According to several sources, Microsoft has scheduled Windows Vista Service Pack 1 for release to manufacturer (RTM) on Monday, February 4, 2008.  The OEMs will also receive Windows Vista Service Pack 1 during that week.

Microsoft will be deploying Service Pack 1 in two "waves". Wave 0, which is the one released on February 4, will only include five languages - English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The second wave, Wave 1, is scheduled for release 1-2 weeks later, and will cover all other available languages.

Today, Microsoft officially responded to some bloggers on Vista Ultimate Extras. Here's what was said:

I have bought a new laptop, a Dell XPS 12", and installed Windows Vista Ultimate on it. Now, when running Virtual PC 2007, I had the problem that my mouse cursor disapeared over input fields in every VPC window.

Appearantly, this is a known issue... I have resolved it by setting the pointer scheme to "Windows Black" on the Mouse Properties window.

Weird that this is not yet solved...

I have not had any problems with Vista and my iPod, but appearantly some people have. Therefore, Microsoft released an update: "The Safely Remove Hardware feature and the Windows Explorer "Eject" command do not work correctly with an Apple iPod that is connected to a Windows Vista-based computer" (that's a mouthful ;-) )

You can download it here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=936824

Appeanantly, I have missed this one when it was released last week... Anyway, you can download the new MSDN Library, April 2007 Edition, which includes Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 documentation, here.

From the release notes:
Updated content sets in this April 2007 Edition include:

• Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 documentation
• Visual Studio 2005 general documentation updates
• Windows Vista Developer documentation
• Windows® Driver Kit (WDK) documentation
• SQL Server™ 2005 Books Online product documentation
• SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Books Online
• Microsoft Knowledge Base
• And More...

Beware, it's a hefty 2GB+ download!

It appears that Keznews forum member Snooza has discovered a method that effectively obtains a Windows Vista key which can then be activated. The idea is a simple brute force attack: the software generates keys and when it finds one, you manually have to check if it activates. The 8-step method can take anywhere from two minutes to two days. Members of the forum have verified the strategy and claim it works. This technique should worry Microsoft, not because they are losing customers to piracy again, but because the customers who are actually spending the money on the latest Windows version may start being unable to activate the software with a legally purchased key. It seems that the main issue is time, and with today’s modern PCs, it really isn’t that much of a problem. Evidently, pirates would rather wait a couple of hours, than go to work and make the money needed to purchase a legal copy. The author of the article over at Keznews has a disclaimer which emphasizes that, "under no circumstances should anyone sell the key that they generate. I do not support Piracy, this was simply an experiment in which i used to practice my vbscripting. This was just for fun and was a complete accident! I strongly encourage everyone to purchase windows vista, and be a genuine customer!"

Bill Gates Celebrates Worldwide General Availability of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System January 29, 2007 1:45 p.m. PST / 4:45 p.m. EST From Times Square in New York City, join Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates for a live webcast celebrating the worldwide launch of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System. The celebration pays tribute to the millions of Microsoft customers, partners and product testers around the world who provided input and feedback on these products -- helping Microsoft transform the way people communicate, create and share content, and access information and entertainment in the new digital age. View Webcast: • 500K • 220K • 100K

Microsoft New Zealand is offering some desktop backgrounds for use on your computer!

Check them out here: http://www.microsoft.com/nz/windows/bliss/default.mspx

Some samples:

Microsoft has launched the new vista home page. The new look is more clean, more professional. They also updated the Windows home page. You can see it here: http://windowsvista.com/

Retail stores in New Zealand initiated the worldwide launch of Microsoft Windows Vista. Due to New Zealand's time zone position, local users have access to the operating system a couple of hours before Australians, thirteen hours before Britons, and almost a full day ahead of American users. The Midnight Launch was held at Dick Smith Electronics Powerhouse, 5 Ronwood Avenue, Manukau City, Auckland. A Microsoft New Zealand team was present at the store to answer questions.

The first purchase in the world of a Microsoft Windows Vista loaded PC took place at one minute past midnight on January 30, 2007. Starting the same minute, Microsoft New Zealand ran a series of online charity auctions on local auction website TradeMe. New Zealanders were able to bid on 15 copies of Windows Vista Ultimate digitally signed by Bill Gates and 15 copies of Microsoft Office Professional 2007, to raise funds for child cancer research charity Cure Kids.

According to security vendor DriveSentry, about half of downloads claiming to be free versions of Windows Vista are in fact malicious Trojan horses. With Vista's consumer launch just days away, discussion boards and peer-to-peer networks are full of offers of "cracked" versions of Windows Vista. The downloaded programs claim to skip Vista's activation process but are in fact malicious key-logging software and spyware. This isn’t anything new though, the same deal occurred with Windows XP. Pirated versions of Vista have been in circulation for several months now, and one called "Windows Vista All Versions Activation 21.11.06" has already been identified as a Trojan. It's an effective technique, said John Lynch, vice president of sales and marketing for DriveSentry. "Someone that's stealing the software to begin with is not going to raise a fuss if the software turns out to be malicious."

Source

About right, I think. This is just one wonderful OS, and if you want it, you should buy it. It's worth every penny!

I'm developing a gadget for a project. However, tonight I lost about an hour or so searching for a solution for the following error: "this is not a valid gadget package". This error was thrown when I tried to install the gadget (after renaming the ZIP file).

It appears that this error was thrown because of a CSS file that I had prepared in advance for the flyout option. This file was 0kB, and thus when checking the gadget, the sidebar declares the entire gadget invalid.

1 hour of development time lost :-(

From TheHotFix:
We know that Vista Ultimate will include some extras. But, what exactly is it? A search on google yielded no result.

From what The Hotfix.net understands currently, there are 3 extra(s) which will be under this category. They are namely Windows DreamScene, BitLocker and EFS Enhancements and Hold ‘Em Poker.

Windows DreamScene is a wonderful application which respects your power settings and pauses the video to conserve battery power while allowing you to select a video for your desktop background the same way you select a stationary picture ( Provided that company provides content for DreamScene). For computers that do not support the Windows Aero desktop experience, this Extra still has something to offer: Windows DreamScene adds new positioning options for backgrounds, including stationary pictures.
To View: Movie (WMP)

Next is BitLocker and EFS Enhancements. BitLocker was shown to the public some-time late last year, but was removed by Microsoft. It is not back in Vista Ultimate (As most expected), as an extra. If you haven’t already heard about BitLocker, here is some background information:
Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption provides increased security by encrypting everything on your hard drive: data, programs, and even Windows itself. When you use BitLocker, your system is more difficult to tamper with, and you are better protected if your computer is ever lost or stolen. BitLocker does not replace the need to use good passwords and other security features, but it does make it much harder for anyone else to read the information stored on your hard drive.
If your computer has as a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 chip, BitLocker can use the chip to perform a system integrity check—a process that verifies your computer system has not been tampered with—before unlocking your drive. If you do not have a TPM 1.2 chip, you can still use the encryption provided by BitLocker, but not the system integrity checking. For information about how to enable BitLocker on your computer without using a TPM 1.2 chip, see the BitLocker Drive Encryption Step-by-Step Guide.



Finally, it is the Hold 'Em Poker Game. Hold 'Em uses Microsoft® DirectX® technology for smooth animated play and rich graphics. Users can change options to play against up to five computer players, set the opponents’ skill level, and customize the look of the card deck and playing table. After you install this Windows Ultimate Extra, Hold 'Em will appear in the Windows Vista Games Explorer.



Source

This might just become a trend! If you switched to Vista and Office 2007, print out the poster to show you're on the bandwagon too!

Click here for the full image (zip).

Running Windows Vista's new Aero graphical interface doesn't impact PC performance, a study sponsored by Microsoft claims.

According to speed measurements of more than 60 common business chores, which were conducted by North Carolina-based Principled Technologies for Microsoft, using the Aero interface "had little or no negative effect on Windows Vista's performance."

Matt Ayers, a program manager with the Windows Client Performance team, touted the results on the group's blog. "We put quite a bit of effort into making sure that the new visuals were as efficient as possible, and it really paid off," he wrote. "You can run Aero without guilt!"

Principled Technologies measured performance with Aero on and off using a Dell XPS M170 notebook equipped with 1 Gbyte of RAM, a 2.0-GHz Intel Pentium M 750 single-core processor, and a graphics card with 256 Mbytes of memory. The laptop's configuration met or exceeded Microsoft's own minimum system requirements for what it calls a "Vista Premium Ready PC," which is a system with sufficient horsepower to run Aero. Those requirements, for example, specify a graphics card with at least 128 Mbytes of memory.

Aero, which can be disabled by the user, is automatically ditched for a simpler, Windows XP-style interface, when Vista is run on lower-powered PCs.

The Vista performance report can be downloaded as a PDF file from here

Source

Did you know that is possible in Windows Vista to add checkboxes to each item in your Windows Explorer? No? I thought so!

Well, actually, it's there, but it's disabled by default. Let me show you how you can enable it again.

In the explorer, go to "Organize", then select "Folder and Search Options" as shown in the screenshot below.

 

In the "View" tab of the "Folder Options" dialog box that now opens, scroll all the way down. You'll see the option: "Use checkboxes to select items".
Simply enable this, and you'll have no more need to CTRL-click anymore! 

It's hard to believe that this is not enabled by default!

I was just installing SQL Server 2005 in my Windows Vista, and then applied SP2 (november 2006 CTP) to get things running smoothly.

However, when trying to run Management Studio for the first time, I couldn't log on using the Windows (built-in) account... I got "Error: 18456, Severity: 14, State: 11." in the SQL Server Error Log.

After some searching, I found that when using Vista and SP2, you are not automatically added to the sysadmin role in SQL Server. Therefore, you have to be able to add yourself.

This can be done using the Surface Area Configuration Tool, by clicking the link, as shown below.

Running apps elevated is sometimes (at the moment for some) necessary. Using ctrl+shift+enter, you can run app in the launch text field elevated (as admin)!
This can be handy to run Visual Studio 2005 in elevated mode, which is needed for some features!

Being a shortcut freak, I always use keyboard shortcuts to get things done.
Microsoft published an entire list of useful shortcuts in Windows Vista here.
Here you can find more for Internet Explorer, and here for Windows Mail (the new Outlook Express, that is!)

I probably shouldn't be writing this one... However, here it is anyhow... The fastest way to disable UAC in Vista.

1. Open the Start Menu and click on your user icon at the top.
2. Click on "Turn User Account Control on or Off".
3. Deselect "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer"
4. Click on OK and restart your computer.

Remember, only do this when you REALLY know what you're doing. You're actually exposing yourself to threats, so, if not really necessary, you should not be turning it off!
You get used to it, and, compared to the beta's, there are far less warnings!

In Vista, there appears to be no more bootscreen. This makes the boot times shorter, according to Microsoft. I must admin, my new PC is very fast at booting, much faster than the XP.
Should you however want to enable the bootscreen anyhow, here's how...

1. Press Win+R, type msconfig and press Enter. 
2. In the "System Configuration" window, click on the Boot tab. 
3. Select your Windows Vista installation and under "Boot options", check "No GUI boot". Now click OK
4. Now, a dialog will appear. Check "Don’t show this message again", and then click on Restart. 
5. Your computer will now reboot, and you will see the Aurora boot screen with text that says "Starting Windows Vista".
Tada!

Starting today, I'm starting with tips and tricks on Windows Vista.

Up first, changing the sleep button in the start menu into the standard shutdown button. Personally, I always unplug my PC when not home, so setting the PC to sleep is of no help at all. On the other hand, Sleep has become the default button in favor of the shutodwn button. I've now changed that, and here's how...

1. Open the Control Panel and click the "Power Options" icon.
2. here you can select the Power Plan that you want to use. Click on "Change plan settings".
3. Click on Change advanced power settings, then double click on "Power buttons and lid".
4. Double click on "Start menu power button", change the Setting to Shutdown.

At this time, there is no possibility to remove the little arrow on the icons in Windows Vista. However, I found a little tool that does the trick nicely!

Here you can find it.

Now that Vista is released, I have started to plan a launch event at my company, Ordina Belgium. This event will probably take place 25th January in Lummen and will be titlted:

Programming (on) Windows Vista.

As you can probably tell by the title, the event will focus some new programming concepts in Windows Vista, like for example the sidebar, or how to create Aero Glass applications.
Expect more details within the next 2 weeks, when we'll make a full agenda publically available!

...and more on Windows Update. Oh thats why its more than 2 Gig - Ed

Ever needed to find a driver for a product and wished Windows would either just have the driver in it, or that their Windows Update service could provide it? With Vista, it can – and new features and updates will be forthcoming too. It's about time! At the Windows Vista Team Blog, Jim Allchin, the Chief of Microsoft's Vista development effort and long-time Microsoft employee, soon to retire after having completed Vista at last, has advised readers that Windows Vista has more drivers built-in at launch than any previous version Windows.

While computer users will always want to see if the manufacturer has newer, specific drivers that eke out the best performance from peripherals and hardware add-ons, having as many drivers native in Windows as possible, and thousands of additional new drivers available on Windows Update just has to be a good thing to make life easier for computer users long used to having driver issues with XP and earlier Windows versions.

Allchin tells us that since Vista went RTM, an addition 11,700 drivers are now ready and waiting for you if you add a new peripheral to your computer, although you should naturally always try loading the drivers that came with your new hardware from CD first.

More here...

Initial reports are that this is different from the leaked version that has been available for about a week on all sorts of torrent sites, the hash is different:

en_windows_vista_x86_dvd_X12-34293.iso = b71e04564ca22e4d9928e59298eff87cf62b382b
LRMCFRE_EN_DVD.iso (BillGates) = b82590481755ba3420e7314bf82b8916a90963b5

This single download includes the following Windows Vista editions:

• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Business N
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Windows Vista Home Basic N
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Starter
• Windows Vista Ultimate

The product key used to install Windows Vista will determine which edition will be installed. The product keys used to install Windows Vista Business N, Windows Vista Home Basic N, and Windows Vista Starter are not currently available.

Go get it on your MSDN account!!

Just 2 minutes ago, Microsoft/Jim Allchin finally announced that Vista is RTM!

At the moment, no update yet on when it's to be available on MSDN though!
However, a downtime is scheduled on November 10th, from 7PM PST to 9PM PST (add 12 hours for CET, so that means somewhere early Satuday). My guess: they'll be upgrading their servers to handle all the load that those MSDN'ers will cause. Microsoft still says 'within 7 days'.

Happy RTM, Microsoft!

Could cause an internet slowdown there!

Finally, all the rumors about Microsoft not getting their OS ready in time can now finally put to stop.

Let me conclude by congratulating the entire developer team at Microsoft. I'm confident that this OS will be of the standard we're used of getting! Cheers!

Jim Allchin's post can be found here, though, there's really nothing to see at the moment...

According to Neowin, Vista will be declared RTM tomorrow, 8th November 2006 at 11 AM PST. Immediately after that, it will be placed on MSDN.

So, that means that tomorrow evening around 20PM CET, it should be coming in!

Source

According to Paul Thurrott, Microsoft will release the RTM build of Vista as early as tomorrow, November 6th!

The final build number will be 6000.16386.061101-2205. Microsoft started numbering all builds from the end of August from 6000 on.
Using the 6XXX numbering system, the software giant wants to make it clear that Vista is something completely new. Windows XP was given the number 5.1, because deep inside, it was built on the same code than Windows 2000 was, which was 5.0

A power outage in the Microsoft labs prevented MS from creating a build Friday night. Luckily, no longer delays were caused because of this incident.

No longer will critics be able to say that Microsoft will not make the deadline of November 2006.

MS promised that within 7 days after Vista went RTM, it would be downloadable from the MSDN site. That means that 12-13 November, we'll all be able to get our hands on a copy of the most advanced OS ever created.

Source

Microsoft has set November 30 as the release date for Vista (and Office 2007) to business customers and January 30, 2007 as the date for the official launch to consumers and The World At Large.

Five years, three months and five days after Windows XP made its debut, Microsoft will usher its next-generation OS onto the stage.

In addition, in a move that mirrors previous side-by-side launches of Microsoft's OS and Office suite (in the 95 and XP waves), Office 2007 will also touch down on that day.

Do note that for business professionals, Vista will be available earlier. More here.

With Windows Presentation Foundation coming closer to its release date with Vista almost being upon us, more and more people are taking a look at programming in WPF… Lately, people searching on Google for WPF-related information is soaring. How do you know that, you might ask? Well, in my logs, I notice a steep increase in people landing on my blog who searched for information on WPF. That’s a good thing!! ?

However, what I do notice, is that there is still some confusion on some topics.  In this article, I want to help clear out the difference between the different application types in WPF/Vista. Since this is a major change with previous application models, lots of people, including me when I first heard about it, seem confused.

So, let’s get to it!

WPF has 2 main applications models: standalone and browser. On the other hand, it also has 2 types of navigation: menu-driven, which is what we’re all used to in traditional Windows applications and link-driven, which is the default for web applications. The first thing to note is that in WPF, both types of navigation can be used in either of the application models. Neat, isn’t it?
That basically means that you can create a web application as if it were a windows application, containing a menu to navigate around. Or, create a standalone desktop application that feels like a web application, with all buttons replaced by links.
No longer are you bound to one application model with is “natural” navigation model!

Standalone applications

When you want to create a “traditional” Windows application, you should choose to create “Windows Application (WPF)”.

The Windows Form now became a Window, each of these is declared as Window1.xaml. Notice that the build action for a Window file is automatically set to Page. What this means, is that the markup is turned into a special type of resource that can be identified uniquely by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). This way, WPF can load the window using a URI, as is done set the starting point in your App.xaml.

<Application x:Class="WindowsApplication2.App"
    xmlns=" http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation "
    xmlns:x=" http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml "
    StartupUri="Window1.xaml"
    >

This way, your application knows which window it has to load up first. This window is loaded modeless, meaning that it has no problems with you clicking anywhere else in the application.

Page’d applications

Should you want to create an application that mimics the web experience but still run as a standalone application, you should start by adding a Page(WPF).

Just like in the Window, you can add controls and content to the page. However, when you change the startupuri in the App.xaml to your newly added page, some things will change.

A window can host itself, like a form did in traditional Windows Forms programming. A HTML/ASPX page requires a browser. Now, we created a “standalone” application with the starting point set to a page. Kinda weird, right?

Well, the Application class in WPF is smart enough to detect if your startupuri is set to a page. It will then create a window to host your application.

Now, where does this “hosting window” come from?
When the startupuri is set to a XAML page or HTML page, Application  creates an instance of NavigationWindow to host them. This class derives from Window but extends it to make it look like a mini-browser window, providing navigation buttons at the top.

When content changes or when you click a link to navigate to another page, the previous content is added to the history. The management of the history itself is managed too by the NavigationWindow.

XAML Browser applications

The final type of application is the XAML browser application. While the previous type of application basically is a web application, being hosted in its own mini-browser, you can’t really take advantage of all the features modern browser have today. If that’s what you need, you should create a XAML browser application or XBAP.

To create one, you should choose new “XAML Browser Application (WPF)”. After that, you can copy all the code you created for that WPF standalone application to one or more pages, and your application is ready for the web!

One more thing you can do with XBAPs is publish them on a web- or intranet server. This is done using ClickOnce, which creates the executable along with 2 manifest files. One of these 2 has the extension XBAP, and that’s were the user navigates too. It then “downloads” the application to the local computer.

Because of the security risk, XBAPs are not installed and run in a security sandbox: some operations like writing to the registry are not allowed. Basically, XBAPs can only do things that are allowed for apps launched from the Internet zone, a restricted set of operations.

Conclusion
As you can see, the ways an application is build are different from what you are used to in traditional programming. I hope this guide is clear enough to help you choose the correct type when building a WPF application for Vista.
 

It keep on raining official announcements these last days...

Just hours ago, MS announced the packaging of Vista and Office 2007.

"Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that’s designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation.

The new design will provide the strength, dimensional stability and impact resistance required when packaging software today. Our plan is to extend this packaging style to other Microsoft products after the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system."

More here.

It's official now: MSDN subscribers will get their hands on Vista within 7 days after it went RTM:

Windows Vista and Office 2007: Availability on MSDN Subscriber Downloads
Windows Vista and Office 2007 will be available through MSDN Subscriber downloads within 7 days of release to manufacture (RTM). MSDN Subscriptions is committed to making new content available to our subscribers as soon as is practical.

Several key Microsoft employees has firmly stated that Vista has not been released to manufacturing. The day might be soon, but is certainly not today, or tomorrow. There’s still a bit more work to do. Build 6000.16384 is real, but it also doesn’t mean RTM. These days, Microsoft doesn’t have to increase the major version number when building, so theoretically, any sub-set of build 6000 (6000.16385, 16386, etc...) can be RTM. (source)

Man, I can hardly wait for it to finally be here... Can you imagine... by mid November, we'll all have access to it!

From ZDnet:

Tweak #1: Add an elevated Command PromptBy running a Command Prompt as an Administrator, you can start just about any program or Control Panel applet without being bothered by UAC prompts.

Tip #2: Get an expanded shortcut menu Holding down one extra key when you right-click a file or folder icon gives you some useful options.

Tweak #3: Make text easier to read You're not getting any younger, and neither are your eyes. Use this tweak to keep your monitor running at its high native resolution but bump the size of text up.

Tip #4: Snip a screen shot This little utility was originally designed for use with Tablet PCs, but in Vista it's available to anyone running a premium version. Use it to snip all or part of a screen and paste the screen shot into a document or e-mail message.

Tip #5: Get a quick system checkup  A shortcut buried deep in the Performance and Reliability section of Control Panel allows you to generate a quick, information-packed report that spotlights any problems with your system. Here's where you can find it.

Tweak #6: Pump up the volume  If you've got the right sound hardware, you can tap into some excellent audio enhancements, including virtual surround sound and tools for cranking up the bass output.

Tip #7: Master the Quick Launch bar  Did you know that each of the first 10 shortcuts on the Quick Launch bar has its own custom keyboard shortcut?

Tweak #8: Make the blinking cursor easier to see  The cursor that marks the insertion point in a program or dialog box is thinner than Kate Moss. A well-hidden option lets you put a little weight on this skinny pointer.

Tweak #9: Make Security Center go away  Security Center is a nag. The little icon sits in the taskbar, popping up annoying messages and generally making a nuisance of itself. Until you find the switch to make it go away for good, that is.

Tweak #10: Use the Mobility Center on a notebook  This miniature control panel is only available on portable PCs. Use it to enable or disable a wireless adapter or an external monitor and to get a quick fix on battery life. It's even easier if you know the easy keyboard shortcut.

More here.

Not 5840, not 5920, but 6000 will be the final build of Vista! This will not be a "real build" number, but an artificially created one.

Insiders are now absolutely sure that RTM will be released on or before November 8th!

Overview of latest builds (from Bink.nu):
Build 5840 is the build that currently is in Escrow, meaning that it is the candidate to become the Golden build (RTM)
5744 is the latest build that is released to testers, Technet, MSDN and limited CTP.
5808 is the latest build that is released to TAP customers.

Sadly, 25th October 2006 will not be the day we remember as the day Vista went RTM.

Microsoft recently ran into a major problem with the upgrade process of XP to Vista. As of today, the bug is no more! So far for the good news :-( .

However, MS will no longer arrive at RTM on October 25. The source of the delay was a nasty bug in build 5824 that caused horrific damages to upgrades from Windows XP. Microsoft finally fixed the problem last Friday with an internal build number 5840. No other changes have been made, although new wallpapers and icons have been included in this latest build!!

According to an internal timetable, Vista can still ship and meet its November and January launch, if RTM has arrived by November 8.

Mark November 8 on your calendars. On that Wednesday, either Vista will have already gone final or will be just out the door.

More here.

Free training alert!!!

Microsoft Learning  developed some free online training(Collection 5134 : Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005) that you can use for a limited time.
You will learn how to develop rich experiences using Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows Communication Foundation.

This collection of 3 2-hour premium clinics teaches about the new capabilities provided by the .NET Framework 3.0. These clinics are for experienced Developers and Software Architects who are looking to adopt Microsoft's next generation technology within their solutions.

From: Collection 5134 : Developing Rich Experiences with Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio® 2005

If you are contemplating a PC purchase but concerned about waiting for Windows Vista, don't wait, said Microsoft officials at the DigitalLife conference.

G. Michael Sievert, corporate vice president of Windows Client marketing at Microsoft, opened the DigitalLife conference on Oct. 12 with a keynote in which he laid out the company's plans for the rollout of the Vista operating system and the surrounding ecosystem of hardware and software that will support it.

Supporting Sievert in a demo role, Justin Hutchinson, group product manager, Windows Client, said "one of the things that lights up Windows Vista is the ecosystem of products that support Windows."

Indeed, said Hutchinson, "close to 100 percent of the PCs on store shelves today are Windows Vista capable."

Later Hutchinson said that about 98 percent of the new PCs being sold hold the "Windows Vista Capable" logo and a smaller percentage of those are branded as "Premium Ready."

My new PC is almost ready, probably gonna have it this weekend!!

"TechWeb has posted an article regarding Vista's new license and how it allows you to only move it to another device once. How will this work for people who build their PCs? I have no intention of purchasing a new license every time I swap out motherboards. 'The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time.

If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device," reads the license for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, and Business. In other words, once a retail copy of Vista is installed on a PC, it can be moved to another system only once. ...

Elsewhere in the license, Microsoft forbids users from installing Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium in a virtual machine. "You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system," the legal language reads. Vista Ultimate and Vista Business, however, can be installed within a VM.'" Overly Critical Guy points out more information about changes to Vista's EULA and the new usage restrictions. "For instance, Home Basic users can't copy ISOs to their hard drives, can't run in a virtualized environment, and can only share files and printers to a maximum of 5 network devices."

More here.

After all the delays, it's finally time. Following an unconfirmed rumor, Vista will make the deadline...

Microsoft Corp. will most likely ship its upcoming Windows Vista operating system on time and meet its deadline for both corporate and retail consumers, a Wall Street analyst said on Wednesday.

Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund sent a note to clients saying that Microsoft may be ready to send the final test version of its much-anticipated Windows upgrade later this week or next week, indicating that Vista will be available for business customers in November and retail PCs by late January.

Complete story.

A key Microsoft executive disclosed this week that the coming Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 may not be totally compatible with Windows Vista -- though it remains unclear what his statements mean.

"Visual Studio 2005 SP1 will run on Vista but will likely have a few compatibility issues," said Somasegar's posting. "We are working with the Vista team to understand those, to provide workarounds where possible and also work on providing you with a set of fixes beyond SP1," he continued, although he did not reveal what the problems are or when those fixes will be made available.

However, he did mention that Windows Vista will ship with the .NET Framework 3.0 pre-installed.

More here.

This Friday, Microsoft will ship the final pre-release version of Windows Vista and, unexpectedly, will name the release as Release Candidate 2 (RC2). Previously, Microsoft had publicly asserted that it would not ship an RC2 milestone release of Windows Vista. However, RC2 is actually just a standard interim build of Vista and will not be given out to millions of users as was RC1.

The RC2 build is 5743, and Microsoft is currently testing it internally. As with the previous interim build, 5728, RC2 will be given out to beta testers, MSDN and TechNet subscribers, and a random, limited selection of Consumer Preview Program (CPP) members.

Vista seems on schedule for release now! Less than 2 months for the RTM, if they make the 26th November as was previously stated...

Appearantly, a lot of programs are still struggling with Windows Vista. On this site, a wiki, a list is put up where you can check the compatibility of an application with the new OS.

It's kinda frightening that many well-known applications fail or do not even install under Vista. Reminds me of the time when Windows 98 was released, and a lot of applications refused to work.

We can only hope that while we're getting closer to the final release, more and more apps will be compatible.

Microsoft is predicting that Windows Vista will be adopted by companies at twice the speed as its predecessor, Windows XP.

Twelve months after the release of Vista, Microsoft expects that usage share of the oft-delayed operating system in businesses will be double that of XP a year after it shipped, said Brad Goldberg, general manager for Windows product management at the software maker.

"Vista is built for businesses," Goldberg said. "We're giving businesses the tools they need to get out of the gate faster with Vista...Our goal is to have twice as fast deployment of Vista than for any other operating system."

Let's hope :-)

Full story

Yet another .net related release today: beta 2 of Powershell is available as from now.

Today Microsoft announced the availability of Microsoft Windows PowerShell RC2, the command line shell and scripting language that helps IT Professionals achieve greater productivity and control of system administration. Using a new admin-focused scripting language and consistent syntax and utilities, Windows PowerShell accelerates automation.  Windows PowerShell is easy to adopt, learn, and use, because it works with existing IT infrastructure and scripting tools. 

This Release Candidate 2 of Windows PowerShell addresses numerous customer requests based on their evaluation of Beta3 and RC1 including:

·         Direct ADSI support to allow IT Pros to more easily administer Active Directory
·         Improved support for Windows Management Instrumentation through ability to change WMI properties via methods
·         Additional logical operators (XOR and binary XOR) that make it easier to write sophisticated scripts
·         Improved help content and help functionality including new views that make it easier to find the right information.
·         Windows PowerShell 1.0 will release-to-web in Q4 CY06
·         Windows PowerShell will be leveraged by Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and System Center Operations Manager 2007.

To download, go here.

Kris posted an interesting link on his blog... On the linked page, an overview of some Vista screenshots can be seen, using the different UI's.
More here: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20060919/vista-choose-own-adventure-ui/ 

Up next is a new build of Vista, available in 32 and 64 bit!

Downloads can be found here:
32 bit: http://download.windowsvista.com/dl/preview/rc1/en/x86/iso/vista_5728.16387.060917-1430_x86fre_client-lrmcfre_en_dvd.iso 
64 bit: http://download.windowsvista.com/dl/preview/rc1/en/x64/iso/vista_5728.16387.060917-1430_x64fre_client-LRMCxFRE_EN_DVD.iso

I'm downloading at the moment... Downloadspeed is enormous. I will be installing in an hour or so :) .

Another new release of the .net framework 3.0 has been released! This time, it's the September CTP.

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly known as WinFX), is the new managed code programming model for Windows. It combines the power of the .NET Framework 2.0 with new technologies for building applications that have visually compelling user experiences, seamless communication across technology boundaries, and the ability to support a wide range of business processes.
These new technologies are Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, and Windows CardSpace (formerly code named "Infocard"). Microsoft plans to ship .NET Framework 3.0 as part of the Windows Vista operating system. In addition, Microsoft is making these technologies available on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
The following Community Technology Preview of .NET Framework 3.0 enables you to continue experimenting with early builds of these technologies, get acquainted with the development experience, and provide feedback to Microsoft. For more information on these technologies, click here.

Installation
To start the installation process, you will need to run the download file; this will initiate the installation of the .NET Framework 3.0 September CTP; If you have troubles with the download manager, you can download the entire package for x86 or for x64 which are both .EXE files.

Enjoy!

A list of some new WPF resources:

• Online hosted version of the Cube animation: http://wpf.netfx3.com/direct/cubeapp/CubeApp.xbap
• New York Times: offline reader: http://www.nytimes.com/mem/reader_regi.html?_r=1
• WPF feature montage: http://wpf.netfx3.com/files/folders/code_snippets/entry3752.aspx
• XAML cruncher: http://www.charlespetzold.com/wpf/XamlCruncher/XamlCruncher.application 
• 3D XAML: http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2006/09/120140.html

More to come...

As you may have heard there are going to be a “few” versions of Microsoft Vista when it is finally released. Redmond this week start to lift some of the details for retailers. Some interesting ones to note are that all versions of Vista will be on the same DVD. This will enable upgrading by customers (and I imagine reduce costs). All customers will do is buy the version they want then and then if needed buy an additional upgrade license as they will already have the DVD.

Due to the confusion already showing of what version is what, all versions of Vista will be color coded.

Light Green Home Basic
Dark Green-Home Premium
Blue-Vista Business
Platinum-Ultimate Version

Europe will get 2 extra versions Home N and Business N offering no media player per the 2004 legal ruling against Microsoft.

Question remains whether this will be better to fight piracy.

Early feedback from testers already using Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is that the OS is more stable than expected, which bodes well for Microsoft's plan to have Vista out according to its current schedule.

Microsoft has said since March it will release Windows Vista to business customers in November, and consumers in January 2007. Though many have suspected the release will slip further, testers now say there's a good chance the company will meet its goal if the condition of RC1 is any indication.

"Overall I think Vista is looking very good at this point....I think all the worries of Vista slipping went out the window," said Brandon LeBlanc, a writer for LonghornBlogs, via e-mail on Tuesday.

LeBlanc said that Microsoft has made performance and stabilization tweaks that testers requested after Beta 2, and the latest test version of the OS -- which could be the final one before Vista is released to manufacturing -- is solid enough for regular use. LonghornBlogs can be found here.

"RC1 is quite usable for everyday work, as I am currently doing myself," he said.

Full story

Is today "Release Day" or something? So many new releases...

Let's begin with IronPython, which reached status 1.0:

IronPython 1.0 has been released to the .NET community and is available on CodePlex.  IronPython is an implementation of the Python dynamic programming language.  IronPython is built on top of the .NET Framework and is interoperable with other .NET languages.  Binaries, source code, and tutorials are available at CodePlex.

Click here to download IronPython at CodePlex.

Another release is Expression Web Beta 1:

We are pleased to present the Beta 1 release of Expression Web (formerly Expression Web Designer).

Expression Web is a professional design tool that helps you create and work with:

• Standards-based Web sites
• Sophisticated CSS-based layouts
• Extensive CSS formatting and management
• Rich data presentation
• Powerful ASP.NET 2.0-based technology

To download, go here .

Still going strong ;-) Next is WCF, which reached RC1 also.

The release candidate 1 for the .NET Framework 3.0 is now available!  You can download the components for the RC1 here:

• .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components RC1
• Windows SDK for Vista RC1 and the .NET Framework 3.0 RC1
• Visual Studio 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation (WF RC5)

More info on RC1 .


The Interactive Designer got updated, and now the September CTP is available:
Microsoft® Expression® Interactive Designer September 2006 Community Technology Preview (CTP) is a professional design tool used to create engaging, rich user interfaces for desktop and Web applications.

To download, go here.

To finish, this one isn't actually released as of yet, but it's an interesting project being researched at MS:

Microsoft researchers are experimenting with an automatic code zapper for the company's Internet Explorer Web browser.

Researchers at the Redmond, Wash., company have completed work on a prototype framework called BrowserShield that promises to allow IE to intercept and remove, on the fly, malicious code hidden on Web pages, instead showing users safe equivalents of those pages.

The BrowserShield project—the brainchild of Helen Wang, a project leader in Microsoft Research's Systems & Networking Research Group, and an outgrowth of the company's Shield initiative to block network worms—could one day even become Microsoft's answer to zero-day browser exploits such as the WMF (Windows Metafile) attack that spread like wildfire in December 2005.
More here.

That's all folks ;-)

Will Vista cause the web to slow down? Experts disagree whether or not the new operating system will cause the internet traffic to slow down (or come to a complete halt) or not.

Paul Mockapetris, one of the inventors of the DNS system, says it will cause problems. He believes that due to the fact that Vista uses 2 versions of the Internet Protocol, a lot of extra load will be put on the servers.

If you adopt Vista, your DNS traffic is going to double," Mockapetris said . With many DNS servers already running close to capacity, this can have serious consequences, he said. "You're going to see brownouts. All of a sudden, it is going to be mud season on the Internet, where things will just be kind of slow and gooey."

Let's hope he is wrong ;-)

Yes folks, it's finally here!! RC1 of the upcoming Windows Vista!

MS just opened the doors to CPP (Customer Preview Program), so everybody can starting to enjoy vista now already.

Microsoft notes on the website: Windows Vista RC1 is available for participants of the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program. Please go to the Customer Preview Program website to register and receive a Product Key, which is required to install and activate the software.

32 bit: download iso - 2,584.25 MB (Expires June 1st 2007)
64 bit: download iso - 3,677.22 MB (Expires June 1st 2007) (Lots bigger that 32 bit ;-) )
Get yer keys here (note that if you have a beta 2 key, that is also works!)
Download page

My experience so far with RC1: I installed it on Saturday in a Virtual PC environment. At first, I had not installed Virtual Machine Additions Beta 2... Oh my, that was a real disaster! After installing them in the Vista VPC, it worked like a dream! Fast and pretty reliable...
Some negative points too... it's not ready, you can see that easily. Annoying things like "the-first-file-is-not-selected-when-I-open-a-folder-in-Explorer" still can't make you enjoy the OS completely. But I'm sure they will pull this off (I'm not sure if they will in 6 weeks, however, but we'll see that...).

Should you also want to install Vista RC1 in a VPC, do install the VMaddtions for Vista Beta 2! You can download the here.

To start the day, Neowin put up a "release calendar" for Office 2007.

Office 2007 Beta 1: 17.11.2005
Office 2007 Beta 1 TR: 13.03.2006?
Office 2007 Beta 2: 22.05.2006
Office 2007 Beta 2 TR: 14/15.9.2006
Office 2007 RTM: 25-28.10.2006 - Business customers -> volume licensing
Office 2007 Release Date: 30.01.2007- Home Users -> Retail and OEM

Amazon is also taking orders for Vista as well as Office, and they set 30.01.2007 as the release date. No word from MS on this, though...

Meanwhile, Vista RC1 is not here yet either. Paul Thurrott is now mentioning that build 5600.16384 may be the official RC1. When it will be released... no word on that, since no one actually knows at the moment.

Microsoft has quietly released build 5536 for the first 100,000 people to download it from their Windows Vista site.

5536 was recently released to tech testers and is the best build that has ever been officially released!

Get it here!

It appears that RC1 is to released in September, like I predicted earlier :-) .

Sources at Microsoft say that RC1 (release candidate 1) is to be released on September 7th (or very soon thereafter), and not in August, as rumors said it would be.
Microsoft has put build 5520 as RC1, and that build is to be released to testers and the public after the Labor Day weekend in the US, which is Septermber 4th.

What's more important, is that MS is still set to deliver the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) on October 25 of shortly after. Despite all rumors, speculations and so on, it seems that the great Vista release is still on track for its release.

Let's hope we don't have to adjust these dates, and that Vista, together with WPF, WCP and all the rest will be here in time!

Yep, you read it right! Despite many websites and bloggers calling, dare I say, begging for beta 3, Vista is now moving to the RC1 branch. Microsoft did not change their roadmap, so beta2 will effectively be followed by RC1.

Last Friday, MS made a new branch for the RC1 milestone, known as "vista_rc1" (not very original :-p ), and began with build 5504.16385.vista_rc1.
Rumor has it that by the end of August, RC1 should be upon us, and another CTP can be expected between now and RC1.

Some new icons are also moved into this build, as well as a new weather gadget.

A while back, when Vista beta 2 was announced, the IE blog mentioned the "renaming" of Internet Explorer 7 for Vista to 7+.

After a lot of people didn't like the idea, it has now been renamed to IE7.
The reason for the differened names between the XP and Vista versions was mainly to emphasize the differnces between the 2 versions (mostly based on the differences of the underlying OS like Protected Mode, Parental Controls, and improved Network Diagnostics).

The new user-agent strings will now become:
-IE7+ running on Windows Vista: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)
-IE7 running on Windows XP: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)

For more info, head over to the IEBlog.

People have been asking me questions about WPF, mostly how to get started.
Since WPF is still somewhat obscure, in this article I’m going to try to make things a little more clear to get you on your way using WPF.

As you might or might not know, WPF is part of .net 3.0, formerly known as WinFX. Other components included in .net 3.0 are WCF (Windows Communication Foundation), WF (Windows Workflow Foundation) and CardSpace (formerly InfoCard).

For starters, you need an operating system supporting WPF. This can be:
-Windows XP SP2
-Windows 2003
-Windows Vista

I do recommend running .net 3.0 in a virtual pc environment! Since a lot of CTP’s, beta’s and RC’s are coming our way, it’s easier to just create a VPC with Windows XP or 2003 , and install .net 3.0! Since Virtual PC is free anyhow, I don’t see a reason why not doing it this way!
Uninstalling beta software can be a real pain, so why compromise your precious production environment!?
(For Virtual PC go here)

On both XP and 2003, you need to install the runtime, to be able to run WPF applications. This can be a web-install (of around 2.5 MB, and then the rest is downloaded) or you might as well download the whole package.

Now, there are some issues with the latest CTP of July… This latest release does not come with the Visual Studio 2005 extensions, required to build your WPF applications in VS.
Therefore, if you want to start developing (or better, start playing around…), I suggest you stick to the June CTP, which has full support for all the tools.

So, if you want to develop within Visual Studio, follow the next steps. If not, skip this section.
The June CTP runtime can be downloaded here.

To start developing, you might want to install the SDK. It’s a big download of around 1.1GB. It comes with lots of samples and tools, like XAMLPad. The SDK can be downloaded here.

The SDK is however not required when you intend to develop in Visual Studio! For VS, Microsoft has released some extensions and templates, which will make your WPF-life a lot easier! If you don’t have Visual Studio, you can use one of the free Express editions.
For the download, go here.

We’re almost done!
Microsoft is also preparing a set of designer tools for WPF, the Expression suite.
The Interactive Designer outputs XAML code, which can be used to enhance the layout of your applications, without even knowing XAML!
For the Interactive Designer, go here.
The Graphic Designer allows you to create images and export these as XAML code to be included in your WPF projects.
This can be downloaded here.

That’s it! Now, you are ready to start!

If you want the latest release, and don’t care for the Visual Studio Extensions, go for the July CTP, which was released July 18th.

The runtime can be downloaded here.
And the SDK is found right here.

I did find some work around to get this latest CTP working with Orcas, but since I didn’t try it myself, I cannot guarantee that it will work.
The “fix” goes as follows:

Instal Orcas in VS using the misexec override: msiexec /i vsextwfx.msi WRC_INSTALLED_OVERRIDE=1

The override bypasses the installation version checking so you can install the extensions.

After this you have July CTP installed and Orcas from the previous version. This works just fine.

To solve your problem with the Orcas designer trying to open:

Right click on a .xaml file in your solution and choose "open with...". Choose "xml Editor" and click on "Set as default". Now all .xaml files will open with the xml editor instead of trying to open the unfinished Orcas designer.

In a next article, I’ll post some interesting resources to get you building WPF applications in no time!

Vista’s installation process is dramatically different to any previous version of Windows: rather than being an ‘installer’, the install DVD is actually a preinstalled copy of Windows that simply gets decompressed onto your PC.

So how does it adjust to your hardware? How do you slipstream updates and drivers into it? Can you also ‘preinstall’ your favourite apps into your Vista DVD?

And most importantly, can you build a custom Vista install DVD that doesn’t install all the ‘free AOL trial’ crap that typically comes bundled in with Windows?

This article has all the anwers! A very interesting read!

WPF not only stands for new fantastic tools for layout. There are also some very interesting new ways to implement databinding in your applications.
In this article, I’m going to show how you can easily build an RSS reader using the new databinding features in WPF.

How databinding works in WPF
In order not to go too fast, first, let me explain some basic concepts of databinding in WPF.

To keep data used in UI in sync with data in the datasource (for example a database), we can of course use properties. There is nothing wrong if you keep doing this under WPF.
However, WPF provides very handy binding features, that will make your life a lot easier!

We could bind the value of a textbox with the following code:
<TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Age}">
</TextBox>
Databinding under WPF uses a Binding object. The above code declares a textbox in XAML, and assigns the text-property the value of a property named Age of an object that it is bound to. This is done using the Path property. The Path property refers to the property of the object we are binding too.

To know to which object we are binding, we have the DataContext property. In WPF, every FrameworkElement and also every FrameworkContentElement has a DataContext property. It is of type object, so we can bind to whatever we like.
The binding does however have some interesting behaviour: if no DataContext is specified on the object itself (like with our textbox), it goes up the tree in which the controls are nested. So if we add our textbox in a Grid, it will look if this Grid has a DataContext. If not, it goes up higher…
This is of course very useful if we have more than one object (say 5 textboxes) binding to the same object.

Let me show you how to declare an object to which we’ll bind in XAML code (this uses the new syntax, so to run this, you have to upgrade to beta 2 or higher!)

<Window x:Class="Snowball.Window2"
    xmlns=" http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation "
    xmlns:x=" http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml "
    xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Snowball"
    Title="Snowball" Height="300" Width="300"
    >
  <Window.Resources>
    <local:Person x:Key="Gill" Name="Gill Cleeren" Age="27"/>
  </Window.Resources>
    <Grid DataContext="{StaticResource Gill}">
      
      <TextBox Text="{Binding Path=Name}">
      </TextBox>
    </Grid>
</Window>

And in the code-behind:
namespace Snowball
{
    public class Person
    {
        private string name;

        public string Name
        {
            get { return name; }
            set { name = value; }
        }
        private string age;

        public string Age
        {
            get { return age; }
            set { age = value; }
        }

        public Person()
        { }
    }
}

What I have done here, is creating a Person object in XAML. For this to work, you have to provide a default constructor.
First, we have to wire the CLR namespace to be known in XAML: xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Snowball".
Now, we can use the tag “local” to refer to the namespace in which the Person class resides.
Using the following line, we instantiate a Person using XAML:
<local:Person x:Key="Gill" Name="Gill Cleeren" Age="27"/>

The result is a textbox showing my name:

Note that if you try this in Visual Studio at the time of writing, you get an error viewing the design view. Don’t worry, when running, it all works fine.

Binding XML data to a list
Most of the time, we bind data to a list: a dropdown, a grid… In this part, I’m going to bind an RSS feed from my website www.snowball.be to a list.
To do this, we’ll need an XmlDataProvider.

Data can be accessed by using a Provider. Currently, 2 providers exist: the XmlDataProvider and the ObjectDataProvider.
An XmlDataProvider object must be declared within the resources, for example the resources of the grid:

<Grid.Resources>
        <XmlDataProvider x:Key="SnowballRSS" Source=" http://www.snowball.be/SyndicationService.asmx/GetRss " />
</Grid.Resources>

The x:Key assigns a name, which we can use in our code-behind.

We can now use this object as a datasource for a listbox, like this:

<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource SnowballRSS}, XPath=//rss//channel//item }">
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>

We provide a value for the ItemSource, being an instance of Binding. For this Binding instance, we provide the Source property. Since we’re dealing with a resource that is defined in the XAML itself, we again use StaticResource and as value, the name of the dataprovider. A second attribute is the XPath expression, to locate the value we want to show in the listbox.

This is the result:

What happens, is that the entire XML tag is being read into a listitem. This is not desired, so we have to provide some kind of formatting, to tell WPF exactly what we want to show in the items.
This can be accomplished using a datatemplate.

We provide an instance of DataTemplate to be used as value for the ItemTemplate property of the listbox. In this datatemplate, we can specify what to show as listitem.
In the following code, I’m telling to make each listitem consist of a TextBlock. The text to be shown is taken from the surrounding Listbox (remember searching for the data up in the controltree?). In the data it finds, which is an XML tag with subnodes, we can to take the title as the value for the item.

<ListBox.ItemTemplate>
   <DataTemplate>
      <TextBlock Text="{Binding XPath=title}"></TextBlock>
   </DataTemplate>
</ListBox.ItemTemplate>

When we now run this, we get the following:

Much better, isn’t it?!

In the next part, we’re going to make the application a little bit more complete, providing a click event for the listbox, and making sure that some fields are filled in, again using databinding.

Adding the detailsform
We’ll now change the program somewhat to make it display the details of the item selected in the listbox.

We’ll add a Grid to make it easy to display 3 rows and 2 columns with textblocks, labels and textboxes.
This can be done with the following code:

<Grid>
   <Grid.RowDefinitions>
      <RowDefinition Height="30"></RowDefinition>
      <RowDefinition Height="30"></RowDefinition>
      <RowDefinition Height="*"></RowDefinition>
   </Grid.RowDefinitions>
   <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
      <ColumnDefinition Width="0.2*"></ColumnDefinition>
      <ColumnDefinition Width="0.8*"></ColumnDefinition>
   </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
   <TextBlock Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0">Title</TextBlock>
   <Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1"></Label>
   <TextBlock Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0">Link:</TextBlock>
   <Label Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" ></Label>
   <TextBlock Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="0">Article</TextBlock>
   <TextBox Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1"></TextBox>
</Grid>

After adding the Grid, we’ll also have to change the rest of the markup a little. Take a look at the sample code provided with this article to see the rest of the layout.

We now want the detail-fields display more info on the selected item in the Listbox.  Therefore, the Grid containing these fields should have its DataContext set to the item selected in the list. We do this with the following code:

<Grid DataContext="{Binding ElementName=RSSList, Path=SelectedItem}" >

The element is the name of the listbox, the path is once again the property within the source to which we’ll be binding the grid (and thus the detail fields).

Now, every time we select an item in the listbox, the grid has its datacontext set to this selected item. The fields can now get details as follows:

…
<Label Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" Content="{Binding XPath=title}"></Label>
…
<Label Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="1" Content="{Binding XPath=link}">
            </Label>
…
<TextBox Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding XPath=description}"></TextBox>

The result should resemble the following:

Congratulations, you built your first databound application, using WPF databinding and a simple datatemplate!

In my next (large) article, we’ll be looking at the styling tools provided by WPF to make this application look TONS better!

If you run Microsoft Virtual PC or Virtual Server products you will want to head over to connect.microsoft.com and pick up the latest version of the Virtual Machine additions designed for Windows Vista Beta 2!

To download the additions go to http://connect.microsoft.com

Log into the site, and sign up for the Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Beta if you're not already in it.  In the downloads section, you'll see the Additions for Beta 2.

Finally, a new post on Snowball.be... I have been very busy in the last 2 weeks, and there are some very "secret" things going on at the moment, on which I'll be posting more later on... But enough about me ;-)
Back to Microsoft news!!

The Big M is, according to rumors, which seem confirmed by Samsung, making a monitor, specially crafted for use with Windows Vista! This monitor should make you get the best experience using Vista. It's supposed to be a 22" widescreen (vista is designed for best use with widescreen). No word on the resolution, though, however, I guess this will be quite high, maybe 1920 x 1280?

MS has not confirmed the rumors, but Samsung, which will actually make the monitor, has. No pics on this either... pity.

UPDATE: MS is also to release a very nice keyboard, with backlighting! More can be seen on this here.

Soma announced a few days back on his blog that WinFX is to be renamed .net Framework 3.0. Kinda confusing, isn't it?

When speaking to developers about WinFX one question that repeatedly comes up is, “WinFX sounds great, but what happens to .NET?” .NET Framework has becomes the most successful developer platform in the world.  Developers know and love .NET.

Ok, that is true... But why not WinFX.net or something like it?

The .NET Framework has always been at the core of WinFX, but the WinFX brand didn’t convey this.
... With this in mind we have decided to rename WinFX to the .NET Framework 3.0.  .NET Framework 3.0 aptly identifies the technology for exactly what it is – the next version of our developer framework.

And... is the name all that changes? Appearantly yes...

The change is in name only and will not affect the technologies being delivered as part of the product.

Still, some things remained unclear...
That's why I'll try to de-mistify some facts anout .net Framework 3.0.
-The compilers used to compile 3.0 compilers are still the 2.0 compilers. 3.0 is built on 2.0,  including the CLR and BCL.

-3.0 will NOT contain LINQ support. LINQ will be included in the Orcas release, which is due in Q4 2007. 3.0 will ship with Vista (Q4 2006).

-It will install into %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\V3.0. This is to be updated in the next CTP.

-3.0 will install 2.0 in the same installer. This is to make things easier (yes, they are already quite complicated now).

-For all the resources you need, Microsoft launched a community site: http://www.netfx3.com/ .

A question that is still open: what version number will the Orcas release get then? 3.5?

Although it was already available for MSDN subscribers for about 10 days, today Microsoft released Vista Beta 2 as a download for the public.

Now, the real testing can actually begin, when thousands and thousands of PC's will run on Vista. Although I hope (really really hope...) that Vista will make it by the end of this year (22nd November for business users), this will depend on how many (major) problems are encountered in this release.

At the moment, the servers are overwhelmed, and you are asked to try again later...

For the download, you can try the following addresses:

English:
32 bit: http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/beta2/en/x86/download.htm
64 bit: http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/beta2/en/x64/download.htm

To obtain a key, go here.

Now that WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) is coming closer, it's getting high time that we developers start looking at what WPF can do for us.

The Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation provides the foundation for building applications and high fidelity experiences in Windows Vista, blending together application UI, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of your computer.

This site has 4very nice looking, downloadable examples. You'll need WinFX Beta 2 to run them, though.

I've been reading a lot on Vista these last days, so I wanted to share some interesting resources with you.

-To start with, there is a completely revamped site on Microsoft.com: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/ 
-Some official Vista Blogs: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/community/default.mspx
-Top 10 things to do for developers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/vistatopten.asp
-Aero Aesthetics: here

Enjoy!

Now that Beta 2 has been around for some days, more and more tests are coming out. ExtremeTech did a special on games in Vista: installation, performance and the eventual problems were investigated.

We feel that Beta 2 is the appropriate time to start looking at compatibility and performance issues in Vista, and that goes for gaming (one of the big selling points of Vista) as well. So we spent the better part of a week installing a bunch of modern, popular games on the upcoming OS, noting what works and what doesn't, and trying to find some simple workarounds. Has Vista got game yet? Let's find out.

A lot of modern games are tested, like WoW, Black & White 2...

The conclusion: Overall, we're pretty happy with the state of gaming on Vista. This isn't a release candidate yet – we're still at beta 2. This is where most things should work, with only a few minor problems to work out between Microsoft, the games makers, and the hardware driver writers. On the whole, that's exactly where it's at.
...
So, while the current Vista gaming situation is encouraging, there is clearly still plenty of work to be done. Most games work, but there are some tricky bits with Punkbuster (run games as admin to work around), a big problem with StarForce copy protection, and some performance kinks to work out. With Microsoft proclaiming a "PC gaming renaissance" around the launch of Vista, they need to really deliver a fantastic experience, and it's not quite there yet. They need an A+ games platform, and it's a B- right now.

More here.

Now, this is one hell of a nice site, courtesy of MS :-)

http://www.seewindowsvista.com/ 

Oh yes, it's about Vista... Windows Vista... but you already got that, right ;-)