Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 4)

Following on from my previous posts:

• Windows Server 2008 as a workstation
• Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 2)
• Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 3)

I found two more blogs that also provide some useful tips:

• http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/
• http://www.pronetworks.org/forums/windows-server-2008-rtm-as-a-desktop-os-t101245.html

Determining uptime of a Windows machine

From a command prompt (Start --> Run --> cmd) enter the command "systeminfo" and the uptime for the machine will be displayed in a list including operating system and hardware details, what Hotfixes you have installed and various other information.

boot.ini is dead, long live BCDEdit.exe

Since Windows Vista (including Windows Server 2008, Windows 7), Microsoft has changed the way the partitions are managed when you have a dual boot machine. Before Vista (and going back to Windows NT 4.0, I think) there was a file on the boot partition called "boot.ini" which contained  a list of bootable operating systems and which partition they were installed to. On booting, Windows would look at this file and present the user with a list of options matching the list in the file. This made it easy to manually edit the boot options, all you needed to do was edit the file in notepad.exe.

In recent operating systems, the boot options are managed by a program called bcdedit.exe (find in %systemdrive%\windows\system32). A full guide with examples can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/firmware/bcd.mspx

Recently I needed to rename my boot options, I had a dual boot set-up with both partitions having Windows Server 2008. One was 32 bit which I have been running for a while, the other is 64 bit (to test out Hyper-V which only runs on 64 bit). Both boot options had the default name of "Windows Server 2008" which was confusing on the boot menu. To rename my 32 bit boot option I executed the following:

bcdedit.exe /set description "Windows Server 2008 x86"

This was while logged on to the 32 bit OS, that command updates the boot name for the current partition. To rename the 64 bit OS in the boot options (while still booted in the 32 bit OS) I need to pass an ID for the partition. The IDs of the available partitions can be found by running bcdedit.exe with no arguments. Once I had this ID, I simply ran:

bcdedit.exe /set {GUID} description "Windows Server 2008 x64"

Where "GUID" is exactly that, inside the curly braces e.g.

bcdedit.exe /set {00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000} description "Windows Server 2008 x64"

This command allows you to update an option for a partition you are not booted into.

Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition now supports SQL Server 2008

Microsoft has posted the RTM of the update to Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition to enable support for SQL Server 2008. One of the main features is a SQL Server 2008 Projects type in Visual Studio:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=bb3ad767-5f69-4db9-b1c9-8f55759846ed&displaylang=en

Remember, "Datadude" is free for people with a license for Microsoft® Visual Studio Team System 2008 Developer Edition:

http://callumhibbert.blogspot.com/2008/10/visual-studio-team-system-developer.html

Windows Server 2008 Core will support managed code

I posted a while ago the surprisong news that Windows Server 2008 Core would not support managed code: http://callumhibbert.blogspot.com/2008/04/windows-2008-server-core-does-not.html

Seems like Microsoft have changed their mind and the Core install will support ASP.NET and a "subset" of .NET 2.0, 30 and 3.5 when SP2 arrives.

DebugView and Windows Server 2008

DebugView is a great tool for development. It will provide a live feed of messages output to the Debug listener. If you make a call to System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine() then that message will appear in the DebugView console. Very useful for development, even more so when working with server products like BizTalk or SharePoint. You can insert Debug.WriteLine() statements into your code and monitor the behaviour of your application in real time.

One added bonus is that calls to System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine() are not included in the Release build of your assemblies so you're not peppering your code with statements you don't want running in production.

I've used this tool for a long time but I've discovered on Windows Server 2008 you need to run it with Elevated Privileges to be able to capture events from the Kernel and Win32. You need these enabled (under the "Capture" menu) so catch messages from applications hosted in IIS etc.

Using a custom dictionary for FxCop in Visual Studio 2008

A colleague of mine has spotted an excellent post on how to use Custom Dictionaries with FxCop in Visual Studio 2008.

The post is here: http://duncanjasmith.blogspot.com/2008/07/creating-custom-dictionary-for-code.html

The short story is that in VS2008 there is a "BuildAction" of "CodeAnalysisDictionary" that you can apply to Project Items. Copy and edit the built-in Custom Dictionary from "%systemdrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\FxCop\CustomDictionary.xml" and away you go. Read his post for details on how to have an FxCop Custom Dictionary applied Solution wide.

Professional Developer Conference 2008 - Day One Summary

Key Note - Azure Services Platform

During the key note, Ray Ozzie announced Microsoft's Azure Services Platform (code name "Red Dog"). This is a "services platform" for the cloud. This platform has been used to build Live Services and will be the building blocks for .NET Services, SQL Services, SharePoint Services and Dynamics CRM Services.Service Level Agreements (with financial guarantees) are scheduled for 2009. It should be noted that it's unlikely there will be an explicit Version 1 - these services will constantly evolve.

Details and analysis here:

• http://www.microsoft.com/azurehttp://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-27PDCDay1PR.mspx
• http://www.liveside.net/main/archive/2008/10/27/live-mesh-how-does-live-mesh-relate-to-azure.aspx
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/27/microsoft_amazon/http://weblogs.asp.net/pgielens/archive/2008/10/27/a-lap-around-windows-azure.aspx

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 CTP

The PDC kicked off with Microsoft releasing a CTP of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0. Please note this does not include any Oslo features, Oslo integration with Visual Studio will come in a later CTP.

Details here:

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=922b4655-93d0-4476-bda4-94cf5f8d4814&DisplayLang=en#filelist

Silverlight 2.0

Microsoft released Silverlight 2.0 for Windows and Mac. This is an important release as it includes a cross platform implementation of the .NET Framework. The original moniker for this project was WPF/E "Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere" and was originally announced by Jim Allchin at the last PDC in 2005.

Details here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/27/silverlight_two_review/ 

Microsoft Federation Gateway

The Microsoft Federation Gateway is an identity hub that brokers identities across disparate applications and services. For seamless integration with Active Directory, Microsoft has released a server component called the Microsoft Services Connector. It should be noted that this is implemented using open standards. This appears to be an implementation of Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).

Details here:

http://dev.live.com/blogs/devlive/archive/2008/10/27/420.aspx

Windows Live & OpenID

Windows Live publicly committed support for the OpenID platform enabling users to use their Windows Live ID to sign into any OpenID site.

Details here:

http://dev.live.com/blogs/devlive/archive/2008/10/27/421.aspx

More information on OpenID here:

http://openid.net/

Oslo Developer Centre

Microsoft announced the Oslo Developer Centre. You can download an Oslo CTP now from this site. This CTP includes documents and tools for working with the “M” language.

Main site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/oslo/default.aspx

Oslo SDK direct link:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/2/3/423FFDF3-B0B9-4EF0-990F-82DDE530B672/RepositoryOct2008CTP.msi

WCF REST Starter Kit

This is a preview of the REST features for WCF 4.0. Find it at the WCF Developer Centre.

Main site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/wcf/rest

WCF REST Starter Kit direct link:

http://www.codeplex.com/aspnet/Wiki/View.aspx?title=WCF%20REST

Day One Summaries and Digests

S. Somasegar, Senior Vice Preseident of the Developer Division sums things up here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2008/10/27/announcements-from-pdc-2008.aspx

Steve Martin, Director of Product Management for Microsoft's Connected Systems Division talks about where the Azure Services Platform is going and what is available now:

http://blogs.msdn.com/stevemar/archive/2008/10/27/pdc-day-1-azure-services-platform-ctp-availability-and-much-more.aspx

Matt Milner from Pluralsight talks about the Azure Services Platform in more depth:

http://www.pluralsight.com/community/blogs/matt/archive/2008/10/27/pdc-keynote-day-1.aspx

Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 3)

Most people will want to use Windows Live Messenger, unfortunately the installer from the "Get Live" site (http://get.live.com/) does not work with Windows Server 2008.

One way around this is to download Windows Live Messenger Version 8.1 from Microsoft.com. You can find it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d78f2ff1-79ea-4066-8ba0-ddbed94864fc&displaylang=en

This works fine for Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008 as a workstation (Part 2)

Continuing from my last post about using Windows Server 2008 as a workstation there are some changes to make to Internet Explorer to make it more usable.

As per Windows 2003 Server, the operating system employs the "Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration" component to lock down IE. This makes total sense when Windows Server 2008 is being used as a server but when using it for general use its not user friendly.

In Windows 2003 Server you were able to completely un-install the "Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration" component from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. That is not possible in Windows Server 2008 as the component is baked into the OS. You can't remove it but you can disable it.

To do this open Server Manager (Start --> Administrative Tools --> Server Manager). On the right hand side under the "Security" section, click on "Configure IE ESC". This opens a new dialog box where you can disable Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration for Admins and/or Users.