Regular blog readers may know of my work with Microsoft’s free kid’s coding IDE, SmallBasic as a tool to introduce the fun of coding to DigiGirlz.  As I work with my volunteer developer teams on improving the way we work SmallBasic (more on that later in this post), I am thrilled to see a major enhancement in SmallBasic itself.

Kudos to the incredible Vijaye Raji (a developer on our Visual Studio team).  He’s not only created SmallBasic alone and on his own time, but he continues to improve it.  He’s recently released version 0.7, which includes the new ‘Graduate’ Feature.  This allows SmallBasic applications to be seamlessly migrated to VB.NET.

To see this in action, download SmallBasic (it’s FREE) and install it.  Open the IDE and write a simple program (sample screen below).

After writing your program, simply click on the new ‘Graduate’ button on the toolbar and the magic happens.  Just fill in the destination on the pop-up dialog, and you’re done!

Just for fun, I’ve installed the Visual Basic Express 2010 beta 2 on my machine and am using it to open the newly created VB project.  All of the Express editions of Visual Studio are also free – you could also use Visual Basic Express 2008.   Because I did use 2010, there is a ‘update project’ wizard that pops up – just click through those dialogs and enjoy the results (shown below).

Of course, this being Visual Studio Express, you can enjoy all the features included in the Express Editions of Visual Studio, such as the Object Browser (shown below), debugging, etc… I am so excited about these capabilities as we are  teaching kids over the long term!

In addition to the new ‘Graduate’ feature, my team of community technical volunteers and I are continuing to work with Vijaye to prioritize requests for improvements to the SmallBasic IDE, based our our work teaching with it. 

Along with these improvements in tools, I have been working with community developer and technical instructor Llewellyn Falco on improvements in teaching methods and he’s come up with a great idea to ‘give legs’ to SmallBasic after the live classes we teach.  His concept is to use ‘recipes’ for further exploration.  We are quite interested in your feedback on this approach.  Here’s a link to the wiki where we are posting recipes (partial screenshot shown below as well).

What do you think?  Let us know.  We are particularly interested in hearing feedback from middle and high-school technology classroom teachers on our new approach, so if you are reading this blog and know a teacher – please pass along the link – thanks!

Wow what a launch today in Orange, CA!  Thanks to the standing-room only audience this morning.  Because of the crowd size, you were so kind as to send your questions via text messages.  I didn’t have time to answer all of your many questions all at the event, so here are the rest of the answers.  I’ll categorize the questions for easier reading too.

General Developer readiness and internals

Q: How do I get the Windows API Code pack?
A: The new MSDN Channel9 Windows 7 online training center has links to everything you’ll need.  It includes links to SKDs, code packs, as well as all of the sample code from the demos I showed in today’s presentation – enjoy!

Q:  Do developers have to distribute the API code pack .dlls with their applications that use them?
A:  Yes, you do, but you can select the individual .dlls that apply so as to keep your application size as small as possible.

Q: What is the best way to take advantage of 64-bit applications?  If I write an application for 64-bit, will it still work on 32-bit?
A: For a deeper understanding of Windows internals in general, and 64 vs 32 bit in particular, there is no better source than Mark Russinovich – his blog is here.  He also has done several interviews on MSDN Channel 9 and has recently published a book on Windows Internals.

Q: If I write an application that uses a feature that is only available in a particular edition of Windows 7 (such as Bit Locker), what happens if someone tries to run my application on an edition of Windows 7 that does not contain that feature?
A: You should use version checking and ‘fail gracefully’ in your code (i.e. ‘the edition of Windows 7 that you are using does not support feature x).  For more information see the hands on lab on version checking.

Q: How has UAC changed?
A: See this hands on lab, also the MSDN guidance

Q: How is PowerShell integrated into Windows 7:
A: PowerShell 2.0 is included – more info here (showing cmdlets)

Q: Does booting from VHD work in Windows 7?
A: It sure does – here’s a lovely blog post about this topic

Q: Can you demo homegroup setup?
A: Sorry no time, but here’s a video.

Q: Does Windows 7 support languages other than English?
A: Definitely – here’s a MSDN Channel9 video to get you started.

Sensor API

Q: Does the Location API support geo-coding? complete address reporting (also called civic address)?
A: If the location device provides that information and yes it does – more in this presentation.

Q: Are there any simulated accelerometers in the Windows 7 SDK or dev kits?
A: Not that I know of, however here’s a great blog entry on how to test/use the Freescale board (that I showed and gave away as swag) accelerometer with a sample XNA racing game.

Multi touch API (and Graphics Enhancements)

Q: How much of the multi touch API is in the current beta of .NET 4.0 (beta 2)?
A: It is not complete yet.  Use the Managed Wrappers until .NET 4.0 is RTM’ed, or use native code.

Q: Can you use multi touch to geo tag items?
A: Yes the location gadget can be coded to work with touch (the sample uses a mouse click on a Bing Map to set your location).

Q: Can you use multi touch on multiple monitors?
A: Yes, as long as all monitors support touch

Q: If I code for an Infrared multi touch screen, does that mean that I’ll have to write different code for a Capacitive multi touch screen?
A: No, you will not.  The same code will work for both types.  However each type of screen may have a different maximum number of points of touch.

Q: Is there a built-in option in Windows 7 to automatically make the screen (or icons) bigger for touch?
A: No, but that has been coded into some Windows 7 applications.  You’ll also see that design in jumplist menu items (i.e. more space between them).  For more on the API, see these hands on labs.

Q: Do multi touch applications have the ability to respond to the amount of touch pressure? i.e. a ‘pressed harder’ event
A: Not at this time

Q: Can you define a custom gestures?
A: Yes you can by coding a custom response to a particular WM_TOUCH message, see the HOL referenced earlier for an example.

Q: Can we see Mike and Kim’s X-Ray multi touch application?
A: There is a video on MSDN Channel 9 about this application – enjoy!

Q: Is touch capability moving us toward virtual keyboards?
A: That is possible, also still complex.  Microsoft Research has been doing some work in this area.

Q: What type of touch support is built-in to Windows 7?
A: Support for mouse clicks being replaced by simple gestures – like the Word 2010 (beta) scrolling with simple inertia that I demonstrated.  More complex gestures, such as those with complex inertia, must be manually coded.

Q: Will a Windows 7 multi touch application be deployable on a MS Surface device?
A: Not presently, however we are working toward parity with MS Surface capabilities, particularly controls, for more info see this MSDN Channel 9 video.

Q: What is the maximum number of points of contact that a Windows 7 application can support?
A: That depends on the capabilities of the hardware.  For example, on the HP TouchSmart tx2, 5 points of touch are supported after the N-trig monitor drivers are installed.

Q: Which applications that ship with Windows 7 are multi touch capable?
A: IE8 has the ‘bump’ feature; MS Paint is multi touch enabled

Q: Does Silverlight support multi touch? Do you code it the same way?
A: It will and coding is different at this time – here’s a Codeplex sample for Silverlight 3.0

Q: Is the Surface API / SDK separate from the Windows 7 multi touch API?
A: Yes it is separate at this time.

Q: Does Window 7 support handwriting recognition?
A: Yes, we have had this since earlier versions of the OS.  It performs better after end-user training as well.

Q: Which version(s) of DirectX are compatible with Windows 7?
A: DirectX9, 10 and 11

Taskbar & Library API (also UX and Search)

Q: Can you set up a default save location in a library, like in a folder?
A: Yes, and that is a recommended programming practice for Window 7. You can see this ‘hands on lab’ for more information.

Q: Can you backup a library?
A: Yes, you can and you can automate those backups as well.

Q: When you copy a file into a library, where are you actually copying the file to?
A: The physical folder that the library is referencing.

Q: Can I pin an item to the start menu? (Run…)
A: Yes, right click the item and then click ‘pin to start menu’

Q: Why is your taskbar at the top of your screen?
A: Because I have chosen to put it there.  I think it makes me more productive, it is an optional placement.

Q: Are programmable taskbar enhancements, i.e. icon overlays, etc…available only in Windows 7?
A: That is correct

Q: What gadgets do you recommend for Windows 7?
A: These are fun.

Q: Can we incorporate BING into Windows 7 search? how?
A: Yes, you can, via federated search.  Using the OpenSearch standard, you can incorporate BING as well as other data sources, here’s some guidance.

Q: Does Windows 7 include voice activation? (i.e. a Speech API)
A: Yes, we’ve had one since Vista – here’s a link on how to build a WPF application that is speech-enabled.

Q: Is the scenic ribbon user configurable?
A: Not by default, but you can add that functionality to it with code.  To get started coding a scenic ribbon, see these hands on labs.

Q: Where can I find a list of keyboard shortcuts for Windows 7:
A: Here’s a pretty good link.

About XP Mode

Q: When will XP emulation be fully available?
A: XP Mode is part of the the professional and ultimate editions of Windows 7.  Read this blog to understand more about different types of virtualization offerings.

Other questions (ahem…I did not make these up, actual texts!)

Q: Where can I find information on the new Microsoft Store opening this week in Orange County? (Mission Viejo, CA this Thursday)
A: Here’s a link – get there early this Thursday for fun and prizes!

Q: How are you?
A: Fine, but a bit busy at the moment. (asked during presentation via text).

Q: I was at U2 concert last and know how you feel (directed at Mike)
A: Exactly.

Q: I am 14 years old and my mom had to wake up at 4:30 am to drive me here, can I have some swag?
A: Sorry, no, but thanks to your mom.

Q: I noticed your frequent websites link included ‘Aries and Leo love compatibility’ – would you consider a Sagittarius?
A: Well, that is supposed to be a pretty good match for a Leo

Q: Will you marry me? (assuming this was directed at me and not at Mike Roth :)
A:  Not at this venue – maybe a Las Vegas event in the future.

Q: Are you single? (same assumption as above)
A: Yes, are you?

Well, it’s not me presenting, but it is the same content.  If you couldn’t make it to the Windows 7 launch event next Monday, October 26th starting at 9am, you can watch the live stream of the presentation of my developer evangelist colleague Daniel Egan and more presenting on Monday.

Here’s the link for the live stream http://thenewefficiency.com/live

For those of you who DID register for my event on the same day (in Orange), I am looking forward to seeing you and will have some special surprises for select attendees.

Wow – this is GREAT! MSDN Channel 9 has a new online training center for you (developers) to learn the Windows 7 APIs.  The topics included are multi touch, taskbar, sensor / location, ribbon, shell libraries, background services, instrumentation & performance, installer detection, data redirection, high DPI, session 0 isolation, user privilege isolation and version checking.

There are hands on labs written using managed code (in both C# and VB.NET), native code.  Code samples are downloadable.  Also there are videos and more resources around each developer topic.  The developer prerequisites (with links) are listed at the top of page as well.

Happy coding!

Next week Monday and Wednesday, I’ll be presenting at the MSDN launch events for developers for Windows 7.  Both events are registered full already – however, I am posting my decks here for you.  Also we may be recording one set of launch sessions, if we do so, I’ll post the link to the recording on my blog.

Session 1 – Windows 7 Taskbar and Library APIs

Happy coding!

Also, if you haven’t done so already, please join my facebook group ‘Windows 7 Developers’ for more information.

As you may know we’ve announced that Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Windows Azure, will have commercial availability as of the first day of the upcoming Professional Developer’s Conference in Los Angeles on November 17th, 2009.  In addition to data storage via Windows Azure, included in our offering will be SQL Azure.  I’ve been following the product team’s progress with SQL Azure for quite some time now, given my long-term interest in, and professional use of, SQL Server. 

In fact, just this week the product group announced on the the SQL Azure blog, that the current build is feature-complete for PDC09 now.  The product team’s most recent blog details features that have been added to the most current CTP, such as the ability to configure firewall (access) rules, support for bulk copy (mostly for initial data load-in), and more. I’ve been watching and waiting, eager to ask lots of detail questions of product group as we start our first phase of commercial availability.  Of course, the paramount questions are around security of your data in our cloud.  We have a large number of sessions at the upcoming PDC in Los Angels, which runs from November 17 to November 19.   The announced schedule to date already included 9 dedicated sessions on SQL Azure.  These sessions are being conducted by members of the SQL Azure product group team.

If you can’t attend the PDC and want to get started learning the capabilities of SQL Azure, then I recommend downloading the October 2009 Windows Azure Platform Training Kit.  It includes power point decks, demos, hands on labs and more.  Of course this kit will be updated to reflect changes in the product as we add features.  There will also be a good bit of SQL Azure coverage at the upcoming SQL Pass Summit in Seattle from November 2 to 5th.  In addition, there will be sessions at TechEd, Europe in Berlin from November 9th to 13th.

An interesting new development is the recent update to the SQL Azure management portal.  The CTP access URL is changing as of PDC (from https://ctpportal.database.windows.net to https://sql.azure.com) and the portal itself has been updated to reflect the newly-added features of SQL Azure.

Due to the level of interest in SQL Azure (including my own interest), I have decided to write a technical book about the topic.  Readers of this blog will get to preview partial chapters, as I plan to begin the writing in December.  I intend to write about topics thtat will have interest for developers, ITPros and architects.  These will include development of .NET and non .NET front-end solutions (i.e. PHP, Java) which use SQL Azure as a partial or entire storage solutions, also deployment and management considerations such as auditing and synchronization between cloud and local copies of data stores.  Of course there will be a strong emphasis on security implementation best practices throughout the book.

I am quite interested in your feedback if you have worked with any version of the SQL Azure CTP (beta).  Take a minute to drop me a mail via this blog to tell me what you’ve liked or not liked about your experience so far.

You may know that I've led Microsoft's annual events for high-school aged girls (in SoCal) DigiGirlz for 3 years now. I will continue to do this, plan for 2010 is to host three one-day events (in April) in LA, Irvine and San Diego for DigiGirlz. Also, I will be participating in DigiGirlz events (as an instructor-trainer and as an instructor) in other geographies. An incredible group of community volunteers has been the key to the success of DigiGirlz events.

New for 2010 is a vision to implement a larger initiative for both boys and girls (middle school and high school). The 'big vision' is to create a series of annual events, in partnership with the local technical communities and one university per event, where we teach large numbers of kids technology. The style of the event is based on codeCamp, that is community-driven, with corporate support (Microsoft and more), with community volunteers setting up logistics (registration, schedule, setting up classroom loads, etc...) and teaching.

The first instance will be held in Mountain View on Feb 27 (single day) at Foothill Valley College (site of the hugely successful annual SVCCodeCamp). This is being run by the NorCal technical community. They have decided that their first event will target girls only (300), due to the under-representation of women in technology. I will participate as an instructor-trainer and instructor. Peter Kellner and his wife Tammy (they run SVCCodeCamp) are already on board to help with volunteers as well.

The second instance will be held at UCSD in San Diego the second weekend in July. Llewelyn Falco will co-lead the event with me. We are currently working on curriculum development and are looking for volunteers to assist with this. Jason Frankovitz & Thomas Mueller are also on board helping with curriculum development. As we get closer to the date, we will obviously be looking for a bunch more volunteers.

I would like to run one more instance in SoCal this year. I am looking for suggestions for venue and timeframe.

If you would like to be part of my TeachCamp planning (mailing list), because you'd like to contribute and / or host your own TeachCamp somewhere outside of the Western US, you are welcome to join the conversation too.

If you are interested in helping in any way please send me mail to lynnl at microsoft dot com with the subject 'TeachCamp'

As you may already know, we (Microsoft) have announced that we will have ‘general availability’ of our version of cloud computing, Windows Azure, on the opening day of the Professional Developer’s Conference (Nov 17).

As we prepare to ‘go-to-market’ with Azure, I’ve been doing some preparatory reading and wanted to share with you.  First I’ve finished ‘Cloud Application Architectures’ by George Reese (O’Reilly).  The focus of this book is on implementing using Amazon’s cloud services (EC2 and/or S3), there is also some coverage of RackSpace and GoGrid.  The focus of the book is on architecture, i.e. designing for availability, scalability, securability, etc…I found this short book to be a well-written introduction to these areas.

The second book that I read is ‘Cloud Security and Privacy’ by Tim Mather, Subra Kamaraswamy and Shahed Latif (O’Reill).  I was lucky enough to meet two of the three authors recently.  They attended my talk on SQL Azure at Silicon Valley Code Camp in Mountain View. This book does a great job covering all aspects of cloud data security considerations.  It focuses on explaining security concepts deeply and does not focus on a a particular cloud provider.  I particularly like the chapters on regulatory issues and on auditing.

Since I have yet to find a dedicated book on Windows Azure, I am also working through the freely downloadable ‘Windows Azure Platform Training Kit’ as preparation.  I am finding a wealth of information there and am particularly liking the Hands on Labs, Demos and Presentations sections of the kit.

In addition, MSPress has approached me about writing a book on SQL Azure and I am working on the proposal now.  To that end, I’d be interested to hear from you about what topics would be of most interest.  Also, the Azure team has asked me to record a series of ‘How do I…SQL Azure?’ screencasts (similar to those I did for my last SQL Server BI book ‘How do I…BI?’) as a companion to my book.

Let me know what you are interested in seeing / reading!

Slides from #CloudCampSVCC – 5 minute time limit for my lightning talk.  It was also filmed, I’ll add the link after it’s published.

I presented at #SVCC introducing Gemini – here’s the deck.

Deck from my talk at #CloudCampLA.  TechZulu also recorded the talk, I will post the link here after they edit and post that video.

By popular demand I am attempting to aggregate SoCal Developer events on a monthly basis.  For October 2009 as follows below.
I’ll be happy to add any developer events I may have missed, just send me mail via my blog.

Week 1 (Sept 27 – Oct 3)

Mon, Sept 28 – GirlsInTech / Santa Monica / 7pm - ‘How much can you say without tarnishing your brand? (social media) – I am speaking
Wed, Sept 30 – CloudCamp / LA / MS Office / 6pm – I am attending, maybe speaking
Sat, Oct 3 – Silverlight Education Day / San Diego / 9am
*note – I’ll be at SVC Code Camp and then San Jose MSDN Windows 7 launch from Fri, Oct 2 to Mon, Oct 5*
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Week 2 (Oct 4 – Oct 10)

Tues, Oct 6 – DealMaker / LA / MS Office / 1-5pm – I am attending
Wed, Oct 7 – MSDN geekSpeak on WF / 12-1pm – I am moderating
Fri, Oct 9 – BecauseItsMyBirthday / EccoHollywood / 7pm until late – I am one of the LA City Hosts

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Week 3 (Oct 11 – Oct 17)

Thurs, Oct 15 – MindshareLA / 8pm until late – I may be attending

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Week 4 (Oct 18 – Oct 24)

Tues, Oct 20 – SQL UG / San Diego / 6:30pm to 9:00 pm – I am speaking on Gemini
Wed, Oct 21- MSDN geekSpeak on Refactoring / 12-1pm – I am moderating
Thurs, Oct 22-25 – Social Media for Small Biz Con / Aliso Viejo – 3 days – I may stop by

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Week 5 (Oct 25 – Oct 31)

Mon, Oct 26 – MSDN Windows 7 Launch Event / Irvine – I am speaking on Windows 7 for Developers (sorry, sold out)
Tues, Oct 27 – 140 conference / LA – I may be speaking (afternoon) on use of Twitter to drive nonProfit support activities
Wed, Oct 28 - MSDN Windows 7 Launch Event / LA– I am speaking on Windows 7 for Developers (sorry, sold out)
Thurs, Oct 29 – New Media Vault  / LA – 7pm until late – I will probably be attending

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I’ve wanted to play around with this feature (also called ‘BitLocker-To-Go’), but hadn’t had time until today.  I’ll recap what I’ve found.  First, and probably most important, is that BitLocker is only available as part of Windows 7 Ultimate (or Enterprise) editions.  That is, the ability to ENCRYPT is available only in these editions of Windows 7.  Of course, you can DECRYPT with any version of Windows 7.  For testing I used one laptop with Windows 7 Ultimate to encrypt and another one with Windows 7 Home Basic to decrypt.

To access, or start using this feature, simply insert your USB drive and then right click on the drive. (Alternatively, you can choose to ‘turn on BitLocker’ via an applet in the Control Panel).   You’ll then see the option to ‘Turn on BitLocker…’ on the context-sensitive menu.  You’ll then see the dialog box shown below, as your USB drive is being prepared to be encrypted.

Because the machine I am using to encrypt includes a SmartCard reader, I have option to encrypt by using either a password or a SmartCard.  These options are shown in the dialog box below.  Note that if you use a smart card, you’ll also have to enter your smart card PIN when you want to decrypt (read) the information on the USB drive.

For simplicity I’ll just use a password.  Note that the passwords should be complex (i.e. upper/lower, numbers, etc…) to be effective, however the only validation on the password value is a length requirement.  That is, users can choose to enter overly simply passwords, for example in my case I entered the digits 1-8 only.  The next screen of the wizard asks you to select where you’d like to store the recovery key.  Your options are either to store the key to a file or to print the key.  Appropriate key storage is, of course, vital to successful security via encryption.  Also, from a practical point, if you forget the USB password, the only other way to access the data stored on an encrypted USB drive is by entering the recovery key information. 

Note: There is also a local (security) policy setting (Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Local Security Policy>Security Settings>Public Key Policies>BitLocker Drive Encryption) which allows you to define Data Recovery Agents.  GPO discussion is beyond the scope of this blog post.  For more info – go here.

I’ll select ‘Save the recovery key to a file’ for our test.  After selecting the folder location for the file save, you will be presented with final dialog box which will ask you to confirm the encryption by clicking on the ‘start encrypting’ button.  After you do that, you will see a dialog with an encryption progress bar on it.  The process of encrypting will take a couple of minutes, during this time you have the option to ‘pause’ encryption if desired by clicking on that button on the dialog box as shown below.

When complete, a dialog will confirm the encryption.  You can also easily see that a USB drive has been encrypted by viewing it in Explorer.  In this case, my USB is E:\
If you wish to change BitLocker settings, you can simply right click on the encrypted drive in Explorer and then click on the ‘Manage BitLocker…’ menu option.

The options you can change are shown in the screenshot below.  They include changing the password, removing the password (if you do this, you must add a smartcard, as the drive is STILL encrypted), adding a smart card, saving/printing recovery key, or auto unlocking this drive on this (the encrypting) computer.   You’ll note that there is NO option to remove BitLocker encryption from the USB drive.  The only way to do this is to FORMAT the USB, which, of course, also removes any data on that device.

The experience for using an encrypted USB drive is very simple.  A dialog box, similar to the one shown below pops up shortly after a USB drive is inserted into the USB slot.  Note that if you are using the encrypted USB drive on the encrypting computer, then you can select the option to ‘automatically unlock on this computer from now on’.

Of course BitLocker is certainly NOT just for USB drives.  There is wealth of information about BitLocker as an enterprise data protection tool (enforced via Group Policies on end user’s local hard drives, etc… on TechNet), I just felt like writing this post for those of us ‘home geeks’ who are using Windows 7 Ultimate at home, and are playing around with all of the advanced features because, well, we want to.

Regular readers will note that I recently purchased an inexpensive NetBook and upgraded the OS from XP to Windows 7 Home (blog detail here).

First I tested my NetBook out for plain old web browsing.  It worked just fine with one exception – some websites aren’t designed for the small screen size and resolution.  That is, of course, not the fault of the hardware or OS though.  As a web browsing appliance, my NetBook works just fine.

Next up, time to install some applications.  Thinking I’d like to make this into a junior developer machine (for students, etc…), I visited the Microsoft Express site (here) to locate the download links for Visual Studio Express 2008 and SQL Server 2008 Express.  These are Microsoft’s FREE tools for development.  While at the site, I noticed the Web Platform Installer Tool (here).

The WPI Tool is designed to be a one-stop shop to prepare a developer machine by installing the free versions of our tools in one long download.  Our website does NOT list Windows 7 as officially supported with the WPI tool, so I thought even more reason to give it a try.

After checking all of the options in the install wizard dialog boxes, the download(s) started.  I chose to install VSExpress 2008, SQL Server Express 2008 (w/mgmt tools).  You can also install other applications and tools, such as PHP for Windows, WordPress or DotNetNuke.

After about an hour or so of downloading and installing with no intervention on my part required (also no reboots required!), the WPI tool reported successful installation of the applications listed below in the screenshot:

So, I first fired up Visual Web Developer 2008 Express using one of the included project types (Silverlight Navigation application).  This worked with no problems.  This amazes me – all of these developer tools are FREE and running on a $ 325 laptop!  Below is list of the project templates that are available based on what I installed.

Next up I took a look at SQL Server Express 2008.  Again, this worked perfectly.  Restoring a backed-up version of the sample database --from CodePlex named AdventureWorks, I was up and running in minutes.  Below is screenshot of all the FREE tools that are included with SQL Server 2008 Express.  Note that we now include SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 with SQL Server Express 2008.  Also of note is that SSRS 2008 does NOT require a full version of IIS (rather it simply uses http.sys) to work.

Again, I am really happy with what I see so far.  This machine and this OS works like a dream as a student developer box.

Next up, I am going to test out this little laptop with Gemini.  I’ll blog the results here soon.

I am working on setting up my first VPC in Windows 7 and I found a couple of things had changed from Vista and wanted to share here.  I realize that for application virtualization, ITPros would most often be using Windows 2008 Server, however, developers would more commonly use Windows 7.  That’s why I decided to blog that use case here.

To use virtual hard disks as VPCs on machines with Windows 7 installed, you’ll first have to check /set the BIOS to make sure that virtualization is supported.  Here are some sample instructions for some common hardware vendors. 

After you’ve done that, then you’ll need to download the free add-in named ‘Windows Virtual PC’.  You must select the appropriate type based on your processor – either 32 or 64 bit. Note that this is DIFFERENT from Virtual PC 2007 (which you may have used with Vista).  If you have installed Virtual PC 2007, you’ll need to remove it before installing Windows Virtual PC.  Then you’ll need to re-boot.  After you install this application, the quickest way to find the executable is via the start menu, just type in ‘Windows Virtual PC’, then right click and click on ‘open file location’.  You may be surprised to see the 4 executable files associated with Windows Virtual PC are in the ..\Windows\system32 directory as shown below in the screenshot.  Remember that XP Virtualization is a new feature of some editions of Windows 7 (XP virtualization uses this set of virtualization technologies), so this is one of the reasons for the location change.

Probably the easiest way to get started is to click the VMWindow.exe executable.  This will open the Virtual Machines folder, note the ‘Create virtual machine’ command on the folder toolbar.  Click this to open the wizard which walks you through the configuration steps to create a VPC (or virtual machine).  VPCs can be created using new or existing VHDs.

After you click ‘Create virtual machine’ a dialog box will open as shown below.

After you name the virtual machine and set the location in the dialog, then you’ll next have to set the allocated memory (up to 2550 MB) and whether or not you’ll need to set up networking as shown in the dialog box below.

In the next dialog of the wizard you’ll either create a new VHD file or associate the VPC with an existing VPC file.  You can also choose to enable undo disks and / or to use advanced options when creating your VPC.

If you use advanced options, your choices are to select the type of VHD.  Types include ‘dynamically expanding’, ‘fixed size’ or ‘differencing’.  The wizard warns you in a subsequent dialog box that if you’ve chosen ‘differencing’, then the parent (or original VHD) should be marked as ‘read-only’, since the all changes will be accumulated on the differencing VHD only.

After you’ve successfully completed the wizard steps, then your new VPC will appear in the ‘Virtual Machines’ folder for the currently logged on user as shown below.  The virtual machine will have a file name ending with a *.vmcx extension.  Your .vhd file (or files) will be associated with this .vmcx file.  Also there will be a *.vmc file associated.  The latter holds the configuration information for the virtual machine.

To start your VPC, simply double-click the <VPCname>.vmcx file.  You will first see the dialog as shown below, then your VPC will start.

If you’d like to view or to adjust the settings for your VPC, you can do so from within the VPC itself, by clicking on the Tools menu>Settings.  Or you can access the Settings from the Virtual Machines folder by clicking on the <VPCname>.vmcx file to select the particular virtual machine of interest and then by clicking on the Settings item on the folder toolbar.  The Settings dialog is quite similar to that of Virtual PC 2007 (shown below).

You are presented with three options on shut down of your Virtual PC.  These are hibernate, shut down, or turn off.  This dialog is shown below.

Also, from the Tools menu (inside an open VPC) you can optionally select to ‘install the Windows Virtual PC integration components’.  These components are similar to the VPC additions that were available for Virtual PC 2007 and allow integration of hardware components such as sound.

As an alternative to using Windows Virtual PC, Windows 7 also supports booting from a VHD.  That process is covered in detail in this TechNet article.

As usual, I’d be interested to hear about your experience(s) working with ‘Windows Virtual PC’ – let me know how it goes for you!