20 Mar 2019

Work Items and Queries in Azure Wikis

Azure DevOps, Tips
Did you know that you can embed individual work items and/or work item queries within your wiki pages? If not, then read on... There is a lot to like about the wiki feature within Azure DevOps. You can create a provisioned wiki or one or more Git-based published wikis. The content is based on markdown, though Microsoft provides several extended features on top of the markdown syntax. In this post, we will cover a couple features that allow you to embed individual work items and work item queries within your wiki pages. Embedding Work Items Embedding a single work item…
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25 Jan 2019

Azure DevOps Keyboard Shortcuts

Azure DevOps, Tips
File this one under tips-n-tricks. As you likely already know, Azure DevOps has a ton of features and capabilities that are generally encapsulated into Azure DevOps' primary offerings: Azure Boards, Azure Repos, Azure Pipelines, Azure Test Plans and Azure Artifacts. However, did you know that Azure DevOps, just like Visual Studio and many other tools out there, has a lot of keyboard shortcuts at your disposal that can improve how you navigate and use Azure DevOps? If you already knew this, then you can skip to the end where I talk about the Azure DevOps Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet. Otherwise,…
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31 Mar 2018

Mix-n-Match Microsoft, AAD (and other) Accounts in Firefox

Add-ins & Extensions, Tips
If you’re like me, you have no doubt collected many various accounts over the years. I have several Microsoft Accounts that are tied to Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) and other offerings. I also have multiple Organizational (Azure Active Directory) accounts tied to Office 365, corporate accounts, etc.Until now, I’ve relied on having multiple web browsers, or “incognito/private” windows, to help me keep my various accounts separated. For example, on my work computer, I would use Firefox for anything that utilized my personal Microsoft Account (MSA), Chrome for anything that utilized my work-related MSA (e.g. for accessing VSTS) and Edge…
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12 Mar 2018

PSA: New MSAs Can’t Use Org. E-mail Addresses

Tips, VSTS
I just finished the post, Get a List of VSTS Users with APIs, which was inspired by some work I’ve been doing to prepare for migrating my organization’s VSTS accounts to be backed by Azure Active Directory (AAD). The reason we are doing this now is a) because we’ve waited way too long to do it and, b) because Microsoft has now imposed a deadline of March 30th when it will no longer allow Microsoft Accounts (MSAs) to be created with an e-mail address that is also an organizational ID (e.g. a Azure/Office 365 account).Straight from Justin Marks’ announcement:On September…
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04 Feb 2017

TIP: Use Notepad++ to Count File Types

Azure DevOps, Tips
A few days ago I found myself wanting to figure out how many filenames being written to a log file were JavaScript files. One of the build tasks for an automated build (in VSTS) was logging the names of every file, recursively, beneath the source folder. In this case, there were a total of 15,475 lines written to the build log file. The question I needed to answer was, how many of these files are JavaScript files? While there are likely many ways to answer this question, I decided to make use of Notepad++ since I already had it installed…
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29 Jan 2017

MRU List in VSTS

Azure DevOps, Tips
Yesterday, I posted an article about Controlling Preview Features in VSTS. In that article, we saw how you could enable the new VSTS account landing page experience. Not only does this change the landing page experience but it also updates the icon in the upper left hand portion of the menu bar as shown below. Before the new experience: You can see the drop-down menu in the above screenshot for the “old” experience. You can also see the contents of the drop-down menu below, which includes a most-recently used (MRU) list of team projects. After the new experience: Once you…
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08 Jul 2016

VS Code + Ctrl+Shift+S = Wat?!

Tips, Visual Studio Code
Like many of you out there, I’ve been using Visual Studio (literally) ever since there was a Visual Studio (and Visual InterDev prior to that). One of the keyboard shortcuts that has been burned into the muscle memory of my left hand for years now is CTRL+SHIFT+S which is a common shortcut for “Save All”. I can’t claim that this keyboard shortcut has consistently mapped to “Save All” for the life of Visual Studio but it has definitely been around for quite a while (if not its entire life).I also can’t claim that CTRL+SHIFT+S is a well-known universal key combination…
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13 Feb 2016

VSTS Keyboard Shortcuts

Tips, Visual Studio Online
Computers have been part of my daily routine for many years now (over three decades!) and I’ve used a lot of software in that time. My primary applications tend to include various software development tools (such as Visual Studio, ReSharper, Fiddler, etc.), productivity software (such as Microsoft Office, various text editors, etc.) and so on. Over the years, I’ve found that if I used a command more than twice in a single session, I will take the time to learn the associated hotkey sequence – assuming one exists. For example, in Visual Studio, I tend to build the source code…
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31 Dec 2015

PSA: Backup Your BitLocker Key

OneDrive, Security, Tips
Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption is a feature integrated into Windows that allows you to encrypt data stored on your computer/tablet. For the most part, everything “just works” and you never have to think about BitLocker once you’ve enabled it on your computer. However, it is possible that BitLocker could encounter an issue or condition that prevents it from being able to unlock your drive. If you’ve encrypted a portable drive using BitLocker to Go, and you’ve forgotten the password, you will not be able to retrieve your files. That is, unless you have a BitLocker recover key. Creating a BitLocker…
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31 Dec 2013

Windows 8 BitLocker Recovery Keys

OneDrive, Tips, Windows 8, Windows 8.1
With an ever-growing concern around data security, it’s no surprise that many companies (and individuals) make use of Microsoft’s BitLocker drive encryption technology. BitLocker, once enabled, will encrypt your entire drive (or drives) on your computer (e.g. desktop, laptop, or tablet). As long as your computer continues to run “normally”, things are hunky dory. However, if you end up in a “recovery” situation with your computer, you will need a BitLocker recovery key. Not just any recovery key, but a specific key that will work only with your computer. You’ll know you need your recovery key when you are presented…
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