Windows Vista

Consolidating the Silverlight, Blend and "Orcas" Download Sprawl

Denny Boynton — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:34:34 GMT

I was holding an ArcCouncil meeting in St. Louis last week and one of the attendees expressed their frustration with the seemingly 43 places you have to go to download and use the Visual Studio "Orcas", the Silverlight tools and Expression Blend. So, I'll try to clarify this right here and now:

Visual Studio "Orcas": Here is the URL for the public download site: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F10FB5DF-E369-4DB4-B9A7-845DBF793368&displaylang=en. Unfortunately, this site requires you to download nine WinRAR files individually. Once you have the complete package downloaded, just execute the first RAR file and it will extract the rest of the files in order to put the files on your machine. Yes, this is kind of a pain I know, but please remember, it's still beta 1.

If you have access to an MSDN subscription, you can download "Orcas" from there as an ISO or you can get a VPC image as well.

Either of these download routes will get you everything you need to run and use VS "Orcas" and the .NET Framework 3.5. Be aware that there is no handy-dandy uninstaller for most of the stuff that gets installed and some of it will likely cause problems with Visual Studio 2005, so don't install this on a machine that is critical to your daily existence.

Silverlight: The URL for all things Silverlight is http://www.silverlight.net. There are some great resources available to help you get started building cool Silverlight applications. There are two versions of Silverlight you can download. First there is Silverlight 1.0 Beta and is available here:

Windows: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/eula.aspx?id=fbc0ab04-4ad9-664d-07f4-d4592dd8e157

Mac: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/eula.aspx?id=fe2cbe3f-e0bd-f4d2-bb74-f9ccff3c7e96

Second, there is Silverlight 1.1 alpha. This is the version that has the .NET CLR built into it. It is available here:

Windows: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/eula.aspx?id=e2c1a44f-0b5c-face-28c8-08a26f2e0b3c

Mac: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/eula.aspx?id=03d833f1-549b-dc3b-af75-f74b1ebb9351

Finally, you can download the ASP.NET Futures package that will provide server-side controls to enable you to build Silverlight into ASP.NET pages. You find that here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=9323777E-FE78-430C-AD92-D5BE5B5EAD98&displaylang=en

Expression Blend: The ship date for Blend was April 30th. If you want to look at and use the 1.0 version of Blend, you can download a fully-functional trial at http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/download.aspx?key=blend. The site will provide you with a key that you can enter into the software that will enable the trial for 180 days.

If you want to use Blend to build Silverlight applications, you'll need the Blend 2.0 May CTP which you can find here: http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/download.aspx?key=blend2maypreview.

Those are the essentials. Want some info on other technologies? Send me your feedback!

A Defense of Vista

Denny Boynton — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 19:58:00 GMT

Full disclosure: While my paycheck and livelihood comes from working for Microsoft, I want to make it clear that the following has nothing to do with that fact. I'm speaking strictly as a technologist trying to make his way in the world.

Like a lot of folks in the software biz, I get a lot of e-newsletters each day, and I try to at least peruse each one to keep current with what's happening in the industry.

The past week, one specific newsletter has contained so much vitriol about Vista and what a piece of crap it is that I felt compelled to put a post together on it. And keep in mind, this wasn't the only article that expressed this view point. It's just the one I decided to pick on. There is plenty of Vista-bashing material circulating out there these days.

The article was entitled, Patch Tuesday: Vista dinged again. The gist of the article was that Vista isn't living up to its promises on the security front. To quote from the article:

The carefully crafted image of Windows Vista as the most secure operating system of all time is beginning to take a beating.
For the second time this month, Microsoft has shipped a security bulletin with patches for a “critical” Vista vulnerability that puts millions of users at risk of code execution attacks.

It's half-baked, inflammatory comments like this that force me to spend so much of my time trying to convince people that Microsoft really is a responsible company that is trying to write software that people will want to use instead of helping them understand and implement technology better.

First of all, I don't recall anyone stating that Vista would be the "most secure operating system of all time," only the most secure version of Windows ever released, and without a doubt, it is.

And the fact that Microsoft has identified and released patches to its customers twice in one month should be grounds for praise, not disparagement. There are well over 100M lines of code in the Vista OS. The idea that a team of developers, no matter how skilled and careful, could produce a product of that magnitude bug and vulnerability free, is ridiculous.

There has never been a piece of software that wasn't initially released with some bugs and/or security issues. No matter how good you are, you aren't perfect and you probably don't have clairvoyance to foresee ever possible attack strategy that could come at your application. You do the best you can and respond as quickly as possible when issues are identified. And honestly, that is what Microsoft is doing.

Has Microsoft had problems with the security of their products in the past? Absolutely without a doubt.

Has Microsoft truly made security "job 1" in the development of its products? Absolutely without a doubt. And this is hardly new. BillG's so-called "Trustworthy computing" memo of January 15, 2002 really set the focus on security for all Microsoft product development going forward.

Being on the inside at Microsoft, I can attest that this isn't just marketing fluff. The security of not just Vista but all of Microsoft's products is taken very seriously by everyone. And it has actually yielded positive results, as is apparent in a recent article showing Symantec has rated Vista as the most secure OS on the market!

So, issues will be identified in Vista and Microsoft will continue to aggressively develop, test and release patches to address those issues. And Vista will continue to get better and better as a result. More patches isn't a sign of a "bad" product. It's the sign of a company standing behind it's product and taking its upkeep very seriously. How is this bad for users of our software? The answer is, "It isn't."

So, what do I think of Vista? Well, I've been using it for about four months now, and here are my opinions on the new OS:

The user experience is so much better than XP. It's subtle, to be sure, but if you start to focus on how you do things in Vista versus how you used to do them, you really develop a better appreciate for the attention to detail that has been paid in this area.
UAC is a good thing. This is one of the most contentious areas of Vista as far as I can tell. I found the UAC dings annoying at first, but given the choice between the system confirming that I want to do something and assuming I want to do something, I like that Vista errs on the side of asking me.
Windows Defender is a great addition. I used to have to re-pave my kids' laptop every two weeks because of the amount of malware that would get past my anti-virus program. Since upgrading them to Vista, I've had no issues. Between UAC (they have significantly decreased privliges on the machine) and Defender, the machine is as clean today as the day I set it up.
I have not seen the compatability nightmares we were supposed to have with Vista. I'm running all the software on my machine that I ran on XP. Granted, I had some problems getting some of it to run intially, but the compatability tools cleared those up. Also, the virtual file system and registry features of Vista work seemlessly. I didn't even realize how the OS was accomodating my older applications until I dug into the file structure on the machine a little deeper.
Device drivers have been the biggest issue in upgrading to Vista. However, I had device driver issues when I upgraded to XP. If the hardware manufactures are late getting drivers posted, that's not really the OS's fault.
Search. What else can I say.

I welcome a discussion or debate on this topic. Please post your thoughts.

Lesser-Known Cool Vista Feature

Denny Boynton — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 05:19:00 GMT

Remember when you used to wish that the help featues in Windows were, well, helpful? I was recently trying to figure out how to change some settings in Vista and the new Control Panel menu wasn't being very helpful. On a whim, I open the new Help and Support link on the Start Menu and was really impressed.

First, help now is fully integrated with online help, so you not only get the information on your system that was there when you installed Vista, but you can now tap into the latest support information available online.

But here's the kicker: Vista help includes a guided tour as well.

Try this: While you're connected to the Internet, open help and type "show known file extensions" in the search field. Then click on the first item in the results list and it should look something like this:

If you click the "Do it automatically" link, Vista will just take care of this for you. If you're like me and want to actually learn how to make this happen, click on the "Show me step-by-step" link. The icon above will move through the UI and walk you through the process if finding what you need.

This is a simle example, but I've started to use the Help and Support on a more regular basis now that I've seen what it can do. It beats Google! :)

Expression Web Available on MSDN Downloads!

Denny Boynton — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:28:00 GMT

I was out checking what's new via my MSDN subscription site this evening when I noticed that the Expression Web product was available for download. As you may know, there has been some consternation in Redmond about whether this suite of tools should be available via MSDN.

A quick web search revealed that yes, indeed, the Expression suite of design products will be available via MSDN. Check out this post from Walt Ritscher's blog for the office word from Soma Somasgar.

If you haven't already grabbed the RC of Expression Blend, I recommend you do so ASAP. It's a great product and a free 180 trial available here.

Happy XAML, everyone.

Reminder: DevBlitz '07 is Happening In Minneapolis Tomorrow!

Denny Boynton — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:24:00 GMT

I wanted to drop a quick note out here to remind everyone that the InterTech sponsored DevBlitz 11-hour conference is happening at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Thursday, March 29th. There are still "Option 1" seats open -- you can register on their site: http://www.devblitz.com.

This should be a great event. I'll be opening the event with Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation. Apress Author Brian Myers will be covering Workflow Foundation and author Andrew Troelson will be covering C# 3.0, VB 9.0 and LINQ. The best part of all is that it isn't just an eye-forward event. Each talk will include time for attendees to work through a hands-on lab on the topic. You don't just get to "see," you get to "do."

If you're in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and you're interested in .NET 3.0, I highly recommend registering and coming to this conference tomorrow.

Burning an ISO Image to DVD in Windows Vista

Denny Boynton — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:22:00 GMT

Since Nero seems to be having compatability problems with Windows Vista, I've been looking for a way to burn the many ISO images I have on my system to DVD. I happened upon this post on Rick Hallihan's blog about how he used the Windows 2003 Server Resource Kit Tools utility dvdburn. I gave this a try and it works like a charm.

If you're in the same boat as me, check this out. It's a great interim solution until Nero and ISO Recorder get compatible with Vista! :)