Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance

http://vs2010quickref.codeplex.com/wikipage

This is one of the greatest overviews of TFS and VSTS.  It is a VSTS Rangers project and I give it high marks for its brevity and simplicity

VS2010 Beta 2 Available

VS 2010 is going Beta 2

Get all the info you need here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/dd582936.aspx

There is going to be Go LIve Support availability!   

Windows 7 is here!

Well, I hope everyone has a great experience with 7.  Personally I have been working with 7 for almost 6 months now, and I think it is a solid product that lays the foundation for exciting things to come.  i think I am going to need a faster machine!

So far VS 2010 plays extremely nice with 7.   Way to go  MS !

Common Question: How many Team System Web Access Users can TFSsupport?

I finally found the answer to this common question.

There  is wonderful post at http://blogs.msdn.com/dstfs/archive/2009/07/02/determining-team-system-web-access-usage-levels.aspx

in which JimSau   references a scalability white paper  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ee378d7b-45c3-4690-bd06-a060cfa43b06&displaylang=en 

To sum it up: Keep it at less  than 100 concurrent TSWA users.  Jim also provides a report to show how many users are accessing the system.

Great Work!

Download TFS2010 Beta 1 Available to the Public!

Go to the link below to download TFS 2010 Beta 1, you will be pleasantly surprised

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=58665c27-7023-4a50-b31d-c39cd86a415f&displaylang=en

TFS features and prominent blogs

One of the blogs with plentiful links and overall TFS information  is Brian Harry's blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry) I have mentioned this blog before, but If you are looking for information on the upcoming TFS 2010,  All I can say is that TFS 2010 is looking better and better by the day, and that there are some new concepts such as Team Project Collections, that will help administrators manage the TFS environment in an easier way.

Many people are dazzled and confused about getting up to speed in TFS 2010 features, I  highly recommend taking a look at the forementioned blog, not only  you get a quick and accurate overview, but also you get info from the epicenter of activity on TFS...

It covers a lot of areas, but mostly you will find information about the following topics

• Work item hierarchy & linking
• Improved Agile template
• MOSS & WSS Dashboards
• Simplified reporting
• Improved support for parallel development
• Rollback
• Build queuing and pooling
• Gated checkin
• Simplified setup
• Scale out of web and data tiers
• Admin console
• Project move/archive/restore

He also lists other blogs that have a focus on specific features such as:

Architecture (http://blogs.msdn.com/camerons/)

• Architecture Explorer
• Layer diagram
• Use case designer
• Activity designer
• Component diagram
• Logical class designer
• Sequence diagram
• Modeling project system
• UML Model explorer
• Architecture validation during build

Development & Database (http://blogs.msdn.com/habibh/)

• Historical debugging
• Test impact analysis
• Improved code analysis
• Improved profiling (especially multi-tier)
• Database extensibility

Lab Management (http://blogs.msdn.com/amit_chatterjee, http://blogs.msdn.com/lab_management)

• Multi-tier Environment creation and management
• Automated deployment
• Easily manage machine pools
• Network fencing
• Checkpoints

Test (http://blogs.msdn.com/amit_chatterjee, http://blogs.msdn.com/james_whittaker)

• Test planning
• Test case management
• Test prioritization
• Run management & reporting
• Project quality reports
• Manual test execution
• Diagnostic recording (environment, video, etc)
• UI Automation recording
• Coded UI tests

A new look for Visual Studio 2010

If you want to get a glimpse of VS 2010 with WPF features take a look at Jason's blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonz/archive/2009/02/20/a-new-look-for-visual-studio-2010.aspx

I like the colors on the right side of the editor, they might seem trivial but I am sure they are useful

Check out theJanuary 2009 CTP of the Windows Azure Tools and SDK

The Jan 2009 ctp release of the Windows Azure tools is here!

• Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio
• Windows Azure SDK

You can also get more info on the Jim Nakashima blog at:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jnak/default.aspx

Links for the new VPCs for VS 2008

Many people keep asking me about the vpc images for VSTS 2008 and 2010. I keep referring them to the Bryan Keller blog, but for some unexplained reason,  people are asking for a direct link. Here you go:

If you missed pdc 08 or a virtual pdc or simply did not have time, almost all the content is published on MSDN, direct links follow:

https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/timeline.aspx

Bryan Keller's blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/briankel/

Microsoft Cloud Computing Tools

Check out this site on how to get started on Microsoft Cloud Computing

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/cc972640.aspx

Check out Brian Harry's blog on VSTS latest

I came across Brian Harry's blog, and it is a treasure trove full of VSTS and Rosario info.

Plus he has the latest on VSTS PDC sessions

Check it out !  

http://blogs.msdn.com/bharry/default.aspx

Tech Ed 2008

I had a great time at the OCS booth during developer's week.

I am looking forward to the IE 8 and Vista Security experience during this week.

Tech Ed 2008 Orlando

If you did not make it to Orlando this year, you still can follow major developments on line

Check out http://www.microsoft.com/techedonline/  !!

The keynote for the developer's week was great   (Bill Gates was here)   but the keynote event for the IT pro week had more attendance.

Out of the many new announcements,  one that caught my attention was the MSL announcement of virtualization certifications.

So now you can be certifiable "virtualized" 

blogging from the 2008 Microsoft MVP Summit

Finally made it to Seattle.  Found a lot of really smart people and uber geeks.

Check out the awesome agenda at  http://mvpsummit2008.com

They have a really cool type of sessions called openspace where you get to hear a lot of interesting ideas

Mix 08

If you could not make it to MIX08 checkout the Kawasaki/Ballmer conversation

http://www.visitmix.com

A cool LINQ learning tool

I came across a cool LINQ learning tool, its called LINQpad and it was written by Joseph Albahari

dowload it here  or go to:   http://www.linqpad.net/

Sorting out VS 2008 product comparisons

A handy link for VS 2008 product comparisons.

A lot of questions pop up regarding specific features

 Check it out   http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc149003.aspx

A good link for people who like Posters.....

I found this interesting blog post containing links to posters about Microsoft technologies.

 I have been carrying around a copy of the C# shortcuts, and I have been unable to memorize them, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the VS 2008 are already out!  

http://blogs.msdn.com/carloc/archive/2007/11/24/posters-posters-and-again-posters.aspx

ms sql team blogs

The following blogs tell the story about SQL Server:

First "Rosario" CTP is out

Well, It has finally arrived and it Rocks!

 If you want the fine print and details check out Jeff Beehler's Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/jeffbe/

 There is a dedicated page on msdn as well:  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/teamsystem/bb725993.aspx

 You can get to the downloads from there!

 Get Inside and cool down using Rosario!