Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Released

Microsoft Downloads - Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista

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Overview

If the machine participated in the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta, please be sure to uninstall the beta first.
During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability from previous versions of Windows. While we have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, some of the system enhancements, such as User Account Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows. These investments impact Visual Studio 2005. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Vista enhancements.

Many of the Windows Vista enhancements are documented at the Windows Vista Development Center.

This download installs the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista for the following Visual Studio SKUs:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
• Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
• Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
• Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
• Microsoft Visual J# 2005 Express Edition (English Only)
• Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Controller
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Code Profiler
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Explorer

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Downloading & installing now...

Also here are the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista release notes

Related Past Post XRef:
Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta
VS2005 SP1 RTM

CueCat Scanner, .Net and Amazon REST Lookup's

Coding4Fun's WebLog - Hardware Boneyard - Using the CueCat with .NET

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Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Less than 1 hour
Cost: Less Than $50
Software: Visual Basic or Visual C# Express Editions
Hardware: A CueCat - try eBay or your garage
Download: Download

In this installment of "Some Assembly Required" column, Scott Hanselman borrows Travis Illig's CueCat BarCode scanner and creates a plugin for Windows Live Writer than lets him blog more easily about books he's reading. We decode the bar code info, change UPCs into ISBNs, call Amazon's Web Service via REST and integrate with Windows Live Writer all in one article. Whew!

..."

There were a number of things I found cool & interesting items (CueCat bar code scanning, Amazon REST, UPC to ISBN conversion and the WLW integration) in this article.

Free TFS Outlook 2007 Addin

My VSTS Blog - Team System Outlook 2007 Addin available

"A little while ago, I blog about the Outlook 2003 Addin and what a handy utility this was. Unfortunately at the time it was only available for Outlook 2003. Well the good news today is that the guys from the MS Israel community have released the Team System Outlook 2007 addin so for Office 2007 users the wait is now over.

More Info & Download" [Post Leached in full]

While I'm not going to give up my TeamLook (I totally dig TeamLook, BTW... I can't imagine using TFS without it), the above addin is a option for those who want Outlook-TFS integration but can't/don't want to pay for a commercial product.

For example, for my home/personal CodePlex projects, this may be perfect...

Creators.XNA.com opens

XNA Team Blog - It’s time once more for the Game Developer Conference (GDC) and we’ve got a lot of exciting news to share!

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The XNA Creators Club Online community site is open for business!

Head on over to http://creators.xna.com and register for the XNA Creators Club Online community. You’ll find some great content such as:

• A brand new starter kit! (Marblets)
• Several samples including a skinning (animation) sample using the XNA Framework Content Pipeline!
• Downloadable sample games.
  New developer forums.
• Video tutorials.
• Much, much, more!

Join up now, and start contributing! XNA Creators Club members on the Xbox 360 will soon be flagged as Premium members and have access to even more benefits as you’ll find further down. ..."

Because I'm on this XNA kick... ;)

There are a few of what look like cool samples, videos and stuff already on the site.

I like how it's going to be linked to my XBox Live account, giving me additional value/stuff for my XNA Creators Club membership (i.e. it's one more way I can justify the 99 bucks  to my wife... ;)

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30 Videos for the New Programmer & XNA Developer
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Portable Stick Figure Animation Utility

Portable Freeware Collection - Pivot Stickfigure Animator V2.2.5

"Pivot is an easy program to create stick-figure animations. You can build your own stick figures and load your own backgrounds. The animations can be saved as animated gifs. Some examples are included."

Doesn't everyone need a stick figure animation utility on their thumb drive?  ;)

BTW, the source/original site doesn't appear to be up but the download link still works.

30 Videos for the New Programmer & XNA Developer

XNAtutorial.com - Video Downloads

"XNAtutorial.com provides video instructions for beginners wanting to get into game programming."

These 30 videos, hours of content, were put together by an amateur programmer, Joran Omark, who is learning to program, using XNA as his motivator.

It's introductory content, great for someone who is just learning to program and who wants to get up to speed on XNA.

The videos/source/etc are downloadable, so easy to view and use offline.

For more ringing endorsements, check out the extremely positive post comments...

(via Miguel Campos Blog - XNA Tutorial)

Related Past Post XRef:
Free XNA Book

IM Your Way to A Better World

Windows Live Spaces - The i'm Initiative and new secret emoticon

"The i'm Initiative is the most exciting piece of news I have had to share with Messenger users since I started working on Messenger over 3 years ago and there has been tons of exciting news over the last 3 years. Now if you are like me and are a Lost fan if you hear The <anything> Initiative your mind immediately jumps to the DHARMA Initiative and you assume it must be bad and very mysterious. The i'm Initiative is completely the opposite, it is very good and all the previous mystery around the secret emoticon in Messenger 8.1 will be revealed below.

...

Wonderful! How does it work?

1. Use Messenger 8.1
   
2. Add the i'm emoticon to your display name by entering the code of the cause you would like to support (hint: I suggest adding it at the end of your name so you still appear in the correct alphabetic order in your contacts list)
   
3. Send and receive IMs
   
4. A portion of the advertising revenue generated by your usage of Messenger will be donated to your cause. So the more IMs you send and receive the more money will be donated to your cause.

note: currently the donation only applies to Windows Live Messenger users in the United States. If you are in the US and you are IMing with a contact in another country your IM activity will be counted towards the donation.

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What are the i'm emoticon  codes and causes?

• American Red Cross --  ready to help, code = *red+u
  
• Boys & Girls Clubs of America --  providing a positive place for kids, code = *bgca
  
• National AIDS Fund --  fighting AIDS, code = *naf
  
• National MS Society --  joining the MS movement, code = *mssoc
  
• ninemillion.org --  helping 9 million refugee kids, code = *9mil
  
• Sierra Club --  exploring and protecting the planet, code = *sierra
  
• StopGlobalWarming.org --  stopping global warming, code = *help
  
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure --  finding the cure, code = *komen
  
• UNICEF --  helping kids survive, code = *unicef
  

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This sounds too good to be true - sort of like that e-mail I got about Bill Gates sending me a Million dollars if I forward the email onto 10 friends and they send it on to 10 friends, etc. How do I know this is really true?

You can check out the official i'm Initiative website -- http://im.live.com -- and the causes will have information on their websites as well.

..."

I know... I thought it was a hoax thing too, but it looks legit.

Now every IM I send, the American Red Cross gets a live money love from Microsoft... ;)

(via Scott Elkin - Donate To Charity Using MSN Messenger 8.1)

Vista/Office 2007 Preview Handler Pack - Preview Handlers for *.CS, *.ASPX, *.SQL

Enter the Tatrix - Vista and Office 2007 Preview Handler Pack released

"I’m in love with the new preview functionality in Vista and Office 2007, however its usefulness is limited by the small number of file types it will actually preview. Over the weekend, I set out to start fixing this by implementing preview handlers for the files I use every day - like .cs and .aspx.

..."

This Preview Handler Pack, while released in December 2006, is still pretty darn cool sounding...

(via Danie Bruwer - Vista and Office 2007 Preview Handler Pack released)

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Preview Handler Framework

Visual Studio 2005 SDK version 4.0 Released

Microsoft Downloads - Visual Studio 2005 SDK version 4.0

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This is the official Visual Studio 2005 software development kit that allows developers to integrate tools, editors, designers, languages, and much more inside Visual Studio 2005. It adds the following features: VS SDK Browser, Package Load Analyzer, Toolbox Control Installer together with a toolbox control installation sample, a redistributable package for Toolbox component vendors that simplifies deployment, a new tool for generating managed class library documentation (Sandcastle), an updated Setup experience, a new toolbar combo box sample, new integration tests for the EditorWithToolbox sample that use the VsIdeHostAdapter and much more.

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Interesting to see Sandcastle is included...

Related Past Post XRef:
Visual Studio 2005 SDK V3 (September 2006) Released
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"V2 of the VS SDK almost ready to ship"