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Productivity tips, reviews, tools, software and gadgets.

 
Download Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone CTP
Screenshot of a Windows Phone 7 application in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
Update: Another interesting place to get you started: http://developer.windowsphone.com/windows-phone-7-series/

Here it is, download the CTP of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone.

Additionally, here are the release notes.

Or use this handy link to download the Offline Install ISO image file.

And to finish your day in style, have a look here for more information: http://www.microsoft.com/express/Phone.

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Free ebook: Programming Windows Phone 7 Series
Programming Windows Phone 7 Series

Microsoft Press just made this draft version of the Programming Windows Phone 7 Series ebook from Charles Petzold available as a preview download.

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Download free eBook to master PowerShell

I’m sure you’ve heard good things about the mighty Windows PowerShell console in Windows already, but did you start discovering it yet? Many of us will be overwhelmed by the functionality and possibilities… so to remedy this, here’s the free Mastering PowerShell eBook, courtesy of Dr. Tobias Weltner, a PowerShell MVP. You’ll find lots of other interesting info on the PowerShell.com website.

For more information on scripting with Windows PowerShell, visit the Script Center on Microsoft TechNet here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/scriptcenter/dd742419.aspx

Here’s the direct download link:
http://powershell.com/Mastering-PowerShell.pdf

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, August 24, 2009 | PermaLink | 1 comments
Microsoft releases .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 is a cumulative update with service updates to the .NET 2.0 and 3.0 subcomponents, and contains many new features for the .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5.

Quick overview of what’s new:

  • ASP.NET Dynamic Data is now included, providing rich scaffolding framework for rapid data driven development without writing code. See What's new in ASP.NET and Web Development for more info.
  • Addition to ASP.NET AJAX for managing browser history (back button support).
  • Core improvements to the CLR (Common Language Runtime)
  • Performance improvements to WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation)
  • Additional functionality in WPF: better support for line of business apps, native splash screen support, DirectX pixel shader support, and a new WebBrowser control.
  • ClickOnce application publishers can opt out of signing and hashing.
  • Entity Framework (an evolution of the well known ADO.NET) is included and has new features like support for SQL Server 2008. See Getting Started with the Entity Framework for more info.
  • LINQ to SQL and SqlClient (.NET Framework Data Profider for SQL) now support the date and file stream capabilities in SQL Server 2008.
  • ADO.NET Data Services Framework is included, and enables data to be exposed as flexible REST (Representational State Transfer) data services.
  • Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) has improvements to the DataContract Serializer.

Downloads & links:

After installation, immediately install the update KB959209 to address a set of known application compatibility issues!

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, January 07, 2009 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Opera 10 Web Browser now available in alpha

Opera Software lets us have a sneak peek at Opera 10! You can now download an alpha version of Opera 10 at http://www.opera.com/browser/next/. Here’s a quick rundown on what’s new:

  • Presto 2.2 Engine
  • Performance boost
  • 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
  • Auto-update
  • Inline spelling checker
  • Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days

Download Opera 10 Alpha Web Browser

Here’s some more detail on the improvements and new features:

Opera 10 contains Opera's new rendering engine, Opera Presto 2.2, which will be integrated with all future Opera 10 products. This rendering engine gives us up to 30 percent faster browsing experience (compared to Opera Presto 2.1 from Opera 9.5).

For web developers: support for standards has improved also, resulting in a 100/100 score on the famous Acid3 test. There are also improved tools for web developers: you can use Web Fonts, including SVG font files, making great typography possible for designing web sites. Now it is also easier to make page elements transparent, by using a transparency channel added to RGB and HSL (so: RGBA and HSLA). Finally, Opera Dragonfly has improved website debugging, editing the DOM and inspecting the HTTP Headers.

There are some more improvements for the users too: spellchecker while you’re typing, auto update to the latest versions as they become available, and Opera Mail now supports HTML formatted e-mails.

“My favorite development in this release is the support for new Web technologies, which allows people to explore new ways of using the Internet," says Johan Borg, Vice President of Consumer Engineering, Opera Software. "Our 100/100 Acid3 Test score is only a first indication of the impact these new Web technologies will have. We look forward to your feedback on Opera 10.”

Find out more and download Opera 10 free: http://www.opera.com/browser/next/.

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, December 08, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Download Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta
Microsoft has released standalone versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta in this knowledge base article: KB948465.
Download SP2 Beta



 

SP2 Beta Standalone updates for computers with one or more of the following five languages: English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. If your computer has any other language installed this option will not work.


  • Windows Update installation of SP2 for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64
  • Five Language SP2 Standalone:



    • ISO for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64
    • x86 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x86
    • x64  for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x64
    • IA64 for Windows Server 2008 ia64


TechNet Plus Subscribers

Download integrated images, containing the full OS product and SP2 in a single image for clean install or upgrade scenarios
















  
  
  
  
  
  • Install the SP2 Standalone package using the links in Non-Subscribers section

Some more information on these releases:

Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta is prerelease code offered to the public through our Customer Preview Program. Please see the Windows Server SP2/Windows Vista SP2 Customer Preview Program page on TechNet/MSDN for additional details, documentation, and forums.

Windows Vista SP2 TechNet
Windows Server 2008 SP2 TechNet

Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta apply to people, organizations, and technical enthusiasts who are comfortable evaluating prerelease software. This prerelease software is provided for testing only. Installation of Service Pack 2 Beta will result in Microsoft collecting information about the installation process, even if the installation is not completed. We do not recommend installing this software on primary or mission-critical systems. We recommend that you have a backup of your data before you install any prerelease software.

SP2 is an update to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that addresses feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
In addition to all previously released updates, SP2 will contain changes focused on addressing reliability and performance issues, supporting new kinds of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP2 will also continue to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage large installations of Windows Server 2008.

Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite for installing Service Pack 2. Please make sure that your system is running Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2.
Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta - Five Language Standalone version can be installed on systems with any of the following language versions: English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish.

Support for Windows Server 2008 SP2 Beta and Windows Vista SP2 Beta can be received by visiting the Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 TechNet forum.

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  Posted by oVan on Saturday, December 06, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Microsoft Office 2007 Filter Pack

This download will install and register IFilters with the Windows Indexing Service. These IFilters are used by Microsoft Search products to index the contents of specific document formats. This Filter Pack includes IFilters for the following formats: .docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb, .zip, .one, .vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, and .vtx.

Download details: Microsoft Filter Pack

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, October 13, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Microsoft Web Platform Installer

Microsoft has released a new tool aimed at web developers: Microsoft Web Platform Installer. Although it’s still a beta, it’s already a one-stop shop to install all necessary tools, service packs and extensions, including IIS, ASP.NET, SQL Server 2008, Visual Web Developer 2008, all of the current IIS Extensions and more!

 ms-web-platform-installer

 
Once installed, this tool automatically discovers new additions and updates to the platform, keeping you up to date.

Additionally, Microsoft has launched a new website for web professionals (designers and developers): microsoft.com/web 

Go to: Microsoft Web Platform Installer site, or download wpilauncher.exe immediately.

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, October 08, 2008 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Download SQL Server Compact 3.5 and Sync for ADO.NET 1.0

Microsoft made available the Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 and Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.Net v1.0 for Windows Desktop package on their download site.

SQL Server Compact 3.5 includes a host of new features including the following:

  • LINQ to SQL enabling developers to integrate data access directly into their code
  • Side-by-side installation together with SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition (version 3.1)
  • Support for newer and more secure encryption algorithms
  • Additional timestamp (rowversion) data type
  • Enhanced support for Transact-SQL statements including:
    • Nested query in FROM clause
    • CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY
    • CAST and DECIMAL
    • SET IDENTITY INSERT
    • TOP
  • Synchronization Services for ADO.NET providing the ability to synchronize data from disparate sources over two-tier, N-tier, and service-based architectures
  • Support for System.Transactions

More information:

» Download Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 & Microsoft Synchronization Services for ADO.Net v1.0 for Windows Desktop

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Finally New Visualizations for WMP!
Finally some new visualizations for Windows Media Player:



Thanks to two Microsoft employees who worked on it for a long time, you can now enjoy this beautiful screen animation when you're listening to your music.

As a requirement to run these visualizations, you will need a graphics card that supports at least shader model 2.0 (most DirectX 9 graphics cards will), which might seem like a high requirement for visualizers, but how else are you suppose to create visual magic right?

Included in the single package are 7 visualizations with over 40 variations in total, including


  • Album Art 3D - 3D cubes with the album art of the song you’re currently playing

  • Bubbles - inspired by the Bubbles Vista screensavers also featuring the album art

  • Distortion - distorts the album art in a 3D waveform

  • Hypnobloom - hypnotic checkered purple rings

  • Ribbons - inspired by the Mystify and Ribbons Vista screensavers (as seen above)

  • Gigertron 3D - 3D layered visualizer bars

  • up cuber - a pigment arrangement of 3D hexagon cubes



Enjoy, it's a free download!

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, August 31, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
ATI Releases Catalyst 7.8 with Free Half-Life 2 Games
After the rather buggy Catalyst 7.7 drivers, ATI has today released the highly anticipated Catalyst 7.8 driver set.


Note that Catalyst 7.8 also installs the Steam Games client and you can get 2 free games from ATI here: Half-Life 2 DeathMatch and Half-Life 2 Lost Coast!

This is a quote from the ATI website:
Effective immediately, all owners of ATI Radeon graphics cards may receive a free copy of Half-Life 2: Lost Coast and Half-Life 2: Deathmatch via Steam. Steam will automatically confirm the presence of ATI Radeon hardware and then enable immediate access to full versions of the games free of charge.


Besides tons of bugfixes, there should be a noticeably performance improvement – especially for the Radeon HD 2600 and HD 2400 series.

Here's an extract of the Release Notes, some of the fixes for Vista and XP:

  • Call of Duty->United Offensive: Having all of the in-game settings at their maximum levels along with the Catalyst™ Control Center->3D aspect set to Optimal Quality no longer results in the Windows Vista (64 bit) operating system failing to respond after a short period of game play. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28793
  • The default audio device is no longer set to ATI HD Audio after installation of the display driver for the ATI Radeon™ HD2900, HD2600, and HD2400. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28483
  • Hot-plugging a CRT to a system running Windows Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ X1100/1150 series of product no longer results in extended desktop mode failing to be applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-25801
  • Enabling CrossFire™ followed by disconnecting and then reconnecting the CRT display device no longer results in duplicate video options being seen within the Catalyst™ Control Center. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27457
  • Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting AA to 14x and AF to 16x no longer results in the AA showing a setting of 0x level when disabling CrossFire™ and unchecking the AA option in the 3D aspect. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27458
  • Making changes to the Color aspect found in the Catalyst™ Control Center without applying the changes no longer results in the Reactivate ATI color controls button remaining active after the Catalyst™ Control Center is closed and then re-launched. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27459
  • Enabling CrossFire™ followed by setting the OverDrive™ clocks to their maximum settings no longer results in the Catalyst™ Control Center failing to accurately report the requested OverDrive™ values. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27621
  • Performing an un-install of the display drivers on a CrossFire™ configured system no longer results in extended desktop mode becoming active resulting in all of the desktop icons failing to appear. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28478
  • Catalyst™ Control Center->3D->Anti-Aliasing: Unchecking the option to Use Application Setting found in the 3D aspect page when CrossFire™ is enabled no longer results in the maximum AA setting being 6x. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows XP operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28479
  • Performing either a custom or express install of the display driver no longer results in the system possibly failing to respond and the installation of the driver failing. This issue was known to occur when using an ATI Radeon™ X1950 CrossFire™ Edition product installed on in a system containing an Intel975. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28481
  • HDMI audio stutter is no longer heard when playing MPEG clip at certain resolutions on some HDMI device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28484
  • The Scaling options found in the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer disappears when relaunching the Catalyst™ Control Center after applying optimized and custom formats for Component Video. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28855
  • Connecting a secondary display device (CRT) and enabling extended desktop mode no longer results in invalid refresh rates being available in the Display Manager. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28787
  • Making adjustments to the Gamma, Brightness, and Contrast and not applying the changes no longer results in the desktop image failing to return to its default color values when performing a hot-reboot of the system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28787
  • All supported display resolutions are now available in the Display Manager when connecting a secondary display device and enabling extended desktop mode. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28789
  • Performing an un-install of the display driver no longer results in the display entering an extended desktop mode and the desktop icons failing to be displayed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28478
  • Setting the Avivo Video Brightness to less than 0 within the Catalyst™ Control Center no longer results in a white frame being created in the Windows Media Player when fullscreen mode is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28790
  • The Enable ATI Overdrive clocks for 3d applications is no longer available on non supported products such as the ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product. Further information may be found in topic number 737-28477
  • Setting the Avivo Video De-interlacing setting to auto, motion adaptive or vector adaptive no longer results in certain DVDs, menu videos and some special features failing to benefit from the options. Further information on this issue may be found in topic number 737-27196
  • The color depth no longer changes to 8bpp when enabling or disabling CrossFire™ for the first time. Further information may be found in topic number 737-28485
  • Connecting a TV followed by removing the display resolution of 640x480 from the mode table no longer results in the both the TV and LCD failing to display an image. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28490
  • An unhandled exception no longer occurs when running an OGL application and resuming from S3 under Vista on various ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1200/1250/1300 series products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27960
  • Windows Media Player: Playing a DVD in full screen mode no longer results in vertical bar corruption being noticed during playback. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28497
  • DVD display no longer blinks in red when Overdrive is enabled. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28794

Some of the fixes for XP:

  • Star Wars knights of the Old Republic 2: Corruption is no longer seen when running the game on some members of the ATI Radeon™ Xpress 1200/1250/1300 series of products. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27098
  • CounterStrike Source, Day of Defeat Source, and Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Excessive fog is no longer noticed when playing these games. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28795
  • The Overscan/Underscan slider bar is no longer enabled when setting display resolutions of 1280x1024 or higher on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 XT series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28843
  • Adobe After Effects 8: The application no longer fails to load on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ X700 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28796
  • PowerDVD6: Momentary desktop corruption is no longer noticed when minimizing the DVD playback window after stretching the playback window approximately 80%. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28797
  • The system no longer becomes unresponsive and no longer requires a reboot while randomly moving Video Player window from primary to extended desktop under certain hardware configurations where the second adapter is an ATI Radeon™ X1200/1250/1270 series of product. Further details can be found in topic number 737-27092
  • A warning message indicating CrossFire™ cannot be enabled because some 3D applications are running or the interconnect cable is not connected, or the motherboard has no communication channels between PCI-Express slots is no longer displayed when using a motherboard with an Intel I965 chipset. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28798
  • The CrossFire™ page is no longer greyed out and cannot be enabled when attempting to use a software CrossFire™ configuration on a system using a motherboard with an Intel I975 chipset. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28799
  • The Avivo components are now listed in the ADD/Remove Programs after installation of the display driver. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28800
  • Switching HD-DVD titles during playback with hardware acceleration enabled no longer results in the playback to be blocked. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28802
  • WinDVD8: Playing a DVD and changing the video setting to Hardware Acceleration mode no longer results in corruption being noticed. Further details can be found in topic number 737-28803

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, August 14, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Vista Released
Microsoft has finally released Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista.



Here's a bit of info from their website:

The Windows Mobile Device Center enables you to set up new partnerships, synchronize content and manage music, pictures and video with Windows Mobile powered devices (Windows Mobile 2003 or later). The Windows Mobile Device Center combines an efficient business-data synchronization platform with a compelling user experience. The Windows Mobile Device Center helps you to quickly set up new partnerships, synchronize business-critical information such as e-mail, contacts and calendar appointments, easily manage your synchronization settings, and transfer business documents between your device and PC.

This new version of the Windows Mobile Device Center contains key improvements and new features to support Windows Mobile 6 devices. The Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 is only supported on Windows Vista.

Key updates in Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 include: Windows

  • Mobile 6 feature support


    • Information Rights Management activation - Automatically configure the Windows Mobile 6 device to open IRM-protected documents and files

    • HTML mail – Set up your Windows Mobile 6 device to sync HTML-formatted mail

    • Certificate Enrollment - Acquire certificates through the PC the Windows Mobile 6 device is currently connected to

    • Allow data connections on the Windows Mobile 6 device when connected to the PC

    • File synchronization for smartphones – Synchronize files with your Windows Mobile 6 devices, including both touch screen and non-touch screen devices


  • Automatic device authentication - Connect the Windows Mobile device to the PC without the need to enter the device-lock PIN every time upon connect

  • Product Registration - Register your Windows Mobile device and get connected to information and offers available for your device



Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 is fully compatible with Windows Mobile 2003 devices and later.

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  Posted by oVan on Thursday, June 07, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Tip: Looking for a Microsoft Hotfix?
If you're looking for Microsoft hotfixes, you sometimes need to call Microsoft to get it. However, there's a better/faster way:
The Hotfix Share only contains those hotfixes that are not publicly available on the Microsoft website. Bookmark it, it comes in handy when you're stuck again :-)

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, June 06, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Official nVidia Vista Drivers 158.18 WHQL
nVidia updated the download package of the nVidia Vista 158.18 driver –ForceWare158– because now they're official and also qualified by Microsoft (WHQL). This means that the driver has passed the tests at Microsoft Hardware Labs, but this also means nVidia considers this a stable release, even though it still contains a list of bugs.
As I still get frequent hangs on sleep, I'll have to investigate further. Next target on my radar is the Creative X-Fi.

Update: this driver adds support for my Quadro FX 550 (and a whole range of other Quadro cards) so you don't need a modified nv_disp.inf file anymore. It has also fixed the missing nVidia control panel on my system.

Update 2: A newer beta version has appeared – ForceWare Release 158
Version: 158.24 | Release Date: May 2, 2007 | Beta Driver – that promises to fix even more bugs and offer improved performance. Let us know if it solved your Vista sleep problems!

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, May 01, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Turbocharge your installations with Inno Setup
Long time Pascal and Delphi friends surely remember Jordan Russell for the Toolbar97 and Toolbar2000 components. At that time he started a very promising application called "Inno Setup". It was an easy to configure installation program, ideally suited for the target audience (freeware and shareware authors). Years have gone by, and look who's still alive and kicking... Inno Setup.

The current implementation of Inno Setup is so powerful, it rivals many commercial installers. Here's the list of key features taken from the Inno Setup homepage:

  • Support for all versions of Windows in use today: Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, Me, 98, 95, and NT 4.0. (No service packs are required.)

  • Extensive support for installation of 64-bit applications on the 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003. Both the x64 and Itanium architectures are supported. (On the Itanium architecture, Service Pack 1 is required to install in 64-bit mode.)

  • Supports creation of a single EXE to install your program for easy online distribution. Disk spanning is also supported.

  • Standard Windows 2000/XP-style wizard interface.

  • Customizable setup types, e.g. Full, Minimal, Custom.

  • Complete uninstall capabilities.

  • Installation of files:

    Includes integrated support for "deflate", bzip2, and 7-Zip LZMA file compression. The installer has the ability to compare file version info, replace in-use files, use shared file counting, register DLL/OCX's and type libraries, and install fonts.

  • Creation of shortcuts anywhere, including in the Start Menu and on the desktop.

  • Creation of registry and .INI entries.

  • Integrated Pascal scripting engine.

  • Support for multilingual installs.

  • Support for passworded and encrypted installs.

  • Silent install and uninstall.

  • Full source code is available (Borland Delphi 2.0-5.0).


Download: Inno Setup
It's a free download, and can be used free of charge even when deploying commercial applications. You are encouraged to donate to help support the development of course!

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, April 27, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Update for Windows Vista Media Center released
Microsoft has released the Cumulative Update for Windows Media Center for Windows Vista (KB932818), the first update to the Media Center components of Windows Vista. Media Center functionality is available for the Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate editions.

Here's the list of improvements:

Hotfix replacement information


This is a cumulative update. This update replaces the following updates:
929011 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929011/)
Windows Media Center does not correctly configure a combo TV tuner that supports both ATSC and NTSC signals on a Windows Vista-based computer
932753 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932753/)
When you resize the Windows Media Center window in Windows Vista, video playback may stop

Issues that are resolved by this update


In addition to the fixes that are contained in the updates that are listed in the "Hotfix replacement information" section, the April 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista resolves the following issues:

•The video may appear to freeze when the movie begins in some DVDs.
•When you rotate a picture during a slide show in Windows Media Center, the wrong photo may be rotated.
•The cover art for recorded TV movies may not appear in the DVD library view.
•When you delete a picture in Windows Media Center, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

AUDIO ERROR


The Url contains one or more invalid characters.
•When you try to play a DVD by using Autoplay, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:

Tuner not installed

Improvements that are in this update

The update also provides the following improvements:
•Online Media support has been added for Windows Media Center on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate.
•Video Playlist support has been added for Windows Media Center Extenders.
•Improvements have been made to Online Media caching.

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Making your bitmaps scaleable and stylized (part 1)
This is the first post in a two part article on how to make your bitmaps scaleable and stylized. In this first part, we'll have a look at a free utility by Peter Selinger called Potrace.

There are various reasons why you would want to make your bitmaps or icons scaleable: In older times, the main reason was to be able to print the images with high resolution. Nowadays, with the advent of high-resolution LCD screens and very large icons in Windows Vista and Mac OS X, it's becoming more and more obvious that just scaling your bitmaps leads to blocky, ugly edges. Other reasons might be to convert scanned company logos, handwritten text, etc.

Potrace is a utility that converts the original bitmap into a series of vectors. It is to some extent similar to CorelTrace and other tracing tools that are bundled with scanners and graphic programs. The advantages of Potrace are of course its price (free) and the fact that it's very lightweight (you don't need bloated installation files of hundreds of megabytes).

Original scanned image:


Potrace converter output:


You can find more examples of the excellent results you can achieve with Potrace on the Potrace examples page.

Once you've converted your bitmaps with Potrace, you can save the result in various formats: EPS, PostScript, PDF, SVG (scalable vector graphics), Xfig, Gimppath, and PGM. All of these formats allow you to print or display your image at any resolution without losing edge quality.

Bundled with Potrace is a tool called Mkbitmap. This is a little program to pre-process the input bitmap to achieve better results on grayscale and color images. You can see examples and an explanation of Mkbitmap on the Mkbitmap examples page.

In the second part of this article, we'll have a look at scanning a drawing, converting it with Potrace to the SVG format, and then stylizing it with the excellent Inkscape SVG editor.

Download: Potrace and Mkbitmap (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux)

Part two will be published soon. Meanwhile, comments and recommendations welcome!

Update: Corrected the link to the Potrace Samples!

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Free tool: Universal Extractor
Universal Extractor is a great little tool to extract files from archives (zip, rar, etc), MSI installer packages, and installation programs. In fact, the list of supported formats is quite long:

  • Archive Type Common File Extension(s)

  • 7-zip archive .7z, .exe

  • ACE archive .ace

  • ARC archive .arc

  • ARJ archive .arj, .exe

  • ASpack compressed file .exe

  • BIN/CUE CD-ROM image .bin, .cue

  • bzip2 archive .bz2, .tbz2, .tar.bz2

  • CPIO compressed file .cpio

  • Debian package .deb

  • Encoded files .b64, .uu, .uue, .xx, .xxe, .yenc, .ntx

  • Gentee package .exe

  • gzip archive .gz, .tgz, .tar.gz

  • IMG floppy disk image .img

  • Inno Setup package .exe

  • Installer VISE package .exe

  • InstallShield Cabinet archive .cab, .1, .lib

  • InstallShield package .exe

  • ISO CD-ROM image .iso

  • KGB archive .kgb, kge, .exe

  • LZH compressed file .lzh, .lha

  • LZW compressed file .Z, .tz, .tar.Z

  • LZO compressed file .lzo

  • MHTML file .mht

  • Microsoft Cabinet archive .cab, .exe, .imf

  • Microsoft Compiled Help file .chm

  • Microsoft compressed file .??_

  • Microsoft LIT e-book .lit

  • Microsoft Windows Help file .hlp

  • NSIS package .exe

  • Outlook Express mail archive .dbx

  • PEA archive .pea

  • RAR archive .rar, .001, .exe

  • RPM package .rpm

  • SetupFactory package .exe

  • SIS (SymbianOS) packages .sis

  • StuffIt packages .sit

  • TAR archive .tar, .tbz2, .tgz, .tz, .tar.bz2, .tar.gz, .tar.z

  • UHARC archive .uha

  • UPX compressed file .exe, .dll

  • Windows Installer package .msi

  • Windows Installer patch .msp

  • Wise Installer package .exe

  • ZIP archive .zip, .jar, .xpi, .wz, .exe

  • Zoo archive .zoo


Download: Universal Extractor

Universal Extractor is written in AutoIt Script, a powerful freeware scripting tool. If you want to create scripts yourself, get AutoIt Script

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, April 23, 2007 | PermaLink | 1 comments
Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Beta 1 available
You can now download Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas", the succesor to Visual Studio 2005. It's available in 3 flavours: Express Edition, Full Edition, and VPC images for your Virtual PC 2007 setup.

The full version is currently only available for MSDN subscribers, but the Express and VPC versions are here. This is from the overview page over at MSDN:


VPC Images
If you prefer the convenience of evaluating prerelease software in a virtual machine environment, you can download VPC images that include pre-installed instances of the prerelease software indicated, including any required prerequisite software.

Note: If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress these self-extracting files.

Visual Studio Express Editions
Visual Studio Express Editions are lightweight, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn tools for the hobbyist, novice and student developer.

For more information, see Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Express Editions.

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, April 20, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Microsoft Silverlight, not there yet!
You've probably read about Microsoft Silverlight by now, the new and fancy name for WPF/E that runs on both Windows and Mac, and on Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera.
The trouble is that their website will only showcase it's own Silverlight techniques on April 30. If you want to give it a test-run yourself, you're stuck with the old February CTP. This leaves me with an unfinished impression that will not, eeuh, impress potential developers and companies yet.
Maybe you want to download some Silverlight goodies while you're waiting on Microsoft to finish up? Perhaps a nice widescreen wallpaper, "Silverlight Dawn" or "Silverlight Dusk"? Too bad they offer very strange resolutions — anyone heard of 1400x864 or 1600x800 (which turns out to be 1600x1050 instead of the industry standard 1680x1050). I guess it's time for a better wallpaper from Ultimate Vistas!

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
IE6 & IE7 VirtualPC Images 2.0 released
Microsoft just published two new VPC Hard Disk Images for testing websites on IE on Windows XP SP2:

  • Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) VPC

  • Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) VPC


These VPC hard disk images contain pre-activated Windows XP SP2, and either IE6 or IE7 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit. These VPC images will expire on 08/17/2007, but by that time Microsoft will have released a newer version.

Once you have completed the download, double-click file to expand the VHD file. Start Virtual PC and create a new VPC, and point to the files you just expanded.

A few people were encountering a non-genuine Windows warning from the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notification Tool. Microsoft did not install the WGA Notification tool on the image this time around. Instead, these images have had their product keys deactivated, thus they don’t pass the WGA tests.

Remember that you can download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 for free! Virtual PC 2007 runs on: Windows Vista™ Business; Windows Vista™ Enterprise; Windows Vista™ Ultimate; Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition; Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition; Windows XP Professional; Windows XP Professional x64 Edition; or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition.

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  Posted by oVan on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Performance update for Outlook 2007!
Microsoft has silently released a much needed performance update to Office Outlook 2007.

From the download details:
This update fixes a problem in which a calendar item that is marked as private is opened if it is found by using the Search Desktop feature. The update also fixes performance issues that occur when you work with items in a large .pst file or .ost file.

This update is for Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

» Download Update

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  Posted by oVan on Monday, April 16, 2007 | PermaLink | 1 comments
Download new Vista fonts legally!
Click to zoom in


It's so easy... just download and install the free Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer and you will have the beautiful Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 fonts on your system: Calibri, Cambria, Candara, Consolas, Constantia and Corbel.

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  Posted by oVan on Wednesday, April 11, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Download Vista Wallpapers
The UltimateVistas.com website has launched! It contains a growing collection of free wallpaper downloads for your Windows Vista, XP or Mac desktop.
Ultimate Vista
In the near future a new section with exclusive wallpapers at extremely low prices will be available, and also corporate and custom licenses.
Enjoy!

Update: corporate license is now available!

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, April 06, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Free Preview Handlers for Outlook 2007 and Vista
Both Windows Vista and Outlook 2007 offer you file previewing functions. Unfortunately, not all file types are handled and this Microsoft webpage simply mentions "Available File Previewers: Check back soon for updates. We are currently working with previewer developers to list previewers on this page."

Subjectively the most needed previewers are PDF-files and code files, simply because it still takes ages to load Adobe Acrobat Reader, or Visual Studio 2005 respectively.

Here are two free PDF-previewers:
You can read more blog posts about these great tools here, here, here and here.

And here's the free Code Preview Handler from Tim Heuer:
To finish this post, here's a link to the post about the preview handler article by Stephen Toub from MSDN Magazine. You can also download his free utility directly here:

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  Posted by oVan on Thursday, April 05, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Free screen capture tool: Cropper
A little known free screen capturing tool is Windows itself: push the PrtScn (the good ol' Print Screen button) and you have an instant copy of your entire desktop. Using Alt+PrtScn you'll get only the active window. This method works in all Windows versions since Windows 95 if I recall correctly.

However, this method is not so practical for a lot of people. If you want to use your screen grab in an email, you can only paste it via Outlook, not via Outlook Express. In that case you need to open MS Paint, or Paint Shop Pro, and paste it there as a new image, then save it as a jpeg, and then go back to your email to attach it as a file. Yuck.

Here's a powerful free screen capture tool called Cropper. The latest release also works on Windows Vista, and it contains screen capture capabilities to:
  • BMP format
  • PNG format
  • JPG format
  • clipboard (of course)
  • directly to printer
In addition, there are some great (free) plugins available on CodePlex that let you dump your screenshot to other formats or destinations:

  • Cropper.AnimatedGif

  • Cropper.AviFormat

  • Cropper.CountdownPng

  • Cropper.SendToEmail

  • Cropper.SendToFlickr

  • Cropper.SendToOneNote

  • Cropper.SendToTinyPic

Just grab your free downloads here:


ps: Cropper is written in C# on the Microsoft .NET platform.

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  Posted by oVan on Saturday, March 24, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Inline Search for IE


The winner of the Microsoft add-on contest is known! It is the excellent Inline Search, that you can download for free.

Site: http://www.ieforge.com/InlineSearch/HomePage

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  Posted by oVan on Saturday, March 17, 2007 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Corel releases PSP Photo 11.11 Update
Finally available, an update to patch Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI from v11.00 to v11.11.
First things first, here's the download: Corel PSP Pro XI.11 Update

And while you're downloading, here's the list of fixes and enhancements (quite long):
Product Improvements for Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo 11.11

One interesting fact is that they have included RAW support for the Sony DSCF828, DSC-R1, DSC-V3 models, about time I think ;-)

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, December 22, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta
Yes, you can download the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta if you hate that message box of VS2005 telling you it needs an update that is not yet available to run on Vista. The title of this package is a bit misleading, though. It is not an update for Windows Vista Beta, it's a Beta Update for Windows Vista. In fact, they'd better named it Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update Beta for Windows Vista.
The final version of this update is expected in Spring 2007 if I remember correctly.

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  Posted by oVan on Thursday, December 21, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments
Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Finally Released
The long awaited Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 is finally here, so I'm not going to waste your time further... get it here:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 SP1

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, December 15, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments
IE6 and IE7 Running on a Single Machine
From a post by Pete LePage:


Many of you have asked how to run IE6 and IE7 in a side by side environment. As Chris Wilson blogged about early this year, it’s unfortunately not so easy to do. There are workarounds, but they are unsupported and don’t necessarily work the same way as IE6 or IE7 would work when installed properly. As Chris said, the best way to use multiple versions of IE on one machine is via virtualization. Microsoft has recently made Virtual PC 2004 a free download; we’ve taken advantage of that by releasing a VPC virtual machine image containing a pre-activated Windows XP SP2, IE6 and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit to help facilitate your testing and development. The image is time bombed and will no longer function after April 1, 2007. We hope to continue to provide these images in the future as a service to web developers.

Now you can install IE7 on your main machine for development, and get all the advantages of IE7, like the RSS platform, native XMLHTTP stack, and improved security, while still running IE6 simultaneously in the VPC on the same computer. Most importantly, you don’t even have to buy an additional Windows license. The VPC image runs in a virtual machine that offers all of the functionality of a full IE6 installation without giving it any access to its host machine’s hard drive, registry, etc. You can make as many modifications as you want to the virtual machine without affecting your host installation at all.

Included in the VPC image are:


While we’ve released a VPC image today with Windows XP SP2, we’re also investigating creating other VPC images, for example IE5, IE5.5, IE6 and IE6 SP1, as well as versions of IE on different language operating systems.

Get more information on Virtual PC 2004
Download Virtual PC 2004
Download the Internet Explorer 6 Testing VPC Image

One more note - VPC 2004 doesn’t run on Windows Vista, but this image will work fine with VPC 2007, which is in beta now. You can get this free beta via Connect.
Happy testing!
PEte LePage
Product Manager



Transmit your pdf docs into charts with pdf to excel software. Also using a pdf server will save you  time. Get the details of a pdf file conversion tool and how it was created. If you are using all Microsoft applications then you can convert pdf to doc as well. Here you can get useful tips on purchasing new programs and what to look for.

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, December 01, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments
FIX: Windows Vista has no DHTML Edit Control!
I just noticed this post on MSDN that explains how to proceed in Vista when you want to use the DHTML Edit Control (you know, the buggy wysiwyg html editor that a lot of programs and websites use).
On one hand, I'm very happy about this: it was buggy all along and seriously crippled because of security worries. On the other hand, a lot of these programs/sites will sooner or later need to be updated, because they won't work in Vista.
Luckily, you can download those missing components here: DHTML Editing Control Redistributable

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  Posted by oVan on Friday, November 24, 2006 | PermaLink | 0 comments
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