July 2005 - Posts
[Via the IE Blog] The IE team has made Internet Explorer 7 available for beta testing. Check out the technical overview and the anti-phishing white paper. More info can be found in this IE Blog post.
Please note that this first beta is not intended for broad consumer trial and evaluation.
Jelle Druyts, member of the Belgian .NET community, has his article linked in the second issue of the BetaExperience newsletter. In the article Jelle talks about the enhancements in Visual Studio 2005 while developing the WeFly247 project. Read his thoughts on refactoring, datatips & visualizers, partial classes, nullable types, the new provider model etc.!
Peter Himschoot, Microsoft Regional Director in Belgium, has written an article on writing ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts. The article, a summary of his TechEd 2005 Europe talk, is a great way to get started building custom web parts.
Bart De Smet, a Belgian MVP for Visual C#, has started the install of Windows Vista in Virtual PC. He blogs his first experiences here and here.
And finally Tom Mertens, currently at the Imagine Cup Finals in Japan, has fun with the first beta of Acrylic, an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool.
A couple of week ago the SQL Server 2005 June Community Technology Preview Readiness Kit has been made available publicly. You can still order the kit at https://www.previewsqlserver2005.com/profile.aspx.
Now the CTP June Refresh edition of the SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor - on which I blogged earlier - is downloadable from the Microsoft download center. This new version contains additional rules, support for scanning batch files, command line support and usability improvements. Customers using earlier versions of the Upgrade Advisor should check this version out to make sure their database servers upgrade to SQL Server 2005 will run smoothly.
The Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Upgrade Advisor is a tool used by Database developers and administrators to analyze SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 database servers in preparation for upgrading to SQL Server 2005. The Upgrade Advisor will allow users to analyze the configuration of their existing database services and database applications. As a result of this analysis, Upgrade Advisor will provide reports that identify deprecated features and necessary configuration changes that will impact their Database upgrade process. Upgrade Advisor will also provide links to documentation that describe these changes and necessary steps to complete the process.
Today, Windows Vista Beta 1 is being delivered to select Beta testers via the Windows Vista Technical Beta Program, MSDN developer program and Microsoft TechNet.
Software developers can start start building applications for Windows Vista with this release. All developer-related information for Windows Vista can be found on the newly launched MSDN Windows Vista homepage.
The focus of Windows Vista Beta 1 is on the “fundamentals”: security, deployment, manageability and reliability & diagnostics. Windows Vista Beta 1 is primarily an infrastructure release and as it's a beta release it does not contain all of the end-user features. These end-user features will be included in Beta 2.
Developers will be able to leverage their Win32 and .NET Framework development skills to build applications using the full beta 1 of the WinFX Runtime Components, formerly code-named the "Microsoft Pre-Release Software Code Named “Avalon” and “Indigo” Beta1 RC".
With the arrival of beta 1 of the WinFX Runtime Components the codenames "Avalon" and "Indigo" have received their final names: Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly “Avalon”),