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Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category

Finally: Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps RTM has been released on MSDN!

Done yet? Nope! SharePoint 2010 RTM has now been released on MSDN.

Next: Microsoft Project 2010 RTM has been released to MSDN.

Turning into a busy morning for my Internet connection.

Microsoft released Visio 2010 on MSDN.

MS Office 2010 Professional Plus RTM released on MSDN.

That’s right, it just posted this morning… go get some!

Both the x64 and x86 versions are up.

VS 2010 and .NET 4.0 have just been posted on MSDN…. GO GET SOME!

Wow, apparently I have been distracted by The Secret World and missed entirely the upcoming release of DataGrid for WPF v3.6. But none the less, here it is, fresh clean and ready to display your data in a narly boutique of love!

According to the release notes there are several new features:

• Xceed DataGrid for WPF Professional Edition v3.6 an innovative new group navigation control in the Tableflow™ view that greatly increases the datagrid’s usability. A first in any WPF datagrid, it lets the end-user go instantly to any group or sub-group with a single click in a combo box.
• Print preview capabilities let the end-user see what a document will look like before printing it—page view and layout configurations are reflected in the preview. The preview is generated in the background, so there is no waiting for the entire preview.
• HP’s QuickTest Professional (QTP) is now supported, allowing for automated UI testing.
• Multi-selection is now available when using the virtualizing collection view; an added benefit is that implementing drag-and-drop is easier than ever before.
• A vibrant new Windows 7 theme and the theme used in Xceed DataGrid for WPF Live Explorer.
• Scrolling speed has been improved when dealing with non-virtualized data sources (100,000 rows and up): the more rows in the source, the greater the improvement.
• Cells can now be selected (single, multiple, and extended modes), in addition to the standard row selection; as a result, end-users can select and copy blocks of cells like in Excel.
• Various cursors in different views—such as “busy”, “resize”, and “drag” cursors—can be customized.
• Several bug fixes.

I’m looking close at these new themes they mention. Lets see here…

Here are a couple images of the new themes, however nasty they look in PingNotifyXT is simply because the rest of the app doesn’t follow a theme with them. That can be easily fixed by either adding Xceed’s WPF theme pack or by editing the theme yourself in Microsoft Expression Blend.

3.6 Theme Options Dialog

PingNotifyXT running Live Explorer Theme.

Windows 7 Theme in Theme Options.

PingNotifyXT running Windows 7 theme.

So head on out as quick as you can and get this latest release!

LINK

Time to go complete your Dell Windows 7 Free Upgrade order! Since Windows 7 has officially launched, the Dell upgrade site is most likely inundated with requests. I managed to complete my order and receive a confirmation email of the order. But it took a good 15 minutes to make it through the four page site.

So to add to the misery of Dell, EVERYONE needs to go order their Windows 7 kit. If you registered your system that came with a free upgrade, now is the time, go go go!

The next version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system has officially launched!
Windows 7 has been out for a couple months on MSDN
or those with Software Assurance, and now it has officially launched.
I have been using it since release on MSDN, and I can honestly say it
is a solid OS that was worth the wait. Of course there are the normal
issues, such as when you upgrade the stability is reduced and you
may wind up with more problems, as well as the IT community being
hesitant to deploy for reasons that are theirs alone. But the latter will diminish in time as they see it really is a great
OS that should carry with it great potential for the future. Because lets face it, why stay on XP? Why limit yourself to XP?
Why would someone who is to be in the front lines of IT say they refuse change, and want to stay with an antiquated
product? Instead of solving problems, and making things work, they would rather stay with something they have
already solved the problems for? That’s just being lazy, and you should walk away with your feet and stand there
with your shirt.

For everyone else who enjoys the latest greatest, and what the horizons bring… enjoy the latest release of Windows.

And try to ignore the anti machine from Apple, they have many faults themselves, and just because you are upgrading
to Windows 7, doesn’t mean it is a good time to do a forklift upgrade to Mac. (Forklift would involve you scrapping
all software and finding alternatives on the mac, unless you want to buy a mac just to go back and boot camp into
Windows, which would be absolutely pointless and a waste of money.)

Here are some features of Windows 7.

One tip though for everyone… the SHOW DESKTOP has been replaced by a little square in the bottom right of
your task bar. That’s right, all the way over there on the right side of the clock… press it, it’s ok.

I have finished testing The Neat Companies NeatWorks 4.6.2_152 product
on a fresh install of Windows 7 Ultimate (32bit and 64bit).
Through this process I have found that during install if you fail to run the
initial install as an administrator, you will need to perform an additional
step to get the database running correctly. The install will complete
successfully, or at least appear that way even if you don’t do the install
as an administrator.

Now first of all, by run it as administrator I am an administrator, but
this is specifically if you have UAC still turned on. Since under UAC even
an administrator is not an administrator without saying you want to be.

So to run the initial install as an administrator, you simiply right click
on the file and click ‘Run as Administrator’. That’s it!
Now if you forget that step or don’t even think about it, you will make it
through but then receive errors along the lines of:

In this case you will need to do one item over again, or you could uninstall and reinstall, but that will take
a lot longer. So lets begin!

1. Open the path: %Program Files%\Common Files\The Neat Company\Setup\
2. Right click on ‘Neat Database Setup.exe’ and select ‘Run as Administrator’
   
3. Complete the following install as normal, and upon completion your database will now
   be working and you can launch NeatWorks without an issue.

If you have for some reason not done a fresh install of Windows 7, but instead have
performed an upgrade… the one issue I have noticed is a delay in starting the
‘Database Controller Service’ before the SQL instance is started. Other than running
services.msc, you can also check in one location for NeatWorks status. You may open the
‘Support Center’ by Expanding Networks and Support Tools, then clicking on “Neat Support Center” in your start menu.

This program will let you view log files from the application, as well as submit support
information to The Neat Company. But one tab in particular is a simple view of your NeatWorks
related services. A note about this screen, on Windows 7 it will still say the OS is Vista.
But the version number will be correct, it is simply the application does not know what Windows 7 is.