.Net Micro Frame work as Open Sourced by Microsoft

Microsoft announced its release on November 16, 2009 and open-sourcing of its .Net Micro Framework 4.0, which provides a .Net-based development and execution environment for small devices. But the TCP/IP stack and cryptography stack were omitted from the open source effort.

Version 4.0 is available under an Apache 2.0 license. Microsoft still intends to remain actively involved in development of the framework, said Microsoft's Peter Galli, senior open source community manager, in his blog post.

"While the license will allow customers to take the code and make specialized versions to fit their needs, customers told us they wanted Microsoft to stay involved to avoid any possible fragmentation of the platform," Galli said. The Net Micro Framework 4.0 effort was revealed at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

As part of the open source move, developers get access to source code for almost all of the product, including base class libraries and CLR (Common Language Runtime) code. The libraries contain implementations of primary functionality that managed applications call into for communications, system functions like threading, UI and more, according to Microsoft's Colin Miller, program manager for .Net Micro Framework.

"However, both the TCP/IP stack and cryptography libraries are not included in the source code," Galli said. "Program Manager Colin Miller told me this was because the TCP/IP stack is third-party software that Microsoft licenses from EBSNet, so we do not have the rights to distribute that source code. If someone needs to access the source code for the TCP/IP stack, they can contact EBSNet directly."

"As for the cryptography libraries, they are not included in source code because they are used outside of the scope of the .Net Micro Framework. Customers who need to have access to the code in the cryptography functions will find that these libraries can be replaced," 

NOTE: This post was originally posted at http://port25.technet.com/archive/2009/11/16/microsoft-to-open-source-the-net-micro-framework.aspx. I found it useful, so posting over here.

Major Features of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2

SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2010 provides an alternative to creating SharePoint applications through SharePoint Designer. Visual Studio promotes rapid SharePoint development by providing such features as advanced debugging tools, IntelliSense, statement completion, and project templates. Visual Studio also takes advantage of advanced .NET Framework-based tools and languages. SharePoint projects can be developed by using either Visual Basic or Visual C#.

Silverlight and WPF Data Binding in Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2010 now offers Drag and Drop data binding for WPF applications. After you add a data source to your project, you can generate data-bound Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) controls by dragging items from the Data Sources window to the WPF Designer.

Core Coding Experience in Managed Languages

Visual Studio 2010 is an exciting release in managed languages and tools. Visual C# and Visual Basic languages continue to evolve towards feature parity, strive to simplify programming and deployment with the Microsoft Office APIs, and allow easy interop to dynamic languages. Visual F# is a new programming language which combines functional, object-oriented and explorative programming to provide a succinct, expressive and scalable language for .NET. In the tools space, Visual Studio 2010 offers greater support for Test-Driven Development, where tests are written before product code as an iterative approach to software design.

Native Development

Visual C++ 2010 provides a powerful and flexible development environment for creating Microsoft Windows-based and Microsoft .NET-based applications.

Parallel Computing

The Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework 4 and the Concurrency Runtime for Visual C++ 2010 enable developers to leverage parallel computing. By using these frameworks, developers can write parallel applications that will scale efficiently as the numbers of cores and processors increase. By avoiding the complexities of thread-focused programming models, the new parallel libraries simplify the production of parallel code and enable developers to more easily take advantage of parallel hardware. Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 also provides new debugging and profiling tools to help developers understand and verify the behavior of their parallel applications.

Visual Studio Extensibility

Downloading and managing extensions has never been easier. The ability to find and download your favorite extension is now integrated into common dialogs like the New Project Dialog. Configuring, managing and uninstalling extensions is much easier through the new Extension Manager.

Office Development in Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2010 comes with improved Office Development functionality. You can now deploy multiple Office Solutions in one package which will appear as a single entry in the Add/Remove Programs in Windows XP or Programs and Features in Windows Vista. Visual Studio 2010 now also allows you to perform additional actions after the Office solution installation is complete such as copy documents or workbooks to the end user computer, create extra registry keys, or modify a configuration file.

Workflow Foundation

Workflow Foundation (WF) provides significant enhancements in this release such as explicit data model and fully declarative experience for authoring activities, a new Flowchart modeling style, deeper integration with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and high performance runtime engine.

Windows Azure Tools for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio extend Visual Studio to enable the creation, configuration, building, debugging, running and packaging of scalable services on Windows Azure.

NOTE: This post was originally at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd441784.aspx. I found it useful, so posting over here.

How to Enable Registry Editor

Now days many people are suffering problem that registry editor has been disabled due to some virus/malware. Here are few methods to enable registry editor in windows

1- Go to run - > cmd -> type cd \windows\regedit.exe regedit.com

2- Through Group Policy

Hit the window or click start button then click on ‘RUN’

Type gpedit.msc

Click on Administrative Templates

Click the System and locate the Prevent access to registry editing tools and double click on it

Select the enabled on the option button and click apply.

After clicking on apply select the disabled in the option button then click the apply again then click ok button when finished.

The disabled button will make the policy into default, the computer will automatically configured it and becomes a default comfig which is the registry editor can be access by the user.

3- Through Hijackthis.exe

Search in Google for hijackthis.exe.

Download the application.

Execute the hijack this application.

Accept the agreement.

Click on do a system scan and save a log.

Locate option that reads regedit.exe or registry or sounds like referring to registry editing tools.

Check mark the option and click on Fix checked.

4- Through Unhook.Inf

If the above described steps do not work, you can use the unhook.inf by symantec.

Simply copy this code and place in new notepad file. Save it using the filename unhook.inf

[Version]

Signature="$Chicago$"

Provider=Symantec

[DefaultInstall]

AddReg=UnhookRegKey

[UnhookRegKey]

HKLM, Software\CLASSES\batfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"

HKLM, Software\CLASSES\comfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"

HKLM, Software\CLASSES\exefile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"

HKLM, Software\CLASSES\piffile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"

HKLM, Software\CLASSES\regfile\shell\open\command,,,"regedit.exe ""%1"""

HKLM, Software\CLASSES\scrfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"

HKCU, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System,DisableRegistryTools,0x00000020,0

Right click on this file and click on install. Now your regedit.exe is being recovered.

Top 5 Features of Windows 7

1. Multi Touch

Multitouch is the feature that's most likely to divide the Windows faithful. It seems that Windows 7, not OS X, will become the first consumer OS to bring multi-touch capability to the masses after all. There is an on-screen virtual keyboard and gestures for common mouse actions, like dragging and right-clicking, that work throughout Windows 7 and applications like Paint and Microsoft Earth. Click on a taskbar icon to expose the Jump List or sketch a "b" in Internet Explorer 8 to go backwards. Gestures are tied into mouse routing calls. Windows 7 is multi-touch on desktops done right and Microsoft should be credited for that. There’s no doubt that Microsoft’s addition of support for touch-screens right into the Windows 7 OS will encourage OEMs to offer more systems with this cool feature.

2. Cool Taskbar

The big Windows 7 taskbar improvement is the excellent Aero Peek feature, which adds multiple window previews to the taskbar, with the ability to close windows right from the preview. Windows 7 lets you add programs and documents to taskbar (instead of or in addition to creating shortcuts on your desktop). There you can drop shortcuts to folders, documents, and programs for easy access.

3. Start up Boost

One of the top features of Windows 7 is the faster start up time. You donot have to wait to work right away after hitting that Power button.

4. Libraries & Homegroups

Both Windows and OS X have special folders for storing documents, images, music, videos, etc. but what happenes when all folders are filled. So you have to move to a new location. Windows 7 has solved this problem by introducing content Libraries and Homegroups. Libraries are a way to group similar types of files even if they live in different folders. The new Libraries function in Windows Explorer allows you to add network folders, SharePoint documents, and pretty much any folder you choose to your Documents Library, meaning even files that are tucked away within the nether regions of a server can be accessed within only a couple of clicks.

5. One Click WI-Fi Access

One of the most useful Windows 7 features for roaming laptop users is its one-click Wi-Fi network choice. Click on the Wi-Fi adapter in your system tray to pop up a menu of available wireless networks. From there you can refresh the list, and choose the one you want to connect to in one click.