It has been a while since Windows 8 released a Developer preview. Although I installed regular edition is time for a refresh and just came across a nice guide to install Windows 8 on a VHD.

enjoy

I just came across an interesting article how to use C# Async CTP about digging to internals and using some custom code to make t it applicable to Windows Phone 7 projects.

Check it out: Async CTP on WP7.

In case you haven’t played with C# Async CTP  you probably should know this is next big thing in the world if multithreaded programming. Nowadays CPUs have more cores and by using I/O completion port and async programming model would make software solutions more scalable and threads will have less contention.

For more info check this PDC 10 video of Anders Hejlsberg

Since VS 2010 is out with many new features and there aren’t many books out yet to cover them I am trying to collect resources where those goodies can be learned. Here is my compilation for ASP.NET 4 new features:

Core Services
Web.config File Refactoring
Extensible Output Caching
Auto-Start Web Applications
Permanently Redirecting a Page
Shrinking Session State
Expanding the Range of Allowable URLs
Extensible Request Validation
Object Caching and Object Caching Extensibility
Extensible HTML, URL, and HTTP Header Encoding
Performance Monitoring for Individual Applications in a Single Worker Process
Multi-Targeting

Ajax
jQuery Included with Web Forms and MVC
Content Delivery Network Support
ScriptManager Explicit Scripts

Web Forms
Setting Meta Tags with the Page.MetaKeywords and Page.MetaDescription Properties
Enabling View State for Individual Controls
Changes to Browser Capabilities
Routing in ASP.NET 4
Setting Client IDs
Persisting Row Selection in Data Controls
ASP.NET Chart Control
Filtering Data with the QueryExtender Control
Html Encoded Code Expressions
Project Template Changes
CSS Improvements
Hiding div Elements Around Hidden Fields
Rendering an Outer Table for Templated Controls
ListView Control Enhancements
CheckBoxList and RadioButtonList Control Enhancements
Menu Control Improvements
Wizard and CreateUserWizard Controls 56

ASP.NET MVC
Areas Support
Data-Annotation Attribute Validation Support
Templated Helpers

Dynamic Data
Enabling Dynamic Data for Existing Projects
Declarative DynamicDataManager Control Syntax
Entity Templates
New Field Templates for URLs and E-mail Addresses
Creating Links with the DynamicHyperLink Control
Support for Inheritance in the Data Model
Support for Many-to-Many Relationships (Entity Framework Only)
New Attributes to Control Display and Support Enumerations
Enhanced Support for Filters

Visual Studio 2010 Web Development Improvements
Improved CSS Compatibility
HTML and JavaScript Snippets
JavaScript IntelliSense Enhancements

Web Application Deployment with Visual Studio 2010
Web Packaging
Web.config Transformation
Database Deployment
One-Click Publish for Web Applications

Download PDF version of this whitepaper [1.13 MB]
What's New in ASP.NET 4 and Visual Web Developer on MSDN

Charles Sterling posted a nice compilation of resources for VS2010. I am reposting here:

Videos:

• Watch the Visual Studio 2010 Launch Live
• How Do I: Step with The Debugger in Visual Studio?
• How Do I: Generate and Interact with UML Sequence Diagrams?
• How Do I: Get Started with Coded UI tests?
• How Do I: Get Started with Database Unit Test?
• How Do I: Use Generate from Usage in Visual Studio 2010?
• 10-4 Episode 41: Downloading and Installing the Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate
• 10-4 Episode 34: Debugger Enhancements and Improvements
• Episode 28: An Introduction to the Historical Debugger (now called Intellitrace)

Labs:

• Authoring and Running Manual Tests using Microsoft Test Manager 2010
• Branching and Merging Visualization with Team Foundation Server 2010
• Code Discovery using the Architecture Tools in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
• Debugging with IntelliTrace using Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
• Introduction to Coded UI Tests with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
• Introduction to Test Case Management with Microsoft Test Manager 2010
• Planning your Projects with Team Foundation Server 2010
• Understanding Class Coupling with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate
• Using the Architecture Explorer in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate to Analyze Your Code

My best advice for running these labs is to check out Brian’s blog at: http://blogs.msdn.com/briankel/archive/2010/03/18/now-available-visual-studio-2010-release-candidate-virtual-machines-with-sample-data-and-hands-on-labs.aspx

These labs can be found in the three VS2010 Virtual machines:

1. Visual Studio 2010 RC (Hyper-V)
2. Visual Studio 2010 RC (Windows [7] Virtual PC)
3. Visual Studio 2010 RC (Virtual PC 2007 SP1)

Also coming soon there will be an ALM course on Channel9 http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/VS2010/ALM/

Papers/articles:

• Debugging Applications with IntelliTrace
• Better Coding with Visual Studio 2010
• Add a Security Bug Bar to Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2010
• Team Foundation Installation Guide for Visual Studio 2010
• Lab Management supplement for TFS RC to RTM Upgrade Guide.
• Compare the Visual Studio 2010 Versions
• Visual Studio 2010 Licensing White Paper
• The ALM Documentation

Downloads

• Visual Studio Team System 2008 Service Pack 1 Forward Compatibility Update for Team Foundation Server 2010
• Team Foundation Server Power Tools 2010 Release Candidate
• Visual Studio 2010 Test Case Import Utilities
• Getting started with Silverlight 4
• Windows Phone 7 Development
• Lab Management VM Prep Tool

And by here I mean MSDN – finally it is released and can be downloaded on MSDN subscription.

Trial versions can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/download

And here is how apps can be written for Windows Phone 7:

Windows Phone 7 Series promises to be an amazing mobile phone operating system given its innovative user interface and functionality, as well as its great development platform upon which you can quickly and easily build games and applications. With a myriad of new devices, a powerful and immersive software platform, and a new marketplace to attract developers and provide easy access to applications, consumer demand for Windows Phones will be high, and developers will quickly adopt the Windows Phone platform to capitalize on this growing mobile marketplace. This Training Kit will give you a jumpstart into the new Windows Phone world by providing you with a step-by-step explanation of the tools to use and some key concepts for programming Windows Phones.

Check this training kit on Channel9.

Are you reading a lot about .NET 4? Are you keeping your certification record up-to-date? There there is a good news for you: Microsoft learning is making free beta exams on .NET 4 certification track for following exams in this period March 31, 2010 to April 20, 2010:

• 70-511 TS: Windows Applications Development with Microsoft® .NET Framework 4
• 70-513 TS: Windows Communication Foundation Development with Microsoft® .NET Framework 4
• 70-515 TS: Web Applications Development with Microsoft® .NET Framework 4
• 70-516 TS: Accessing Data with Microsoft® .NET Framework 4
• 70-519 Pro: Designing and Developing Web Applications using Microsoft® .NET Framework 4

More info and FAQs on Microsoft Certification Blog.

Channel9 has a learning section where interesting walkthroughs and videos can be found. So far there are following  categories:

• Windows Azure
• Windows Server HPC
• Identity
• Office 2010
• Sharepoint 2010
• Silverlight 4
• Visual Studio 2010 – also with Training Kit
• Windows 7
• Windows Server 2008 R2

For Visual Studio there are interesting videos about Managed languages, Data platform, WCF/WF, ASP.NET 4, Parallel computing…

Enjoy

Visual Studio 2010 RC is ready to download. Jason Zander posted some more information on FAQ than might be interesting to you.

If you find issues, please do report them via the Connect site.  We’re also very eager to see your survey feedback on the release.

The consulting company Wintellect  known in relation with world class experts like Jeff Prosise, Jeffrey Richter and John Robins are providing tech series that looks very promising. From the short description on http://www.wintellect.com/TechFocusSilverlight/ looks interesting.