CustomValidator for Checkboxes in ASP.NET

Situation:

The RequiredFieldVadlidator cannot be used to validate ASP.NET Checkboxes.

Workaround:

Use a CustomValidator. All you need is implement the ServerValidate event of the Custom Validator to validate that the check-box is checked/unchecked. Read more: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479013.aspx

A computer stops responding during shutdown if BitLocker is enabled on the system drive

Symptoms

When shutting down the screen turns black and nothing happens whilst the computer fan and other devices are still running.

Assumption

You have BitLocker enabled for the system drive.

Solution

Hotfix available by Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975496/en-us

(Thanks to Kay Giza for this tip.)

Two and a half reasons *not* to use BitLocker

I had to disable BitLocker for two (and a half) reasons:

1. It’s not that easy anymore to create a backup image of BitLocker-protected drives.
   You can still do sectory-by-sector copies which require more space and time to create and restore.
   http://kb.acronis.com/content/1734
2. You cannot boot natively from a VHD if this VHD is placed on a BitLocker-protected drive.
   My laptop has only a single hard drive and you can can’t boot to VHD on network or removable drives.
3. If your laptop is not equipped with a TPM you need to insert a USB stick every time before you can boot your laptop.

10 free online Tutorials on Silverlight using Blend

(via techpreacher)

These tutorials are for everyone wanting to get to know Silverlight and Expression Blend quickly.  The tutorials have been created to learn about the features of Silverlight by simply drawing, resizing, dragging and dropping elements on the design surface of Blend. No code or prior Silverlight knowledge needed.

The content is provided at a high-level to cover a wide array of topics in a short time. Links to more detailed information are provided at the end of each tutorial.

	1. Drawing an emoticon in Expression Blend First steps in getting to know the tools and workspace in Blend
	2. Element Transformations Learn to use Scale, Rotate, Skew and 2.5D Transformations
	3. Get Started with Animation A Quick Overview on Creating Time-Based Animations
	4. Playing Video with the MediaElement Using the flexible MediaElement control as a reusable Surface
	5. Arranging Pictures to Learn Layout Use the Grid, StackPanel, ScrollableViewer and Border to position Images
	6. A Look at Text in Silverlight Learn about Displaying Text, Font Properties and Embedding Fonts
	7. Import an Adobe Photoshop File into Blend Convert the assets from a Photoshop file into Interactive Controls
	8. Styling and Skinning Controls Customize the Look by Setting Properties and Building Templates
	9. Styling and working with Design-Time Data Explore how Templates and Bindings are used to display dynamic data
	10. Giving Behaviors a Test Drive A brief overview and walkthrough of the Behaviors included with Blend

Enable BitLocker without a TPM on Windows 7

Problem

You receive an error that BitLocker will not work if no compatible TPM hardware is present.

Workaround

Use an USB stick (that always have to be inserted before booting your machine).

Steps

1. Open group policy editor: Start » gpedit.msc
2. Navigate to:
   • Computer Configuration
   • » Administrative Templates
   • » Windows Components
   • » BitLocker Drive Encryption
   • » Operating System Drives
3. Double-click Require Additional Authentication at Startup.
4. Click Enable.
5. Done!

More information:

• BitLocker Drive Encryption - Windows 7 Drive - Turn On or Off with no TPM

How to Backup and Restore your Windows Live Messenger emoticons?

There are several apps out there that promise you to work with the most recent version of Windows Live Messenger (Version 2009, 14.0.8089.726).

My recommendation:

ConCon Messenger Content Retriever

 

Download: http://concon.110mb.com/

It saves all emoticons into one .mco (= .cab) file, which makes restoring them very easy.

Workaround: Windows SDK Configuration Tool complains about missing Visual Studio

When trying change the default SDK…

Symptoms

Error Message:

"Your system does not have Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 installed"

Workaround

• Option 1: Use the command-line version of Windows SDK Configuration Tool: e.g. “WindowsSdkVer.exe -version:v7.0” (no quotes)
• Option 2: Change the OS Display Format to English (United States).

You can read the full story here.

How to set Windows Live Mail store folder

It’s a bit hidden, but Heinz Tschabitscher from About.com knows how:

1. Select Tools | Options... from the menu.
2. Go to the Advanced tab.
3. Click Maintenance....
4. Click on the Store Folder... button.

Control multiple computers with a single keyboard and mouse

What the author says:

“Input Director is a Windows application that lets you control multiple Windows systems using the keyboard/mouse attached to one computer.”

Link: http://www.inputdirector.com/

Gemplus PC Twin Smart Card Reader driver for Windows 7

can be found here: http://support.gemalto.com/?id=46

Getting started with Developing for Windows 7

Getting Ready for Windows 7

• Part 1: Why Be Ready for Windows 7?
• Part 2: Microsoft Programs to Help Get Apps Compatible
• Part 3: Three Must Do Features For Your Users
• Part 4: Getting Ready for Windows 7

Windows 7 Training Kit For Developers
(includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos on: the Windows 7 Taskbar, Libraries, Multi Touch, Sensors and Location, Ribbon, Trigger Start Services, Instrumentation and ETW, and Application Compatability - including Version Checking, UAC Data Redirection, Session 0 Isolation, Installer Detection, User Interface Privilege Isolation, High DPI)

Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
(provides documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools)

Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework
(Managed Wrapper for accessing Windows 7 features from .NET)

How to backup your Windows Live Writer configuration (e.g. to another computer)

If you want to save your Windows Live Writer configuration, including Blog settings, Draft blogs, Recent blogs, Plugins, for example while moving from one machine to another, the free Windows Live Writer Backup is your friend.

Download: Windows Live Writer Backup

Screenshot:

What is the C:\Windows\Panther directory?

Windows Vista and 7 setup log files are located in different locations on the hard disk. The Panther directory is one of them, as you can read here.

Can I delete it safely?

If you performed an upgrade installation of Windows the Panther folder can easily fill up multiple gigabytes. Deleting (or renaming it at first) showed no negative effects.

Understanding Windows 7 upgrade paths

ZDNet created a way easier upgrade matrix than Microsoft's original one.

Need a new GUID quickly?

http://newguid.com is your friend.

Cannot install Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Applies to:

Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

Symptoms:

• Using Windows Update you get the error:
  
  0x800B0100
  TRUST_E_NOSIGNATURE
  No signature was present in the subject.
  
• Using the stand-alone installer for SP2 you get the error:
  
  "You need to install Windows Server Service Pack 1 before continuing"
  
• Or you cannot see/modify roles and features anymore.

How I solved it:

1. Run this tool (KB 947821).
   
2. Check %SYSTEMROOT%\Logs\CBS\CheckSUR.log for reported missing items (starting with "missing:") to find out which updates are blocking.
   
   In my case the resulting log included the following lines:
   

   Checking packages.
   (f) CBS MUM Missing 0x00000002 servicing\packages\Package_for_KB961371_server_0~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.1.4.mum  
   (f) CBS MUM Missing 0x00000002 servicing\packages\Package_for_KB961371_server~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.1.4.mum  
   (f) CBS MUM Missing 0x00000002 servicing\packages\Package_for_KB961371~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.0.1.4.mum 

   Checking component store
   Summary:
   Seconds executed: 270
   Found 3 errors
     CBS MUM Missing Total Count: 3
   

3. Either find the missing files on another machine OR download those updates from Microsoft and extract the .mum and .cat files from the update package (in my case: KB961371)
   (you can rename a .msu file to .cab and extract its contents.)
   (one of the .mum/.cat files should be missing in the package that you are looking for. Use update.mum and update.cat and rename them)
   
4. Copy the .mum and .cat files to C:\Windows\servicing\packages.
   (To be able to do so you need to take ownership of the folder and grant your user account full control. After copying the files set the owner back to "NT Service\TrustedInstaller")
   
5. Run the stand-alone installer for SP2.

Good luck & enjoy SP2!

(Thanks to Glafkos Charalambous as well as to the many people writing and answering on this topic on the TechNet forums)

What is the difference between VSS Full Backup and VSS Copy Backup in Windows Server 2008?

Thankfully the Storage Team at Microsoft ("File Cabinet") has an answering post on their blog:

"If you are using only Windows Server Backup to protect the applications, you can use any option to backup the data.

However, if you are using a third party backup application, you should not use VSS Full Backup because it will delete the logs at the end of the backup. If the third party backup application relies on those logs to take incremental backups, it would take full backups all the time – a less than optimal situation…"

(See also this TechNet forum post for more clarification.)

Poster: LINQ queries explained

My fellow VSTS MVP Marcel de Vries published a great poster explaining the various options a developer has when using the powerful LINQ queries.

Download poster at: http://www.infosupport.com/linq

Disabling time synchronization in VMware

Sometimes it might be useful to set the date and time in a virtual machine explicitly. Therefore you need to turn of the automatic time synchronization with the host system.

To do so set the following options in the virtual machine's configuration file (.vmx) using your favorite editor:

tools.syncTime = FALSE
time.synchronize.continue = FALSE
time.synchronize.restore = FALSE
time.synchronize.resume.disk = FALSE
time.synchronize.shrink = FALSE
time.synchronize.tools.startup = FALSE

Source: http://geekswithblogs.net/AJGB/archive/2006/10/19/94498.aspx

For more info see:
Timekeeping in VMware Virtual Machines

P.S. For disabling the time synchronization with Virtual PC 2007 see:
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2007/11/28/disabling-time-synchronization-under-virtual-pc-2007.aspx

Windows requires activation after cloning a VM

Even if your base image is activated correctly the clones created from it might require an activation.

A simple workaround is to force VMware to generate a new MAC address. This will probably cause Windows to ask you to re-activate your base image. Once this is done you can clone it without having to re-activate it again.

Turn off beep sound in virtual machine

As described here:

sc config beep start= disabled

Converting Virtual PC virtual machines to VMware

The most reliable way to convert your Virtual PC/Virtual Server/Hyper-V virtual machines to VMware is to use the "VMware vCenter Converter" (available free of charge).

The History of Microsoft

See how it all started on Channel 9…

• The History of Microsoft - 1975
• The History of Microsoft – 1976
• The History of Microsoft – 1977
• to be continued

You can subscribe to this episode here.

Unable to print or preview in Windows Vista

Problem description:

When trying to print or print preview a page in Internet Explorer you receive an permission error about the Temp\Low folder.

Solution:

Equipped with administrative privileges change the integrity level of the "Low" subfolder %Temp% to low (as explained here):

icacls Low /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low

Unable to save to favorites folder in Windows Vista (Unspecified Error in IE7)

Problem description:

When attempting to add a favorite in Internet Explorer you receive an "Unspecified Error".

Solution:

Equipped with administrative privileges change the integrity level of your favorites folder to low (as explained here) by typing:

icacls favorites /setintegritylevel (OI)(CI)low

Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager: what's the user name to log on?

After launching Dell SAS RAID Storage Manager it asks you for enter a username and password combination.

What it expects is the username and password of a Windows account with administrative privileges.

Welcome to my new Treasury

After over 5 years I really had to leave dotnetjunkies for several reasons and moved my "Treasury" to this new and beautiful place.
I now maintain three blogs – you can reach them consistently at www.nenoloje.de/blogs:

• Neno Loje's Treasury [RSS]
  My primary weblog about diverse topics that make the life of a developer easier: .NET, ClickOnce deployment and Windows Development. In English.
  
• TFS & Visual Studio ALM Blog [RSS]
  My technical blog exclusively about Microsoft's Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) platform: Visual Studio (VS) and Team Foundation Server (TFS). In English.
  
• Neno Loje’s Futterkiste [RSS]
  My German language blog with information specific to the German-speaking area, like local events and conferences.

Enjoy reading!

ERROR: Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer

When trying to switch to "Explorer View" or open a SharePoint document library in Windows Explorer and receive the following error message:

How to fix

Install: Software Update for Web Folders (KB907306)

More information: KB907306

Shortcuts for Full Screen Mode

Full screen, please! But how? Well, it depends...

Program	Shortcut
Remote Desktop Terminal Services Client Hyper-V VM Connection	[Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Break]
Visual Studio	[Shift]+[Alt]+[Enter]
Internet Explorer & Windows Explorer	F11
Windows Media Player	[Alt]+Enter or F11
VMware Workstation	[Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Enter]