Launch Event resources and other tidbits!

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Thanks for attending Vista and Office launch events! Hope you got enough information about both of these platforms to start building some cool applications! :)

I’ve assimilated some information below to help you get more information about the launch events. It includes some notes about the presentations, demos and products. I’ve also included some resources for you to download and begin playing with these products.

The presentation downloaded from – Vista and Office Slide Deck

The information below doesn’t necessarily follow the flow of my presentation. The first demo that you guys saw was the German online fashion designer/retailer – Otto on Vista ( Their main web site is Otto). Here’s a list of other live applications that are running on the Windows Vista platform - live on Vista

Some of the UX features that I showcased during the presentation are:

· The Search functionality which is incorporated into the ‘Start Menu’. This is the Integrated Search functionality that lets you search not only for applications installed on your computer but also, for documents, media files, presentations, etc that match the submitted query. You also have the ability to search the Internet from here. To use: Click on the ‘Start Menu’ and type in your query to start the ‘Search’! It’s a great little feature!

· Rich Preview – Rich preview of applications on the task bar, Folders, Explorer, and also thumbnail previews. Just hover over on the task bar and u will see details about the open application just by previewing it. One cool thing is, it also allows streaming of videos while previewing from the Task bar. Another salient feature to notice is the Alt+tab functionality has been now extended to offer a ‘richer’ view of the applications, use the Windows+tab combination to get a ‘Flip 3D view’ (Notice, that the video will continue to stream even in this preview mode)

· Files and Media organizer: All your files and Media is organized in a very meaningful way. Now, you don’t have to create separate folders for each set of files. The OS takes care of it. There are multiple views in which your files can be organized and viewed from. All of this is possible from ‘Views’ Menu. One easy to miss feature is the ‘Sort’ functionality. You can actually ‘Sort’ your files based on ‘Date’, ‘Size’ or ‘Tags’ again, this is very different from the previous sort functionality. You can actually click on the column names and get a drop down to create a custom ‘Sort’ query for each column. Also note that a lot of metadata can be added to your files and media (Pictures and video). To add a Tag all you have to do is, edit/enter the tags from the ‘Details pane’ (You can get the details pane from Organizational Details pane). This is a very cool feature and the value add is tremendous once you start using it.

· Ready boost: This is a really cool feature and is available only on Windows Vista. Essentially, this allows you to use a simple USB key or a flash/Secure Digital (SD) card or any other external memory media to act as a ‘Page file’ extension. This increases the page file size and also increases the system performance significantly. It essentially, improves the Systems Memory and increases the systems performance. For more information on Ready Boost please refer: Ready Boost

· Reliability and Performance monitor – This is the hybrid Task Manager that I was talking about. I also showed you how ‘Ready Boost’ was being used by the system to do the read/write operations. To invoke the Reliability and Performance Monitor just type in the same in the Search Menu and this’ll be the first option in the Programs Section.

· Sidebar gadgets can now be developed in Managed code. Here’s how you can do it using C# via Script#

Fabrikam: This was one of the main demos in the presentation. Several different technologies were showcased during this demo. WPF, WCF, WF and finally the Smart Mobility (Power Checker) feature in the Windows Vista Platform. You can download this demo from Here – Fabrikam Demo

New York Times Reader: This is a very cool application and is currently downloadable from the New York Times web site - New York Times Reader. It showcases the XPS (XML Paper Specification) format in WPF and also some cool WCF features which will change the way you read the Newspaper. Please note that this is a live application and we cannot release any code for this particular application.

Feature Montage: This application showcases most of the standard features that you are able to do using WPF. The source code and demo application can be downloaded from – Feature Montage (Note, it’s a big download, primarily because of the embedded video!)

There is also a video by Filipe Fortes from Microsoft showcasing this application at MIX 06 – Watch it! Or you can also watch another video from Rob Relyea showcasing the same at TechEd 06 you can Watch it here!

You can also download the designer tool – Microsoft Expression Blend (Beta2) from the Expression suite of products. – Blend Beta2

North face demo: This demo cannot be downloaded as it is a live demo running at several kiosks in the North face stores. However, a video of the same can be found on Channel 9 – North Face Video. You can also find a white paper highlighting the various technologies and code snippets that make this demo so cool! Get the White paper HERE

One more cool thing about this demo is the Carousel control! This Carousel control was built by a partner. Get more information about this Carousel control from Infragisitics - Infragisitics WPF carousel controls

AllScripts Patients Monitoring Application: This is by far my favorite demo and showcases almost all of the WPF components. Click here to download the Demo Video and the Source Code for this application. Once you download the demo be sure to go through the ‘Power Checker’ option. This will give you a very good understanding of how your application can be smart enough to use less system resources when running on a battery/limited power supply mode. Another thing to sift through is the Gadget file in this application. This showcases how you can write a Windows Vista Gadget for your application.

  • Vista Power Management open the solution in VS and look at PowerChecker.cs in AvalonPatientMonitoring.sln
  • WPF - Open Patient Monitoring in (downloadable) Blend Beta 2 look at AppWindow.xaml, watch video on Channel 9 2d on 3d, XPS info, read whitepaper

Woodgrove Finance Explorer application: This application shows you how to build a finance application and use WPF to showcase data in a rich 3D format. Although this application uses static data it is really easy to link this with a Web Service and still have the same rich functionality. Another important thing to notice in this application is everything is componentized therefore you can just use bits and pieces of this application and build your own custom application with nominal ease. Download the Woodgrove finance explorer

Custom Ribbon and Custom Task Pane: To write Add in’s or to extend and customize Ribbon functionality in Office 2007 you will need to install Visual Studio Tools for Office - Second Edition. This can be downloaded from the MSDN Site – VSTO SE

Watch this simple demo of customizing the Office Ribbon using VSTO SE - DEMO

To add/remove the custom add in’s from your applications (Word, PowerPoint or any other office app) Eg: To remove the custom buttons from the ribbon in word, Click on the Office button-->Word Options-->Add-Ins-->Under Manage dropdown select-->Com Add-Ins-->Click on Edit as needed

Also, Download Open XML VS code snippets – code snippets

All of the items below are from the DinnerNow sample, which can be downloaded

  • AJAX - open Web.sln, look at OrderStatus.aspx - UpdatePanel control, more on AJAX, including tutorials
  • LINQ - open Data.sln, look at the files in the Contracts folder and for 'var=... ' SQL-like syntax in Queries.cs, more info on LINQ on MSDN - LINQ on MSDN
  • WCF - open Hosts.sln, look at Program.cs and app.config (open with WCF config tool), get WCF samples and tutorials
  • WPF - open Management.sln, look at GetWorkflow.cs, get WPF samples and tutorials
  • WF - open OrderProcessing.sln, look at ProcessRestaurantOrder.xoml, ProcessOrder.xoml, get WF samples and tutorials, build a custom WF Activity, play with the VirtualEarth interactive SDK
  • CardSpace - open Web.sln, look at CardSpaceControls folder - all files, particularly TokenProccessor.cs, for more on Cardspace (deep dive) watch on Channel 9, get Cardspace samples and tutorials
  • Gadget - save to desktop, open with notepad to examine code, how to build a gadget
  • IIS 7.0 handler - open IISHandler.sln, look at  open IIS MMC, look at Handler section, solution uses ImageCopyright Service (for .jpg), try out IIS 7.0 on Virtual Labs, also IIS 7.0 FAQ FAQ

Miscellaneous resources:

Please let me know if you need any more information! Again, thanks for attending this event.

-Mithun Dhar