General

Microsoft Fix it Solution for Disappearing System Tray Icons on Windows Vista

Scott Dorman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:07:34 GMT

About two years ago I talked about a very common problem in Windows Vista where the network, volume, and power icons in the system tray disappear. In that post, I provide a solution which involves editing the registry. Several people posted comments that provide slightly more automated ways to make the registry changes through a batch/command file and through a registry file.

Jump ahead to today and Microsoft has a Fix it solution for this problem.

Fix this problem

Technorati Tags: Fix it,Vista,System Tray icons

Microsoft Fix it

Scott Dorman — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:55:00 GMT

It seems Microsoft has always had a love/hate relationship with consumers when it comes to support issues. When things are going well the general public loves Microsoft, but when things start going badly public opinion heads the same direction.

For whatever reason, the Microsoft Help and Support website seems to be one of the last places a lot of people turn to for an actual resolution. One of the problems has always been that the solutions presented require more than simple knowledge about how to use computers as they usually require making registry changes and other activities that the general public either doesn’t know how to do or doesn’t feel comfortable doing.

Microsoft is working very hard to change this and looks like they have made some significant improvements with the release of the Microsoft Fix it Solution Center. The goal of Microsoft Fix it is to provide automated solutions to “common software problems in an easy, intuitive way that is available when and where you need it.”

The most interesting part of Microsoft Fix it is that the solutions will not only come from Microsoft but also from the large community of Microsoft MVPs. This is our opportunity (and yours) to have a more direct role in providing solutions to the more common issues that are seen in the community.

Technorati Tags: Fix it

Upcoming Code Camps for the South East (April 2009 Update)

Scott Dorman — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:12:59 GMT

I’m trying to put together the list of upcoming code camps in the South East region. The plan is for this to be periodically (probably quarterly) updated so, if you are hosting a code camp (or know someone who is) in the South East, please let me know the date and website so I can include it in the list. (I’m also using this list to plan my speaking schedule, so if I don’t know about your code camp I can’t determine if it will fit my schedule.)

I only know of a few, so if you know of others please let me know.

Date	Title	Speaking?
~~1/31/2009~~	~~Alabama Code Camp~~	N
~~2/6/2009~~	~~South Florida Code Camp~~	Y
~~3/7/2009~~	~~Roanoke Code Camp~~	N
~~3/14/2009~~	~~Atlanta Code Camp~~	N
~~3/28/2009~~	~~Orlando Code Camp~~	Y
~~3/28/2009~~	~~Charlotte Code Camp~~	N
4/25/2009	Richmond Code Camp	N
5/2/2009	SQL Saturday #15 - Jacksonville	N
5/23/2009	Northern Virginia Code Camp	N
5/30/2009	SQL Saturday #7 – Birmingham	N
6/6/2009	SQL Saturday #12 – Pensacola	N
6/13/2009	Day of DotNetNuke (Tampa)	N
8/8/2009	SQL Saturday #16 – South Florida	N
8/29/2009	Jacksonville Code Camp¹	Y
9/5/2009	Tallahassee .NET Code Camp	?
10/3/2009	Southwest Florida .NET Code Camp	Y²
12/2009	Tampa Code Camp¹	Y

Tentative date
Planned, not confirmed.

Technorati Tags: South East, Code Camps

Florida Technical Communities (April 2009 Update)

Scott Dorman — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:51:29 GMT

Florida has a very active developer community. The biggest problem we seem to have is that all of these different groups usually don't know about each and there hasn't been a "centralized clearinghouse" listing all of the technical communities. Joe Healy, one of our Florida Microsoft Developer Evangelists, maintains a list and one-page flyers for each of the main areas in Florida. I think the eventual plan is that Joe will be updating his site to take advantage of the newer version of Live Maps and be able to show all of these communities overlaid on the Florida map.

Taking what he has started, I have put together a similar list (based on the information Joe maintains) that covers the other technical communities that I know of. If you are part of a technical user group community and don't see it listed (or need to change anything about a group that is listed), please let me know so I can add it to my list. I'll also forward the information on to Joe so he can keep his list in sync as well. (Likewise, if you let Joe know about a new group, please let me know as well.)

.NET Developer Groups

Florida .NET Developers Group - http://www.fladotnet.net
- Boca Raton
- Fort Lauderdale
- Miramar User Group
- Tampa .NET Developers
- West Pam Beach
Gainesville .NET - http://www.gatormug.org
Gold Coast Users Group (Boca Raton) - http://www.gcdotnet.com
Gulf Coast .NET Developer Group (Ft. Walton) - http://www.gulfcoastdotnet.org
Lakeland .NET Users Group - http://www.cfdotnet.org
Jacksonville Developers User Group - http://www.jaxdug.com
Miami User Group - http://www.miamiusersgroup.org
North Florida Dot Net - http://www.nfdotnet.org/
Orlando .NET User Group - http://www.onetug.org
Pensacola .NET (Milton) - http://pjcdotnet.events.live.com/
Sarasota .NET Developers Group - http://www.sarasotadev.net
Southwest Florida .NET Developers Group - http://www.swfldev.net/
Space Coast Dot Net User Group (Melbourne) - http://www.scdnug.org/
Tallahassee .NET User Group - http://www.tlhdotnet.net
Tampa ASP.NET MVC Developers Group - http://www.tampadev.org/

Architecture Focused Groups

Green .NET User Group - http://greentug.spaces.live.com/
Jacksonville Architecture SIG - http://jaxarcsig.spaces.live.com/
Tampa Bay International Association of Software Architects - http://tampabayiasa.eventbrite.com/
Tallahassee .NET Architecture SIG - http://www.tallyarch.com
Tampa Agile Development Group - http://agiletampa.spaces.live.com/

DotNetNuke Groups

Boca Raton DotNetNuke Users - http://dotnetnuke.meetup.com/44/
Orlando DotNetNuke Users Group - http://orlando.dotnetnukeug.net/

General User Groups

Boca Raton Computer Society - http://www.brcs.org

Java Developer Groups (JUGs)

Office/SharePoint/BizTalk Groups

Central Florida BizTalk User Group - http://www.btug.biz/Home/CentralFlorida/tabid/110/Default.aspx
Jacksonville Office Geeks (JOG) - http://floridaofficegeeks.org/JOG
Orlando Office Professional Special Interest Group - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cfcs-msoffice
Orlando SharePoint Users Group - http://www.mossmosis.com/orlando
South Florida SharePoint User Group - http://www.sharepointgroups.org/sfsug/default.aspx
Tallahassee SharePoint Developers - http://www.tallahasseespeed.com/default.aspx
Tampa Bay Office Geeks Association (TOGA) - http://floridaofficegeeks.org/TOGA

Specialty Groups

Campus Koders (Academic) – http://www.missociety.org
Sarasota IT Pro - http://www.sarasotaitpro.org/
South Florida PowerShell User Group - http://www.flpsug.com/

SQL Server Groups

Jacksonville SQL Server Users Group - http://jacksonville.sqlservercentral.com
Orlando SQL Server Group - http://orlando.sqlservercentral.com
Pensacola SQL Server Group – http://pensacola.sqlpass.org
Sarasota SQL Server Group - http://www.sarasotasql.net
South Florida SQL Server Group – http://gcsqlgroup.com
Space Coast SQL Users Group - http://spacecoastsql.blogspot.com/
Tampa Bay SQL Server Group - http://www.tampasql.com
Tampa Bay SQL Server Business Intelligence Group - http://tampasqlbi.sqlservercentral.com

User Interface/Design Focused Groups

Rich Application Developers of Melbourne - http://itsrandom.info/
South Florida Silverlight User Group - http://www.sfsug.org/
Tampa Bay User Experience (TUX) User Group – http://www.tampatux.org

New blog title

Scott Dorman — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:47:12 GMT

Ever since I started this blog it hasn't really had a title (or at least a subtitle) other than “blog”. Thanks to Stan Schultes, I now have a new subtitle. This was born out of watching the CLR 4 Futures talk with Joshua Goodman at MVP Summit 2009 (the majority of which is also available from the PDC 2008 site on Channel 9). Since I present a lot on .NET memory management, including a deep dive on how the GC works and how to properly implement IDisposable and the dispose pattern, he suggested the title “ephemeral segment.” Looking around, it appeared that this wasn’t already being used, so that is my new subtitle. Tell me what you think, including if you think that should become the main title for my blog rather than the subtitle.

South Florida Code Camp 2009

Scott Dorman — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:59:34 GMT

I wanted to thank Dave and everyone else who helped coordinate the South Florida Code Camp this year. It was an excellent event and I believe the final number of attendees was a little over 700, which makes this the largest known code camp in the world.

For those of you who attended my sessions, thank you as well. As I mentioned, the complete list of resources for my two-part memory management session is available as well as the blog posts that are related to my Code Style and Standards chalk talk.

I am still waiting to hear about the recording for the memory management sessions, but if the audio came through OK, it will be available from the INETA Live site.

Windows 7 Product Lines Announced

Scott Dorman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 21:01:27 GMT

Microsoft today announced the new product line for Windows 7. In some ways the new Windows 7 product line follows the same ideas of Windows Vista, but the big differences are that each Windows 7 edition is a superset of the previous edition (which means that each higher edition will have every feature of all lower editions) and they will be focusing primarily on two editions of Windows 7: Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional.

The breakdown on the different editions is:

Windows 7 Starter

This is for price-sensitive customers with small notebooks PCs.

Key Feature list:

Broad app and device compatibility with up to 3 concurrent applications

Safe, reliable, and supported

Ability to join a Home Group

Improved taskbar and JumpLists

Windows 7 Home Basic

This is for customers in emerging markets only.

Key Feature list:

Starter features

Unlimited applications

Live Thumbnail Previews & enhanced visual experience

Advanced networking support (ad-hoc wireless networks and internet connection sharing)

Mobility Center

Windows 7 Home Premium

This is recommended for most customers (home consumers).

Key Feature list:

Home Basic features

Unlimited applications

Aero Glass & advanced windows navigation

Easy networking & sharing across all your PCs & devices

Improved media format support, enhancements to Windows Media Center and media streaming, including Play To

Multi-touch and improved handwriting recognition

Windows 7 Professional

This is recommended for small businesses and those customers (home consumers) who want additional features and functionality useful for small business activities.

Key Feature list:

Home Premium features

Unlimited applications

Ability to join a managed network with Domain Join

Protect data with advanced network backup and Encrypting File System

Print to the right printer at home or work with Location Aware Printing

Windows 7 Enterprise

This is recommended for medium-to-large business and enterprise customers that choose to license Windows through Software Assurance and is available only through Microsoft Volume Licensing.

Key Feature list:

Professional features

Unlimited applications

BitLocker data protection on internal and external drives

DirectAccess provides seamless connectivity to your corporate network (requires Windows Server 2008 R2)

Decrease time branch office workers wait to open file across the network with BranchCache (requires Windows Server 2008 R2)

Prevent unauthorized software from running with AppLocker

Windows 7 Ultimate

Key Feature list:

Enterprise features

Unlimited applications

Multi-language packs

I know that looks like there are still a lot of different editions, but the key points are:

For Consumers: Microsoft recommends Windows 7 Home Premium for most customers and Windows 7 Professional for customers who want additional features and functionality useful for small business activities.
For Businesses: Microsoft recommends Windows 7 Professional for most customers and Windows 7 Enterprise for medium-to-large business and enterprise customers that choose to license Windows through Software Assurance.
The features in each version of Windows 7 build upon the one before it. As customers move up from one edition to the next, from Windows 7 Starter through Windows 7 Ultimate, they gain additional features and lose none.

Technorati Tags: Windows 7

Fit in February Developer Challenge

Scott Dorman — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:47:53 GMT

I don’t know why or how I missed this earlier, but I just found out about the Fit in February Developer Challenge. After reading the official rules, which includes a brief explanation of why the challenge was started, I think this is an excellent way to entice us developers in to doing something to become more healthy.

For my part, I’m going to start following the onehundredpushups program, which is a 6 week training program after which you should be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. I had completed about 3 weeks of it last year before “real life” got in the way and I stopped. I’m also going back on a pseudo-diet, which means I’m going to simply start eating out less (which will save money anyway), eating healthier, and eating smaller portions.

Technorati Tags: FitFeb, hundredpushups

TweeTube – Video Sharing for Twitter

Scott Dorman — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:33:35 GMT

There are a lot of different sites available for sharing pictures on Twitter, but it seems like there are very few that allow you to easily share videos. All of that has changed with the launch today of TweeTube.

TweeTube bills itself as being “The easiest way to share videos on Twitter” and from what I’ve seen so far, it is.

You can search YouTube for videos with matching keywords, or if you already know the video you can paste the URL.

After you find the video (in this case I am sharing a video of BitBlt singing “I Will Survive”. You can preview the video information and include a message.

TweeTube uses your Twitter login information and maintains it’s own public timeline of videos shared, popular videos and just the videos that you have shared.

Right now, TweetTube only works only with YouTube, but they will be expanding that in the near future.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, YouTube, TweeTube

Florida Technical Communities (January 2009 Update)

Scott Dorman — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:09:13 GMT

Florida has a very active developer community. The biggest problem we seem to have is that all of these different groups usually don't know about each and there hasn't been a "centralized clearinghouse" listing all of the technical communities. Joe Healy, one of our Florida Microsoft Developer Evangelists, maintains a list and earlier this year started putting together one-page flyers for each of the main areas in Florida. I think the eventual plan is that Joe will be updating his site to take advantage of the newer version of Live Maps and be able to show all of these communities overlaid on the Florida map.