02 Jan 2013

A Backup Strategy

Guidance, OneDrive, Windows 8
Anyone using computers for any amount of time knows that backups are a must.  We’ve all heard or read that it’s not if your hard drive fails but rather when your hard drive fails you’ll wish you had backed up your files.  However, history has taught me that it’s not always a failed hard drive that makes me run to my backups but the more likely catalyst is my own actions.  For example, have you ever re-imaged a computer, thinking you’ve backed up everything you considered important, only to realize five minutes after installing the operating system that you forgot…
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15 Jun 2012

Visual Studio 2012 / TFS 2012 Links

Guidance, TFS, TFS 2012, Visual Studio
If you’ve been following the progress of Visual Studio 2012 closely chances are you’ve already downloaded the recently released Release Candidate.  If not, then I’ve provided a handy list of links below to get you started.  I’ve also included some handy reference and guidance links as well. Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate Visual Studio 2012 RC downloads home page Visual Studio Ultimate 2012 RC Visual Studio Premium 2012 RC Visual Studio Professional 2012 RC Visual Studio Test Professional 2012 RC Visual Studio Express 2012 RC for Web Visual Studio Express 2012 RC for Windows 8 IntelliTrace Collector for Visual Studio…
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02 Mar 2012

Visual Studio 11 ALM Beta ALM Rangers Guides

ALM Rangers, Guidance
As we are mostly all aware, Microsoft released Visual Studio 11 Beta and Team Foundation Server 11 Beta yesterday morning (see links here).  What you might not realize is that the ALM Rangers released their initial wave of Visual Studio 11 ALM Readiness Guides. The initial wave includes the release of 10 guides to Microsoft’s CodePlex site: Practical Kanban Guide Practical Ruck Guide Team Foundation Build Customization Guide Team Foundation Server Planning Guide Team Foundation Server Upgrade Guide Test Release Management Guide Visual Studio ALM Rangers Personas and Scenarios Visual Studio Architecture Tooling Guide Visual Studio Lab Management Guide VM Factory…
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21 Jun 2011

Visual Studio Lab Management Guidance

ALM Rangers, Guidance, Visual Studio
It’s been a busy week for the ALM Rangers!  Not only was the Visual Studio Build Customization Guidance (read post) released but the Visual Studio Lab Management Guidance was released as well. Here’s some quick information from the project home page: Project Description This Visual Studio ALM Ranger project has the primary goal of delivering scenario based and hands-on guidance for the planning, setup, configuration and usage of Visual Studio Lab Management, backed by  custom VM Template automation for reference environments. Downloads The content is packaged in 3 separate zip files to give you the choice of selective downloads. The…
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21 Jun 2011

Visual Studio Build Customization Guidance

ALM Rangers, Guidance, Visual Studio
A few days ago, the Visual Studio Build Customization Guidance was officially released! Here’s some quick information from the project home page: Project Description This Visual Studio ALM Ranger project has the primary goal of delivering scenario based and hands-on lab guidance for the customization and deployment of Team Foundation Build 2010 activities such as versioning, code signing, and branching. Downloads The solution is divided in separate packages to give you the choice of selective downloads. The default download is the first of the listed packages: Guidance contains scenario based practical guidance, frequently asked questions and quick reference posters Selected…
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19 Apr 2011

Architecture Tooling Guide for VS 2010 Ultimate

Guidance, Visual Studio
The Architecture Tooling Guidance for Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate has been updated to version 2.1. What is It? If you’re not familiar with the Architecture Tooling Guidance, here’s a quick description (as taken from the guidance): This guidance discusses scenarios of using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, primarily focusing on the Modeling tools, to help you understand the tooling and ensure that your software system meets the expected requirements. There is also some guidance included on building extensions using the Visual Studio 2010 Feature Builder Power Tool as well as the inclusion of a set of pre-built Visual Studio ALM Rangers…
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13 Jul 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance now in Spanish

ALM Rangers, Guidance, Visual Studio
Francisco Fagas, Microsoft Most Valuable professional (MVP) and Visual Studio ALM Ranger, has localized the Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance for the Spanish communities. Find the latest bits in both English and Spanish here, whereby you need to select “View All Downloads” to see the “Spanish - Quick Reference Guidance” download package. Check out this post to see a list of other languages that will be available for various guidance in the near future. Also, check out this post for a list of all guidance provided by the Visual Studio ALM Rangers.
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22 Jan 2010

Visual Studio 2010 TFS Upgrade Guide

Guidance, TFS, Visual Studio 2010
Continuing along with my recent flurry of posts regarding various Visual Studio 2010 guidance being released by the Rangers, here’s one that has perfect timing for me personally – the Visual Studio 2010 Upgrade Guide. If you are planning on upgrading from Team Foundation Server 2008 (or even TFS 2005) to TFS 2010, then this guide is a gold mine of information.  It covers in-place upgrades as well as migration upgrades and details the steps that must be completed for more than a dozen specific scenarios.  For example, enabling branch visualization in upgraded projects, splitting team projects into multiple collections,…
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19 Jan 2010

VS 2010 and TFS 2010 VM Factory Guidance

Guidance, TFS, Visual Studio 2010
But wait, there’s more!…  Along with various other bits of guidance being published recently by the Rangers, there is also the Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 Virtualization Guidance. “Visual Studio 2010 VM Factory is the reference implementation of a software solution that automates the creation of Visual Studio 2010 and Team Foundation Server 2010 virtualized environments. The purpose of this project is to build prescriptive guidance around virtualization of the Visual Studio 2010 and guidance for full automation of the creation of virtual machines using the VM Factory. The goal is to help users with the installation…
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18 Jan 2010

Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance Released

Guidance, TFS, Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2010
If you’re looking for some quick information regarding the myriad features in Visual Studio 2010, then look no further than the recently published Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance.  This is yet another example of a great guidance project released by the Rangers in the past few weeks. “The Visual Studio 2010 Quick Reference Guidance consists of compact cheat sheets for Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 and Visual Studio (VS) 2010, addressing the core problem of teams in the field who are unaware of Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server capabilities or have little time to invest in detailed education.”…
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