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All Tags » .NET » Programming » Microsoft (RSS)
  • Is IIS7 on Vista not serving static content?

    If you add IIS7 and ASP.NET on Vista, many of the common HTTP modules are not installed by default – including the one for static content. The problem is that it doesn’t return a 404 or other error, but rather zero-byte files. If you’re seeing empty files returned for CSS, images and JScript files, this is likely the culprit. (You’ll all see the Static Files handler for * being mapped to the DefaultDocumentModule). The answer is to go into the Windows Features dialog and make sure that the Common Http Features are checked off. Hope this helps.
  • The Enterprise, The iPhone, and the Role of Silverlight

    With its recent announcement to support ActiveSync on the iPhone , Apple is clearly going after the enterprise user. The problem, as Colin puts it, is that the decisions that consumers make decisions on a radically different set of criteria than organizations . Lack of Exchange support was surely holding back enterprise adoption, so that move was both obvious and inevitable. The fact that they are also supporting remote wipe is a bigger deal than most might realize too - security is a major concern for large enterprises, and for a long time Blackberry was the de facto device in large part because of this. (Windows Mobiles devices weren't allowed at my last job until the Remote Wipe feature was enabled). Fundamentally, I think we're moving to a model where enterprises are going to demand a certain baseline for devices to play in their garden. Features like over-the-air Exchange connectivity, remote wipe, and support for .NET, Java, and Flash are quickly becoming non-negotiable. It...
  • Congrats to Faisal on his new role on the ADO.NET team

    My good buddy Faisal has moved from MSBuild to ADO.NET . Specifically, he's the Program Manager for LINQ to SQL and the Object Service for Entity Framework. He says you'll hear a lot more from him on these things, but of course if past history is any indication his blogging will be short lived :) Either way, I'm still waiting for him to convince me why I should LINQ instead of SubSonic . The only issue we're really having now with SubSonic is with the JOIN story, and they're supposedly prototyping stuff to address this in the next build.
  • Microsoft Silverlight

    A lot of people are very excited about Silverlight , the technology that was formerly known as WPF/E. Jesse says it will give Flash a real run for its money because of a better video story (emphasis in original). Unlike Flash, Silverlight (the new name) will support DRM, it supports the industry standard VC-1 codec used in HD-DVD and Blueray, and it can take advantage of the built-in media streaming capabilities of IIS. As for DRM support, I don't think that's of any real consequence. Jesse claims "companies that want to stream TV and movies over the web, will not consider any method that doesn't allow for DRM protection", but we're already seeing a trend away from DRM. That said, there are certainly things to get excited about, particularly the prospect of cross-platform CLR support and the ability to develop Flash-like applications with the power of the Visual Studio environment (and not having to learn a new scripting language at that). One thing worth noting is the fact that Flash is...
  • SQL Server installation problems on Vista? (Failed to compile the Managed Object Format)

    I've been having issues installing SQL Server 2005 tools (i.e., Management Studio) on Vista. I know it works because I was able to get it installed on my tablet also running Vista - I just couldn't get it on my desktop. I thought it might be related to SQLEXPRESS installed as part of the VS.NET 2005 install, but that didn't seem to fix anything. As it turns out, this is related to a corrupt WMI repository - and the fix is quite easy. C:\Windows\system32>winmgmt /verifyrepository WMI repository is INCONSISTENT C:\Windows\system32>winmgmt /salvagerepository WMI repository salvage failed Error code: 0x8007041B Facility: Win32 Description: A stop control has been sent to a service that other running services are dependent on. C:\Windows\system32>winmgmt /salvagerepository WMI repository has been salvaged As you can see, I had to run it more than once - but it eventually fixed the problem. I clicked Retry and the install went through fine. Hope this saves time for anyone else running...
  • SubSonic

    We've been using SubSonic lately, which I first bookmarked from Scott's post . Essentially, the project is an implementation of the ActiveRecords pattern from Ruby on Rails in .NET. Or as the authors describe it, , "a toolset that helps a website build itself". I'm using it on a project I'm working on now and so far it's been very useful - though we haven't had to scale yet. We had to slightly adjust our data model to be more SubSonic-friendly, but it's pretty flexibile and even supports stored procedures if you're into that sort of thing (we are). It also "singularizes" the database tables - i.e., a Companies table becomes a Company object, and a Books table becomes a Book object. (Though it does strip the last 's' from Business.... I'm reminded of that old 1-800-MATT-RES commercial). Regardless of future experiences, I can wholeheartedly recommend it to build a DAL for prototyping.