Saturday, October 31, 2009

MSBuild & Virtual PC’s – Like peas in a pod?

Guy Smith-Ferrier - Automating Testing Using Windows Virtual PC

“As promised here are the slides [GD:Click through for all the slide/source links] and source code for yesterday's "Automating Testing Using Windows Virtual PC" presentation at the MVP Open Day. The sister presentation to this one is "Automating Testing Using Virtual Server 2005" and you can download the slides and source code for this one. If you are using Virtual Server 2005 you might like to download both as the Windows Virtual PC presentation is more recent and contain slightly more code that is still applicable to Virtual Server 2005” [GD:Post leached in full]

From the slides;

image

image

What caught my eye in this was that the MSBuild Extension Pack was getting some Windows Virtual PC msbuild task love… that’s cool…

For years now I’ve been wanting to see about using virtual machines in my dev/test processes. VS2010’s Lab Management is a huge step in the right direction, but it’s still just one step. The inclusion of MSBuild tasks in the MSBuild Extension Pack (and the Virtual Server tasks in the SDC Tasks) is another…

The thought of queuing a build (or via CI/nightly) and getting a VM out for delivery/testing seems to be too darn cool to me. I know some of you might have been doing this for years already (cough… like Scott Hanselman, who’s chatted about it in his podcasts) but some of us are in environments that have barely graduated to automated builds let alone embrace virtualization (and the thought of the two of them together, well that’s like WAY out there! ;)

Anyway… This will be an area, especially in the VS2010 wave, that I will be keeping a closer eye on.

(via FreeToDev - Automating Testing Using Windows Virtual PC)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
MSBuild Extension Pack (Think “FreeToDev MSBuild Tasks Suite” but now they’re cooking with gas! ;)
FreeToDev MSBuild Tasks Suite – First Non-Beta Release (and request for help…)
New (beta) MSBuild Tasks Suite - FreeToDev MSBuild Tasks Suite

The SDC Tasks Projects is alive and well... v2.1.2978 Released
SDC Tasks Project's New Home on CodePlex
MS UK Enterprise Solutions Build Framework (SBF) Updated
MSBuild Community Tasks Project
More on the Solution Build Framework (SBF) (MSBuild Tasks) From MS UK
MS SDC.Tasks, a MSBUILD tasks library with over a hundred new tasks...

Friday, October 30, 2009

“Outlook 2007 Best Practices” – 37 Pages toward email nirvana (well… that might be reaching a little, but you get the idea…)

Microsoft Downloads - Outlook 2007 Best Practices

“This article is intended to provide users of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 guidance on how to best use the product.

File Name: Best Practices for Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.docx
Version: 1
Date Published: 10/30/2009
Language: English
Download Size: 607 KB


…”

From the document;

“…

The purpose of this paper is to provide customers of Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2007 messaging and collaboration client with guidance on how to best use the product. Created by the product team who created Outlook 2007, this guide represents our advice on how to get the most out of Outlook 2007. By no means comprehensive, it covers just a few core scenarios.

This guide is intended for people who:

  • Work for a large company with an IT department.
  • Receive more than 30 e-mail messages a day.
  • Spend lots of time every day using Outlook 2007 to send and receive e-mail and to set up and/or attend meetings.
  • Are using Outlook 2007 with a Microsoft Exchange Server account.

Regardless of your server setup or organization size, this document will be useful to you.

Why an Outlook "best practices" document?

We wrote this paper for the best possible reason: Our customers asked. We designed Outlook 2007 to be used by a wide audience with many work needs and styles. Although there's no one "right way," there are a few ways of working in the program that we know to be easier than others. We hope that by being aware of the best practices, you will have the best experience possible using Outlook.

Basic principles of good time management

Outlook 2007 is a tool to help you manage your e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks. As such, it is at the center of not only your communications but also your time-management. To get the most out of Outlook 2007, we suggest a few basic principles:

  1. Reduce the number of places where you read e-mail. Filter all of the messages you need to read into one place — your Inbox by using a series of rules.
  2. Let some e-mail messages pass by. Use rules to send the e-mail you need to read into your Inbox and then let the rest flow untouched into distribution list folders (DL folders). You don’t need to read every message sent to you. Only the important ones should go to your Inbox. Remaining messages can be useful to keep — in case you get looped in on an issue, for example.
  3. Reduce the number of places where you manually file e-mail. Reduce the mental tax of filing by relying on search to locate messages.
  4. Process your e-mail by using the Four Ds. When reading your e-mail, decide whether to
        Delete it.
        Do it (respond or file for reference).
        Delegate it (forward).
        Defer it (using categories and flags) for a second review in your task list.
  5. Reduce your to-do list to one list. Use a single to-do list and calendar to manage what you need to do.
  6. Work in batches. Use categories to help you group similar tasks together.
  7. Use good judgment when sending e-mail. Follow the dos and don’ts of writing great e-mail. Review your time and tasks regularly.

image

Many of us use Outlook day in and out yet how many of us use it well?

Personally I’ve achieved the much vaunted goal of the “Zero Inbox”, but it took a while to train myself to get there. How? Mostly by doing step #4 above (i.e. the Four D’s). Given that (and that, or maybe because, I’ve been using Outlook for forever) I still got some good ideas from this document.

Anyway, given how my time we spend in Outlook it seems a good time investment to ensure we’re actually using it smartly.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

“Windows Management Framework” is here for Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, 2008 – Remote Admin Power +10

Windows PowerShell Blog - Windows Management Framework is here!

“Windows Management Framework, which includes Windows PowerShell 2.0, WinRM 2.0, and BITS 4.0, was officially released to the world this morning. By providing a consistent management interface across the various flavors of Windows, we are making our platform that much more attractive to deploy. IT Professionals can now easily manage their Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2 machines through PowerShell remoting [GD: emphasis added] – that’s a huge win!

…”

Microsoft Support - Description of the Windows Management Framework on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008

“This article describes the Windows Management Framework on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. The Windows Management Framework includes the following:

  • Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0
  • Windows PowerShell 2.0
  • Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 4.0

 

Windows Management Framework makes some updated management functionality in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2 available to be installed on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. Windows Management Framework contains Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0, Windows PowerShell 2.0, and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 4.0.

WinRM 2.0

WinRM is the Microsoft implementation of WS-Management Protocol, a standard Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)–based, firewall-friendly protocol that allows for hardware and operating systems from different vendors to interoperate. The WS-Management Protocol specification provides a common way for systems to access and exchange management information across an IT infrastructure.

WinRM 2.0 includes the following new features:

Windows PowerShell 2.0

Windows PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language that is designed for system administration and Automation. Built on the Microsoft .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell enables IT professionals and developers to control and automate the administration of Windows and applications.

New features that are introduced in Windows PowerShell 2.0 include the following:

BITS 4.0

BITS is a service that transfers files between a client and a server. BITS provides a simple way to reliably and politely transfer files over HTTP or HTTPS. File downloads and file uploads are supported. By default, BITS transfers files in the background, unlike other protocols that transfer files in the foreground. Background transfers use only idle network bandwidth in order to preserve the user’s interactive experience with other network applications, such as Internet Explorer. Foreground or typical transfers are also supported.

BITS 4.0 includes the following new features:

Description of the Windows Management Framework on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista .”

Remote Admin goodness for older Microsoft OS’s = Good Thing

Now to see about getting this deployed in-house…

(via ActiveWin - Windows Management Framework Is Here)

Computer Forensics in a Windows 7 (and Vista) world

SANS Computer Forensics, Investigation, and Response - Windows 7 Computer Forensics

“Windows 7 was released this past week. A lot of work by the SANS community has been accomplished at uncovering digital forensic artifacts from it. First off, Windows 7 is really Windows VISTA release 2.  Many of the features that are found in Windows Vista will be found in Windows 7. 

Here is just a few things we have helped document regarding Windows 7.

User Profiles:

With the release of Vista/Win7, Microsoft significantly changed the folder structure and mechanisms used by the operating system for user profiles. …

Internet Explorer:

The major change within Vista/Win7 that affects us when performing browser forensics is the newly implemented “Protected Mode”. …

USB Key Analysis:

USB Drive Enclosure Analysis:

Defrag Analysis:


Timeline Analysis:

Kristinn Guðjónsson developed and released a full scope timeline creation tool called log2timeline that is able to parse many Windows Vista and Windows 7 artifacts in a single simple tool.

Shadow Copy Forensics

Troy Larson from Microsoft has done a wonderful job continuing to discuss the Shadow Volume Copy and ways you can examine them in an investigation.  We posted back in 2008 on many of his techniques.

http://blogs.sans.org/computer-forensics/2008/10/10/shadow-forensics/

image

While this post, information and site are focused on computer forensics, that doesn’t mean the average Dev and IT’er can’t use it.  ;)

Seen all the PowerShell goodness in Win7? Want to use the same tool Microsoft did to create much of it? Here you go! “PowerShell Cmdlet and Help Designer” (free and source available BTW)

Windows PowerShell Blog - Announcing: Open Source PowerShell Cmdlet and Help Designer

“During the development of Windows 7, most cmdlet design and help authoring in Microsoft went through an internal tool called the “Cmdlet Designer.”

cmdlet_designer_2

So why blog about it? Because it’s now yours!

We just posted the entirety of the Cmdlet Designer, its source code, design specification, and deployment guide to http://www.codeplex.com/CmdletDesigner under the most permissive Microsoft Open Source license, the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL).

…”

CodePlex - PowerShell Cmdlet and Help Designer

“The Cmdlet Designer makes it much easier for teams to concentrate on the design, naming, and consistency of their cmdlets, while also guaranteeing name registration and collision avoidance across a project.

To sweeten the deal, it offers:

  • Integrated help authoring
  • Efficient bulk operations (parameter and cmdlet cloning)
  • Generation of cmdlet code
  • Full scripting support
  • Automatic code-spec comparison and testing
  • Role-based security, history logging, and more.

Architecturally, the Cmdlet Designer offers a reference implementation to benefit developers as well:

  • UI on top of Cmdlets
  • UI extensibility through scripting
  • Cmdlet / Webservice interaction
  • Role-based security, with a trusted subsystem implementation

…” [GD: Project Description Leach Level:99%]

From the latest code drop, “Cmdlet Designer Design Spec.docx”;

 image

1 Introduction

This document describes architecture and design of the PowerShell Cmdlet Designer. The Cmdlet Designer tool allows users (primarily PMs) to specify all of the metadata required when designing a cmdlet – its name, parameters, validation attributes, and more. Rather than store all of this information in a Word Document, the PowerShell Cmdlet Designer stores its information in a database. By storing all of the spec metadata in a database, these specs now become rich sources of structured information from which we can drive process improvements, and ensure consistency.

2 Assumptions & Limitations

· At a high-level, the PowerShell Cmdlet Designer is designed to enforce consistency and prevent name collisions across Microsoft. Enforcing this is a highly-networked operation. In this incarnation, therefore, the tool must be run from a machine connected to a corporate network. See “Extensibility” for more information.

5 Use Cases

· A PM launches the Cmdlet Designer UI. From there, he or she adds nouns, cmdlets, parameters, and parameter set entries.

· The PM sends out a link to the cmdlet for review, which summarizes all of its important characteristics in a read-only fashion.

· A user calls the Cmdlet Designer cmdlets (upon which the UI is built) to script cmdlet-related tasks. For example, they search for all cmdlets that have more than 10 parameters, or update all parameters that have a certain name to use a new name.

The test team uses the cmdlet comparison tool (also built upon the Cmdlet Designer cmdlets) to verify that the spec for the cmdlet matches its implementation.

…”

My feeling is that in the next few years, as more companies move to Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 and the roll out newer server products like SQL Server 2008, and they feel the power of PowerShell there’s going to drive to integrate PS into their products and processes.

By seeing PS in action, by using and living with it, Dev’s and IT’ers are going to “feel the need, the need for Posh”. They are going to see the ROI in not only bolting on PS to their products as an after thought but also in making PS the administration foundation and making the admin UI the after thought.

That’s where I see tools like this one coming into vogue. Tools that help Dev and IT teams construct their own PS suites are going still going to be somewhat of a nitch, but I think it could be a big nitch…

(via ActiveWin - Announcing: Open Source PowerShell Cmdlet and Help Designer)

Bacon! Hosting a Bacon Day How To

Steve's Tech Talk - How To: Host a Bacon Day

Christina put up a blog entry about the historical/social aspects of Bacon Day at Atalasoft.  I’m going to give you a guide for hosting your own Bacon Day.

For Bacon Day you ultimately need three things: good bacon, good people, and a means to cook, but it also takes some basic organization, so here is a guide to help you out.

At least one week in advance, you should do the following:

image

Bacon!

‘nuff said.  ;)

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

There are still seats available for the free Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp being held Nov 16th in Los Angeles

I just heard today from Lynn Langit (@llangit) and Danial Egan (@DanielEgan) at the Los Angeles/Burbank Windows 7 Deep Drive (BTW great presentation you two, thank you! :) that there are still seats available for the free, as in free, Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp being held on Nov 16th at the LA Convention Center. This is an all day, totally free event which some serious names like Mark Russinovich

For more information, links, etc, please see my previous post, Free Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp at PDC09 (yes, free for attendees AND non-PDC attendees, space is limited).

Guys this is an all day event that’s…um… have I said…um… free? If you’re in the SoCal area, can’t get your boss to money up any funds for training, yet want/need to learn about development in a Win7 world, all you need to do is talk him into letting you out of the cube for a few hours. 8’ish hours of free, in person, training? Dude! That should be a no-brainer…

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Free Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp at PDC09 (yes, free for attendees AND non-PDC attendees, space is limited)
PDC09 – See you there!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Free (reg-ware) E-Discovery Reference Guide eBook

IE Discovery - E-Discovery Reference Guide

“We all have an ethical obligation to stay competent and up-to-date on e-discovery issues.  This comprehensive, 135 page reference guide provides everything you need to know about e-discovery…”

From the PDF;

image 

image

Do you really need be to insert my standard “you need to be ready, EDD/ESI/etc because it IS coming YOUR way” rant here? Really?

(via @complexd - E-Discovery Reference Guide (A Compilation of Published Works) via IE Discovery)

WPF is the future, get over it, post of the day - “Are desktop developers ignoring WPF at their peril?”

Living in the Tech Avalanche Generation - Are desktop developers ignoring WPF at their peril?

“So is 2010 the year when WPF finally starts to make the big-time? Having spent some time now working with the new desktop framework, I find it unlikely that I will find a compelling enough reason to choose Windows Forms for a desktop UI technology choice again.

So what’s holding it (WPF) back? I have read and listened to a lot of stuff online suggesting it’s so complex that it’s turning people off the idea. So what about the issue of so called complexity? …

Here is what I advise: don’t be afraid of the technology. If you ever developed desktop applications in the past and considered yourself capable in designing a good user experience, then don’t buy into the scare mongering and be prepared to jump off the cliff.

I don’t doubt that there will be some small percentage of software teams that will bring on a dedicated designer(s) but I would hate to think that the small development teams out there will be put off venturing out into the brave new world. Yes there is a lot of complexity (particularly in WPF) and the learning curve is certainly not shallow by any means, but nothing good in life is easy.

image …”

The title of this post struck me as soon as I saw it. I personally believe that WinForm’s days are numbered, in the many hundreds I’m sure, but numbered none the less.

What I find “interesting” is the resistance to WPF. I’m facing it daily and am having a very difficult time getting the message across as to why it’s important to our professional careers, development practices, applications and users. Sure it’s not perfect, and there’s a learning curve, but that was the same story when we started with WinForms. Get over it! sigh…

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that VS2010/.Net 4 will be the WPF watershed release that I hope it will be.

[Now to step up and try to drive WPF into those small areas where I have a little bit of control… Am I willing to walk the walk? I’m willing to try…]

Free 11 page Windows 7 “What you can do before you call Tech Support” eBook

Microsoft Press - Free e-book: Windows 7 troubleshooting tips

“Mitch Tulloch, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and lead author of the just-published (and hot-selling) Windows 7 Resource Kit (Microsoft Press, 2010; ISBN: 9780735627000; 1760 pages), has created a short e-book called “What You Can Do Before You Call Tech Support.” Here are the opening paragraphs:

…” [GD: Click through for the direct download links… No registration required]

From the PDF:

“Your sound card has stopped working, your computer seems sluggish, the network is down, your hard drive is clicking, you can’t view a website, your monitor is hard to read, your new webcam isn’t working, your favorite program won’t run, and a funny burning smell is coming from your computer. What can you do on your own to try to troubleshoot the issue before you pick up the phone to call tech support?

If you’re running Windows  7, quite a lot. Microsoft has included a lot of self-support tools in Windows  7 that you can try using before you seek the help of others, and we’ll examine these in a moment. Then there are the tools you were born with—your five senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch) and most importantly your brain. And by brain I’m including your memory, experience, and capacity for logical reasoning. Finally, there is ancient and sacred lore passed on in secret from Master to Disciple over the millennia. We’ll see shortly how your brain, your senses, and the secrets of the Wise Ones can be very helpful for troubleshooting computer problems. But first let’s look at what troubleshooting tools are built into Windows  7.


Windows  7 Troubleshooting Tools
Windows  7 has a new feature called the Windows Troubleshooting Platform that lets third-party hardware and software vendors create troubleshooting packs (or troubleshooters) you can use to try to resolve computer problems yourself. Microsoft has included about two dozen of these troubleshooters in Windows  7, and if something goes wrong with your computer you can try using these troubleshooters to identify and (hopefully) resolve the problem.

…”

image

Section titles like “The Sacred Lore of the Hardware Junkies” just kill me… :)

Monday, October 26, 2009

PST File Format Documentation coming…

Interoperability @ Microsoft - Roadmap for Outlook Personal Folders (.pst) Documentation

“Data portability has become an increasing need for our customers and partners as more information is stored and shared in digital formats. One scenario that has come up recently is how to further improve platform-independent access to email, calendar, contacts, and other data generated by Microsoft Outlook.

On desktops, this data is stored in Outlook Personal Folders, in a format called a .pst file. Developers can already access the data stored in the .pst file, using Messaging API (MAPI) and the Outlook Object Model—a rich set of connections to all of the data stored by Outlook and Exchange Server—but only if Outlook is installed on the desktop.

In order to facilitate interoperability and enable customers and vendors to access the data in .pst files on a variety of platforms, we will be releasing documentation for the .pst file format. [GD:Emphasis added] This will allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice. The technical documentation will detail how the data is stored, along with guidance for accessing that data from other software applications. It also will highlight the structure of the .pst file, provide details like how to navigate the folder hierarchy, and explain how to access the individual data objects and properties.

This documentation is still in its early stages and work is ongoing. …”

Awesome! This will be huge for EDD/Forensic/etc software and service providers.

Yet I can’t help but imagine what a beast this document is going to be. Still better a beast we know, than one we don’t…

(via bink.nu - Microsoft opens up PST file format)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
The Microsoft Office Visualization Tool (OffVis) – Spelunk (view, browse, peek into, etc) Microsoft Office Binary Format files
Microsoft Office (DOC, XLS, PPT) Binary File Format Specifications Released – We’re talking the full technical specification… (The [MS-DOC].pdf alone is 553 pages of very dense specification information)
DOC, XLS and PPT Binary File Format Specifications Released (plus WMF, Windows Compound File [aka OLE 2.0 Structured Storage] and Ink Serialized Format Specifications and Translator to XML news)
Microsoft Office Binary File Format Specifications Coming to a Download Near You...

A Feed You Should Read #9 – 10-4

Today’s “feed you should read” is another one of those “a feed you should watch” feeds and is in honor of this past week’s release of Visual Studio 2010 and /Net 4.0 Beta 2.

Channel 9 - 10-4 Show

image

Background:

The 10-4 is a semi-regular video cast that focuses on Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4. From downloading & installing to using the many new features, the whole gambit is covered in short, 30’ish minute, video casts. Visual Studio features, MEF, MVC, ASP.NET, ADO Data Services, WCF, F#, VB, etc, etc are all there.

It might not be the single “one stop shop” for all things VS2010/.Net 4, but more of the “one drive thru” for the good stuff in VS2010/.Net 4. Kind of like the “In-N-Out” for the coming release(s)  ;)

Why do I like this feed and think you might also?

You mean, besides the clever name? Another reason is needed? sigh… ok… 

I dig the shows because they are short, focused on a specific area, are given by people who know their stuff and have a passion for what they are showing.

There’s almost too much in coming release; there’s so much, it is easy to get lost and paralyzed by choices. These shows give you byte sided information chunks to get you started. They are not, currently, in-depth nor are they intended to be, think survey course, overview, wet your appetite shows.

Look. NOW is the time to start getting up to speed on VS2010/.Net4. If you start next March when it’s released, you’ll be buried, you’ll already be too late. Do it a little at a time and by March you’ll be able to hit the ground running.

Snap of the latest post:

image

Blog Information:

Name: 10-4
URL: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/
Feed: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/10-4/RSS/
Post Types: Video casts related to Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4.0