The title says it all. Several attempts I’ve made at installing the .NET Framework 3.5 on x64 Vista boxes failed with Error 1603. After a prolonged Google search, I found a forum with someone mentioning to uninstall KB110806, which seems to be related to .NET 2.0 SP1. I forget the forum and the details.

Anyway, if you’re having trouble with .NET 3.5 on Vista x64, try uninstalling the KB110806 update. I’m going to assume you know where to do that if you’re reading this.

Categories: Software, Vista, WPF
2 Comments »

It occurred to me that my CardSharkV page didn’t have any screenshots to show how the program works or what it looks like. That has now been remedied. Here’s the central part of it (grouping the photos):

So head on over to the CardSharkV page and take a look! I think you might find the program useful, if you like keeping your digital photos organized right in the file system and not just in some photo management program.

If you have any comments on the program, I’d like to hear them.

Categories: Software, Vista
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Check out this program I’ve developed, called CardSharkV. It’s a digital picture storage card/camera “downloader” with a twist.

It’s a bit of an experiment, and I’m looking for some real-world “beta” testers. My plan is to try my hand at charging for the program. But to see if word will spread, I’m planning to give out 50 or so licenses without charge while I work out any kinks that might be in the program.

If you’re interested in trying it out, download the program, install and run it, and then click the “Request License” button.

Read more about it on the CardSharkV page.

Update (2007-11-25): CardSharkV depends on the .NET Framework 3.0. It’s thus meant to be installed on Vista systems only. If you have XP and the .NET Framework 3.0, it should still work. Also, since I posted the whole thing Saturday night after a whole day of re-shaping my first, never published version, I didn’t test the install too well. I’ve since had a little time to test and found some issues, especially with the license mechanism. I’ve posted version 1.0.2.0 to correct those issues and to improve the installer as well.

Categories: Software, Software development, Vista, WPF
2 Comments »

I downloaded and installed the latest version of the Media Center SDK just now, and was a bit surprised to see that WPF apps are now officially deprecated as a supported way of extending Windows Media Center on Vista. There’s no big announcement around this so far, it’s almost just a footnote in the “What’s New” section:

Deprecated features

The following features have been deprecated:

• Hosting for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) browser applications (XBAPs).
• The Triple-tap/Soft-keyboard ActiveX control for hosted HTML applications.
• Support for using alternative shells to run and host HTML applications.

The reason I’m surprised is that Microsoft announced the support for WPF based extensibility apps at PDC05 with some fanfare.

I guess interest among developers just hasn’t been there for WPF-based Media Center apps, and Microsoft needs to make judgment calls on where to invest in their extensibility platform. The rest of the deprecated features seem to have been made for the same reason: limited interest among developers for these features. In addition I think there might be issues of an architectural nature that just make the three things that got dropped too expensive to maintain or improve.

I’m sad about this development, mostly because I still don’t see a great set of development and design tools around for MCML. WPF seems to me to have a whole lot more momentum than MCML (WPF has the Expression suite of tools and has been billed as the “GDI for the next 20 years”), but who knows what may be coming for Windows 7, or even an earlier interim update for Media Center?

Categories: Microsoft, Opinion, Software development, Vista, WPF
8 Comments »

Normally you can’t have ClickOnce applications that are deployed over the web run with Vista UAC elevation prompts. It’s not something Microsoft supports. Not sure why. I guess it’s once-bitten twice-shy, coming from the whole ActiveX mess. So I guess I do kind of understand why.

There is a workaround, if you really need UAC elevation, which you shouldn’t. But at a high level, it works like this. You create your ClickOnce app like you would normally. To go with it, you create a helper app that you equip with an embedded elevation manifest. You then add a test to your ClickOnce app to see if it’s running elevated. If it isn’t you make it call the helper app. It will cause a UAC elevation prompt and in turn launch the ClickOnce app anew. Since the helper got elevated, the ClickOnce app now runs elevated too. Of course, by doing this you might end up with users not accepting the elevation request. But from what I’ve seen real users do with those elevation prompts, it won’t matter much. Anyway.

The trick is getting the helper app included in the regular ClickOnce app. There may be better ways, but here’s one I’ve spent quite some time on to work out. Maybe it will help someone out there save time, like I’ve saved time by reading posts on elevation checks using managed code. So here are the steps I’ve followed to make this work:

1. Modify your ClickOnce app’s entry point to include elevation checks as described at http://www.itwriting.com/blog/?p=198. If the app is not running elevated, make it run the helper application and exit. The launch looks something like this:

   ProcessStartInfo

   psi = new ProcessStartInfo(“Helper.exe”);
   psi.UseShellExecute = true;
   Process.Start(psi);

   The UseShellExecute flag makes sure the UAC prompt will happen.

2. Create your helper application with an elevation manifest (the process for that is at Catherine Heller’s blog) and have it launch your app with something like this:
   
   string appExe = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Programs) + @”\YourClickOnceApp\ClickOnceApp.appref-ms”;
   Process.Start(appExe);

   As you can see the whole scenario only works if you let the ClickOnce app create a Start Menu entry.

3. Build and publish both applications, making sure they use the option to rename the published files to .deploy extensions. This helps tremendously with web deployment.

4. Find the published helper .deploy files and copy them to the folder that contains the ClickOnce application’s .deploy files.

5. Open the ClickOnce application’s .exe.manifest file using MageUI. Go to the Files section and click the Populate button to include the helper app and its manifest in the fileset for the ClickOnce app. Save and sign the manifest. I used a stored certificate for the signing.

6. Open the ClickOnce application’s .application deployment manifest using MageUI. This is probably in the directory above the .deploy files. Open the Application Reference section. Click the Select Manifest… button and browse down to the manifest you modified in step 5. Save and sign the manifest. I used the stored certificate from step 5.

7. Now you have all the needed files packaged for uploading to your web server.

This is what will happen when the user downloads the app for the first time: A verification window shows briefly, followed by a download warning, followed by a download progress window. Now the UAC prompt will come, and if accepted, another verification window. Then the app will show.

On subsequent launches of the app the user will see the verification window, followed by the UAC prompt, followed by another verification window. Then the app will show.

It’s not pretty, but at least it works.

If you try these steps out and they don’t work, I’d appreciate an opportunity to correct them.

————————————————-

P.S.: The manifest generation step looks like this for C# projects:

“$(DevEnvDir)..\..\VC\bin\mt.exe” -manifest “$(ProjectDir)$(TargetName).exe.manifest”  ?outputresource:”$(TargetDir)$(TargetFileName)”;#1

The .exe.manifest for the helper needs to look something like this (you can leave out the commented parts):

<?

xml version=“1.0“ encoding=“utf-8“ ?>

<assembly xmlns=“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1“ manifestVersion=“1.0“>

<assemblyIdentity version=“1.0.0.0“ processorArchitecture=“msil“ name=“Helper“ type=“win32“ />

<description>Helper</description>

<trustInfo xmlns=“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3“>

<security>

<requestedPrivileges>

<requestedExecutionLevel level=“requireAdministrator“ />

<!–<requestedExecutionLevel level=”asInvoker” />–>

<!– <requestedExecutionLevel level=”highestAvailable” /> –>

</requestedPrivileges>

</security>

</trustInfo>

</assembly>

Categories: Software development, Vista
6 Comments »

Just noticed that the Vista Ultimate Extra called DreamScene is now available as a preview on Windows Update. I’m downloading it now to check it out.

Categories: Vista
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After picking up the Vista Ultimate Signature Edition copy today, I wanted to spend some more money to get the Family Pack discount, so I can upgrade a few other PCs in the house.

Imagine my surprise when I was greeted with only this message after typing in the Product Key from the box I just bought this morning:

!

We’re sorry, the following error(s) have occurred:

No Offer Found

Bummer. I guess I won’t be spending another $100 for my two extra copies.

Even more curious is that there’s no way to contact Microsoft about problems with the order page. Maybe they don’t want my money?

Categories: Vista
2 Comments »

Update 2008-02-18:  It seems like this post is getting a lot of hits, which is kind of odd to me. I suspect it might be because there’s a mention of the phrase “key sticker” in here, so that makes people think I’m publishing my activation key. I’m not. The key is digitally erased with a bunch of black pixels. There’s no key here.

————————–

Call me a fanboy all you want. I went out to a local Best Buy this morning and got myself a copy of the Vista Ultimate Signature Edition. I figure Vista put bread on my table, so I need to give back a little. And no way am I going to do that without getting something a little out of the ordinary.

I got to Best Buy a little after ten and checked the shelves. No Signature Editions to be found. Luckily I went to the service desk to ask, and just as I was doing so, they brought out the four boxes they had at that store. Two got put aside by (for?) the employees, and I grabbed one of the remaining two. Talk about good timing. I think I also picked a good store to go to. It’s fairly new and people don’t seem to know it’s there, so there was very little “competition”.

Here are some unboxing pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Box front

Open back

System requirements on the side

Feature comparison list on the back

Other side

Outside cardboard box and inside plastic box

Inside plastic box front

Inside plastic box back with Bill Gates comments

Plastic box side

Opened plastic box with DVD / media holder

Leaflets inside media holder

CD order information

Back of media holder with key sticker

Categories: Pictures, Vista
2 Comments »

I ran into an interesting little quirk with Visual Studio 2005 on Vista yesterday. I was trying to start an XBAP debugging session from VS (using the F5 key), and none of my breakpoints got triggered. Upon exiting the IE instance that hosts PresentationHost.exe, VS considered the session as still “running”.

I had set my system up according to Tim Sneath’s post on the perfect WPF developer system, including VS 2005 SP1 and the beta version of the Vista extensions for VS 2005. I was running VS “as administrator”.

As it turns out there are some technical details around starting XBAP debugging sessions from an elevated VS process that cause this behavior if you already have another instance of IE running when starting the debugging session.

Thanks to Tim Sneath and Chango Valtchev at Microsoft for helping in tracking this down!

Moral of the story: If you want to debug an XBAP from VS 2005 under Vista, run VS non-elevated, or make sure you have no other instances of IE running when you start the debugging session.

Categories: Software development, Vista, WPF
4 Comments »

Since MSDN now has keys for Vista available, I started getting my developer laptop ready. One problem I ran into was that the built-in wireless adapter on the nw8000 wasn’t recognized by the RTM bits. On previous releases it worked just fine, so I don’t quite get what the issue is.

Anyway, I found that the in-box drivers for an “Atheros Wireless Network Adapter” seem to do the job.

Here’s the drill: Start Menu – Computer – Right click – Properties – Tasks: Device Manager – Find the device in the list - Right click – Update driver – Browse my computer… - Let me pick from a list… - Find “Atheros Communications Inc.” and pick “Atheros Wireless Network Adapter”.

Categories: Vista
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