DevBlog

I've stated several times that Vista and Longhorn will be the last 32 bit operating systems from Microsoft. Time will tell if that holds true on the client, but it will certainly be the case on the server. In a recent interview with CNet, Bob Muglia, Microsoft's Vice President for Servers and Tools said, "Looking into the future, we will ship Longhorn (the next version of Windows Server) in the second half of next year, and we will ship a 32-bit and a 64-bit version. That will be the last time we ship a 32-bit version. From that point, the next release, which will be roughly two years later, that product will only be available as 64-bit."

Rick Borup blogs that he didn't have to reboot after installing Office 2007. So, were my install problems just me? Was it because I had previously installed a beta release? Wis it because Rick upgraded over his previous Office 2003 install and I didn't? Whatever it was, I hope Microsoft can fix it.

Outlook 2007 uses Windows Desktop Search to quickly search through emails. It's simple enough to install. Just click the link in the Outlook Inbox. However, it too, required a reboot. If you missed it in the previous post, I'll say it again. APPLICATONS SHOULD NEVER, EVER REQUIRE A REBOOT.

I installed Office 2007 on my primary Windows XP. It did not go smoothly. First, I uninstalled Beta 2, but everytime I tried running setup, I kept getting the message that there were still beta components installed. After searching the Microsoft KnowledgeBase, I found an article that said I had to also uninstall the CTP of Expression Web Designer. Who would have thought it was an Office component. After that, Office installed smoothly. However, it required a reboot at the end. I'll say it again. APPLICATION INSTALLS SHOULD NEVER, EVER REQUIRE A REBOOT.

I am blogging this from my freshly installed version of Windows Vista Ultimate. I was surprised to get the email late Thursday that because I was a technical beta tester for Windows Vista and reported a bug that I was getting a free copy of Windows Vista. I chose Vista Ultimate and proceeded to download. I don't know if all the other beta testers were downloading or there was a problem with my connection, but I couldn't get speeds better than 40K on my high speed cable connection. I just let it run all night. When I got up Friday morning, it was done. I burned it to disk and got a CD Key (this will come back to bite me later).

I decided that I wasn't ready to take the full plunge into Vista yet. While I did some testing with Beta 1, I hadn't done anything with it since. So, I decided that I would buy a new hard drive and dual boot. Yesterday I went to CompUSA and purchased a new Maxtor 320Gig SATA II drive.

This morning I went through the following install steps:
1. Shutdown Windows XP and install the new drive.
2. Reboot into XP to make sure the new drive was installed and working. I ran the Maztor utilities to partition the drive into a single partition.
3. Reboot to the Windows Vista install DVD.
4. Attempted to enter the product key. I was told it was invalid.
5. Reboot to XP. Find the email from the Microsoft Connect team. It says to install Vista without the key. That would give me 30 days to work with it, but I should have the key within a week.
6. Reboot to the Vista install DVD. Click next when asked for the product key. The install process started.
7. Then I got an error message that a file couldn't be read from the DVD. Looks like the disk is bad.
8. Reboot to XP.
9. Burn a new DVD.
10. Reboot to new Vista install DVD.
11. Go through the install steps.
12. At some point, the PC rebooted and I was met with a dual boot prompt. I choose Vista.
13. Vista boots!!!
14. Setup Administrator account and standard user account for me.
15. Log on as me. Post blog entry.

All told, it took about 90 minutes but that's with all the reboots back to XP, burning a new DVD, and installing the new hard drive. Rick Strahl has commented that it took him about 20 minutes to get Vista up and running. I think the actual Vista process for me, once I got the new DVD and drive installed, was probably about the same amount of time. This was definately the simplest Windows install process ever.

By now, you've probably heard that .Net 3.0 has been released. That means it's really time to start digging into Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and Windows CardSpace. I'm already working through WPF.

So, what do you need to get started?
- Visual Studio 2005
- .Net 3.0 Framework
- Visual Studio Extensions for .Net Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF) (Codename Cider) You only need this for WPF/WCF.
- Visual Studio Extensions for .Net Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation) You only need this for WF.

I also suggest you get the Microsoft® Windows® Software Development Kit for Windows Vista™ and .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components.

You do NOT need Windows Vista to run this. It will all run on Windows XP, although some features only run on Vista and Windows 2003 Server.

I was in Germany last week for the German VFP DevCon. As always, Rainer put on a specatular meal. If you've ever been, you'll understand. If not, the food seems to never end. It's as if it's one big meal starting Wednesday night and ending early Sunday. Oh yeah.. the conference was fabulous too. It was great to connect with old friends and make new ones too. I hope to make it back next year. For those of you waiting for my speaker notes, they'll be sent to Rainer tonight. I suspect he'll have them posted in the next day or two.