Nitish Jain's Blog https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/feed.xml Tue, 16 Apr 2019 05:51:08 GMT en-US hourly 1 Visual Studio Package Restore Option and Custom NuGet Repository https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/visual-studio-package-restore-option-and-custom-nuget-repository Thu, 23 May 2013 02:35:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2013/05/23/visual-studio-package-restore-option-and-custom-nuget-repository/

This post was published to Nitish Jain's Blog at 3:05:54 PM 5/23/2013

Visual Studio Package Restore Option and Custom NuGet Repository

 

 

Recently, I was reviewing Visual Studio package restore option and trying to see if it can be auto-enabled for a custom project template.

 

The scenario was that the organization was interested in enforcing usage of only approved packages for developed (so they were interested in a creating a custom nuget repository) and on top of it they were creating a custom multi project template. They wanted the generated project(s) to be pre-configured with custom nuget repository. In enabling this, they additionally wanted to review “Enabled Package Restore” option and its benefits.

 

In revising the same, several questions crossed my mind. I thought of writing them down as FAQ.

 

 

What is package restore and why should I use it?

The original NuGet workflow has been to commit the Packages folder into source control. For some scenarios involving large dependencies, committing binaries can grow the repository size like crazy over time, making cloning more and more painful.

You can use NuGet without committing packages to source control. Under this option, the dependencies will be downloaded to configured repository as a part of build. This option is named “Enable Package Restore” for visual studio. Refer http://docs.nuget.org/docs/workflows/using-nuget-without-committing-packages for more details.

 

When should I use it?

When you have large set of dependencies and you want to avoid keeping them in source control.

 

How should I use it ?

You can use it just by enabling “Enable Package Restore” on solution. In addition to this, beginning with NuGet 2.0, restoring packages during build requires explicit consent from the user. This must be done on each machine that builds the project. The option to give consent in the UI can be found Tools-> Options-> Package Manager-> General : "Package Restore : Allow NuGet to download missing packages during build".

Please make sure NuGet is up-to-date in Tools->Extension Manager.

 

Visual Studio seems to provide an option to enable nuget manager to download packages during build. How do I enable such option on all developer machines? What happens on a build machine where Visual Studio is not available?

You can give consent by setting the EnableNuGetPackageRestore Environment variable to true.

 

What changes does it make to my projects/solutions?

It adds a solution folder named .nuget containing NuGet.exe and a NuGet.targets MsBuild file. It also changes every project in the solution to import the NuGet.targets MsBuild task.  I see with latest version, import statement for nugget.targets is added for only those projects where packages.config exists. Yes, for new projects on which nuget is enabled by default, it seem to be adding the import statement.

 

Why does it add nuget.exe to the solution (.nuget folder). Should I commit this folder to TFS. If yes, Why? I thought TFS is only for code and tools are not to be kept in repository?

The point behind committing the .nuget folder to the repository is that you can set up your solution to use package restore, using the exact same version of nuget.exe you installed when enabling this feature.

Your project files depend on the nuget.targets MSBuild instructions that use nuget.exe, and both files are considered linked together because the MSBuild instructions use the nuget.exe API. It's perfectly possible to end up with a different version of nuget.exe and nuget.targets one day. It uses the NuGet.Build and NuGet.Commandline packages under the hood. That's also the reason why package restore is typically set up once for the solution, and not by every developer individually.

Also, you won't need to install nuget.exe on each build server, and your build server can build solutions with different versions of nuget.exe, which is an added benefit that requires no additional effort. 

 

If I commit nuget.exe to the source control, what happens when a newer version of nuget.exe is available?  How does it play on the build machine where only one version can be installed?

You don't necessarily have to commit nuget.exe to source control. NuGet.targets allows to download the latest NuGet.exe from nuget.org if it's missing. However this option is disabled by default. You can turn on this by changing DownloadNuGetExe in NuGet.Targets

<DownloadNuGetExe Condition=" '$(DownloadNuGetExe)' == '' ">true</DownloadNuGetExe>

 

Refer http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10111441/is-there-a-way-to-automatically-update-nuget-exe-in-the-nuget-folder-when-using

 

However just by updating the nuget.exe doesn’t automatically update the targets and configuration that was kept for the solution.  You can choose to explicitly update it by issues update command to nuget.exe and then changing configuration etc. Updates to nuget.exe are not very common and for the sake for avoiding challenges related to maintaining multiple nuget.exe versions, keeping the exe with source control can be considered a good practice.

 

If my organization uses a custom repository/source, how do I enable it? Can the package configuration (package source/package repository) be localized to a solution? Can default package source be abandoned?

Yes, using package configuration of the form. Note POC for this should be conducted. For details refer http://docs.nuget.org/docs/reference/nuget-config-file

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<configuration>

  <config>

    <add key="repositorypath" value="$\External\Packages" />

    <add key="DefaultPushSource" value="http://MyPrivateRepo/ES/api/v2/package" />

  </config>

  <packageSources>

    <clear /> <!-- ensure only the sources defined below are used -->

    <add key="MyPrivateRepo - ES" value="http://MyPrivateRepo/ES/nuget" />

  </packageSources>

<packageRestore>

    <add key="enabled" value="True" />

  </packageRestore>

</configuration>

 

 

Does nuget.exe allow me customize the location where packages are kept? Can these downloaded packages be shared across solutions?

Refer repository configuration in above question. For details refer http://docs.nuget.org/docs/reference/nuget-config-file 

 

What are known challenges in using it?

NuGet Package Restore doesn't play well with multi-sln projects. Refer http://nuget.codeplex.com/discussions/431666

 

How can I programmatically enable nuget package restore on a solution?

No, https://twitter.com/rammesses/status/299569559315283968

 

How do create custom project/solution template with “Enable Package Restore” enabled by default?

Use multi project template with wizard and artificially recreate the .nuget folder and its contents. This pre-configured content can be embedded in the template generation wizard. (POC needed)

 

In a custom VS template, what all options are available me to package dependencies?

The template needs to specify where to find the package nupkg files. Currently three package repositories are supported:

  1. Packages embedded inside of a VSIX package.
  2. Packages embedded inside of the project/item template itself.
  3. Packages installed on hard drive, with a registry key referencing the path.

Refer http://docs.nuget.org/docs/reference/packages-in-visual-studio-templates

 

Can “Enable Package Restore” be enabled by default for projects generated through custom project templates?

Yes, through a multi project template, you can create a solution, which has Package Restore enabled by default. Though given a sln file, programmatically you cannot enable this option, but you should be able to add files and make similar changes, which are otherwise performed by VS when this option is enabled manually. That means, through the wizard, you need to create a .nuget directory and place nuget.exe, targets and config file with it. Additionally the csproj file for the generated projects should have enable pacakage restore enabled by default.

 

 

]]> Roslyn development environment setup and ramp-up plan https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/roslyn-development-environment-setup-and-ramp-up-plan Thu, 23 May 2013 01:24:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2013/05/23/roslyn-development-environment-setup-and-ramp-up-plan/ Roslyn Installation

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34685

Ramp-up

You may want to read following links in order to get started.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/hh500769

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/302595/Roslyn-CTP-Three-Introductory-Projects

Do not forget to look at the installed code samples. These samples are installed along with Roslyn CTP and are located at C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Microsoft Roslyn CTP - September 2012\

Environment setup- Tools

Syntax Visualizer extension

Feature

Syntax Visualizer extension allows user to view the syntax tree of any code in the Roslyn instance. You can use following command to open the Roslyn instance

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe" /rootSuffix Roslyn

and then view the syntax tree in VS Roslyn instance as follows:

 

 

 

Installation

Syntax Visualizer extension is available in Roslyn CTP samples located under the user documents directory. To install this sample, just complile the solution located at

C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Microsoft Roslyn CTP - September 2012\Shared\SyntaxVisualizerExtension\SyntaxVisualizerExtension.sln

SyntaxDebuggerVisualizer

SyntaxDebuggerVisualizer allows user to view the syntax tree in the quick-view debugger window. As follows:


To install SyntaxDebuggerVisualizer, compile the solution located at

C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Microsoft Roslyn CTP - September 2012\Shared\SyntaxDebuggerVisualizer\SyntaxDebuggerVisualizer.sln

and place the output under

C:\Users\njai0\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Visualizers


Roslyn Code Quoter

Roslyn Code Quoter Tool - generating syntax tree API calls that result in a given C# program. The tool is helpful especially in node generation and replacement. The tool and its installation instructions can be found at

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Roslyn-Code-Quoter-f724259e

]]> Dev community news https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/dev-community-news Wed, 08 May 2013 23:28:45 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2013/05/08/dev-community-news/ Some recent news from industry

]]> Great Links for TFS 2010 Build https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/great-links-for-tfs-2010-build Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:53:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2010/02/01/great-links-for-tfs-2010-build/ Build Information - Customizing what is displayed

http://blogs.msdn.com/patcarna/archive/2009/11/17/tfs-2010-customizing-build-information.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/patcarna/archive/2009/11/19/tfs-2010-customizing-build-information-part-2.aspx

 

Build Information - Customizing How it is displayed

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/12/21/tfs-2010-displaying-custom-build-information-in-visual-studio.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/12/22/tfs2010-changing-the-way-build-information-is-displayed.aspx

 

Custom Process Parameters

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/12/23/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-1.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/12/23/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-2-metadata.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2010/01/18/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-3-custom-editors.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2010/01/18/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-4-custom-types.aspx

 

How to create and load add-ins in Visual Studio .NET

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/816167

 

Writing Custom Activities

http://blogs.msdn.com/aaronhallberg/archive/2009/06/01/writing-custom-activities-for-tfs-build-2010-beta-1.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/patcarna/archive/2009/12/04/introduction-to-windows-workflow-4-0.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/buckh/archive/2010/01/21/deep-dive-on-windows-workflow-4-0-activities.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/patcarna/archive/2010/01/19/windows-workflow-4-0-workflow-instance-extensions.aspx

 

Building .NET 4.0 Applications Using Team Build 2008

http://blogs.msdn.com/willbar/archive/2009/11/01/building-net-4-0-applications-using-team-build-2008.aspx

 

Custom Build Process Parameters

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/12/23/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-1.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/12/23/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-2-metadata.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2010/01/18/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-3-custom-editors.asPx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2010/01/18/tfs-2010-custom-process-parameters-part-4-custom-types.aspx

 

WPF Flow Documents

Basics: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970909.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/01/07/wpf-flowdocuments-when-why-how.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/04/23/collapsiblesection-hiding-paragraphs-until-the-user-wants-to-see-them-in-a-flowdocument.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/jpricket/archive/2009/01/07/wpf-documents-indenting-paragraphs.aspx

 

MISC

http://blogs.msdn.com/jimlamb/archive/2009/11/03/upgrading-tfs-2008-build-definitions-to-tfs-2010.aspx

 

TFS 2010 Documentation

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vsx

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/TfsSdk

 

 

-------Blog Rolls-----------

Load Testing

Team Foundation General

Team System General

Team System Web Access

TFS Build

TFS Migration

TFS Reporting

TFS Setup & Admin/Ops

TFS Version Control

TFS Work Item Tracking

]]> Exchange 2010 !! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/exchange-2010 Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:43:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2009/04/17/exchange-2010/

The beta for Exchange Server 2010 is now public. Here’s a look at some of the new features that are designed to save you time.  

 

Exchange 2010 aims to deflate swollen inboxes and to make sure you don’t lose any I-have-got-to-jump-on-that mail.

 The team has focused on the three Ps: productivity, or getting the most out of e-mail; protection, or making sure e-mail chatter doesn’t leak into the wrong hands; and performance, or making sure the server doesn’t let you down when you’re trying to move mail from folder to folder. The result is a product that is designed to make life a little bit easier in the face of nonstop inbox inundation.

 

Ignore Thread button/Conversation View

All mail will be grouped by conversation in Exchange 2010. That means all e-mail threads that are related will appear as one mail in your inbox (you will be notified when the thread is updated). This feature is already built into Exchange but is mostly unused. In Exchange 2010, it gets even better. Rather than presenting e-mail item by item, Conversation View groups messages and instantly cuts down on clutter.

 

Conversation View also helps cut down on clutter with the Ignore Conversation button. When you quickly realize that a conversation doesn’t matter to you, click Ignore Conversation. All future e-mails from that conversation will automatically be deleted. No need to waste any more time reading messages that aren’t important.  

 

Making E-mail ‘Oops Proof’

 Exchange’s MailTips will help make e-mail “oops proof,” or at least will limit the number of accidental messages sent. For example, when you’re about to send an e-mail to a huge group of people, you’ll get a quick reminder before you click Send. A message will also let you know if the e-mail is going to anyone external, so you don’t accidentally forward sensitive info.

 

MailTips also will cut down on time spent composing e-mails that have no value. Notifications will let you know when a recipient is OOF (out of the office) or an attachment is too large to be delivered. 

 

Other Timesavers

Exchange has a host of other tools to help boost productivity, such as the voice mail speech-to-text preview.

 Calendar sharing is another useful feature that gets an upgrade in Exchange 2010. You now will be able to share calendars externally with business partners or with friends and family.

 

And the frustration at receiving an information rights management (IRM) e-mail—the ones that warn “Do Not Forward” in Outlook—is gone. Before, Outlook Web Access users weren’t able to read those messages without installing an application on their client machine. Now, Outlook Web Access will natively support reading and composing rights-managed mail.

 

]]> Build, Release and Deploy On Demand https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/build-release-and-deploy-on-demand Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:34:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2009/04/17/build-release-and-deploy-on-demand/ Some people might ask me where I have been for past couple of months. I was like damn busy with the release of a TFS extensibility solution. The solution is now released and will be available with MCS TFS engagement.

It extends the OOB TFS features with extended Build, Release and Deploy capabilities.

For Build, we extended TFS Build to provide additional OOB (Out of Box) functionality like automatic documentation, automatic packaging, and solution level versioning and signing, automatic project dependency resolution. To configure and enable all these features, we have Extensible UX wizard which even provide UI for your own features (say additional verification checks for build artifacts).

Current version of TFS doesn’t provide OOB capabilities to release a build to Dev/Test/Production environments seeking appropriate approvals before release.  We extended TFS to provide OOB capabilities while defining multilevel parallel/sequential approval workflows for Release and support for auditing all activities as well.

Then we took this effort forward to automatically deploy the Approved Release Build to requested environments. This includes automated deployment to one or more servers using workflows. Also we provide complete Result Administration, Job Administration and multiple other reporting features with lot of extensibility. The name of the solution is Build, Release and Deploy, On Demand!!

Even from the next version of TFS point of view (code named Rosario), Workflow is the way to go. It provides full control on the remote machine with respect to deployment while providing OOB programming model, OOB reusability using Activities and threading, compensation and other control for deployment. We do provide OOB set of activities for Poweshell Script, Windows Script, Jscript and Batch Script execution. No more wrangling your head with arcane errors of Batch Script J

]]> Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 and “Dublin” Announcement https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/microsoft-net-framework-4-0-and-dublin-announcement Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:11:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2008/10/03/microsoft-net-framework-4-0-and-dublin-announcement/

Microsoft announced via Steven Martin’s blog significant improvements to the existing Windows Server capabilities in the form of enhancements to both the .NET Framework and extensions to the application server role, codenamed “Dublin”.

 

Following are new set of enhancements which you may see in .NET 4.0 and Window Server application server role enhancements code named “Dublin”.

 

§  Windows Communication Foundation 4.0:  Microsoft is adding new capabilities to WCF to further simplify the creation of RESTful services, including REST Singleton & Collection Services, ATOM Feed and Publishing Protocol Services, and support for an HTTP Plain XML Service.  Additional messaging and correlation enhancements enable customers to work with the most recent transports and protocols.  By further extending WCF to enable seamless integration between WF and WCF and enabling a unified XAML model, developers can build an entire application in declarative XAML code from presentation to data to services to workflow.

§  Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0:  Applications built using WF will realize significant improvements in performance (on the order of ten-fold performance enhancements) and scalability.  There are also new workflow models and pre-built activities (PowerShell, messaging, etc.). An updated visual designer will be easier to use by developers to use and be easier to rehost by ISVs.

§   “Dublin”: This consists of a set of enhancements to Windows Server application server capabilities that – when combined with WCF/WF 4.0 –represent a major step forward for our application server. “Dublin” will offer greater scalability and easier manageability, and will extend Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide a standard host for applications that use workflow or communications. 

 

Taken together, these enhancements will extend the power of Microsoft’s application server and simplify the development, deployment, configuration, management, and scalability of composite applications. 

 

Key Features

Windows Communication Foundation 4.0

Windows Workflow
Foundation 4.0

Windows Server
"Dublin" technologies

RESTful enhancements

·   Simplifying the building of REST Singleton & Collection Services, ATOM Feed and Publishing Protocol Services, and HTTP Plain XML Services using WCF

·   WCF REST Starter Kit to be released on Codeplex to get early feedback

Messaging enhancements

·   Transports - UDP, MQ, Local in-process

·   Protocols - SOAP over UDP, WS-Discovery, WS-BusinessActivity, WS-I BP 1.2

·   Duplex durable messaging

Correlation enhancements

·   Content and context driven, One-way support

Declarative Workflow Services

·   Seamless integration between WF and WCF and unified XAML model

·   Build entire application in XAML, from presentation to data to services to workflow

 

Significant improvements in performance and scalability

·   Ten-fold improvement in performance

New workflow flow-control models and pre-built activities

·   Flowcharts, rules

·   Expanded built-in activities – PowerShell, database, messaging, etc.

Enhancements in workflow modeling

·   Persistence control, transaction flow, compensation support, data binding and scoping

·   Rules composable and seamlessly integrated with workflow engine

Updated visual designer

·   Easier to use by end-users

·   Easier to rehost by ISVs

·   Ability to debug XAML

Provide standard host for WF and WCF applications   

Pre-built developer services

·   Message-based correlation

·   Message forwarding service

·   Content-based message routing

·   Compensation service for long-running transactions

Greater scalability and easier manageability

·   Enable scale-out of stateful workflow applications

·   Persisting and rehydrating state for high scalability

·   Enhanced management and monitoring functions

·   Tracking store for workflow events

Supports “Oslo” modeling platform

 

 

For Additional Information, Visit

§  Steven Martin Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/stevemar/default.aspx

§  Overview of WF 4.0, WCF 4.0, and Windows Server “Dublin”

]]> SaveFileDialog doesnt show up in Vista https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/savefiledialog-doesnt-show-up-in-vista Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:11:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2008/08/28/savefiledialog-doesnt-show-up-in-vista/ Recently I was writing an Add-In for Visual Studio 2008 and I came across requirement for saving a file as an Excel file. No big deal as it looked to me!!  

I happily wrote the helper function, but to surprise, it didn’t work on Vista SP1 while it was working on Windows Server 2003. The dialog box never shows up and surprisingly, not even an exception was thrown! (Maybe it would be throwing unmanaged exception, I didn’t catch that)

I thought it’s something to do with LUA (Least User Access, Vista Security you know!), vista doesn’t directly allow write access to windows drive (i.e. C :\), so I changed the initial directory. But still it’s the same.

Then I realized that SaveFileDialog (all FileDialog Childs for that matter) requires higher trust level (for full write access on the drive) otherwise it’s a security issue, you start with some directory as initial directory and navigate to some other directory fool user to click on some malicious program. That makes sense to me, I thought maybe as visual studio add-in my application was running with lower trust level so dialog box doesn’t open up. I opened caspol and again assigned full trust to my signed assembly (though it was already running with full trust), hoping it would help, I tried again and but hit the roadblock and the same problem!!

I search, couldn’t get much, so after lot of hit and trail found that these three properties did the trick.

            DialogSave.ShowHelp = true;

            DialogSave.CreatePrompt = true;

            DialogSave.OverwritePrompt = true;

 

Couldn’t find much on internet regarding this, so posting now…

Here is the code that worked for me J

        private static string CreateNewFile()

        {

            string filepath = "";

            SaveFileDialog DialogSave = new SaveFileDialog();

            DialogSave.DefaultExt = "xls";

            DialogSave.Filter = "Excel file (*.xls)|*.xls|All files (*.*)|*.*";

            DialogSave.AddExtension = true;

            DialogSave.RestoreDirectory = true;

            DialogSave.Title = "Where do you want to save the RTM report?";

            DialogSave.InitialDirectory = @"C:/";

 

            DialogSave.ShowHelp = true;

            DialogSave.CreatePrompt = true;

            DialogSave.OverwritePrompt = true;

 

            if (DialogSave.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)

            {

                filepath = DialogSave.FileName;

            }

 

            DialogSave.Dispose();

            DialogSave = null;

            return filepath;

        }

 

]]> Red Gate Acquires .NET Reflector https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/red-gate-acquires-net-reflector Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:24:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2008/08/28/red-gate-acquires-net-reflector/ Our beloved .NET Reflector is now acquired by Red-Gate Software...

An agreement between Red Gate and Lutz Roeder will place future development of .NET Reflector, the popular class browser for .NET developers, in the hands of Red Gate. Red Gate is maintaining a free version of the software for downloading at http://reflector.red-gate.com.

Check out the news at http://dotnet.sys-con.com/node/649584

Hats off to Lutz Roeder for developing a great tool!!

]]> IE8 Beta2 is out !!! https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/nijain/ie8-beta2-is-out Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:15:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nijain/2008/08/28/ie8-beta2-is-out/ Today Microsoft released Beta2 of Internet Explorer 8. The browser is available in English, German, Simplified Chinese and Japanese, and will follow with another 21 languages in mid-September.  You can download IE8 Beta 2 now at http://ww.microsoft.com/ie8.

 

To get a feel for the new IE8 experience, check out the videos here, download the product, and try it out.  

Following are the notable features…

 

·        Accelerators - Highlight an address, click the blue button and hover over “Map” or try Right Clicking a Page and Choosing Translate with Windows Live. Check out the new IE Gallery that has cool accelerators and slices from Digg to FaceBook to Ebay

·        Web Slices - Visit Live Search, search for “Seattle Weather” (or major city relevant to your region), hover over the rich search result and click the green button.  Click it to add a Weather Web Slice to your Favorites Bar.

·        Search Suggestions - Go to your Instant Search Box (top right) and type a search to see search suggestions in action.

·        Navigation - Use the new Smart Address Bar to quickly find sites you’ve visited before.  The Smart Address Bar searches your history, favorites AND feeds for pages that match what you’re typing.

·        Security:  IE8 has the best security features in the market today from its updated Smartscreen phishing and malware filter to domain highlighting to the industry leading cross-site scripting filter so I feel my machines, my identity and my family will be safer on the Internet.

]]>