Blogs|Feb 2, 2008

Debugging VBA Macros and Managed Components at the Same Time

This week I got the following question in email: I’m writing a COM component in C# that is used in Excel VBA macros. I really need to debug the VBA macro and the C# component at the same time. Is that possible? Absolutely! Here’s the steps: Start Visual Studio with no projects open. Select the…
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Blogs|Jan 22, 2008

Apple Now Supports Vista x64 on Mac Pros!

As I have been screaming from the roof tops, the best Vista x64 machines are Apple’s Mac Pros. They are rock solid, quiet, and beautiful. Apple just announced the latest Mac Pros with up to 8 CPUs. They also snuck in complete support for Vista x64! According to the fine folks at Mac Rumors, the…
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wintellect-blogs|Jan 20, 2008

Updated Fast VMware Server Backup Scripts

Back in October, I wrote about how I use the Volume Shadow Copy Service to backup my VMware Server virtual machines with minimal down time. I updated my batch files to have better error reporting and error handling. As always, let me know if you find any problems with them. Grab the updated files from…
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Blogs|Jan 17, 2008

WinUnit: An Outstanding Native C++ Unit Testing Tool

Whew! I can finally talk about one of the coolest pieces of code I’ve seen in ages: WinUnit. About a year ago, my friend, Maria Blees showed me an idea she had for unit testing native C++ code and asked if I thought it was any good. It was far more than good it was…
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Blogs|Jan 17, 2008

Smarter Logging with MSBuild

MSBuild has made my life so much easier that it makes me shudder thinking back to the days of NMAKE. With very little effort, I’ve been able to automate so much of my software build and processing that I almost wonder if MSBuild will eventually start writing my code for me as well. Of course,…
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Blogs|Jan 16, 2008

Additional .NET Framework Source Code Debugging Tricks

With the big announcement today, everyone’s looking at the Framework sources like mad. Make sure you read everything in Shawn Burke’s blog entry before you start. I thought I’d mention a couple of additional hints to help you out. If you’ve been downloading your symbols with the Microsoft Symbol Server, make sure to delete your…
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Blogs|Jan 11, 2008

Prepare to Migrate Your Visual Basic 6.0 Code to Visual Basic .NET

Do you have tons of VB6 code still running in your organization? I’m always surprised in our consulting and debugging work how much VB6 code is still running. I’m a strong advocate of not breaking working code, but with Microsoft ending all support for VB6 in March, 2008 you need to start planning, if you…
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wintellect-blogs|Jan 5, 2008

New Year’s Resolution: PowerShell

Besides eliminating war and solving world hunger, another of my New Year’s resolutions was to use PowerShell as my command window. While you’re probably thinking using PowerShell is not much of a resolution, for me it’s huge. I do nearly everything related to software development in a command prompt. While I’m not writing my code…
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Blogs|Dec 31, 2007

How to Disable the UAC Prompt for a Specific Application

While I like User Account Control (UAC), there’s always that one application that you need to run that requires admin rights. This is especially problematic if you need to automate that application from a batch file, scheduled task, or code build. While I guess you can hire someone to click on the Continue button, it’d…
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wintellect-blogs|Dec 31, 2007

PowerShell Symbol Store

A while ago I wrote about Aaron Leerch‘s Symbol Server Transaction Manager, which put a nice front end on managing your Symbol Server. As I have been harping for years, if you don’t have a Symbol Server set up, you’re not doing development. Aaron’s been busy and has outdone himself with a major update, that’s…
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Blogs|Dec 20, 2007

Code Signing – It’s Cheaper and Easier than You Thought

One of the things I’ve always wanted to do, but never got around to, is to figuring out how to sign my code. Like most developers, I never really worried about code signing until Vista came along. Maybe it’s just because I’m completely anal retentive, but I always felt a little guilty when my applications…
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