Some articles for dotNET developer from MSDN Magazine
Garbage collection:
Garbage Collection: Automatic Memory Management in the Microsoft .NET Framework -- MSDN Magazine, November 2000
Garbage Collection-Part 2: Automatic Memory Management in the Microsoft .NET Framework -- MSDN Magazine, December 2000
Garbage Collector Basics and Performance Hints -- MSDN
widely spreaded article about tools:
.NET Tools: Ten Must-Have Tools Every Developer Should Download Now -- MSDN Magazine, July 2004
wix and msbuild:
WiX Tricks: Automate Releases With MSBuild And Windows Installer XML -- MSDN Magazine, March 2007
something new:
CLR Inside Out: .NET Application Extensibility -- MSDN Magazine, February 2007
CLR Inside Out: .NET Application Extensibility, Part 2 -- MSDN Magazine, March 2007
CLR Inside Out: 9 Reusable Parallel Data Structures and Algorithms -- MSDN Magazine, May 2007
Windows update process and .msu patch in Windows Vista
Microsoft KB934307: Description of the Windows Update Stand-alone Installer (Wusa.exe) and of .msu files in Windows Vista.
Conclusion:
The patch file format .msu for Windows Vista is different from .exe patch files applied to previous OS. The .msu are in fact as same as .cab file formats and could be expanded using expand.exe command.
You can use Wusa.exe(Windows Update Stand-alone Installer) to install .msu patch for Windows Vista.
wusa.exe Windows6.0-KB934307-x86.msu
There's two important parameters available to wusa.exe:
/quiet
/norestart
So it's possible to implement a automatic patch infrastructure targets to Windows Vista client and server now.
Speed up file copy/move operation in Vista
Just turn the feature "Remote Differential Compression" off.
Start -> Conrtol Panel -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off
Uncheck "Remote Differential Compression", press OK button.
You've done. Enjoy the same speed as XP file copy/move operations!
get rid of boring “beep” sound
I've installed a fresh Vista, but sound card left unwork.
But I hate the boring beep sound.
So execute the commands:
sc stop beep
sc config beep start= disabled
if you love it... (who will?)
sc config beep start= auto
sc start beep
Solve the ‘Unable to Debug: The Binding Handle Is Invalid’ problem
If you have disabled service "Terminal Services", you will get the error as title when you try to start debug in Visual Studio 2005.
Just enable "Terminal Services", don't worry, it won't be a security hole. You can uncheck "enable remote desktop" in "My computer" property window.
or you can try the way below:
b.hesse@MSDN forum
I had the same problem, solved it by disabling the "Visual Studio hosting process"
("Project" -> "[ProjectName] Properties..". -> "Debug" -> Disable "Enable the Visual Studio hosting process")
Whats the purpose of this "Visual Studio hosting process" ?
Anyway, this is not recommended.
The reason why VS2005 need the "Terminal Services" to debug can be found at the greggm's msdn blog.
For a short description, the debug function relys on an API call: WTSEnumerateProcess in Wtsapi32.dll which relies on "Terminal Services" as you can guess, to do process listing job.
More eg., if you disabled the service, you can't see process owner in Task Manager. And this is sth more described in the blog entry by microsoft guy: "The Terminal Services service is enabled by default because in addition to the Remote Desktop functionality, it also provides for Remote Assistance, Fast User Switching, process listing, DCOM support, and probably lots of other stuff that I don't know about because I don't work on the TS team."
So just enable and start the service "Terminal Services" and get out of the strange error. Start your dummy debugging happily!