Sure, you can just type "wevtutil el | % { wevtutil cl $_ }" whenever you feel like it, but how fun is that?!

Even though it doesn't take long to add a folder to %Path% by clicking through Windows, I prefer to do this using a little PowerShell instead.

Here's a set of scripts to make it easier to view the items in the "BackConnectionHostNames" registry key, as well as add and remove hostnames.

Here's a set of scripts to make it easier to view the hostname mappings in the hosts file, as well as add and remove hostnames.

Wondering where all the precious free space in your SSD went? Well, here are a few possibilities.

Here's a pair of PowerShell scripts for quickly setting and verifying the MaxPatchCacheSize registry setting.

Are you familiar with the "tfpt scorch" command? Have you ever used PowerShell to quickly cloak/uncloak folders in your TFS workspaces? If not, here are a couple of tips that could save you a little time.

In this post, I explain how I like to use Microsoft OneNote to manage what I call "development cheat sheets" -- which are especially useful when developing SharePoint solutions.

This post provides a sample installation guide for an extranet platform based on SharePoint Server 2010 and Office Web Apps.

Does your team utilize a step-by-step installation guide to build and deploy various environments, or do the Development, Test, and Release Management folks simply "wing it"? I certainly hope it's not the latter.

If, like me, you use Expression Web to author HTML content, then I hope you take advantage of the "Snippets" feature.

Think you can just add a HYPERLINK column in Excel and easily open dozens of Web pages at a time? Think again.

It is 2012 and there are still software applications that insist on creating shortcuts on your Windows desktop. Pathetic.

In my previous post, I shared the inner workings of the "Most Recent Posts" section on the Technology Toolbox home page. In this post, I'll show you how I built on that foundation to generate the content for the "Most Popular Posts" section.

In a previous post, I mentioned how the new Technology Toolbox home page highlights the most recent blog posts from Subtext. In this post, I'll show you how easy this feature was to develop -- thanks to the Entity Framework and LINQ.

In my previous post, I described the PowerShell script used to rebuild the Development environment for TechnologyToolbox.com on a daily basis. This post explains the subtleties of running the script -- or, more generally, any PowerShell script -- using the Windows Task Scheduler...

In this post, I describe the PowerShell script used to rebuild the Development and Test environments for TechnologyToolbox.com. From a high-level perspective, the script deletes the IIS website (if it exists), creates a new website (including the corresponding application pool), and then copies the files for the main site as well as the Subtext files for the /blog application...

In this post, I'll show you how I quickly restore the Production database for TechnologyToolbox.com to the corresponding Development and Test environments...

While I don't expect many people will need to migrate blog posts from Telligent to Subtext, I do believe it is valuable to provide a walkthrough of how I typically approach a "content migration scenario" -- since I frequently encounter this kind of requirement when working with enterprise customers...

While creating the new TechnologyToolbox.com site, one of my first tasks was to define the structure of the HTML for the blog pages. I briefly considered using my old MSDN blog as a reference. However, I quickly dismissed that option after viewing my MSDN blog home page with CSS disabled...

Once I settled on using Subtext as the blogging solution for the Technology Toolbox site, I turned my attention to working on the other areas of the site...

Do you remember the good ol' days before the ApplicationException class in the .NET Framework became " persona non grata "? I sure do. If you were to look at .NET code that I wrote years ago, you'd probably see ApplicationException being used all over...

In part 1 of this series , I mentioned how I've been involved in several SharePoint projects for large, multinational corporations including Agilent Technologies and KPMG . I also mentioned how one of the sprints last year for my current project was dedicated...

In part 1 of this post, I introduced the way I use VM snapshots to allow me to quickly rollback my SharePoint development VMs to key points in time. For example, I can quickly revert to a "baseline SharePoint Server 2010 configuration" in which no Web...

In a comment I made last week on one of my earlier posts , I mentioned how a few months ago I started using Hyper-V snapshots so I can quickly rollback my SharePoint development VMs to key points in time. The following screenshot shows the snapshots...

A little more than three years ago, I blogged about the default recovery model for various SharePoint databases . In that post, I described how I would often toggle the SQL Server databases in SharePoint development environments from the default Full...

In my previous post , I explained how I like to create separate VHDs for data and log files in my SharePoint development VMs. However, given the very small amount of content that I typically load into a SharePoint development environment, these VHDs certainly...

In the United States, "CDL" typically refers to a Commercial Driver's License -- but since I don't drive trucks for a living, I use the acronym for something entirely different. To me, these three letters correspond to the minimum number of drives I like...

One of the things I like most about running System Center Operations Manager in the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab) is that it greatly reduces the amount of effort required to monitor numerous servers. For example, in my environment I am...

Last week I received a "Logical Disk Free Space is low" alert from Operations Manager for my TFS 2010 build server (DAZZLER). After a few minutes investigating the issue, I discovered that my "Builds" folder was consuming a little over 2 GB of storage...

Each time I create (or recreate) a virtual machine in Hyper-V using one of my SysPrep'ed images , I usually end up having to do a quick Internet search for: device manager show hidden devices I'm a little embarrassed to say that I simply can't remember...

Earlier this week, I posted about how I rebuilt my Windows 7 desktop while installing a new solid-state drive (SSD). This morning, I thought I would share some performance numbers that I gathered from the various disk configurations that I currently...

I spent a few hours last night (and another hour this morning) rebuilding my Windows 7 desktop that I use as my primary workstation (WOLVERINE). In case you haven't heard, Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 was released a few weeks...

Have you ever lost work items in Team Foundation Server? I know I have. Well, let me clarify that...it's not that I actually lost work items due to some bug in TFS or failure on the database server. Rather -- and I'm a little embarrassed to admit this...

Nearly three years ago, I wrote a post that described the BackedUp and NotBackedUp folders I use on almost every computer I ever log on to (my laptop, desktop, a handful of servers, and more than a dozen VMs). I also showed how I created taskbar shortcuts...

A couple of years ago, I shared the scripts I created for deploying solutions based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, or what I like to refer to as the " DR.DADA approach to SharePoint ." Well, I probably should have done this long...

I thought it would be helpful to share my step-by-step procedures for manually configuring claims-based authentication in SharePoint Server 2010 using an "ASP.NET database" and corresponding membership and role providers. Note that the following TechNet...

In my previous post , I mentioned that one of the recurring tasks I create in TFS each time I start a new iteration on a project is something like "Create branch for Sprint-10" (the iteration specified in the title of the work item obviously varies each...

While the vast majority of work items created for each iteration (sprint) are unique and therefore require some planning effort beforehand, I've gotten into the habit of creating a few recurring tasks in TFS each time I start a new iteration on a project...

Update (2010-12-03) If you are using gated check-ins, be sure to also read my follow-up post: Bypassing a Gated Check-in in TFS 2010 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/jjameson/archive/2010/12/03/bypassing-a-gated-check-in-in-tfs-2010.aspx Earlier this...

One of "tweaks" that I commonly make to the SharePoint team site created for each project in Team Foundation Server is to create a custom list to track the important builds for the project (typically corresponding to each milestone or iteration). There...

One of the "good habits" I've developed over the years while creating applications is scrutinizing the interaction between logical or physical tiers. Given the nature of solutions that I'm typically involved with, this often involves examining how many...

I added a new item to my Toolbox this weekend -- LC ISO Creator . It's not fancy, or even supported, but it is free and it appears to do what it is supposed to without issue, specifically creating an ISO image from an existing CD-ROM or DVD-ROM. There...

Back in Community Server 2.1 (i.e. prior to the recent upgrade of the MSDN/TechNet blog platform), I could specify a URL like the following to show a smaller version of an image in a blog post: http://blogs.msdn.com/photos/jjameson/images/9997719/500x258...

In a previous post , I described how I format code for my blog (i.e. by copying it from Visual Studio or SQL Server Management Studio and then running a simple console application to convert the RTF clipboard text to HTML). I recently started doing...

After upgrading my Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2008 environment to TFS 2010 , I found that I needed to tweak my TfsBuild.proj file in order to successfully build on my new TFS 2010 build server. In a previous post, I detailed the process that I recommend...

In my previous post , I provided an overview of the process of upgrading from TFS 2008 (and Windows SharePoint Services v3) to TFS 2010 (and SharePoint Server 2010). In this post, I provide more details about the upgrade process. Note that if you are...

A little over two years ago, I wrote a post about installing Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 , in which I mentioned setting the MaxPatchCacheSize registry setting to 0 (in order to save some significant disk space while installing the service pack)...

In my previous post , I extolled my love of typed DataSets in .NET because they are not only quick to design and update, but also very easy to understand. Essentially, if you can read an entity-relationship model (à la ERwin or a Visio database...

First off, my apologies to Paul Simon regarding the title of this blog post -- but I simply couldn't resist ;-) When architecting and building solutions for customers, I tend to make heavy use of typed DataSets. I believe I used them on my very...

I've mentioned before how I run two Hyper-V servers in the " Jameson Datacenter " (each one hosting a variety of different VMs). On the rare occasion that a patch comes out on Windows Update that affects Windows Server 2008 Server Core edition (such...

In my previous post , I provided a walkthrough of Test-Driven Development (TDD), based on a very simple scenario (truncating a string to a specific number of characters). In this post, I'll provide another example using a more complex scenario. Suppose...

In part 1 of this post, I provided my high-level thoughts on doing Test Driven Development (TDD) in the real world, but I didn't get around to walking through an actual sample. To start off simple (but still real world), let's imagine we have a scenario where we need to truncate a string to a limited number of characters for display or output purposes. However, instead of just chopping off the string at the specified number of characters, we want to apply a little "intell

Last month I wrote a post detailing how to increment the assembly version for each build . However, incrementing the assembing version is only part of my recommended build and deployment process . The following figure illustrates how deployments to...

In one of yesterday's posts , I showed how you can easily filter the search results from Bing -- and other search engines -- to only show results from a specific site (e.g. my blog). This morning it occurred to me that I could integrate this into my...

A colleague asked me today if there was a way to search my blog for something specific. In my response, I pointed out that you can narrow your search results from Bing to a specific site. For example, suppose you were looking for a blog post that...

Last week a colleague was asking me how I manage my various VMs. More specifically, he wanted to know how I created SysPrep'ed images in order to quickly "spin up" new VMs for development, testing, or demo purposes. Note that I like to keep my environments...

A few years ago I developed a class ( SharePointSearchUrlBuilder ) for working with SharePoint Search URLs. The class is used to easily build or parse the various query string parameters used by SharePoint Search (e.g. keywords, search scope, additional...

This week I finally got around to fixing a bug that would occasionally occur when deploying our solution based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. In the solution we use a variety of different features to configure different aspects...

Last summer I wrote a post about best practices for .NET assembly versioning and made the following statement: The AssemblyFileVersionAttribute should be incremented automatically as part of the build process. In the comments for that post, someone...

In my previous post , I showed how you can quickly create an AJAX-enabled Web application in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. I also provided a sample AJAX Web Part, illustrated in the following screenshot: Figure 1: AJAX in SharePoint...

In my previous post , I showed how you can quickly create a Web application in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and configure it for anonymous access and Forms-Based Authentication. Let's suppose that instead of configuring FBA and anonymous...

In one of Saturday's posts , I demonstrated how to implement a custom error page on an Internet site powered by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. For that post I captured various screenshots and sample code from one of my local development...

Here is another helper class that I developed that you may find useful when building solutions for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. If you use the SPWebConfigModification class to add or modify...

Last summer I wrote a post introducing my simple, but highly effective approach to logging -- including a Logger class that is really just a thin wrapper around the System.Diagnostics.TraceSource class. A few months ago, I enhanced the Logger class...

First of all, Happy New Year! This morning I'm back from a not-so-relaxing four weeks off -- although I have to admit, there's something quite nice about putting technology aside for a few weeks and laying travertine and building cabinets instead ...

As I noted in my previous post , I recently discovered that my approach for building Web Solution Packages (WSPs) in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 isn't compatible with Team Foundation Build. I'm actually a little embarrassed to say...

As I've mentioned before, I don't spend much money or time maintaining the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab). However, that doesn't mean that I treat my infrastructure lightly. In previous posts, I've covered many of the Group Policy objects...

I started using Password Minder almost immediately after reading about it in the July 2004 edition of MSDN Magazine. I don't know about you, but trying to remember all of my various passwords for dozens of Web sites, numerous network accounts, VMs, etc...

I use Robocopy a lot, and it's been in my Toolbox for so long that I hardly remember using anything else. I was glad to see that it is now included out-of-the-box (starting with Vista), because I typically use it instead of Windows Explorer to move or...

For the sake of this post, let's assume that you have a directory that contains some empty folders you want to get rid of. How the empty folders got there isn't important; all that matters is that you have some and you want to get rid of them. A few...

In my previous post , I briefly mentioned the Code Analysis feature of Visual Studio in the context of using check-in policies with Team Foundation Server (TFS). However, there's a lot more to talk about with regards to using Code Analysis. If you...

I love using Team Foundation Server (TFS). There's just an amazing amount of "goodness" for software development that comes out-of-the-box; and there's even more available from Microsoft and other sources in the form of add-ons (many of which are free...

This morning I was doing some cleanup of my documents folder and I stumbled across a rather old Visio document that showed the beginnings of what I now refer to as the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab). For some geeky reason, seeing this again...

Yet another Group Policy object that I use in the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab) is one to automatically configure roaming profiles and redirect the Desktop and Documents folders to a server(a.k.a. "IntelliMirror"). Even though I don't have...

Another Group Policy object that I use in the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab) is one that I created a couple of years ago in order to eliminate various warnings from the Microsoft Baseline Security Advisor (MBSA). To automatically change...

This past May, one of my colleagues notified me of a new tool called "Rooler" that allows you to easily measure anything displayed on your screen. I definitely consider this tool a "must have" for anyone out there doing Web development. While tools...

Continuing in the spirit of my previous posts for the SharePointPublishingHelper class and SharePointWebPartHelper class, I'd like to introduce another helper class that you may find useful when building solutions for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS...

In a previous post, I introduced the DR.DADA approach to SharePoint development and how I typically use the concept of a FeatureConfigurator to automatically configure one or more aspects of a SharePoint site when activating my feature. For example...

If you've ever deployed Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) v3 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 in a least privilege configuration, you have undoubtedly encountered errors similar to the following in your Windows event log: The application...

In Part 1 of this post , I explained the Group Policy object (named Development - Restricted Groups Policy ) that I use for enforcing group membership on a specific set of servers. As a follow-up to that post, I also want to cover an alternate method...

Another Group Policy object that I use in the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab) is one to automatically configure Windows Update on all computers in the domain. This ensures that each server or workstation downloads updates from COLOSSUS (one...

In yesterday's post I covered one of the Group Policy objects that I use in the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab), specifically one that automatically enables Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) whenever I add a new server to my Active Directory...

In a previous post, I provided some details on the "Jameson Datacenter" (a.k.a. my home lab). In a follow-up post, I also discussed the Active Directory domain structure and mentioned how I use the Group Policy feature of Active Directory to "effortlessly...

It occurred to me this morning that while I previously shared some details on how I manage my MSDN blog , I've never shared my method for formatting code for the Web. Actually, calling it "my method" is definitely a bit of a stretch. I certainly didn...

In a previous post, I provided some details on the "Jameson Datacenter" , which is really just my home lab that I use for learning new technologies and improving my skills, as well as actually completing my day-to-day tasks on various customer projects...

In yesterday's post , I provided a sample walkthrough of the "DR.DADA" approach to developing solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. However, I intentionally left out a few things because a) that post was already getting ridiculously...

Update 2009-11-18 I discovered that using relative paths in the DDF file is not compatible with Team Foundation Build. Refer to the following post for the updated DDF file and corresponding modifications to the project file: Building SharePoint...

In a previous post , I briefly touched on the "DEV-TEST-PROD" triad of environments that I typically recommend (at a minimum) for every organization doing any form of software development. This post describes, in greater detail, the various environments...

During the more than three years I spent helping Agilent Technologies migrate their Internet site from their legacy, proprietary platform to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, we unfortunately never used Team Foundation Server (TFS). Instead...

Back in a post from February 2008, I first referred to the "Jameson Datacenter" while discussing one of the servers running in my basement. Since then I've referenced my home lab about a dozen times in different posts but never provided significant details...

In case you haven't picked it up from some of my previous posts, I became somewhat of a "Web standards zealot" back in 2006 while creating a "community site" for a local organization of mental health professionals and attorneys that help children and...

As noted in my previous post , I spent 7 days in "alpha" training last week for SharePoint 2010. Consequently, one of my goals for this week was to update my "dogfood" VM with the CTP build of SharePoint Server 2010, so that I can continue building...

When helping customers migrate their Internet sites to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, I've found it very helpful to create wireframes showing the various fields, Web Parts, and master page content. For the last several years, I've been...

One of the challenges I see in organizations that I work with is the lack of naming conventions for various environments -- or sometimes naming conventions that provide little or no value. For about the last ten years, I've been a strong proponent...

The project I am currently working on is nearing the end. Last week we reached our "Feature Complete" milestone and now we have formally transitioned into the "Stabilizing" phase. In a couple of team meetings this week, I mentioned the concepts of...

Yesterday I introduced the concept of linked files in Visual Studio solutions with a follow-up on my recommendation for configuring a custom dictionary to eliminate CA1704 code analysis warnings. Another practical application of linked files is what...

Whenever a new .NET assembly project is created in Visual Studio, a file named AssemblyInfo is created that contains attributes used to define the version of the assembly during compilation. Using assembly versions effectively enables various team...

In my previous post , I introduced the concept of linking files in Visual Studio solutions. A good use of this feature is specifying a custom dictionary for your solution. Once you enable Code Analysis on your projects, you are likely to encounter...

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post introducing my system for structuring Visual Studio solutions . However, I apparently forgot to post a follow-up providing additional details, such as configuring assembly versioning and what I like to call "shared...

Last summer, I added DiffMerge to my Toolbox and I haven't used WinDiff since. DiffMerge can do everything WinDiff can, plus a whole lot more -- like intra-line highlighting, merging, and comparing files using configurable rulesets (although you'll...

My name is Jeremy, and I'm a Firefox user. There, I've said it. I know, I know...what am I thinking, a Microsoft employee telling the world that Internet Explorer isn't the end all, be all browser for everyone?! Well, first let me clarify a little...

Over the years, I have refined how I create Visual Studio projects based on lessons learned and new capabilities provided with each subsequent release of Visual Studio. When starting a new project from scratch, I start by creating a blank Visual Studio...

Since I tend to work on server products such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, I frequently see developers and other team members that I work with constantly entering their credentials when browsing to some Web page on a server. While this experience...

About four years ago, one of the partners that I was working on an engagement with commented on how developers tend to have their own unique way of managing files, but that mine was one of the most bizarre he had ever seen. It has been four years, but...