C# Distilled

Mix06 Sessions Online

If you're interested in seeing where the future of web-based applications will take you then I would recommend you check out some of the sessions from the recent Mix06 conference, these sessions are now available online at http://sessions.mix06.com/.

Say Goodbye to Courier New within Visual Studio 2005

Tired of using the age old Courier New font for coding, well Microsoft now provides a new Consolas font which installs itself as the default font within Visual Studio 2005.

Sean Laberee within the Visual Studio Editor's blog, cautions that the Consolas font will only look good if you have ClearType enabled. Using the Appearance Tab of the Display applet within the Windows Control Panel you need to ensure that the check box "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts" is checked and that it is set to Clear Type.

Just when you thought C# couldn't look any better...

WinHEC 2006 - Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 Beta 2

At the Microsoft WinHEC 2006 conference in Seattle today, Microsoft announced the release of the Beta 2 milestone binaries for both Windows Vista (Build 5384), Windows "Longhorn" Server (Build 5384), and Office 2007.

As I write this blog entry I'm downloading these binaries and will blog about the quality of these builds once I have had a chance to install them in the next day or so. One thing to note if you're planning on testing Windows Vista on an x64 platform you'll need a DVD burner capable of burning dual layer 8Gb DVD's as the .iso image for the x64 platform is just a touch above the 4.7Gb limit on conventional DVD's.

Update May 24, 2006 - NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 Device Driver Problems

I successfully downloaded both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista Beta 2 last night and today installed the 32-bit version on my Dell Inspiron 9400 laptop which is equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 graphics card. The graphics driver for this device still causes the blue screen of death when I attempt to refresh the performance rating or run any application that uses the more impressive graphics characteristics of Windows Vista such as the new chess application. While I'm sure that NVIDIA will resolve these issues before Windows Vista RTM (release to manufacturing) I would have certainly liked these problems to have been solved for the Beta 2 milestone.

I'll therefore post some screenshots of Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 Beta 2 using my workstation that uses an ATI graphics card instead, these should be available sometime on May 25th 2006.

Update May 25, 2006 - Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 2 Does Not Support Dual Booting Windows Vista Beta 2

So last night I installed Windows Vista Beta 2 and Office 2007 Beta 2 and life was being fairly good to me until I decided that I would install Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 2 onto the second hard drive within the workstation; unfortunately Windows Server "Longhorn" Beta 2 never presents me with a boot menu to enable me to get back to the Windows Vista Beta 2 installation. If anyone reading this knows how to customize the boot loader such that I can see both operating systems when I turn on the machine please e-mail me through this blog and let me know how to do this.

As such the screenshots that I'd previously promised will be slightly delayed while I resolve these issues.

Get the Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" LINQ May CTP

Microsoft wants you to get the "Orcas" LINQ preview code and tell them if you believe they are taking the .net framework in the right direction, including in this preview are C# and VB samples and walkthroughs showing you how the next version of Visual Studio will change the way you develop code.

Windows Vista Build 5381

Windows Vista build 5381 was recently released to beta testers and although it is not due to be released as a CTP build on MSDN subscriber downloads, it appears to be one of the best builds of Windows Vista released to date.

Below are several screen shots from the 64-bit version of Windows Vista build 5381 beginning with one showing the new desktop with several windows being tabbed between using the new tabbing feature (Windows Key + Tab), which makes use of the graphics capabilities of Windows Vista assuming you have an appropriate graphics card.

Windows Vista now includes a performance scoring that is intended to help you determine software that will be, or will not be, supported by the hardware upon which Windows Vista is running.

In Windows Vista build 5381 we also can see the improved graphics available in the Minesweeper and Solitaire games along with a new Chess game.