Windows Vista

Windows Vista RC1

Running a beta, even a release candidate, is not for everyone, and you should understand the limitations and the risks. This is pre-release software. There will be problems, so be prepared. Microsoft doesn't provide any official support for pre-release software, but there are newsgroups and a whole community of other users and Microsoft MVPs out there to help you, so you aren't alone. Your starting place for Windows Vista support is the Help and Support Center.

The Windows Vista Help and Support Center.

Using the Windows Backup Center

As I said earlier, I'm really excited by the new backup technology in Windows Vista. Not only does it take full advantage of Windows Vista's ability to take a snapshot of your hard disks at a point in time, but it backs up to hard disk, network share, or CD/DVD. And it does it automatically. To use the Windows Backup Center, complete these steps:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click System Tools to start the Backup Status and Configuration Wizard.
2. Click the link to read the types of files that are not backed up. The basic answer is that only un-encrypted data files that are stored on NTFS file system volumes are backed up. Program files and system files are not.
3. Click Set up automatic file backup to open the Back Up Files dialog box, and then acknowledge the UAC prompt.

   

   Where do you want to save your backup?

4. Select a location in which to store the backups. This location can be a hard disk, CD, DVD or network share. Tape drives are not supported. Note: Backup to network shares is not supported in Windows Basic. If you're running Home Basic Edition, you can back up only to hard disk or CD/DVD.
5. Click Next.
6. If you choose a network share, you'll be prompted for your credentials. Type a user name and password, and then click OK.
7. Select the drive or drives you want to back up, and then click Next.
8. Select the types of files to back up, and then click Next.

   

   Which file types do you want to back up?

9. Select how often you want to back up your files and when, and then click Save Settings and Start Backup. The backup process starts by first creating a shadow copy, and then backing up the files to your target location.

Okay, so what's so exciting about a backup program, you ask? Well for me, the best part about this backup program is that it's easy to use and supports re-writable DVDs. It is fully integrated with the volume shadow copy technology first introduced in Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Volume shadow copy enables Windows to take a snapshot of your hard disk at any point in time without interfering with your work. After the snapshot is taken, Windows then backs up the files in the background, letting you continue working. There are no problems with open files that can't be backed up. And finally, it's automatic. You set the schedule and forget it; if you ever need to restore a file, it's quick and easy to get just the right version to restore.

Note: In addition to the file backup, you can select a Complete PC Backup, which backs up your entire computer.

More information:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/community/rc1.mspx

Visual studio 2005 WebGui a unique approach to AJAX development

Visual WebGui a unique approach to AJAX development

Visual WebGui is not just another AJAX framework but rather a different approach to web application development, specially designed to simplify building highly complex applications like Outlook Web Access (OWA). Visual WebGui makes it possible for developers to create applications that were previously developed only by the "big guys". While web development environments such as ASP.NET and JSP have made huge strides in creating a rich environment for developing web applications, they have always targeted a very wide range of applications from content rich sites to OWA like applications. By doing so, they forced a compromise that was very painful for applications developers. Concepts like pages, html, requests and responses, which originated from the historical evolution of web development, are not really suitable for developing applications.

Visual WebGui uses a proven application development toolset that was designed for application development from the outset. Visual WebGui�s methodology � Winforms over Web (WOW) - originates from environments like MFC and the popular Visual Basic environment.

Visual WebGui is a unique approach for developing AJAX applications, using a server side WinForms API coupled with a highly optimized, pure AJAX client. The server side resembles WinForms both in design time and runtime. Design time behavior of Visual WebGui forms and user controls exposes a design surface identical to that of WinForms, allowing developers to design web applications with tools and methodologies taken from desktop development.

Leveraging the WinForms paradigm provides web developers with a highly productive AJAX framework that in development time can only be compared to that of RAD tools. WinForms� layout mechanism including docking and anchoring is fully supported both in design time and runtime, replacing the HTML table based layout mechanism. Visual WebGui�s support of docking, anchoring, TableLayout and FlowLayout provides developers with powerful design tools that dramatically reduce development time.

WebGui�s "Empty Client" approach enables a true web based event driven environment that simplifies development leaving all the web plumbing to the Visual WebGui server. Visual WebGui�s unique communication and presentation mechanism enables highly granular, incremental updates reducing bandwidth usage by an order of magnitude. Visual WebGui automatically optimizes post-backs to reduce server roundtrips by analyzing the backend code. While most of the optimization mechanism is done automatically, there are ways to help Visual WebGui optimize communication even more by following a few guidelines.

Visual WebGui is fully integrated into Visual Studio making it a natural extension to the .NET framework. Full compliancy with the .NET framework and the WinForms API makes it possible for developers to start developing almost immediately using their existing knowledge and tools. Visual WebGui empowers developers with development techniques of experienced web developers, leaving Visual WebGui developers to focus on their goals which in most cases do not include writing UI frameworks.

Visual WebGui introduces an extension to the WinForms API object module which bridges the gap between web development and desktop development. The extension enables components to expose gateways which are virtual URL's that are handled by context-aware components within the WinForms object module. Implementing IGatewayControl interface that has one method that returns an object implementing IGatewayHandler provides a mechanism similar to that of IHTTPHandlerFactory and IHTTPHandler of .NET. This feature can be used to download files, printing, interact with embedded elements such as Flash objects and much more.

Visual WebGui presentation implementation is XSL based enabling developers to customize presentation to their needs. Visual WebGui provides themes support enabling developers to override Visual WebGui's default theme and provides a flavor support which enables developers to define CSS variations on the same theme. Applications developed with the current theme will be able to leverage new themes and flavors without code modifications.

Visual WebGui is available with various licenses including a free license for non commercial usage.

Visual WebGui developer guide lines:
� Visual WebGui automatically detects components that need to be updated, updating the most granular change possible for the updated component. By updating only required components users can optimize application performance and bandwidth usage. For example updating a list view item should be preferred on updating the full list view as Visual WebGui can send only the changed list view item and redraw only that item.
� Visual WebGui automatically queues unhandled events for post back optimization. Developers should remove unused event handlers or consider using their queued version. By definition every event handler that does not interact with the user is a potential candidate to be attached to the queued version of the event.
� Visual WebGui modal dialogs are only modal on the client side as opposed to WinForms implementation and dialog results should be retrieved by attaching to the closed event.
� Visual WebGui can have more than one root form as opposed to WinForms implementation and every root form is mapped to a virtual WGX URL in the application configuration file.

More information
http://www.developerfusion.co.uk/show/5638/

Visual Studio 2005 - Creating Web Control Library

Visual Studio 2005 is one the coolest Development Tools available today for developing applications targetting .NET Framework 2.0.

In Visual Studio 2005, there have been a lot of changes, compared to the way Windows Applications and Web Applications were created using Visual Studio .NET 2003 and earlier versions.

For more details, please check my following articles:-

Quick Facts about Visual Studio 2005 - Did you know?

Visual Studio 2005 Web Application Projects and Web Deployment Projects

When developing with Visual Studio 2005, we might have noticed that all the web related templates are moved under "File - New - WebSite" option.

However, creating a Web Control Library is an exception to this. The Web Control Library Template still lies in the "File - New - Project" Option. It is a little suprising and tricky to find the option to create a Web Control Library.

The steps are

1. Click "File" - "New Project"

2. The "New Project" Dialog opens up with the installed templates

3. Select the preferred language "Visual Basic" or "Visual C#" under "Project Types"

4. Expand the preferred language Node.

5. Select "Windows" under the preferred language Node.

6. The available templates are listed under "Templates"

7. Select the "Web Control Library" and click "Ok" to create a Web Control Library Project.

This might be a little suprising since all the Web related projects are moved under "File - New - Website" option whereas the "Web Control Library" still remains here and particularly under "Windows" option.
In short, the answer for the question, from my understanding is that, all Project type templates are moved under "File - New - Project" and the Website related ASP.NET Website, ASP.NET WebService are under "File - New - Website" option.

Cheers and Happy Programming !!