These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed.

Here is a quick example of the topics covered in some of the tracks:

• Win7 – how to use the Taskbar, Multitouch, Ribbon, Sensors and Location, Session 0 Isolation, etc.
• Azure – Azure Overview, Azure Storage, Deployment, SQL Azure, etc.
• VS 2010 and .NET 4 – F#, ASP.NET 4, Parallel Computing, ALM, etc.

• February 14, 2010 -- Bing Maps adding Flickr images, live video, stars (0)
  Bing Maps adding Flickr images, live video and stars - very cool. Update: The official TED video below is quite cool and in addition to the one above, also adds more interesting features such as video – check it out. ...
• December 11, 2009 -- Extending WCF Adapters in BizTalk (0)
  I know a little bit about WCF :) but never really used it in anger in BizTalk and also did not get an opportunity to extend the adapter. I was looking for something else and came across this post form Paolo which explains in a lot of detail how does one go about extending and customizing WCF adapters. If you don’t know anything about WCF the first part explains that in general before going in to the BizTalk specific things....
• December 6, 2009 -- BizTalk Flat File schema optional attribute issue (0)
  I encountered this interesting issue and thanks to Colin we were able to resolve it. There will be situations you will encounter when adding additional optional attributes to a Flat File (FF) schema in BizTalk will cause problems. To get around this you basically will need to set the following properties to relax the parsing of the attributes which break. parser_optimization="complexity" allow_early_termination="true" early_terminate_optional_fields="true&qu...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...
• October 14, 2008 -- Win 7 called Win 7 (0)
  Not since the days of NT 4.0 (which stood for New Technology btw) has this happened that Microsoft is calling a Windows version what is really is – so Windows 7 will be called Windows 7! I say Yay! It is about time the stop all the malarkey about funky code names and boring “release names”....

I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings.

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 14, 2008 -- Win 7 called Win 7 (0)
  Not since the days of NT 4.0 (which stood for New Technology btw) has this happened that Microsoft is calling a Windows version what is really is – so Windows 7 will be called Windows 7! I say Yay! It is about time the stop all the malarkey about funky code names and boring “release names”....

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

However, when I trawl through the log file, I did find a few exceptions, a couple of which are listed below. The only reason the font is small on those is so it would fit and render fine in here. You can copy and paste that in notepad or something and see if in a bigger font; alternatively you can download the log file (see the end of this posting).

Exception 1:

Entering function CreateCentralAdministrationSiteForm.CreateCentralAdministrationSiteFormInitializeBeforeShow
…
A SocketException was thrown with SocketError ConnectionRefused
Connect has been refused for port 12838, so we will consider this a free port
Have not found a free port yet.  Number of tries is 1.  Min port we will try is 1024, Max port we will try is 49151
Leaving function CentralAdministrationSiteTask.GenerateRandomUnUsedPortForTheAdminVs
Leaving function CreateCentralAdministrationSiteForm.CreateCentralAdministrationSiteFormInitializeBeforeShow

Exception 2:

Entering function ResourceAccess.SetAccessRule
Entering function ResourceAccess.SetRegistryAccessRule
Entering function ResourceAccess.RetrieveRegistryRightsFromResourceAccessPermissions
Leaving function ResourceAccess.RetrieveRegistryRightsFromResourceAccessPermissions
Task secureresources has failed with an unknown exception
Exception: System.InvalidOperationException: This access control list is not in canonical form and therefore cannot be modified.
   at System.Security.AccessControl.CommonAcl.RemoveQualifiedAces(SecurityIdentifier sid, AceQualifier qualifier, Int32 accessMask, AceFlags flags, Boolean saclSemantics, ObjectAceFlags objectFlags, Guid objectType, Guid inheritedObjectType)
   at System.Security.AccessControl.DiscretionaryAcl.RemoveAccess(AccessControlType accessType, SecurityIdentifier sid, Int32 accessMask, InheritanceFlags inheritanceFlags, PropagationFlags propagationFlags)
   at System.Security.AccessControl.CommonObjectSecurity.ModifyAccess(AccessControlModification modification, AccessRule rule, Boolean& modified)
   at System.Security.AccessControl.CommonObjectSecurity.ResetAccessRule(AccessRule rule)
   at System.Security.AccessControl.RegistrySecurity.ResetAccessRule(RegistryAccessRule rule)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ResourceAccess.SetRegistryAccessRule()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.ResourceAccess.Secure()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.SecurityTask.SecureResources()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.SecurityTask.Run()
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.TaskThread.ExecuteTask()

I think I have everything outlined in the installation document for the Beta 1 Technical Refresh. BTW, I have this on Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP1 and all latest patches. SQL Server 2005 Dev. Edition and VS.NET 2005 Professional Edition.

There are a couple of more exceptions along the same line – if it would help I have upload the full log file which you can download here (53 kb). But the real question is any idea what is broken and why?

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

So my recommendation is not to use the wizard at all but instead go straight to the options page, which not only has more features but also gives you more control. How do you get there? Thought you would never ask. Right-click on your project name in the Solution Explorer and select properties. In the new window select the second last tab on the left called Publish – voila you are there. If you see the screen shot you will notice I have highlighted the urls you need to be careful of. This is where you can add other external dependencies, called Prerequisites (which were not automatically picked up as they are not referenced at design time). Most of the other options are self explanatory.

Also, if you go over the Sandbox to check out the Clock v2.0 (which was recompiled for Beta 2 – no new features other than to get it compiling), and try to install it, you will notice you cannot; instead you would see a funky looking xml (ain’t that funky btw). Well that is because the “.application” MIME type is not registered on the server that hosts this site. Since this is not a dedicated server, I don’t have any control over it and cannot just “switch it on” – I need to open a ticket for that and not sure how that will go. But, till then if you do look at the xml you can find out some of what is under the skin of ClickOnce.

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

You can download the list from here.

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

For example, if your applications do not use CGI, you can simply remove that component from your IIS configuration. Today, IIS functions are mostly monolithic, making you install core functionalities whether you use them or not. When a patch for CGI comes around, you need to apply it even though you don’t use it. With IIS 7.0, you’ll need to worry only about the components you chose to install. This will support even more secure configurations of IIS.

In addition, the componentization of IIS will allow Microsoft to build the service onto a set of public APIs which will allow third-party vendors to build their own functionalities into the Web server. And because each functionality is a specific component that can be added to or removed from IIS, these third-party add-ons will be completely transparent to the system.

Another key aspect of IIS 7.0 will be its complete integration with ASP.NET. Currently, ASP.NET consists of additional functionality that is tacked on top of IIS. Although they integrate well, it still takes two different sets of instructions to manage the two together – IIS is managed through its Metabase, and ASP.NET is managed through web.config files. In version 7.0, IIS will be completely integrated with not only ASP.NET but also the .NET Framework, ADO.NET, and even Indigo – the next version of the Microsoft Web Services platform. This means that there will be a single configuration point for all components of an application and the engines used to run it. The greatest advantage of this level of integration is that you will be able to deliver an application complete with its associated Web server configuration when you need to deploy it. This will vastly simplify administrators’ jobs.

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

ClickOnce applications can be self-updating; they can check for newer versions as they become available and automatically replace any updated files. You can specify the update behaviour; an administrator can also control update strategies, (e.g. making an update mandatory). Updates can also be rolled back to a previous version by the end user or administrator.

ClickOnce deployment overcomes three major issues inherent in deployment:

• Difficulties in updating applications – earlier any time an application is updated, the user must reinstall the entire application; now the updates can be provided automatically, and only those portions of the application that have changed will be reinstalled.
• Impact to the user’s computer – till now, applications often rely on share components with the potential for versioning conflicts; now, each application is self-contained and cannot interfere with other applications.
• Security permissions – Windows Installer deployment requires administrative permissions; but now non-administrative users can install and grant only those permissions necessary for the application.

How does it work?

The core ClickOnce deployment architecture is based on two XML manifest files,an application manifest and a deployment manifest.

• The application manifest (created using mage.exe) describes the application itself, including the assemblies, dependencies and files that make up the application, the required permissions, and the location where updates will be available.
• The deployment manifest (also generated using mage.exe) describes how the application is deployed, including the location of the application manifest and files and the version of the application that clients should run.

After a deployment manifest is created, it is copied to the deployment location which can be a Web server, network share, or even a CD/DVD. The application manifest (and all application files) are also copied to a deployment location that is specified and this can be the same as the deployment location or different.

The users can download and install the application as simply as clicking an icon pointing to the deployment manifest file on a Web page or in a folder. In most cases, the user will be presented with a simple dialog box asking the user to confirm installation (including elevated permissions if needed), then installation will proceed and the application will be launched without further intervention.

The application is added to the user’s Start menu and to the Add / Remove Programs group in the Control Panel. Unlike other deployment technologies, nothing is added to the Program Files folder, the registry, or the desktop, and no administrative rights are required for installation!

When the application developer creates an updated version of the application, he/she also generates a new application manifest and copies files to a deployment location. The administrator updates the deployment manifest to point to the location of the new version of the application.

Also, the deployment manifest also contains an update location (a Web page or network file share) where the application will check for updated versions. You can set properties to specify when and how often the application should check for updates. Update behaviour can be specified in the deployment manifest, or can be presented as user choices in the application’s user interface by means of the ClickOnce APIs. The, Publish properties can be employed to make updates mandatory or to roll back to an earlier version.
 

Icon for the sample application in the Start menu

The test application running locally after being installed

During the deployment, specifying the location where this would reside. Look at the examples which give you an idea on the various distribution strategies.

What is the target “platform“?

Where to check for updates?

Use a key for signing

Summary Screen

Screen shot of the deploy location. You can see various versions of the sample application present and also the dependencies (such as the .net runtime).

When the user starts an application and an update exists the user is prompted to either install it or skip it.

Snapshot of the registry that shows how the application version is tracked, etc. Here you can see the packages installed along with their versioning detail.

I will probably have more meaningful posts on this when I had a chance to use it in the “real world”.

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• Pocket PC 2003 SE Emulator
• Pocket PC 2003 SE Emulator (Legacy)
• Pocket PC 2003 SE VGA Emulator

Every time I try and “Deploy” to that the emulator comes up fine and I can connect to it, etc. but it cannot install the application for it and always get the Deploy error message (see the screen shots below). Also every time I try and “Power Off” the emulator, it comes right back up and does not really quit - it does not matter, if I save the state or do a soft or hard reset. All this time VS.NET is waiting for the emulator to exit. Ultimately I have to kill the process (DeviceEmulator.exe).

Image 1: The Emulator “Boots” Fine

I also get the following errors below, which are probably the crux of the issue.

No way to resolve conflict between “System.Xml, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” and “System.Xml, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac”. Choosing “System.Xml, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” arbitrarily.

No way to resolve conflict between “System, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” and “System, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac”. Choosing “System, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” arbitrarily.

No way to resolve conflict between “System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” and “System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac”. Choosing “System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” arbitrarily.

No way to resolve conflict between “System.Drawing, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” and “System.Drawing, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac”. Choosing “System.Drawing, Version=2.0.3600.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=969db8053d3322ac, Retargetable=Yes” arbitrarily.

ResGen.exe /useSourcePath /r:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.dll” /r:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\mscorlib.dll” /r:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Data.dll” /r:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.dll” /r:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Drawing.dll” /r:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Windows.Forms.dll” /r:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Xml.dll” /compile Form1.resx,obj\Debug\PocketPCApplication1.Form1.resources

Csc.exe /noconfig /nostdlib+ /warn:4 /define:DEBUG;TRACE /reference:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\Microsoft.WindowsCE.Forms.dll” /reference:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\mscorlib.dll” /reference:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Data.dll” /reference:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.dll” /reference:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Drawing.dll” /reference:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Windows.Forms.dll” /reference:”..\..\..\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\CompactFramework\WindowsCE\System.Xml.dll” /debug+ /optimize- /out:obj\Debug\PocketPCApplication1.exe /resource:obj\Debug\PocketPCApplication1.Form1.resources /resource:obj\Debug\PocketPCApplication1.Properties.Resources.resources /target:winexe Form1.cs Form1.Designer.cs Program.cs Properties\AssemblyInfo.cs

Does anyone have any idea on what is wrong or point me in the right direction?

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

1. You can tell at a glance what each type parameter is used for.
2. As with method parameters, so with type parameters: descriptive names are useful and helpful and mean you have to memorise less.
3. To dispel the mistaken notion that a type parameter is simply a placeholder that doesn’t “mean anything”.
4. Saying of List<T>: “it’s a list of some type T” may work, but other similar situations don’t work (e.g. Point<T>)
5. Even List<T> isn’t as simple as people think it is; “T” is never really OK.
6. T, V, K etc. may (just) be OK for native English speakers, but is not OK for those whose first language is not English.
7. If you choose the first letter of each word as your type parameter name (e.g. K, V), what if two or more words start with the same letter ?
8. Using descriptive names reduces the incidence of name clashing where two or more “T”s mix in the same lexical space.
9. You don’t have to look up what “T” means virtually every single time you come back to use a generic class, and you don’t have to bear it mind while you’re using the class (and why should you ?).
10. The case for using of single letters gets worse as more type parameters are added to generic classes in the future.
11. Using “T” leads you to then use “U” (as in the Converter delegate). “T” may stand for Type, but “U” doesn’t stand for anything. So the single-letter convention is inconsistent as well as unhelpful.
12. The brain isn’t overloaded having to remember what “T” and “U” stand for in more complex situations where generic types are mixed (e.g. in List<T>’s ConvertAll method).

I personally don’t particularly care, though given a choice, I prefer the <T,K,V> but that is probably because what I am use to seeing. We of course will know the outcome of this when Whidbey ships.

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

Searching – Before you can work with Wings objects, you must first be able to find them. Searching Wings is fairly straightforward. It uses the OPath syntax that is part of ObjectSpaces. Searching within Wings begins with the ItemContext class. The ItemContext class supports a FindOne method that will return the first object that satisfies the search. The FindOne method takes a Type of the objects we are searching for and the OPath search string. FindOne returns either the first found object or null if no matches are found.

What is OPath? OPath is a specialised syntax for dealing with object graphs. OPath is made up of XPath sprinkled liberally with SQL syntax. At its most basic, OPath supports property comparisons. Microsoft has attempted to create a simple and powerful search language by merging ideas from XPath and SQL. Using OPath you can do:

• Property Searches
• Wildcard Searches
• List Searches
• Collection Element Searches
• Compound Searches
• Relationship Searches

You can learn more about the OPath here.

Conclusion:

Wings makes searching and manipulating Wings objects very straightforward. Searching through Wings allows us to specify a very simple syntax for most cases but supports a rich search syntax to perform complicated searches when needed. Searching by specifying the type of object we are looking for allows us to use the hierarchical nature of the Wings schema to our benefit when searching. In addition, the Wings API allows us to deal with Wings object like any other managed objects when we need to manipulate them. In most cases we can deal with Wings objects just like any other classes that we work with in our applications. The power here is that the API should be very intuitive for users of Wings objects. We can create objects, change objects by manipulating properties, delete objects, and save our changes in batches.

For more information check out:

• http://tinyurl.com/3zksb
• http://tinyurl.com/4x79s
• http://tinyurl.com/4td5t
• http://tinyurl.com/6louv

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...

But till the “real source repository” ships, for most small development teams VSS is still not a bad product and is quite useful in those situations. I have not checked out the API so am not sure if that has changed, but I would assume (quite safely) that it is the same. For those who are curious to see how the GUI has changed, here are some screen shots below.

Adding a File to VSS – Well the dialogue boxes also have not changed, with the Folder and Drives view still from the old Windows 3.x days!! If you have a deep hierarchy it does make is a big pain to navigate. Not to mention long filenames that do not fit in the listbox.

VSS File Menu (Context) – Again the same as before except newer icons.

VSS Toolbar:

VSS Working Folder:

VSS About:

• April 8, 2010 -- Free (technical) Microsoft Courses (0)
  Channel 9 has a number of free technical courses on a number of emerging MS technologies covering a wide range such as Azure, Win7, Identity, SQL Server 2008 R2, Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4.0, Silverlight 4, MOSS 2010, Office 2010, etc. These cover a number of the features and essentially have everything to get a developer quite comfortable with the stack. In some areas they go a little deep as well. I think its an excellent way to come up to speed. Here is a quick example of the topics covere...
• March 19, 2009 -- Win 7 and loading ISO’s (0)
  If you are on Win 7 (any build) you will find quickly that Daemon tools don’t work on that. Even if it was working, I would in any case recommend ditching Daemon tools and recommend using Virtual Clone Drive which not only is free but also works like a champ. I use it on Vista as well. ...
• October 24, 2008 -- PDC’ing (0)
  I am going to be at PDC – anyone else I know going to be there? If you are reading this, and are going to be there then it is quite likely you know how to ping me and let me know you going. It also might be a good idea to check out the Devil’s field guide to the PDC. I will be blogging from there – but not during the sessions – need to ensure I am not distracted – especially as the Avalanche is coming! Expect to get some posts later in the evenings. ...