14 Nov 2014

What Features are in Visual Studio Community 2013?

Visual Studio 2013
In case you missed it, Microsoft announced a new, FREE version of Visual Studio at their Connect(); event this past Wednesday – Visual Studio Community 2013. This is a brand new edition that will likely replace the Express SKUs available today. You can use the Community edition for FREE in the following scenarios: Any individual developer can use Visual Studio Community to create their own free or paid apps. An unlimited number of users within an organization can use Visual Studio Community for the following scenarios: in a classroom learning environment, for academic research, or for contributing to open source…
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13 Nov 2014

Getting Started with Microsoft’s Dev. Tools for FREE!

Visual Studio
So you've decided you want to get into software development for the first time or, maybe, you currently develop software for non-Microsoft/Windows platforms (e.g. Java/Android, Objective-C/iOS, etc.) but you are concerned the cost of development tools might be insurmountable. Well, I have some great news for you… you can actually get started developing using Microsoft development tools for NO cost - i.e. totally FREE! Let me show you how… Get an IDE! The first tool you need to acquire is an Integrated Development Environment or, IDE. There is no better IDE on the planet than Microsoft's very own Visual Studio.…
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13 Nov 2014

Connect(“Day 1 Recap”);

Conferences, Events
Yesterday, Microsoft streamed live its first ever Connect(); event. Connect(); is a cloud-first, mobile-first, code-first virtual event focused on current and future technologies for developers creating applications across a variety of platforms. Build on your current skills, unleash your creativity, and expand what’s possible to deliver unprecedented innovations. If you didn’t have a chance to watch the live streaming of Microsoft’s Connect(); event yesterday, you can watch the session videos here - http://aka.ms/connectondemand. You can watch day 2’s live stream here: http://aka.ms/connect The Announcements There were lots of great announcements yesterday. Here is a summarized version of most of them:…
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10 Nov 2014

Microsoft Connect(); What’s Up Microsoft’s Sleeves?

Conferences, General News
Do you make use of Microsoft’s developer tools and/or Azure – or, are you simply interested in what Microsoft might have up their sleeve for up-coming releases? If you answered yes then you definitely do not want to miss this week’s (FREE) Connect(); on-line event! Connect(); is a cloud-first, mobile-first, code-first virtual event focused on current and future technologies for developers creating applications across a variety of platforms. Build on your current skills, unleash your creativity, and expand what's possible to deliver unprecedented innovations. The event will be held on-line this Wednesday and Thursday, November 12th & 13th. Here is…
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17 Oct 2014

Visual Studio/TFS 2013 Update 4 RC Available

TFS 2013, Visual Studio 2013
In case you missed it, Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 RC (Release Candidate) is now available for download. Also, this is a “go-live” release which means you can use this update in production environments and there will be a supported upgrade path from the RC to the final release (RTM) version. What’s in Update 4? You can view the details of this release here along with some of the ALM-specific improvements here, and web-specific enhancements here. However, here are some of the highlights: CodeLens improvements Lots of updates to Release Management Review and merge code with Git pull requests New…
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05 Oct 2014

Mastering Multiple Desktops in Windows 10

Windows, Windows 10
Some Quick Background Information For years, Windows has had the ability to easily switch between running applications by pressing the ALT+TAB key combination. As one would expect, this still works, just as it always has, in the Windows 10 Preview. Also, since Windows Vista, the WIN+TAB key combination provided an alternate view for switching among tasks – one that takes advantage of hardware graphics acceleration. What’s New in Windows 10 With Windows 10, there is also now an option of creating and switching among multiple desktop configurations. Firstly, to create an additional desktop, you can press WIN+CTRL+D. Doing so will…
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19 Aug 2014

Bing Developer Assistant for Visual Studio

Utilities, Visual Studio 2012, Visual Studio 2013
Microsoft has introduced a new Visual Studio extension – Bing Developer Assistant for Visual Studio (currently tagged as Beta). This extension allows you, the developer, to locate millions of code snippets and sample projects from within the Visual Studio IDE. Essentially, this extension combines the features of two previous extensions: Bing Code Search and Sample Browser. Code Snippets in IntelliSense The Bing Developer Assistant extension provides some nice additions to the Visual Studio IntelliSense experience. Most notably, it can provide you with a code snippet that is relevant to the API you are actively coding against. For example, in the…
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03 Aug 2014

Extending TFS and Visual Studio Online eBook–Update 1

eBooks, TFS, TFS API, Visual Studio Online
Back in May, I wrote about the initial release of Extending TFS and Visual Studio Online, an eBook that Mike Douglas and I have been working on. To reiterate, the primary focus of this book will be to provide scenario-based examples on how to utilize the new REST-based APIs and Service Hooks. Based on our everyday experiences with TFS and Visual Studio Online, along with feedback from our readers, we plan to provide a book that will be simply indispensible for anyone wishing to extend TFS or Visual Studio Online using the new API. Although our original plan was to…
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09 Jul 2014

Visual Studio Online License Changes on the Way…

Visual Studio, Visual Studio Online
Brian Harry announced today some exciting changes coming to the set of Visual Studio Online licensing plans. Long story short, they (Microsoft) will be adding a new Stakeholders license license for Visual Studio Online – and, making this an even better announcement, the Stakeholders license will be completely free! Here is the list of features that will be supported by the Stakeholders license for Visual Studio Online (once available – currently planned for mid-August, 2014): Full read/write/create on all work items Create, run and save (to “My Queries”) work item queries View project and team home pages Access to the backlog,…
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08 Jul 2014

Visual Studio “14”–CTP 2 Available

Visual Studio, Visual Studio 2015
Today, Microsoft released the 2nd CTP for Visual Studio “14”. According to Brian Harry, there will be “tons” of CTPs between now and the final release (expected sometime next year). Without going into a lot of detail here’s a short list of what’s new in this CTP (from the Visual Studio Blog): Save and Apply Custom IDE Layouts. You can now save and apply custom layouts for tool windows in the IDE. The Save Window Layout and Apply Window Layout commands are under the Window Menu and you can also rename, reorder, and delete layouts from Manage Window Layouts. Light…
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