2010 beta 2 now, you’re really going to like it. And when it releases, you’re covered for the full version.

Thank you for your continued business. We’ll keep the good things coming.

James Rice
Business Manager, MSDN Subscriptions

David Salamon
Product Manager, Visual Studio and MSDN

.NET Framework 4: Fixing PIA Pains with Type Equivalence

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:34:00 GMT

In this 12-minute video, you'll learn how "type equivalence" in the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 addresses the pain points normally associated with Primary Interop Assemblies (PIAs) and COM Interop.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-25-Fixing-PIA-Pains-with-Type-Equivalence.

Highlights:

02:05 Pain point: Can't assume that the global assembly cache (GAC) is already installed on an end user's computer, so it's typically left up to add-ins to take on the responsibility for deploying the correct PIA. But those PIAs can be quite large.
05:21 "No PIA" addresses this by embedding into add-ins only the portions of the PIA that add-ins actually use.
06:42 Demo: References are made from a project to the Word and Excel PIAs. The Embed Interop Types property is set to True for these referenced PIAs.
08:04 Now the portions of the PIA that are needed for the add-in are embedded as namespaces in the project itself.

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2: How to Download and Install

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:34:00 GMT

In this 20-minute video, you'll learn how to perform a single-server installation of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Team Foundation Server Beta 2, Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2010 Beta 2, and Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Beta 2.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-33-Downloading-and-Installing-Visual-Studio-2010-Beta-2.

To actually perform the installation, you'll need the following:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2
Microsoft SQL Server 2008
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Beta 2
Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 Beta 2

Video highlights:

03:37 Setting up Windows Server 2008 SP2.
04:45 Step-by-step operating system details, most of them courtesy of http://tinyurl.com/VS2010Beta1.
05:39 Installing and setting up SQL Server 2008.
08:38 Installing and seting up TFS 2010 Beta 2.
(09:53 New TFS "Basic" installation wizard is briefly mentioned.)
12:12 Using the TFS Administration Console.
13:21 Configuring Team Build.
14:47 Installing Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate Beta 2.
16:12 Configuring Team Explorer.
16:42 Creating a team project.
17:50 Issues working with TFS 2010 Beta 2 when using pre-2010 versions of Team Explorer.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework Beta 2 Downloads Now Available

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:41:00 GMT

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 downloads include the following:

Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
Visual Studio 2010 Premium
Visual Studio 2010 Professional
Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger
Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Integrated)
Visual Studio 2010 Shell (Isolated)
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server
Visual Studio Team Explorer
Visual Studio Test Elements
Visual Studio Team Lab Management
Visual Studio Team Agents
Visual Basic Express
Visual C++ Express
Visual C# Express
Visual Web Developer Express
Express Combo DVD

Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 downloads include the following:

.NET Framework 4
.NET Framework 4 Client Profile

Enjoy!

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 Documentation is Now Available on the MSDN Web Site

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:36:00 GMT

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd831853(VS.100).aspx.

You can switch between the Classic, Lightweight Beta, and ScriptFree views of the documentation by clicking the orange Switch View button in the lower-right corner of the page in the Classic and Lightweight Beta content views and in the top-right corner of the page in the ScriptFree content view.

Enjoy!

Team Foundation Server 2010: Getting Started in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:24:00 GMT

Visual Studio General Manager Jason Zander has an excellent post on getting started with Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. This post contains over 50 screen shots and is a great primer for anyone who wants to know more about what TFS is, how it can help them manage their software development projects, and how to get started with TFS.

See http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonz/archive/2009/10/21/tutorial-getting-started-with-tfs-in-vs2010.aspx.

Visual Studio 2010 Packaging Announced

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:28:00 GMT

Packaging for Visual Studio 2010 has been announced. The lineup includes:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN.

Also, the free Express products for Visual C++, Visual C#, Visual Basic, and Visual Web Developer will be updated and released with this version.

For more information:

See Jason Zander's blog post at http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonz/archive/2009/10/19/announcing-vs2010-net-framework-beta-2.aspx.
See also eWeek's web article at http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Microsoft-Launches-Beta-2-of-Visual-Studio-2010-Net-4-842208/.
More product info is available at http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx.

[Updated 21-Oct-2009:] See also http://burling.co.nz/post/Major-simplifications-to-Visual-Studio-SKUs.aspx.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Announced, and MSDN Gets a New Look

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:46:00 GMT

For the announcement of Beta 2 for Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4, see http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2009/10/19/announcing-visual-studio-2010-and-net-fx-4-beta-2.aspx. See also http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx. This Beta is available for download now for MSDN Subscribers, and it will be available to everyone else by Wednesday October 21st, 2009.

Also, the MSDN web site was revamped. See http://msdn.microsoft.com. The MSDN Library now has three views: Classic (see for example http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default(classic).aspx), Lightweight (in Beta, see for example http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default(lightweight).aspx), and ScriptFree (see for example http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default(loband).aspx).

Enjoy!

.NET Framework 4.0: Monitoring Workflow Services

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:53:00 GMT

In this 11-minute video, you'll learn how to track workflow service events for health monitoring, troubleshooting and other scenarios like auditing and compliance.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-24-Monitoring-Workflow-Services.

Highlights:

00:45 Enabling basic monitoring via the service's web.config file.
01:25 Configuring the Event Viewer.
01:59 Running the service via the WCF Test Client.
02:33 Examining the event logs.
02:55 Using the event logs to help with troubleshooting.
06:10 Creating custom events.

Visual Studio Team System 2010: An Introduction to Manual Testing

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:08:00 GMT

In this 25-minute video, you'll learn about the new features in Visual Studio Team System 2010 for manual testing.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-23-An-Introduction-to-Manual-Testing.

Highlights:

01:20 Introducing Microsoft Test and Lab Manager.
04:23 Exploring a real test case.
04:30 Shared test steps.
05:50 Parameterized test steps.
07:00 Adding attachments to test steps.
13:16 Running a real test case.
21:19 Logging a test step failure.

Simplifying My Computer: Outlook

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:15:00 GMT

I’ve been trying to simplify my computer so that I can work faster and with less distracting visual clutter. Today, I’m taking on Microsoft Outlook. (I’m currently using Outlook 2010 Technical Preview.)

Here’s what I did to simplify my Outlook layout:

I hid the Navigation Pane: on the View menu, in the Layout group, I clicked Navigation, and then I clicked Minimized.
I hid the To-Do Bar: on the View menu, in the Layout group, I clicked To-Do Bar, and then I clicked Minimized.
I minimized the Ribbon by pressing CTRL + F1. (You can show the Ribbon by pressing CTRL + F1 again.)
I turned off all of the e-mail notifications: I clicked the Office Button, I clicked Outlook Options, I clicked the Mail tab, and in the Message arrival area, I unchecked all of the boxes, and then I clicked OK.

Now that my Navigation Pane is minimized, I use the following shortcut key combinations:

To view my Inbox, I press CTRL + 1.
To view my Calendar, I press CTRL + 2.
To view my Tasks list, I press CTRL + 4.
To view my Outlook Folders, I press CTRL + 6. (To hide my Outlook Folders again, I press ESC.)
To compose a new e-mail, I press CTRL + 1, and then I press CTRL + N.

What have you been doing to simplify your computing experience? Please let me know in the comments following this post.

.NET Framework 4.0: Simplifying Data-Driven Web Applications

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:01:00 GMT

In this 21-minute video, you'll learn about some improvements planned for dynamic data in the .NET Framework 4.0, specifically around data model-level metadata and validation.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-22-Simplifying-Data-Driven-Web-Applications.

Highlights:

05:45 Using "data annotations" and "metadata types" (or "buddy classes") to specify visual formatting and metadata information in the data model.
13:53 Showing the specified visual formatting and metadata information in the user interface.

Visual Studio 2010: Web Tooling Improvements

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:04:00 GMT

In this 16-minute video, you'll learn about some of the new web tooling features in Visual Studio 2010. There is new code snippet support for both HTML and JavaScript. In addition, Visual Studio now has a new dynamic JavaScript IntelliSense engine that infers the return type from functions and provides appropriate IntelliSense. This makes working with JavaScript libraries a lot easier.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-Episode-21-Web-Tooling-Improvements.

Highlights:

00:35 New code snippet functionality.
03:34 Creating your own code snippets.
10:15 Improvements to JavaScript IntelliSense.
13:07 Web deployment improvements.

.NET Framework 4.0: Service Discovery with WCF

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:30:00 GMT

In this 24-minute video, you'll learn about how Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) in the .NET Framework 4.0 allows you to build applications and services that can discover other services using UDP multicast messages or a discovery proxy. You'll even learn how to discover services that are implemented with older communications technologies.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/10-4-episode-19-Service-Discovery-with-WCF.

Highlights:

01:05 How to make your service discoverable.
01:45 How to allow your service to discover other services.
03:35 Running the demo application. However, the user's display name is not friendly.
05:22 Extending the discovered service response to make the user name display in a more friendly format.
07:40 Announcing your service instead of forcing others to find it.
11:00 Service discovery across subnets via a proxy.
18:03 Discovering services that are implemented with older communications technologies.

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0: Overview of Planned Features

Paul Cornell [MSFT] — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:46:00 GMT

In this two-hour video, you'll get an extensive rundown of some of the features planned for Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0, courtesy of Scott Guthrie.

See http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/matthijs/Scott-Guthrie-Visual-Studio-2010-and-NET-Framework-40.

Highlights:

002:20 Laundry list of cool things coming out in this release but won't be covered in depth in this presentation.
006:15 New integrated development environment (IDE) for the 2010 release (for example, multiple monitor support, finding code references, and test-first/test-driven development).
032:25 .NET versioning and multi-targeting support.
039:15 ASP.NET 4.0 improvements.
055:00 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improvements.
062:50 Web Platform Installer.
066:05 JavaScript improvements.
076:35 ASP.NET AJAX improvements.
083:40 ADO.NET Entity Framework improvements.
100:00 ASP.NET Dynamic Data support.
100:40 ASP.NET Chart control.
105:55 Web deployment improvements.