Thursday, December 21, 2006

Get Office System 2007 Trials

From aralves:

Do you want to find out how great Office 2007 is? Now you can just download the trial version of Office Enterprise 2007 from here. Be aware that once you are using Office 2007 for a while you don't want to go back to Office 2003. This was the case for me.

Update: I found some more office trials for you to enjoy.

Office Groove 2007 Trial Version

Office Home and Student 2007 Trial Version

Office OneNote 2007 Trial Version

Office Professional 2007 Trial Version

Office Project Standard 2007 Trial Version

Office Publisher 2007 Trial Version

Office Small Business 2007 Trial Version

Office Standard 2007 Trial Version

Office Visio Professional 2007 Trial Version

Office Visio Standard 2007 Trial Version

Enjoy it!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 ships

Source from TSS:

More than a year after the release of Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft has finished VS 2005 SP 1. The service pack addresses issues Microsoft discovered through both internal testing and customer feedback.
In all, there are more than 70 enhancements, ranging from support for mobile devices and the SQL Sever Compact Edition to integration with Excel 2007 and Project 2007. In addition, the service pack includes the Web Application Project, which is a previously released tool for migrating Web apps from ASP.NET 1.x to ASP.NET 2.0.
Three service packs are available now:


Finally, there is a Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Windows Vista Beta. This service pack, aimed at developers using VS 2005 in conjunction with Vista, will officially ship after the new operating system ships in early 2007.
More information about all the releases is available at the Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 development center.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Development life on Vista (2): Common installing tips

There are some common tips I can give you for your various software's installing:

  • If the setup file is .exe file, I strongly recommend you use "run as administrator" on the context menu to execute it.
  • If the setup file is .msi file, I strongly recommend you make a bat file contains the command line msiexec /i "[setup file path]", then run the bat file with "run as administrator" on the context menu.
  • Maybe when you install some add-ons for Visual Studio 2005 you'll meet an error message "Visual studio 2005 has stopped working...", never mind it please click Cancel button directly on the messagebox, then it will show a new messagebox ask you would debug or close the program, you MUST click the Debug button then the installing succeed, if you click the Close button the installing will failed, it's very special but true.

These tips can't fix all but most possible problems, any way, I still recommend you should better check the install log furthermore.

Hope this post helps.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Development life on Vista (1): What Should you Do When Install Vistual Studio

As we all known, Microsoft announced that will not support Vistual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio .NET 2003 as development environments on Windows Vista, Visual Studio 2005 is supported, but will have "compatibility issues" until Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 with Vista Support Update ships.

Now I'll discuss some issues with you about installing Visual Studio series products. I think there is no body still using Visual Studio .NET 2002 as development environment now, even not so, we can treat Visual Studio .NET 2002 as Visual Studio .net 2003 on Vista.

You should run Visual Studio IDE with "run as administrator" every time, the best way is:

  • On the devenv.exe's Properties menu, go to Compatibility tab, checked the box "Run this program as an administrator" under the Privilege Level group.

Hope this post helps.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Microsoft Adds 3-D City Models to Live Search

REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 6, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced U.S. availability of Virtual Earth™ 3D, a new online mapping interface that is part of the Live Search offering, providing consumers with a three-dimensional experience to search, browse and explore the real world online.

When people visit Live Search (http://live.com), type a query into the search box and click the “Maps” tab, they get their search results in a map context that offers the option to explore the area using two-dimensional views (aerial and bird’s-eye) or three dimensional models with Virtual Earth 3D. This new technology compiles photographic images of cities and terrain to generate textured, photorealistic 3-D models with engineering level accuracy.

“By helping people visualize information in far more useful and intuitive ways, Virtual Earth 3D takes search to an entirely new level,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “The immersive 3-D experience provides a more powerful and engaging interface that delivers better experiences not only for consumers, but also for developers and advertisers.”

Three-dimensional models are available initially for 15 U.S. cities: San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Detroit, Phoenix, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas and Fort Worth. Terrain imagery in 3-D is available globally, and Microsoft expects to offer 3-D imagery in an ever expanding set of cities. Other features provided by Live Search include access to real-time traffic information in select major U.S. cities, and access to business listings “yellow pages” and people listings “white pages” that allows consumers to easily find local information and act on it.

“The release of Virtual Earth 3D is a significant step toward creating a truly new dimension in search not only in the look and feel of the experience but in the way consumers and advertisers can be involved,” said Steve Berkowitz, senior vice president of the Online Services Group at Microsoft. “Local search is one of the fastest-growing categories online today, and adding features like 3-D will only help move the category further ahead and help Windows Live attract more customers and advertisers.”

Advertisements will be available within the Virtual Earth 3D experience. Similar to billboards on the side of roads, virtual billboards will be available throughout Live Search in the 3-D view. The ads available within the Virtual Earth 3D experience are created using a combination of technologies from Virtual Earth, Massive Inc. technology, and the advertising platform from Microsoft® Digital Advertising Solutions. In addition, developers can use the Virtual Earth 3D application programming interface to build these search capabilities into their own applications and Web sites. This and other APIs for Live Search are offered at no cost to developers, with the option to acquire additional support and other benefits through a service-level agreement with Microsoft. Developers can find more information about the Virtual Earth API.

Source: Microsoft Adds 3-D City Models to Live Search

Sunday, November 26, 2006

SyncToy tool for Vista

SyncToy 1.4 for Windows Vista is available as a free download from the Microsoft Download Center. The easy to use, customizable application helps you copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers.

There are files from all kinds of sources that we want to store and manage. Files are created by our digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store, manage, retrieve and view files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation. In some cases it is necessary to regularly get copies of files from another location to add to primary location; in other cases there is a need to keep two storage locations exactly in sync. Some users manage files manually, dragging and dropping from one place to another and keeping track of whether the locations are synchronized in their heads. Other users may use two or more applications to provide this functionality.

Now there is an easier way. SyncToy, a free PowerToy for Microsoft Windows Vista, is an easy to use, highly customizable program that helps users to do the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories. Most common operations can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization is available without additional complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames and deletes in another case. Unlike other applications, SyncToy actually keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.

SyncToy was released as a beta in early August 2005 for Windows XP. Features added in response to customer feedback include:

  • The ability to type in a UNC path;
  • Support for longer folder pair names and ability to widen the left pane to see those longer names;
  • The ability to support the maximum length for folder paths, and documentation was added to the help file about how to set up a share to be able to sync deep folder pairs;
  • Better handling of the difference in precision between NTFS and FAT timestamps;
  • More discoverable link to the help file for information on how to schedule SyncToy using the Windows XP Task Scheduler;
  • Support for 800x600 screen resolution;
  • Added a warning for users if the selected action will take some time to complete;
  • Added brief explanations of the actions in the user interface;
  • Improved behavior when choosing folders to include or exclude when there are large numbers of folders involved;
  • Improved support for accessibility modes.
Relevant resource:

Monday, October 16, 2006

Live Expo Invitation for You

I have gotten the invitation email from Windows Live Expo Team and have 10 invitations to send now. While the invitations are open to China and United Kingdom, if you are, you're welcome to the invitations from me :)

This beta program is available only in China and United Kingdom, so please only invite friends in either of these countries. Your friends in the USA don't need an invitation to use Expo; we already officially released Expo to the public there. But they would be happy if you let them know about it! The web site is http://expo.live.com.

What is Expo
This new product is a unique offering from Microsoft to answer the need of the social networking marketplaces phenomenon. We are taking the traditional classifieds service to the next level with our new 'ultimate social marketplace' in Windows Live with Windows Live Expo.
Expo is a dynamic social listing service that allows members to find and sell items, discover information, and meet other parties in their area - all for free! Expo enhances your ability to:

  1. Connect with those you trust - your messenger buddies and your coworkers.
  2. Locate items in your neighborhood or across the country.
  3. List easily, instantly, and for free.
Expo unifies a consumer's world by integrating Messenger, Spaces, Storage and more. In this way, we provide better value to both consumers as well as more relevant opportunities to advertisers.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Windows Vista Icons Resources

Now you can download from box, resources contain:

  • IE7 RC1 XP x86 CN mui
  • Vista 5728 icons
  • Vista 5728 pngs

Thanks Hong.

vista5728icos.jpg

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Mac OS X 10.5 Screenshots Leaked

Source from Think Secret, the shots are grasped from an under development version, but I think those unauthorized photos will be hidden soon :)

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Windows Vista: Now is the Time!

Jim Allchin, the co-president of platforms & services from Microsoft, published this open letter to all windows developers.

Are you ready for Windows Vista? We know the world is! Barring any unforeseen quality issues such as bugs around data corruption, resiliency, or security, we remain on track for business availability of Windows Vista later this year, with our consumer launch in January. Those of you who have started using RC1 can see how stable the product already is. We are very close to being done.

Windows Vista is going to give you, developers, new opportunities on a scale you haven't seen since Windows 95. Industry analysts predict that some 200 million people will be using Windows Vista within the first 24 months of launch. We're rapidly approaching launch, and then millions of people will be looking for applications. People will flock to software that is new, compelling, and "cool." You have GOT to be ready for this opportunity. We have invested heavily in both the .NET Framework 3.0 and traditional Win32 APIs in Windows Vista. With Visual Studio you can create applications that are visually stunning, connected, workflow-enabled, and secure. You can get a preview of some of the great features in the upcoming next release of Visual Studio that will make development for Windows Vista even more powerful. And the new line of Microsoft Expression products will make it much easier for developers and designers to collaborate on creating great experiences for Windows.

More than 1,000 companies are engaged in our early adopter programs, and some of the initial work I've seen has simply blown me away. People will just love these applications - from new DX10 games to cool Sidebar gadgets to new rich visual enterprise applications. Some of these apps are mind-bogglingly cool. And, some of the best work is being done by small companies that many of you probably haven't heard of, so the opportunities for changing the world are clear. We've created a showcase so you can see what some of your peers are doing.

What do you need to do to be ready? First of all, make sure your application is compatible. We have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, but some of the system enhancements, such as User Access Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, may require code changes on your part. You should work hard to run as standard user.

We've got tools to help you:

  • The Application Compatibility Cookbook will give you in-depth information on the new capabilities in Windows Vista and how they may affect existing applications.
  • The Windows Vista site on MSDN includes the latest technical material and gives you pointers to our upcoming worldwide launch events.
  • Visit the Innovate on Windows Vista portal to get access to tools, resources, and Windows Vista logo program information. I strongly encourage you to apply for the Certified for Windows Vista Logo.

If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your Microsoft representative, post to MSDN Forums, or send us feedback directly.

As I said, the opportunity will be tremendous. If you want to ride the wave we're creating with Windows Vista, the best way is to have your application ready by the time we ship! And that is very soon.

thanks,
jim

Jim Allchin
Co-President, Platforms & Services
Microsoft Corporation

Sunday, September 17, 2006

All icons in Office 2007

You can see all 756 icons in Office 2007 on one image here:

Office 2007 B2TR icons panorama
Click image for larger view

Of course if you wanna extract those icons from Office 2007, you can follow Jensen Harris's blog.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Top 10 Things to Try with Vista RC1

You can get evaluating Vista RC1 for you organization by trying out these top things as outlined on TechNet now:

  • Plan an Easier Deployment
  • Improve Security and Compliance
  • Manage Your PC
  • Optimize Your Network
  • Test Your Applications
  • Be More Productive
  • Go Mobile
  • Share Information and Collaborate
  • Use the Web More Effectively
  • Join the Community

Friday, September 15, 2006

Soapbox: Microsoft's Youtube, goes beta

I have received the invitation email from The Soapbox on MSN Video Team, that means the new user-uploaded video service on MSN goes live. While by now, this is a US-only beta.

This is really beta service, not "beta" labeled service:D, the team is looking for beta testers to help improving the service.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

iTunes 7 comes

It's very excited that iTunes 7 ships.

You can get it from Apple site now.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

"Atlas" project roadmap

Atlas is a Microsoft official AJAX library from ASP.NET team for .net developers, yesterday Scott published the roadmap on his blog: "Atlas" 1.0 Naming and Roadmap

As Scott said, Atlas will shipping on the end of the year, and delivering a fully-supported as other Microsoft products.

How to get Vista RC1 copy and CD-KEY

I Know there are many people have gotten Vista RC1 but don't have a CD-KEY, or even you want get Vista RC 1 but you have no way, now you can apply the one online.

via Windows Vista RC1, you should have a live ID first, you can download Vista RC1 in three language version(English, German, Japanese), and get a CD-KEY, the CD-KEY is unique with live ID.

Don't hesitate, let's go.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Is "beta" equals Web 2.0?

Today Fred published a blog Stop using the “beta” label. It's a really interesting thing that somebody feel deeply tired with the boring "beta" trend after all :D

Why beta? You released some projects while you feel them aren't quite ready to go, so you can tagged "beta" because they aren't prefect for users yet.

Why beta? It's related with some known web 2.0 principles, liked "release early", "feedback quickly", "update frequently" and so on, because there is no site can meet users' requirement exactly, there is always changing, changing, and carry on.

Why beta? That means you promised you will keep tracing your user's feedback and improving your service, sure, that equals promises.

So, you can labeled your site "beta" early, but if your site doesn't meet the web 2.0 principles especially "update frequently", please removed the label, otherwise like Fred said:

"Just don’t label your web applications beta."

Saturday, September 09, 2006

PDF Add-ons for Office 2007 from Microsoft

In the electronic document market, PDF format, created by Adobe, is the most popular way. While XPS(XML Paper Specification) which created by Microsoft is a potential competitor with PDF.

As we know, Office 2007 beta has the feature that saving document as PDF file or XPS file, while in early Jun, cited legal pressure from AdobeMicrosoft announced it would drop this feature when Office 2007 ships, and promised it would be add-ons separately download, it's available in three versions now.

BlogML 2.0 available now

BlogML, an open source project hosted on CodePlex, is an XML format tool for  storing the entire content of a blog, you can use BlogML as  a way for archiving or transferring content from one blog to another, even from one blogging engine to another. Now, BlogML 2.0 available here.


There are currently several blogging engines that provide support for BlogML including:



I'm remembering the time I had been posting blogs on Pebble blogging engine, an open source project in Java hosted on SourceForge, so very strongly recommended blogging engine, you can download your all content on blog in a zip file. While now, BlogML do the generally way.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Best Stuff in the World

You can find the Best Stuff in the World here now :D


Driven by community, the Best Stuff in the World provides recommended items / services arena with glossy images, gradients, sliding accordion effects, and the ability to counter recommended items with your own. the Best Stuff in the World sounds a pretty good place as a mix of social-network with wiki style.


Have fun!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

IronPython 1.0 ships now

It's very cool that after 9 RC version, IronPython 1.0 is available on CodePlex now, with many resources include Binaries, Source code, and tutorials, you can download it from here.


IronPython is an implementation of the dynamic programming language "Python". Jim Hugunin, the lead of IronPython team, have a funny talk at the release notes:


I started work on IronPython almost 3 years ago.  My initial motivation for the project was to understand all of the reports that I read on the web showing that the Common Language Runtime (CLR) was a terrible platform for Python and other dynamic languages.

A bit more on IronPython, from Aaron Marten's WebLog.


How do I get IronPython Integration in Visual Studio 2005?

First, you'll need to go download the latest release of the Visual Studio SDK (April 2006). You'll need to register on the VSIP members site. You can register for free as an affiliate level member. Also note that you'll need to agree to the VSIP license.

What version of Visual Studio do I need? Can I use this with an Express edition?

Unfortunately, no. The Visual Studio Express editions do not support extensibility (addins & packages). This is a limitation of the Express products and not a limitation we are placing on the sample. You will need Visual Studio Standard or higher to build and use the sample.

Hope helps.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Voting for Enterprise Library features out

Enterprise Library is a library with a set of application blocks for enterprise development provided by Microsoft that based on .NET Framework. The v1.0 for .NET Framework 1.1, and v2.0 for .NET Framework 2.0.

The next release of Enterprise Library, as v3.0 focus on coming .NET Framework 3.0, has hade a survey at past days, now, the survey's results are in.

It's really fantastic, since so many enhancements.

Optimizing Your Websites for Google Search Courses

Even Google has the webmaster guidelines, Google is still continuing to expand to lend more transparency to SEO(Search Engine Optimization), as in coming 18th,Adam Lasnik, Google's Search Evangelist, will be introducing a courses on "Optimizing Your Websites for Google Search" at Catholic University.

This 3 ours course need $30 only while include:

  • Understanding search engines and search engine results (25 minutes)
  • Building crawlable, indexable, and well-ranked sites (45 minutes)
  • Tools, tricks and troubleshooting (35 minutes)
  • Break (10 minutes)
  • Webspam --what it is, how to avoid it, how to report it, etc. (10 minutes)
  • Live site evaluations (45 minutes)
  • Questions & Answers (45 minutes)

Whether you are newfish or professional on SEO, if you can be participant, that's really worth the ticket:D

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

The wine named "Microsoft Brain wash"!

It's really crazing but surely true, this old Microsoft classic from Robert Howard's blog.

Microsoft brain wash

Microsoft is offering XML Notepad 2006

XML Notepad 2006, written in C# 2.0, is a free and open source (you can check the source at installed directory) simple XML editor for us which quick and dirty .

Notepad? sounds like it, while strong enough, many handy features include:

  • Tree View synchronized with Node Text View for quick editing of node names and values.
  • Incremental search (Ctrl+I) in both tree and text views, so as you type it navigates to matching nodes.
  • Cut/copy/paste with full namespace support.
  • Drag/drop support for easy manipulation of the tree, even across different instances of XML Notepad and from the file system.
  • Infinite undo/redo for all edit operations.
  • In place popup multi-line editing of large text node values.
  • Configurable fonts and colors via the options dialog.
  • Full find/replace dialog with support for regex and XPath.
  • Good performance on large XML documents, loading a 3mb document in about one second.
  • Instant XML schema validation while you edit with errors and warnings shown in the task list window.
  • Intellisense based on expected elements and attributes and enumerated simple type values.
  • Support for custom editors for date, dateTime and time datatypes and other types like color.
  • Handy nudge tool bar buttons for quick movement of nodes up and down the tree.
  • Inplace HTML viewer for processing xml-stylesheet processing instructions.
  • Built-in XML Diff tool.

Go to download link.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Windows Vista RC1 is done!

It's a really nice news for us that Windows Vista  on build 5600(v5600-16384) out of box as Release candidate 1!!!

Coming from the nice Vista launch team: It's Official: Windows Vista RC1 Is Complete.

As per usual, we’re initially rolling out the code to the TechBeta and TAP programs alone, while MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be offered access next week.

That's real cool!

As developers for Vista, this site you must add to favorites.

Welcome to DevReadiness.org - the community site dedicated to helping you, the developer, get your applications ready for Windows Vista.
From DevReadiness

For more, there is a nice cookbook you can download free from this site: ISV Windows Vista Compatibility cookbook .

Friday, September 01, 2006

Yet another way of exporting to Excel file from HTML without Excel

Yes, many of solutions of exporting to Excel from HTML should using Excel.exe process, it's a perfect way to access Excel model but with a hard problem that handling the Excel.exe process at web server side. while some few ways without Excel is too simple, indeed, is XML format file.

There is yet another way to treat the data as Excel format without Excel now.

At HTML code:

<html xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<xml>
<x:ExcelWorkbook>
<x:ExcelWorksheets>
<x:ExcelWorksheet>
<x:Name>
<!-- work sheet name -->
</x:Name>
<x:WorksheetOptions>
<x:Print>
<x:ValidPrinterInfo />
</x:Print>
</x:WorksheetOptions>
</x:ExcelWorksheet>
</x:ExcelWorksheets>
</x:ExcelWorkbook>
</xml>
</head>
<body>
<!-- data to export -->
</body>
</html>

At the server script code:



Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"

That's all! as you see, the key of this way is using XSD to access the Excel model.


Hope helps.


PS: this blog written by Window Live Writer, and code height light by Steve Dunn's Code Formatter Plugin.