Apr 22 2013
I am using Windows since a decade, but I got to know this today! I wanted to build a Trial Client OS for Testing purpose and gave both computer/user names same in haste.
In Windows, Computer Name cannot be the same as your User Name.
Did you know this before?
How about having such wild examples:
Apr 01 2013
I recently installed Microsoft Loopback Adapter in Windows 8 for networking between by Hyper-V host and client Virtual Machines. Below is the step-by-step guide to setup Loopback Adapter in Windows 8.
My environment consists of:
Before I begin with the steps, let me inform you that Microsoft Loopback Adapter is now renamed as Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adapter in Windows 8 / Windows Server 2012. I am not sure why did Microsoft changed the name of this adapter now. This KB article gives the official details about the name change.
Step by Step Instructions:
Once these steps are completed, you can go ahead and assign a local IP address to this adapter. I am using this Lo0pback Adapter to use Remote Desktop Client to a SharePoint Virtual Machine which is running in Hyper-V. I will be sharing more details about this in my future blog post.
Mar 07 2013
Recently I built a Hyper-V Guest with Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 for SharePoint 2010. To bring the desktop client OS capabilities, I enabled Desktop Experience feature from Server Manager.
I downloaded some themes online from Microsoft website. When I double clicked on the .theme file to load, it gave me “This theme can’t be applied to the desktop” error and greyed out the theme name on the same screen.
I used the following troubleshooting steps to resolve this problem:
In case if you are able to fix this problem without rebooting, then please do share your comments.
Feb 25 2013
As a best practice, I keep my system up to date with latest security updates. This time I am bit out-dated; since a month I didn’t run all the Windows Updates. Recently, SQL Server 2012 released a security update which can be found in Windows Update:
The update size is 425.5MB! I get wild after seeing any update which is more than 50MB, because my Internet connection is sometimes unstable, which may cause more trouble if I perform Online Updates. As I keep rebuilding my PC, I always prefer to keep the Offline version of update for reusing it again. This time again, I downloaded (link) this update from Microsoft Download Center.
I am using SQL Server 2012 64-bit on Windows 8 Pro, so I went and downloaded the 64-bit update file, which is SQLServer2012-KB2716442-x64.exe. When I ran this update manually, it went through series of steps via Wizard and it kept hanging at a place where I saw the message “Instance INSTANCE01: Updating ‘INSTANCE01′: MsiTimingAction“. (INSTANCE01 is the name of Instance I provided during installation earlier)
Very surprisingly, this time I didn’t have any option to close or stop this update process (see the red arrows above). I waited for almost 3 hours, but the progress bar didn’t move. Finally, I rebooted my Windows 8 OS.
Today morning, I tried reruning the update and to my surprise it finished without any problem.
Does this mean that sometimes Rebooting the OS helps to fix/troubleshoot issues?
I know that my solution/findings may sound weird for you, but I just thought of sharing this with others. Meanwhile, I also did some search and have the below additional information:
1) Linvi’s blog (link) on MSDN – This has some steps to solve this problem. As per this blog post, Linvi suggests to make changes to registry. I tried peeking into my registry hive HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\110\ConfigurationState, but I found that all my key’s already had the value of 1.
2) View and Read SQL Server Setup Log Files (link) on Technet - This is good read for finding the problems. I navigated to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\Log\20130225_072103\ (last folder is the Date/Time stamp, which may vary) and analyzed the log files, but I could not get any specific hints in any of the log file. Its a good bookmark for future troubleshooting.
If anyone has got the real way to fix the problem, then I would like to hear from you. Please leave your comments.
Dec 14 2012
Today, while moving some of my files from one external disk to another, I suddenly got the below error:
Destination Path Too Long
The file name(s) would be too long for the destination folder. You can shorten the file name and try again, or try a location that has a shorter path.
My both disks were NTFS formatted. After searching on Internet, I learnt that there is a 255 character limit in filename (this includes the Full Path/Location where you are storing your file).
Please beware of the above limitations and plan your folder/sub-folder structure accordingly.
Reference Links:
Oct 31 2012
Here is the ISO direct download link of Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 8. This ISO file(wpsdkv80_enu1.iso) size is around 1.6GB and provides a stand-alone Visual Studio Express 2012 edition for Windows Phone or works as an add-in to Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium or Ultimate editions. It was released on 26-Oct-2012 (made available to public on 30-Oct-2012).
The Windows Phone SDK 8.0 is a full-featured development environment to use for building apps and games for Windows Phone 8.0 and Windows Phone 7.5. With the SDK, you can use your existing programming skills and code to build managed or native code apps. In addition, the SDK includes multiple emulators and additional tools for profiling and testing your Windows Phone app under real-world conditions.
One good news for existing WP Developers is that the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 installs side-by-side with previous versions of the Windows Phone SDK. You don’t need to uninstall previous versions before beginning this installation. But as usual, if you have any pre-release version of Windows SDK installed on your machine, then please uninstall it before installed this final release.
System Requirement:
To use Windows Phone 8 Emulator, your system should have following:
If your computer meets the hardware and operating system requirements, but does meet the requirements for the Windows Phone 8 Emulator, the Windows Phone SDK 8.0 will install and run. However, the Windows Phone 8 Emulator will not function and you will not be able to deploy or test apps on the Windows Phone 8 Emulator.
For more details, here is the official link from Microsoft website.
Earlier SDK Version: If you are using Windows 7 OS, here is the link for Offline ISO of Windows Phone 7.5 SDK. If you are using Windows 8 OS, you will not require this, because with WP8 SDK you can develop applications for both WP7.5 and WP8 platforms.
Jul 25 2012
If you are a IT Pro/Dev with Microsoft Technologies, I am sure that you must be aware of SysInternal tools. Formerly these tools were part of NTInternals, which was renamed to WInternals and finally Microsoft aquired this company and released them as part of Microsoft Technet website as “Windows Sysinternals“. These amazing tools were developed by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell.
You can download the entire tool suite from this website (direct link – zip file ~ 12.5MB). The complete list of tools can be found here. These tools are also categorized as:
One interesting thing about these tools are that they are also available in a Shared Folder on Internet. If you always want to use the latest version of these tools, then you can map a network drive as shown below:
Using the NET USE command one can map easily to the Shared Folder. Please remember that you must have a Internet Connection to do this. The same can be done using the Map Network Drive option from Windows Explorer. Once you do this, you will get a Drive Letter (specified by you; in my case it is L: drive) in your Windows Explorer as shown below:
Did you notice the total size and free space of C: Drive and L: Drive above? Its just a coincidence
All my PC’s usually have latest version of Sysinternal tools in either C:\Utils or D:\Utils folder. With Sysinternal Live, I can even run these utilities directly from Internet. Thanks to Mark Russinovich for providing these amazing utilities.
Dec 18 2011
Today, I discovered a great Free tool for Windows 7 users who was to detect their location without GPS hardware on the Desktop PC/Laptop. I have just tried this on my Desktop PC and found amazing results. You would require a Windows 7 operating system to try the below steps. Also, please note that “Location and sensors support” option will be present in “Home Premium” and above editions of Windows 7. This means that you cannot try this if you are using Start or Home Basic editions of Windows 7.
Location and Other Sensors (Windows 7)
Once the above setup is over, you can use the following applications to test your Location:
Bingo! The Test Application gave me very accurate result on my Desktop PC.
More Information on this Topic and related area:
Now, I eagerly look forward to try this on a Laptop and share my result.
Update: 24-Dec-2011
During the week, I experimented this tool with my Laptop going around the places. I am happy to notice that the tool returns almost accurate results, provided you are using the right Internet Connection. It makes use of your IP address to find your location In some cases, if you are in a Corporate Network/VPN, then there are some chances that you may be seen in some other Country! During one of my Test Result via VPN, I was seen at Japan
Another update, that I want to share is that this software works well in Windows 8 Developers Preview too.
Dec 15 2011
If you dream of apps, then this is for you! This very first edition of the brand new Microsoft Windows Phone Camps is coming to your city in India. The event promises to be an in-depth learning experience, where developers and designers can directly interact with domain experts.
Agenda:
10:00am to 10:45am – The Windows Phone Opportunity
10:45am to 11:30am – Getting Starting – Tools & Marketplace
11:30am to 12:15pm – Designing Applications for Windows Phone
12:15pm to 01:00pm – Developing Applications for Windows Phone
02:00pm to 02:45pm – Making your Application Submission Ready
Event at Pune:
Date: Tuesday 20th December 2011 – 9:00am to 3:00pm
Venue: Le Meridian, Raja Bahadur Mill Road, Pune.
Registration: No Registration Fee – Click here to Register Now.
Event at Chennai:
Date: Thursday 22nd December 2011 – 9:00am to 3:00pm
Venue: Savera Hotel, 146, Dr. Radhakrishnan Road, Chennai.
Registration: No Registration Fee – Click here to Register Now.
Nov 03 2011
Here is the ISO direct download link of Windows Phone Software Development Kit (SDK) 7.1. This ISO file(WPSDKv71_en1.iso) size is around 730MB and is compatible with the final version of Visual Studio 2010 SP1. It was released on 25-Sep-2011.
You can develop apps and games that target Windows Phone OS 7.1 and Windows Phone OS 7.0 with this software. The Windows Phone SDK was previously named Windows Phone Developer Tools.
A word of caution:
For more details, here is the official link from Microsoft website.
Update:
There is an update to WP7 SDK, which is also referred as SDK 7.1.1. This update can be downloaded as Offline Install file (about 300MB) from this link. Do check the official web page here – http://dev.windowsphone.com/en-us/downloadsdk
A well-documented Installation Guide is available on this MSDN link.
Update (31-Oct-2012): Microsoft has released the WP8 SDK which is also now available in ISO format for download. You can find more details here.
- Brain LOGs