Jason Zander put together a reference application “Image Viewer” that shows how to enable some cool Windows 7 features in your XP or Vista applications with relatively little effort and without sacrificing backward compatibility. You can download the application and source code here.
• Multitouch
• Application Recovery
• Windows Search
• UAC
• Scheduled Task
• Windows 7 Taskbar Integration
• Transactional File System
• IO Optimization
• Event Tracing for Windows (ETW)
• Microsoft Management Console
• Windows 7 Libraries
• Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform
• PowerShell
• Preview Handler
• Aero Glass
• Trigger Start Services
According to Business Journal, Microsoft will provide 10,500 vouchers for Microsoft Windows and Office online training, 10,500 vouchers for Microsoft business-certification exams and 2,700 for advanced training. Detail here.
At PDC09 ScottGu discussed many new and enhanced features of Silverlight 4 and announced that SL4 beta is available here and rtm available first half of 2010.
SharePoint Server 2010 Beta provides an extensible platform to rapidly build solutions using familiar tools such as Visual Studio 2010 and SharePoint Designer 2010. Beta is available for download here.
To learn more about SharePoint 2010, visit Microsoft SharePoint web site. Also, check out David Chappell’s white paper, SharePoint 2010: Developer Platform White Paper.
Microsoft Codename “Dallas” is Microsoft’s Information Services business, enabling developers and information workers to instantly find, purchase, and manage Web services and datasets to power the next set of killer applications on any platform.
More detail at http://www.pinpoint.microsoft.com/en-US/
You can now download the Tailspin Travel application from Codeplex (download here).
System Requirements: Tailspin was built using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, and there are a few features in use in the demo that require that version (e.g. coded-UI tests). If you’re using a different SKU, you’ll still be able to run the solution, but there will be some features you won’t be able to take advantage of. Because we consider the new Windows Server AppFabric a key part to the Tailspin Travel application, we also require that you have it installed. This is what enables the memory-caching, as well as the service/workflow containers, and monitoring support. SQL Server 2008 R2 isn’t a hard requirement, but if you don’t have it installed you won’t be able to deploy the Data-Tier Application (DAC).
In addition to the features that were demoed at PDC keynote, the released version of Tailspin contains many additional scenarios to help developers see a broader view of possibilities with the respective technologies.
At PDC’s keynote Bob Muglia announced availability of several products and technologies. Some of them will be available for download shortly.
a. ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta (for Visual Studio 2008 SP1)
ASP.NET MVC 2 is a framework for developing highly testable and maintainable Web applications by leveraging the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. The framework encourages developers to maintain a clear separation of concerns among the responsibilities of the application – the UI logic using the view, user-input handling using the controller, and the domain logic using the model. ASP.NET MVC applications are easily testable using techniques such as test-driven development (TDD).
The installation package includes templates and tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP 1 to increase productivity when writing ASP.NET MVC applications. For example, the Add View dialog box takes advantage of customizable code generation (T4) templates to generate a view based on a model object. The default project template allows the developer to automatically hook up a unit-test project that is associated with the ASP.NET MVC application.
Because the ASP.NET MVC framework is built on ASP.NET 3.5 SP 1, developers can take advantage of existing ASP.NET features like authentication and authorization, profile settings, localization, and so on.
b. Windows Identity Foundation RTM (aka “Geneva Framework”)
Microsoft Windows Identity Foundation helps simplify user access for developers by externalizing user access from applications via claims and reducing development effort with pre-built security logic and integrated .NET tools. Users can benefit through single sign-on and seamless collaboration across organizational boundaries.
c. Windows Server AppFabric Beta (New product)
Windows Server AppFabric is a set of integrated technologies that make it easier to build, scale and manage web and composite applications that run on IIS. The Beta 1 of Windows Server AppFabric will be available for download shortly.
You can watch PDC keynote live broadcast at http://microsoftpdc.com
While comparing HTC Pure vs. HTC Tilt, I found by serendipity John’s youtube video on Windows 7. As John said he is a Mac user. But I really appreciated his frank views on Windows 7. Check out the video and let me know what you think.
You don’t have to be a poet to win this grand prize, a Home Theater System including a 52” TV! Check out detail here
Whether or not you win the prize, you are entitled to the Free MS Press eBook (pdf file): Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2.
The Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers includes several sample applications that can help you get started with creating multitouch applications in managed code (C# or VB), native code or MFC. The managed code and native code samples require Visual Studio 2008 SP1, whereas the MFC samples require Visual Studio 2010 beta or higher.
To see some demo multitouch applications, click the video images below.
The managed code sample is a WPF application with references to the Windows7.Multitouch.dll and Windows7.Multitouch.WPF.dll. Multi-touch events and controls are not available in WPF 3.5; they will be part of WPF 4.0 (or .NET 4.0). These two dlls enable your managed code to work with native Windows 7 multitouch APIs through an interop wrapper. You can get the source code of the interop library here.
The first step is your application is to check if the device is touch capable with code that may look like.
C#
if (!Windows7.Multitouch.TouchHandler.DigitizerCapabilities.IsMultiTouchReady)
{
MessageBox.Show("Multitouch is not availible");
Environment.Exit(1);
}
Visual Basic
If Not Windows7.Multitouch.TouchHandler.DigitizerCapabilities.IsMultiTouchReady Then
MsgBox("Multitouch is not availible")
Environment.Exit(1)
End If
For more detail, check the completed code at the default install location, e.g. C:\Windows7TrainingKit\Labs\Multitouch - Managed\Source\Ex1-PictureHandling\End\C#
To learn more about Windows 7 multitouch, check online resources below:
- Architectural Overview
Windows Touch Gestures Overview- Choosing the Right Approach to Windows Touch
- Windows Touch
The Windows Identity Foundation helps simplify user access for developers by externalizing user access from applications via claims and reducing development effort with pre-built security logic and integrated .NET tools. You can download WIF here.
The Bing Maps Silverlight Control 1.0 has just been released. You can now use Microsoft Bing Maps in your web application in three different methods. However, before you get started, you need to download the Silverlight Control SDK and create a Bing Maps Key to authenticate your application. To obtain Bing Maps Keys, first go to the Bing Maps Accounts Center and create a Bing Maps Developer Account. You can create a key for your local application with URLs like “http://localhost:35465/SilverlightApplication1TestPage.aspx”
Method #1: Embedding a Map into Your Web Page
To embed a map into your Web page, add an iframe tag to your Web page and set the src parameter to the embedded map URL. The following code adds a simple Road map to a Web page.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Embedded Map</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body style="font-family:Arial">
<p>A simple embedded map.</p>
<iframe width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"
scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0"
src="http://dev.virtualearth.net/embeddedMap/v1/
silverlight/aerial?zoomLevel=10¢er=47.5_-122.5&
pushpins=47.5_-122.5"/>
</body>
</html>
Method #2: Using Script to Load a Silverlight Map. This method requires an application key.
To begin, load the Bing Maps Silverlight Control by referencing the Bing Maps Silverlight Control XAP file in an object tag on your Web page. Set the “source” param to the Bing Maps Silverlight Control XAP file. The Bing Maps Silverlight Control XAP file reference is http://dev.virtualearth.net/silverlight/mapcontrol/v1/Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.xap. In addition, you need to provide a valid Bing Maps Key. Set your key using another param tag for the object. Information about getting a Bing Maps Key is found in the Accessing the Control Using a Bing Maps Key topic.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Load a Silverlight Map</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body>
<div id="silverlightControlHost">
<object id='slCtl' data="data:application/x-silverlight,"
type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="800"
height="500">
<param name="source"
value="http://dev.virtualearth.net/silverlight/
mapcontrol/v1/Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.xap" />
<param name="enableHtmlAccess" value="true" />
<param name="initParams"
value="ApplicationId=Your Key”/>
</object>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Method #3: Creating a Basic Application Using the Silverlight Map Control. This method requires an application key.
If you want the full functionality of the Bing Maps Silverlight Control, then you need to create a Silverlight application that loads the Bing Maps Silverlight Control. You create a Silverlight application and use the Silverlight Map Control as outlined the steps below:
- Create a Silverlight Project Using Visual Studio 2008 or Visual Studio 2010 (Beta)
- Browse to the location of your Bing Maps Silverlight Control installation (default location on a 64-bit OS is C:\Program Files (x86)\Bing Maps Silverlight Control\V1\Libraries). Open the Libraries folder, select the Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.dll and the Microsoft.Maps.MapControl.Common.dll files
- Modify the user control by adding your application key and the map tag as shown in blue color.
<UserControl x:Class="SilverlightApplication1.MainPage"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:m="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Maps.MapControl;
assembly=Microsoft.Maps.MapControl" >
<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
<m:Map CredentialsProvider="your key" Mode="Aerial" />
</Grid>
</UserControl>
A sample Visual Studio 2010 project is attached in the zip file. You can view these three different methods with ShowBingMaps1.htm, ShowBingMaps2.htm and ShowBingMaps3.htm.
Microsoft has just released a Facebook SDK that enables .NET developers to quickly and easily leverage the various features of the Facebook Platform. This toolkit has evolved over time with input from the community and from Microsoft. The latest release (v3.0) includes new architectural improvements and provides an asynchronous interface for using the toolkit from Silverlight and from WPF.
You can find more info on the SDK and detailed instructions about how to create a Fackbook application here.
Check out this Channel9 video that reveals life at Microsoft that you haven’t seen. Guaranteed!
