Recently in Microsoft Corporation Category

If you're using Vista and wondering how to install IIS 7.0, the answer is in the screenshot above. While XP allowed you to install IIS from an Add/Remove programs dialog box, Vista has these features hidden in Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on and off. Clicking on this item pops up a dialog box which contains Internet Information Services.

You have to do a few more things if you're expecting IIS 7.0 to work with the current Visual Studio 2005. VS 2005 needs to be run as an administrator and it communicates with IIS in the 6.0 compatibility mode. I've found a few links here that help get IIS 7.0 working with Visual Studio.

Scott Guthrie: Tip/Trick: Using IIS7 on Vista with VS 2005
Fix problems with Visual Studio F5 debugging of ASP.NET applications on IIS7 Vista
Enabling ASP.NET 2.0 Debugging on Visual Studio 2005, IIS 7.0 and Vista

I've been polishing the CrystalTrackBar for the first alpha release of Crystal Toolkit. I wanted to provide some documentation. I've known that C#'s comments can be assembled into an XML file, by checking "XML documentation file" under Project\Properties, Build tab. There's an open source program called NDoc over at SourceForge which takes the XML file along with your assembly and generates a variety of documentation formats, with everything from HTML files to Microsoft's .CHM format. The only problem is that NDoc at SourceForge was last updated with .NET Framework 1.1. If you're using .NET 2.0, you're in trouble if you are using some of the new features like Generics. Luckily, there's an NDoc 2.0 Alpha release at a website calls Kynosarges. It seemed to work well enough with my project, although it's not using the new feature set. There's Microsoft tool called Sandcastle which just had a 2nd CTP release this month, but it's unclear to me whether this has a GUI in addition to a user interface.

External Link:
NDoc 2.0 Alpha
Microsoft Sandcastle Blog

The Silicon Valley Code Camp 2006 was executed very well. I arrived early at 8am, since I had signed up for the Vista Install Fair slot at 9am. I had hoped to get Vista installed on my laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505) in time to attend the Windows Communication Foundation seminar at 9:45am. No such luck, as I was in the Microsoft room from 8:45am until 1pm. Microsoft gave everyone who attended the event a disk with the VUA (Vista Upgrade Advisor) and a sheet of instructions. Included on the disk were diagnostic tools that recorded data about our computers, so the Microsoft engineers could run diagnostics on the later. My computer had two problems: one, the VUA failed to execute successfully, and two, the Vista Upgrade failed with a blue screen dump. And it failed so miserably that we couldn't even perform the rollback to Windows XP.

The clean install of Vista worked perfectly (and I am using the computer right now). I installed Visual Studio 2005 and Office 2007--they both performed well in this environment. It just confirmed for me what I already firmly believed, namely that it's better to freshly install Vista than doing the upgrade. I saw a number of people having problems due to the Upgrade process. Nevertheless, I am happy to help out Microsoft in exchange for a free product key!

Despite missing out on 2 seminars, I enjoyed hanging out in the room with the Microsoft engineers. They answered a number of questions and were very patient looking at everyone's computer. They demoed a number of new Vista features, including ReadyBoost, where you get a performance boost from a USB 2.0 flash drive. I had just bought one at CompUSA, but I was disappointed when Vista reported that it didn't perform well enough for ReadyBoost. I wish I had read this excellent article over at ExtremeTech where they test 9 USB 2.0 Flash drives and see if they can be used by ReadyBoost.

I attended an MSDN Event yesterday, over at the Regal Hacienda theaters in Dublin. I always enjoy these events because they are free and there is always useful information presented. One of the speakers, Anand Iyer, is very enjoyable to watch. He's very good at presenting technical information and sprinkling little humorous comments throughout. A year ago my friend Dave got a kick out of Anand explaining ClickOnce: "You click once to download the application from a web site...and then you click once again to install it on your PC. It should have been called Click Twice!" Yesterday, Anand was slapping himself for promoting Google Maps when talking about AJAX and Atlas (Microsoft's AJAX sdk for ASP.NET): "I should be promoting Live Local Maps instead!"

Anand mentioned the Silicon Valley Code Camp 2006 that will be held on October 7th and 8th (the weekend) at Foothill College. This is also a free event, and the sessions will cover all kinds of topics, from .NET related technologies to Amazon Web Services. There's also a free Vista Install Fair, where you can upgrade your current Windows XP SP 2 computer to Windows Vista Ultimate. There are some restrictions for memory, graphics cards, etc., and you should backup your data. But it sounds like a good deal, getting some help with an upgrade, and you will receive a free copy of Windows Vista Ultimate after it is finally released. You can just bring your computer without the monitor, keyboard, or mouse.

External Link:
Silicon Valley Code Camp 2006

I worked for Microsoft during 1990 to 1993 on the Visual Studio team. During the end of that period, Windows NT was being developed and about to be released. I didn't work on the main operating system--my job was to help get MFC ported on the new platform. We would receive various builds and they would run slowly on the computers in our office. Someone in the company (not me) got frustrated with the performance issues and created this splash screen as a joke. I always found it to be funny and have saved it on my hard drive for over ten years. I wonder if people on the Windows Vista team have done any pranks like this?