MSDN Flash - Volume 12, Number 10: May 5, 2008

From the Editor

Windows Vista is more than beautiful graphics and a new user interface. By taking advantage of new features in Windows Vista, your applications will stand out as engaging, comprehensive, and more secure. Here's a detailed list of reasons for why you should develop for Windows Vista.

Perhaps the most touted capabilities of Windows Vista are the built-in protections. See how your applications can take advantage of security features in Windows Vista.

Another reason to develop for Windows Vista is to take advantage of built-in speech recognition APIs. Check out two new videos that show how to program against these APIs:

How Do I - Get Started with Speech Recognition?

How Do I - Use Speech Recognition in an Application?

Live Mesh
There's been a lot of recent buzz about a new software-plus-services platform that enables PCs and other devices to be aware of each other via the Internet, thereby allowing individuals and organizations to manage, access, and share their files and applications on the Web and across all their various devices. Live Mesh is a platform designed to provide you with everything you need to build applications that take full advantage of the underlying services - whether by modifying an existing application or building a new one. The application possibilities are infinite. To find out more about this exciting S+S platform, watch the demo or visit the Live Mesh Team Blog.

With the Live Mesh SDK, you'll be able to build applications that:

• Use the Live Mesh sync service to synchronize files, data, and applications across all the devices in a user's mesh - even in scenarios where devices are only occasionally connected to the service

• Use the Live Mesh member service to provide file- and data-sharing experiences to anyone

• Extend the Live Desktop experience to deliver applications that are accessible from anywhere

• Plug in to the Live Mesh news feed system to generate notifications for key activities in your application

Thanks for reading.
Editor, MSDN Flash


A Note from Your Student Developer Team

Power Toys, Wow!
Power toys are small tools that enhance the user experience by providing fun add-ins, creating short-cuts, and addressing pain points associated with a product. Power toys are add-ins that come in all shapes and sizes for Windows Vista, Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2005, Window Mobile Development, etc. Once you Start++ you can't Start--.

Start++ Power Toy for the Vista Start Menu 
Start++ enhances the Start Menu for Windows Vista and extends the Run box with customizable commands. For example, typing "w Windows Vista" takes you to the Wikipedia article for Windows Vista. This application is simple and amazing.

Windows Vista Gadgets
Power Toys have taken on a whole new meaning with the advent of Vista Gadgets. Find the most downloaded Windows Vista Gadgets here.

Power Toys for Windows XP
Power Toys for Windows XP includes add-ins such as Tweak UI, which allows access to system UI settings, and Alt-Tab replacement, which shows a preview of windows as you Alt-Tab. Perfect if your hardware isn't yet Vista-ready.

Power Toys for .NET 3.5 
The Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework 3.5 CTP provides tools for evaluating performance, obtaining diagnostic information, working with WCF, and configuring the .NET Compact Framework.

Script Elevation Power Toy for Windows Vista 
Frustrated by having to elevate user access privileges? This Power Toy provides scripts to simplify those common administrative tasks.

Team Foundation Power Tools 
The Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Power Tools is a set of enhancements, tools, and command-line utilities that improve the Team Foundation Server experience.

Campus Mash-ups 
What's your favorite mash-up? Your fellow students have submitted their entries and now it's time to vote on your favorite mash-up. Create your mash-up and share it on Facebook at https://www.popfly.com.

WorldWide Telescope
The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe. Watch the TED Video. It's amazing.

Microsoft Student Partners Now Hiring
Want to help connect your campus to Microsoft? Here's your chance. Microsoft hires students to run local events, provide technical training, and promote awareness of Microsoft student offerings. If you love technology and sharing your passion with others, this gig is for you. Apply at student-partners.com.


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The Big Easy Offer
Want to get free services and products with qualifying Visual Studio 2008 tools purchases? Check out the Big Easy Offer and find out how you can purchase Microsoft developer tools to rapidly create compelling software applications and receive partner subsidy funds from Microsoft to enrich your solution.

Register for Your 120-Day Trial of SQL Server 2008
The trial software program offers free, time-limited trial versions of Microsoft software that you can order or download, as well as overviews of each trial.

Government Resources

Microsoft Public Sector Developer Conferences

Come join us for a full day of developer-oriented technical sessions on Visual Studio Team System 2008 (VSTS), Language Integrated Query (LINQ), ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview, and Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO). There is no fee to attend.
May 15, Downers Grove, IL 

Join us for a full day of Developer-oriented technical sessions on Microsoft Silverlight 2.0, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Visual Studio 2008, Expression Blend, Data Access with Language Integrated Query (LINQ), and .NET 3.5 Extensions Preview. There is no fee to attend.
June 4, Nashville, TN

Microsoft ESP Developer Conference
May 22, Reston, VA
Join us for a day of developer-oriented technical sessions featuring Microsoft ESP, a visual simulation platform that brings immersive games-based technology to training and learning, decision support, and research and development modeling for government and commercial organizations.

HPCPAL Jumpstart Event
June 18, Reston, VA
This one-day immersion style event can help you get the technical information you require to start developing and deploying HPC solutions leveraging Windows HPC Server 2008.

Designer Dinner
May 28, Reston, VA
Attend the rich Internet application (RIA) dinner and spend an evening with Marc Schweigert and James Chittenden to learn about a new cross-browser, cross-platform (e.g., Windows, Mac, and Linux) technology for delivering the next generation of Web media experiences. This free RIA dinner event is focused on Web and multimedia designers as well as developers who are interested in learning about Silverlight and how to leverage their existing skills sets to build Silverlight solutions.

Developer Webcasts
Learn about the latest Microsoft development tools for public sector developers! And be sure to check out the upcoming webcast schedule.

On-Demand Webcasts
Missed a webcast that you wanted to attend? Check out our on-demand webcasts.

Screencasts
Marc Schweigert, public sector developer evangelist, is releasing via his blog a series of screencasts on Silverlight 2.0 and other developer technologies.

United States Coast Guard Explores Potential to Enhance Training with Digital Note Taking Solution
In preparation for upgrading to Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, USCG began examining ways to gain maximum value from these new technologies. Curriculum developers at the USCG Training Center tested the Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 note-taking program to evaluate how this tool could be used to complement USCG's comprehensive, performance-based training process. USCG was impressed by the dynamic presentation of course materials, ease of use, and potential time and cost savings. Read this case study to learn more.

Washington State First to Provide a U.S. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI)-Compliant Enhanced Driver License 
With the implementation of the U.S. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) program, U.S. citizens ultimately will need to provide WHTI-compliant proof of identity upon returning to the U.S. from western hemisphere nations. With Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire's sponsorship, and anticipating increased border crossings in 2010 with the upcoming Winter Olympics in British Columbia, Canada, the State of Washington decided to become the first in the nation to introduce a WHTI-compliant enhanced driver license. Read this case study to learn more.

Free How-to Video: ASP.NET Authentication in an AJAX-Enabled Application
This short video on Robert Shelton's blog does a great job of going step-by-step through setting up basic ASP.NET forms-based authentication for an AJAX-enabled application.

Free Download: Power Commands for Visual Studio 2008
The Visual Studio extensibility team has released a great add-on for Visual Studio 2008, called PowerCommands. It adds additional menu commands to the Visual Studio IDE for some things that are not in the product "out of the box."

Are you curious about Live Mesh and why you should care as a developer? Access Marc Schweigert's developer-focused blog to gain more information about this and other topics of interest.

.NET Framework KB Articles

Smart Client Software Factory Security Problems With Partially Trusted Callers

FIX: Error message when applications call multiple SqlConnection.Open methods or OracleConnection.Open methods through multiple threads at the same time in the ADO.NET 2.0 applications: "IndexOutOfRangeException"

Process.ProcessName fails with "access denied"

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.NET Framework 2.0 | .NET Framework 1.1

Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio .NET KB Articles

VS Debugger seems to hang when you start debugging

List of changes and fixed issues for Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 Beta for Windows Presentation Foundation Designer

FIX: The Visual C++ 2008 Libraries Extension Feature Pack is available

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Visual Studio 2008 | Visual Studio 2005 | Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition | Visual Studio .NET 2003 | Visual Studio .NET 2002

Visual Studio 6.0 or Earlier KB Articles

Unable to get file "file_name.asp" Server error: Cannot open "file_name.asp.bak": no such file or folder

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Visual Studio 6.0 or Earlier

SQL Server and Data Access KB Articles

FIX: The SQL Server 2005 service may stop responding when you run multiple instances of the bcp utility or you run many BULK INSERT statements at the same time

FIX: An access violation may occur when you use a linked server to run a SELECT statement in SQL Server 2005

FIX: A query may take more time to finish in SQL Server 2005 if the query uses an inner join to join a derived table that uses the DISTINCT keyword

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SQL Server 2005 | SQL Server 2000 | SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services

Team Development, Source Control, and Testing KB Articles

Error "xx.vcproj cannot be found in <xx> folder" loading a Microsoft Visual Studio solution stored in Microsoft Team Foundation Server source code control

Exception Message: The task is 100% complete when using integration with MSProject

Open/add from SourceSafe result in Unexpected error encountered

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Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition | Visual SourceSafe 2005

Visual FoxPro | XBase KB Articles

AError() function returns extended information for errors 1104 and 1105 in Visual FoxPro 9.0 SP2

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Visual Fox Pro 9.0 | Visual Fox Pro 8.0 | Visual Fox Pro 7.0


Evaluation Center

Evaluate SQL Server 2008 CTP Today
SQL Server 2008 will provide a comprehensive data platform that is more secure, reliable, manageable, and scalable for your mission-critical applications, while enabling developers to create new applications that can store and consume any type of data on any device. When you download the latest software, you're automatically registered to access valuable resources assembled in one convenient location. Be sure to provide feedback - your experience can make a difference to future versions.

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Is Now Available for Download
BizTalk Server 2006 R2 delivers enterprise-class infrastructure that enables you to connect .NET applications and infrastructure with your non-.NET applications and platforms, as well as those of your partners. Register to download today and you will receive relevant resources assembled to address the challenges specific to each stage of evaluation as you discover, assess, and deploy the software.

More Evaluation Center Resources...

Web Resources

Bjarne Stroustrup Talks to MSDN Magazine
Read what the inventor of C++, Bjarne Stroustrup, has to say about language zealots, the evolution of programming, and what the future looks like.

Manage Metadata with Document Information Panels
MSDN Magazine shows how to manipulate metadata from Office docs for better discovery and management.

Make Mobile Deployment a Snap
Set up every mobile device in your company with just a few lines of code and some XML, thanks to the provisioning APIs in the Windows Mobile SDK.

Sustainable Computing: Imagine Cup Finalists Competing for Change
Finalists in the 2008 U.S. Imagine Cup demonstrated a fresh blend of established technology and unconventional thinking to attack the world's environmental problems on several fronts.

Security for Developers

SDL and "End-to-End Trust"
Make no mistake: this is tough stuff. This needs to be an industry-wide, long-term effort, and it's about more than just technology. Enabling true end-to-end trust will require that we continue to build on technology progress while aligning those innovations more closely with social, economic, and political forces.

SDL Threat Modeling @ ToorCon

Microsoft Security Intelligence Report 2H07

Code Commandos, SDL, and Metrics

This is the way the world (wide Web) ends...

Oh No! Security Metrics!

More Security...

Training

Find Classroom Training for Windows Workflow Foundation
This two-day instructor-led course will provide you with the knowledge and skills to build and configure a Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) solution.

Free Microsoft SharePoint 2007 for Developers Training CD
Learn Microsoft SharePoint 2007 with award-winning training from AppDev. Each CD includes three hours of training, including courseware, labs, and sample code with a retail value of US$115.

More Training...

Case Studies

Online Job Site Speeds Development, Keeps Developers Happy, with Visual Studio 2008
CareerBuilder.com features more than 1.6 million job listings browsed by 23 million visitors per month. Visual Studio 2008 automates more of the development process, cuts load times, and speeds debugging, so developers can iterate at will.

Louisiana State University Center for Computation and Technology
Inventor of Beowulf Cluster selects the Windows HPC platform to introduce young minds to high-performance computing.

More Case Studies...

Partner News

ComponentOne Offers Free IntelliSpell Software
ComponentOne now offers a Community Edition for ComponentOne IntelliSpell. At no cost, start spell-checking your files in Visual Studio.

ComponentOne Offers Free DemoWorks Software
ComponentOne now offers a Community Edition for ComponentOne DemoWorks. Start recording your screen activity today.

Free SpreadsheetGear for .NET Fully Functional Evaluation
SpreadsheetGear for .NET makes it easy to add Excel reporting, Excel-compatible calculations and Excel-compatible Windows Forms spreadsheet controls to .NET solutions.

Free Web Site for .NET User Groups
Sign up for the INETA special: Free license for Telerik Sitefinity CMS and Web site hosting from DiscountASP.NET (worth US$925).

Win a Windows Home Server! Evaluate Microsoft server products and you could win a Windows Home Server. Start now.

https://www.microsoft.com/evalu08

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Webcasts & Online Events
All times Pacific Time.

geekSpeak: WCF Strategies for Windows Mobile with Jim Wilson
May 7, 12:00 noon
In this installment of geekSpeak, mobility guru Jim Wilson answers your questions about writing connected applications for Windows Mobile. Jim also shows some cool solutions such as the Store-And-Forward messaging features of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).

SQL Server Data Services Launch
May 13, 10:00 A.M.
Microsoft SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) are highly scalable, on-demand data storage and query processing Web services. Businesses use storage resources as needed when transforming large, upfront capital and operations expenditures into much smaller on-demand costs.

Webcasts listed in an easy-to-use calendar format: MSDN Webcast Calendar

National and Global Events

Tech·Ed 2008 Developers Is Selling Out Fast
Thousands of developers from across the country have already signed up to dive deep into the very latest developer tools. This may be your last opportunity to register now for the must-attend event of the year. Plus, when you register by May 23, you will receive a limited edition Tech·Ed 2008 Worldwide Tour T-shirt.

Huge Weekend Community Event at Tech·Ed
In the weekend between the two weeks of Tech·Ed, check out this massive community event. Festivities will include .NET code camps, IT pro camps, SQL Saturday, SQL University, .NET University courses on SharePoint, BizTalk, services development, Office Communication Server University, DotNetNuke University, Open Space, and more. Plus, there will be a huge social gathering on Saturday night.