ZaydKara

WOW what a way to start 2010!

2 WEEKS (Almost) since i became an MVP for Team System.

On my return from leave on the 4th of January, one of my email subjects read “Congratulations 2010 Microsoft MVP!”.

YES i was awarded with the 2010 Microsoft MVP Award for Team System. My fellow colleague Robert MacLean was also awarded the Team System MVP award, check out his blog here.

Robert and I have been involved in Team System Rangers projects since April last year, working closely with some of the other great MVP’s and community leads on various projects check out the Team System Rangers site.

What are Team System Rangers you ask, well a simple definition is “Team System Rangers deliver out of band solutions for missing features and guidance in the Team System suite of products.”

Check out the rest of the Rangers Solutions and Projects. 

Again a BIG congratulations to all new and renewed MVP’s!

Talking at Dev4Devs

Further to my post regarding Dev4Devs.

With dotnet.org.za experiencing some difficulties we have been unable to post for sometime.

My session “Team Foundation Server on the desktop” for Dev4Devs had made it onto Eben’s blog.

Have nothing to do on Saturday morning or need a break away from the wife, join us for an exciting 3 hours of great sessions.

Sessions as of today:

• Silverlight Game Development - Dave Russell

• 10 things to make you a better developer - Martin Cronje

• Marriage of clients: Async loading of large data blocks with Jquery and web services - Eric Truter

• Managed Extensiblity Framework - Darrel Schreyer

• 10 on 10: 10 highlights of the upcoming Visual Studio 2010 - Robert MacLean

• Raphael Javascript Library - bringing vector graphics to your browser! - Simon Stewart

• Practical implications of the MVVM pattern - Mark Pearl

• Team Foundation Server on the Desktop - Zayd Kara

Also check out Eben's blog for more details.

See u there!

Microsoft has Acquired the Teamprise Client Suite

Microsoft has acquired the Teamprise Client Suite from Teamprise (a division of Source Gear). Along with this acquisition Microsoft has hired most of the development team including the all famous Team System MVP Martin Woodward who brought you Brian “the build” Bunny.

So what is Teamprise?

“Teamprise enables software development teams to use the source control, work item tracking, build, and reporting features of Team Foundation Server from other platforms, including Macintosh and UNIX systems, and from within Eclipse-based IDEs.”

Read all about this at Microsoft Press Pass, Brian Harry's blog and last but not least from Martin Woodward himself.

Some of the points worth mentioning are:

“The Teamprise technology will be available in the Visual Studio 2010 wave". “Customers with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN also will receive the Teamprise Client Suite technology as part of their original subscription purchase.”

Congratulations Martin and everything of the best!

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 Survey

By now most of you should know that Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is available to the general public, if not you can download the bits here.

If you have already downloaded and using it the team would like to hear from you, be it good or bad. Complete the survey here.

For more information you can read Jeff Beehler’s blog here.

Dev4Devs Johannesburg

What is Dev4Devs?

TFS on the desktop: Installing TFS 2010 Beta 2 on Windows 7

Team Foundation Server

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TFS Basic

With the release of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 has introduced a feature called TFS Basic which allows for TFS Server to be installed onto a client operating system like Vista or even Windows 7 to support small development teams.

I had the pleasure of installing this yesterday and let me tell you “WOW”!. Below i will detail step by step screenshot on the installation.

Firstly just to confirm (or prove) that i am installing this on Windows 7 see below:

So my environment is Windows 7 Enterprise x64 bit RTM.

Lets begin with the install:

Click on ‘Setup.exe’

Launches UAC, click on ‘Yes’ to continue

Copies the required resources to the temp directory

I love the new logo, click on Next

As normal shows the components that will be installed and DO NOT forget to READ and accept the license terms. HAHA!

So i selected both the Team Foundation Server and Build Services the installation will start as soon as you click on the Install button

The installation will proceed up until the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 install component

At this point it will force a reboot is this is a dependency for the rest of the components to be installed, click on Restart Now.

After the reboot log back into your system, the Setup will continue, select the option in the far left ‘Launch Team Foundation Server Configuration Tool’ this launches the Configuration Wizard

The new logo and graphics AGAIN!

I was once told by an ex MVP (yes Willy-Peter you know who you are) read before just clicking on Next, Next ….. READ select Basic and click on Start Wizard this will take you to the TFS Server Basic Configuration Wizard Welcome Screen

READ and click on Next where it will commence with the SQL Server Instance configuration.

You can install a new instance ‘SQL Server Express’ or ‘Use an existing SQL Server Instance’, so to keep my installation simple i selected ‘SQL Server Express’, click on Next which takes you to the Review screen, yes because this is a BASIC install

Review all your ONE options which you selected, notice that there is a Verify button i like this it because it does System Check to see if all is in order to begin the installation

The rest of the information below the error, what is nice about this information is that it configures your Internet Information Services for you.

Notice my System Checks failed. Now let me explain why, my laptop is a domain joined computer, i.e. configured to our corporate network. I began the installation at home, so not logged into a domain but working locally on my machine, and it did allow me to continue with my installation. So i hibernated my laptop and decided i would continue my installation when i am back at the office the following morning.

Next morning continued with installation in the office, i was now plugged into the network.

Again did the Verify and as you can see all System Checks Passed, clicked on Configure this commenced the install.

Notice that it indicates what components are complete with configuration, what is in progress and what has not started as yet.

Once all Configuration Process has completed and successful, click on Next.

Provides you with a configuration results page as well as provides you with the URL and the ports to your various sites, no need to guess what these values are anymore:

• Team Foundation Server http://machinename:8080/tfs
• Web Access                  http://machinename:8080/tfs/web

Click on Close and this completes your Team Foundation Server Configuration.

That’s all from me for now!

Until next time!

Windows 7 Launch Open Day in Johannesburg

Furthermore to my Windows 7 launched today. post.

There will be an Windows 7 Launch Open Day(s) which will be held in Johannesburg at the Nelson Mandela Square. You will also get a chance to check out the new model Windows Phones. See below.

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It’s here at last: the official launch of the faster, sleeker, simpler Windows 7, the operating system designed to make your digital life easier than ever before. Microsoft are also releasing the next generation of handsets based on the Windows Phone operating system, which features a new user interface and a richer browsing experience.

Please join us for an inspirational interactive day! You'll never look at your PC or phone in the same way again.

Cheers!

Windows 7 IT’s Alive for the rest of the world

22nd of October 2009, the long awaited Windows 7 operating IS or WILL be available to rest of the world today. If you are a MSDN or Technet subscriber you would have had it available for download already.

If you want to see the features available in the various editions check out http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx.

I have been running Windows 7 since it has been available to MSDN subscribers, and let me tell you IT IS AWESOME!

Enjoy!

Team Foundation Server Install Guide for Visual Studio Team System 2010 Beta 2

The latest Team Foundation Server Installation Guide for VSTS 2010 Beta 2 can be downloaded from the following location: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=2d531219-2c39-4c69-88ef-f5ae6ac18c9f

Includes instructions for both Team Foundation Server and Team Foundation Build Services

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 now available for public download

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 is now available for public download http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010/default.mspx

Free e-book to download: Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2

Chapters at a glance:

Introduction    xvii
Chapter 1    What’s New in Windows Server R2    1
Chapter 2    Installation and Configuration: Adding R2 to Your World    9
Chapter 3    Hyper-V: Scaling and Migrating Virtual Machines    25
Chapter 4    Remote Desktop Services and VDI: Centralizing Desktop and Application Management    47
Chapter 5    Active Directory: Improving and Automating Identity and Access    65
Chapter 6    The File Services Role    91
Chapter 7    IIS 7.5: Improving the Web Application Platform    109
Chapter 8    DirectAccess and Network Policy Server    129
Chapter 9    Other Features and Enhancements    147
Index    163

“Who This Book Is For

This book is targeted primarily at Windows server administrators who are responsible
for hands-on deployment and day-to-day management of Windows-based
servers for large organizations. Windows server administrators manage file and
print servers, network infrastructure servers, Web servers, and IT application
servers.”

Download the XPS format 28 MB or the PDF format 11 MB.

Have a look at the Microsoft Press Blog.

Busy downloading as we speak cannot wait to check out Chapter 8 Direct Access specifically!

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 is here!

Blogs posts have been flying regarding the release of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 but it is currently ONLY available for MSDN subscribers. Rest of the world will have to wait until Wednesday 21st October 2009.

You can also watch a video posted by Brian Keller titled “10-4-Episode-33-Downloading-and-Installing-Visual-Studio-2010-Beta-2” here. 

While you at it check out the re-launched newly designed MSDN Site. Let them know what you think here.

Check out Somasegar's blog they even have a countdown to the launch scheduled for the 22nd of March 2010.

Cheers!

Sysinternals Disk2VHD v1.0 available for download

“Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs).”

As Ben Armstrong aka "virtual PC Guy" puts it the “poor mans P2V” tool.

Check out the Sysinternals Blog.

You can also download the tool at here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx

I have downloaded the tool, I am itching to try this out!

Cheers!

Welcome Microsoft MVP Rudi Grobler to BB&D

Barone, Budge & Dominick and the ATC team especially would like to welcome Microsoft MVP for Client Application Development Rudi Grobler.

You have joined one of the great teams in BB&D and you will soon figure out what a crazy bunch we really are!

Check out his blog and his post A new beginning.

All i can say is keep those pills handy!

Team Foundation Beta 2 to have a “go live” license

Brian Keller published a blog post titled “Get ready to “go live” with Team Foundation Server 2010 beta 2!” check it out here. No mention of the release date of Beta 2 was made available as yet! The Team Foundation Server product team has put together some great “rough’” guidance to help prepare for  Beta 2. Available in Word and PowerPoint format, both can be downloaded form Brian’s skydrive, location available on blog post.