MSDN VisualStudio ALM + TFS blog:

• Visual Studio 2010 Branching Guide – Localized for Japan
• Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guide – Localised for Japan

Codeplex Download:

• Visual Studio 2010 Branching Guide – Localized for Japan
• Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guide – Localised for Japan

ALM Rangers blog:

• Rex Tang drives ALM Ranger guidance localization in Japan!

First, in Windows 7, now the default option for Windows Explorer is to not show the folder list when you open or get into a folder, which is different with that in Vista. I’ve used to have the folder list in left pane so that I can clearly know where I am, therefore I decided to put it back. it’s on the Tools –> Folder Options menu.

Just check that “Show all folders” and “Automatically expand to current folder” and you got the using experience like when you were in Vista.

Second, which bothered me the most, is that I don’t have Image Preview in Windows Explorer. all I got are thumbnails.

After a search, found the problem via this forum post. Yes, I had tweaked settings in my windows explorer, and I DID CHECKED that “Always show icons, never thumbnails”!!

Make sure you UNCHECK this option if you want preview of your image files!

That’s it, wish it help. :)

Before going further, be caution that this is just personal-experience know-how writing, and use at your own risk.

Being testing Visual Studio 2010 beta 1, I am writing some projects under it, also using TFS 2010 beta 1 for source control. when you do this like me, you should experience same problems like me. that is, when you want to hand out your project to your team members, you’ll have to force your team to upgrade to VSTS 2010 beta 1, or you’ll have to manually convert all your vsts 2010 projects/solutions back to vsts2008 ones for exchangeability. when you have tens of projects that compose a solution, it will be tidy to manually create projects and reset the source relationships for vsts2008 again.

so here is the idea, using file-wide string-replacing to convert vsts2010 project/solution files back to vsts2008 ones. I’ve tried it on my own and proved worked. the pre-requisites are that, you only have class library projects, console projects as well as asp.net web projects.

so, here are the necessary replacing strings you need to go through. use editors that support file-wide string-replacement (like Notepad++) to do this. don’t replace those in vsts 2010 or vsts 2008 since you are mainly manipulate solution (.sln) and project (.csproj or .vbproj) files.

for all your project and source files, do the following (find first line and replace to second line):

TargetFrameworkMoniker = ".NETFramework,Version=v2.0"
TargetFramework = "3.5"

# Visual Studio 10
# Visual Studio 2008

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 11.00
Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 10.00

<Project ToolsVersion="4.0"
<Project ToolsVersion="3.5"

<ProductVersion>10.0.20506</ProductVersion>
<ProductVersion>9.0.30729</ProductVersion>

\VisualStudio\v10.0\
\VisualStudio\v9.0\

<Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)\Workflow.Targets" />
<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\Microsoft\Windows Workflow Foundation\v3.5\Workflow.Targets" />

This worked on my solutions, you can try to see if it fit to your cases.

FYI.

Even you've installed SQL Server 2008 and applied SP1, and followed Installation Guide to slipstream TFS 2008 Installation media with TFS SP1 bits, you'll still not able to install TFS, installer will keep telling you that your SQL Server is incompatible!

The solution, via bharry's blog, directed to this KB article, telling you that you have to modify the version check xml setting file in order to let the installer pass through the version check and install it.

Remember to read this before you install your own TFS 2008 SP1 on SQL Server 2008 SP1!!

the key modification points are (from the KB, for reference here):

5. Open the Hcpackage.xml file by using Notepad.

6. Find the following entry:

<WQL namespace="\\.\root\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement10" query="SELECT * FROM sqlserviceadvancedproperty WHERE ServiceName='[%VSTF_SERVICENAME_MSSQL%]' AND PropertyName='VERSION' AND PropertyStrValue&gt;='10.00.1433' AND PropertyStrValue LIKE '10.00.%'" action="=" count="0" />

7. Replace the entry that you found in step 6 with the following entry:

<WQL namespace="\\.\root\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement10" query="SELECT * FROM sqlserviceadvancedproperty WHERE ServiceName='[%VSTF_SERVICENAME_MSSQL%]' AND PropertyName='VERSION' AND PropertyStrValue&gt;='10.00.1433' AND PropertyStrValue LIKE '10.%'" action="=" count="0" />

8. Find the following entry:

<WQL namespace="\\.\root\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement10" query="SELECT * FROM sqlserviceadvancedproperty WHERE ServiceName='[%VSTF_SERVICENAME_MSSQL%]' AND PropertyName='VERSION' AND PropertyStrValue&gt;='10.0.1433' AND PropertyStrValue LIKE '10.0.%'" action="=" count="0" />

9. Replace the entry that you found in step 8 with the following entry:

<WQL namespace="\\.\root\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement10" query="SELECT * FROM sqlserviceadvancedproperty WHERE ServiceName='[%VSTF_SERVICENAME_MSSQL%]' AND PropertyName='VERSION' AND PropertyStrValue&gt;='10.0.1433' AND PropertyStrValue LIKE '10.%'" action="=" count="0" />

10. Find the following entry:

<MsiProductVersionCheck prodid="[%SQLServer2008%]" action="&lt;" version="10.1" />

11. Replace the entry that you found in step 10 with the following entry:

<MsiProductVersionCheck prodid="[%SQLServer2008%]" action="&lt;" version="10.2" />

12. Save the Hcpackage.xml file.

13. Run Setup.exe to install Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server with SP1.

FYI.

reference articles:

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love The AutoUpdate Tool

CRM Client AutoUpdate

will summarize steps here for my later reference.

1. Prepare a web folder to store all the patch exe files.

2. At all client computer, registry path [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSCRMClient] with String value key [AutoUpdateDownloadUrl] that point to the patch download http url (be sure to end with back-slash "/") is needed. using Group Policy or login script to set this will be a good idea.

3. Extract patch exe file with "/x" option and get the [PatchID] GUID from config.xml file.

4. Copy the patch exe file to the web folder for client to install.

5. Prepare AutoUpdate Config xml file of contents like this (save the file and copy to CRM Server):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ClientPatches>
<Create>
    <ClientPatchInfo>
        <PatchId>[PatchId got from config.xml file]</PatchId>
        <Title>[Title of the patch]</Title>
        <Description>[Description of the patch]</Description>
        <IsMandatory>true</IsMandatory>
        <IsEnabled>true</IsEnabled>
        <ClientType>OutlookDesktop,OutlookLaptop</ClientType>
        <LinkId>[patch exe file name, http path is not needed since client got it setup at step 2]</LinkId>
    </ClientPatchInfo>
</Create>
</ClientPatches>

6. At CRM Server, open a cmd window, go to [c:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics CRM\Tools] folder, and run [microsoft.crm.tools.clientpatchconfigurator.exe AutoUpdateConfig.xml] to register the patch.

7. Go to client PC with CRM Outlook Client installed and open Outlook to update the client.

that's it.

FYI.

"Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted (typically under load)."

or error message in Japanese:

"リモート サーバーに接続できません。 通常、各ソケット アドレスに対してプロトコル、ネットワーク アドレス、またはポートのどれか 1 つのみを使用できます。 10.1.1.1:80"

when encounter this, mostly it's likely that the client side is running out the available TCP connection sockets due to that Windows had the default free available socket amount set to 5000 and fast parallel web requests and 240 seconds default TCP TIME_WAIT settings that just occupied all the available sockets in a short interval of time. refer to this and this for detals.

the solution is to increase the available TCP sockets and decrease the TCP TIME_WAIT interval, at client application machine, via the registry settings.

Increase TCP sockets: add or modify the DWORD key to 65534 (the default is 5000)

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\MaxUserPort

Decrease the TCP TIME_WAIT time: add or modify the DWORD key to 30 (default is 240 in seconds)

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\TCPTimedWaitDelay

remember to restart the client machine to let the settings take effect.

by setting this successfully avoid the error and the data import was done smoothly in a fast powerful production CRM server-farm during our testing. from here we are considering to increase the importing-application parallel rank in order to minimize the initial bulk import time for next step...

the other thing to mention is that, actually the same error also occurred when calling CRM services in Plugins. for this, the CRM Web Server are not only acts as the server, but also a client at consuming itself, and thus for the CRM Web Server that has plugins using CRM web services, it maybe a good idea to also do this workaround to prevent socket outage.

FYI.

Major Steps:

1. Using a existing digital signing Certificate or creating a self-signed Certificate.

2. Signing the VSTO ClickOnce manifests with the Certificate.

3. Deploy / Import the Certificate to the client PCs.

4. Using command prompt to install VSTO package silently.

Details as follows:

1. Using a existing digital signing Certificate or creating a self-signed Certificate.

if you are obtaining certificates from existing CA, you may need to obtain the private/public key pairs in order to build the .pfx keypair file.

I am going to use the self-signed certificate to deploy the solution in testing phase. so I'll go the following steps.

I am referencing this post for most instructions: How to create your own code signing certificate and sign an ActiveX component in Windows. will dub a short instructions here for later reference.

a. Get OpenSSL.

b. Create Root CA Certificate.

        openssl genrsa -des3 -out ca.key 4096
        openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -key ca.key -out ca.crt

c. Create Intermediate Server Certificate and signing with Root CA Certificate.

        openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 4096
        openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
        openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -CA ca.crt -CAkey ca.key -set_serial 01 -out server.crt

d. Create .pfx key pair for VSTO ClickOnce manifests AuthentiCode signing.

        openssl pkcs12 -export -out exported.pfx -inkey server.key -in server.crt

e. Just in case, create the .snk public key file for later use.

        sn.exe -p exported.pfx exported.snk

f. You'll now have the following certificate files:

        ca.key: Root CA private key file.
        ca.crt: Root CA public key file.
        server.key: Server Certificate private key file.
        server.csr: Server Certificate public key file.
        server.crt: Server Certificate public key file signed with Root CA key files.
        exported.pfx: the Serve Certificate key pair file for code signing in Visual Studio 2008.
        exported.snk: optional public key .snk file containing server certificate for later use.

g. All you need to later steps are:

        ca.crt: Root CA public key file.
        server.crt: Server Certificate public key file signed with Root CA key files.
        exported.pfx: the Serve Certificate key pair file for code signing in Visual Studio 2008.

2. Signing the VSTO ClickOnce manifests with the Certificate.

using the exported.pfx file to setup VSTO ClickOnce Manifests signing. you can also signing the assembly with this keypair to create Strong Named assembly but it's not necessary to make the silent install work.

3. Deploy / Import the Certificate to the client PCs.

Import those Certificates to every client PC either manually by:

a. Import ca.crt to client PC's Certificate Store, inside "Trusted Root Certificate Authorities".
b. Import server.crt to client PC's Certificate Store, inside "Intermediate Certification Authorities".
c. Import server.crt to client PC's Certificate Store, inside "Trusted Publishers".

or you may also using AD to deploy the Root CA to client PCs. refering to this TechNet article for steps.

4. Install VSTO 3.0 pre-requisites before installing VSTO package.

by referencing this thread of posts, in order to install the VSTO package silently, instead of using the Visual Studio published setup.exe file, need to use the VSTOInstaller.exe with /Silent switch. and by using VSTOInstaller.exe, it won't check the pre-requisites thus needs to install those first to every client PC.

a. .NET Framework 3.5 SP1

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=ab99342f-5d1a-413d-8319-81da479ab0d7&displaylang=en

b. VSTO version 3.0 (x86)

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=54eb3a5a-0e52-40f9-a2d1-eecd7a092dcb&displaylang=en

c. Office PIA 2007 package

when Visual Studio 2008 published office add-in package, there will be Office 2007 PIA installer at publish\Office2007PIARedist\o2007pia.msi for installation and deployment. locate the installer and install it.

4. Using command prompt to install VSTO package silently.

open a command prompt manually or using other auto-deployment ways with the following command to install the VSTO package, sliently without user interference:

c:\> "%commonprogramfiles%\microsoft shared\VSTO\9.0\VSTOInstaller.exe" /I "https://published.server/outlookaddin/OutlookAddin.vsto"/S

the command will return immediately thus you won't know if the installation is succeeded or not. by checking the "Add/Remove Programs" in Control Panel you can see if your VSTO Add-in was installed or not. if it was not installed, remove the /S silent switch and run the VSTOInstaller again to see what's wrong. if there is a warning dialog box appeared saying that you are going to install a component from an "unknown publisher", your client PC certificate import operations may get something wrong and you need to check or re-import them again. if everything was going well you should only run this command and will see the component installed via the control panel. no other user interference is needed.

5. VSTO ClickOnce AutoUpdate.

after .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and VSTO 3.0, now the ClickOnce application have the ability to auto-update itself if new version is published to the server. thus for the first-time install, it's possible to use AD logon script to check and install the VSTO package silently and for later updates, just refresh the server-side file to the latest version and next time when end-user opens Outlook (or other office applications), it will check the latest version from server and install itself if necessary.

FYI.

FYI.

Just tried to re-activate some of my old groove accounts in my other PCs and found that I forget the password set long time ago... (normally inside MS we had internal password policy that we need to change password every few months, this included MSIT managed Groove Server accounts.) As I am able to save my account file from other computers with the latest password set, I am not able to apply that account to my PCs which already got the same account installed. question is how to remove the account which the password is forgotten...

A KB (KB916375) addressed this problem. As a result, you have to delete all the Groove data on that computer and setup all the account again!! follow KB907854 for the instructions of using GrooveClean.exe to clean all the Groove data in a machine and re-setup the accounts you need.

# Re-Get / Transfer the Synchronizer role of a SharePoint File Sync tool

Been searching for a long time, that when you setup a Groove File Sync Tool and syncing files around multiple PCs, how do you transfer the role of Synchronizer around computers?

In this help https://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove/HA102242471033.aspx it described the functionality of a SharePoint File Sync tool and how to use it. although it did explained how to change the sync mode between manual and auto, and the concept of synchronizer, it didn't tell us how to change synchronizer between computers. the answer is that when you want to change synchronizer between computers, you go to the menu in Edit -> Synchronize Now command to force a sync in current computer. if current computer is not in a synchronizer role, it will prompt you that it is going to request the synchronizer role, and once the current synchronizer approved it , the computer who request the role will get the role and become the new synchronizer. If the computer and account who is in the admin role of the workspace, it can also forcefully get the synchronizer role without notice the current synchronizer.

FYI.

As now I am engaging in a Dynamics CRM customization project and am building a common base framework for CRM developing of our vendors, I am also facing this problem. (also others though...)

In David Yack's book "CRM as a Rapid Development Platform", he is using an OO Javascript writing of base classes to be used in crmForm, and to overcome the offline CRM client problem, paste all the base class code in every entities' form's OnLoad event. the idea of writing Javascript code in VS2008 and utilizing intellisence support are pretty good ideas also.

Michael Höhne from Stunnware.com is using another approach to dynamically load javascript files of common sharing client code to the crmForm. Refer to his excellent articles here and here.  Although it's modifying the form.css file to add extended logics, which becomes an unsupported custimization. he minimized the impacts of the side effects so that it can be easily recovered after a hotfix patch or version up of CRM system. notice that this approach may not work in CRM offline environment and may need further works to deploy your javascript codes into client machines.

if your solution will only target in online environment, like mine this time, I think Michael's solution will be a good one to implement. base on what you need, choose the proper solution to make your solution work.

FYI.