Microsoft Releases Outlook Web App for iPhone and iPad

Microsoft launched the Outlook Web App for iPhone and iPad today.
Here is a detailed description:
IMPORTANT: You need to have the latest update of Office 365 for business to use this app. If you’re not sure about your account status, please contact your IT department before installing.

With OWA for iPhone you can:

Get work done faster with email

• Organize your email quickly with Conversation View, Mark as Junk, Flag, and Categories
• Quickly search or browse email in all folders including Outlook Favorites

Manage your schedule with ease

• Schedule meetings using attendee free/busy and room finder 
• View shared calendars including delegate support
• Use your voice to look up a contact or bring up your schedule

Keep business data secure

• Remote wipe erases only your corporate data in OWA for iPhone and leaves your personal data on the device alone 
• Separate passcode for OWA for iPhone provides an additional layer of security

Requirements:

• The mailbox must be on the latest update of Office 365 for business or Exchange Online
• iPhone must be iPhone 4S or higher and have iOS 6 or higher

Remember that Microsoft recently launched the Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers.

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Surface vs iPad - Part 2

Microsoft released yet another commercial comparing Surface with iPad.

The latest commercial compares the Asus Vivo Tab with Apple iPad. Comparison is focused more on thickness, light weight, multi tasking.  And of course, the micro SD card adapter, and printing.

However the commercial doesn't compare with iPad features  like Retina display, AppStore, performance and design.

It's just another Microsoft commercial :-)

Watch out the first comparison between Surface and iPad here. 

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Microsoft launches two new mice

Yes, Microsoft launched two nice mice, and they are available in the Microsoft Store.

Sculpt Comfort Mouse - $39.95
- Supports Windows 7 and above. Mac OS 10.4 X and above.

Sculpt Mobile Mouse - $29.95
- Supports Windows 7 and above. Mac OS 10.4 X and above.

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Surface vs iPad :-)

Microsoft released a commercial today making fun of Apple iPad :-) (Siri). 

Siri: I don't update like that. 

iPad has the notification center which shows all the updates. Microsoft?

Siri: I guess powerpoint isn't one of those things.

iPad has KeyNote, and it is way better than Powerpoint.

Funny video though :-)

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Microsoft Announces Xbox One Console

An all-in-one home entertainment device.

Gamers have been eagerly anticipating the launch of Microsoft's next generation Xbox console, and today they finally got what they've been waiting for. Microsoft's next console, previously referred to as Durango and Xbox 720, was introduced to the world as Xbox One, a name that underscores Microsoft's intent to rule the living room with an all-in-one entertainment system that's equally adept at playing games as it is for watching live TV, chatting on Skype, browsing photos and videos, and more. The device itself looks rather large and almost VCR-like.
Microsoft's Don Mattrick took to the stage and talked about how the living room has become "too complex, too fragmented, and too slow." The Xbox One is Microsoft's answer to these problems, and much of the magic of the new console has to do with intelligent voice recognition and gesture control.

Navigation

Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, demoed several of Xbox One's navigation features. One of big differences between the Xbox One and 360 is that the console recognizes who you are right off the bat. Say "Xbox On" and it will turn on your device and launch straight into your custom profile with your personalized home screen. It will also remember what you were last doing, in case you wanted to jump back into a game or movie that you had to duck out of prematurely.
One of the most impressive demos was Mehdi showing how quickly and smoothly the Xbox One can switch between tasks, going from Internet Explorer ("Xbox Internet Explorer!") to watching movies ("Xbox movie!") and live TV. It will be interesting to see what kind of relationship Microsoft and the Xbox One has with cable providers. It can also, of course, play games. The Xbox One recognizes gestures, too. Reach out your arms, grab, and close to bring up the Home screen, or expand to go back to where you just came from.
A new Snap Mode allows you to multi-task, to an extent. While you're watching a movie, for example, you can have Skype running in a sidebar on the right or look up content on the web via IE.

Live TV figures to be a prominent feature of the Xbox One. Say "Show the guide" to bring up a listing of TV shows and then navigate through voice control, by browsing favorites, or by seeing what's "Trending," which is a new tab added to the Dashboard. If you're bored with your program, you can say "What's on HBO?" and Xbox One will respond with a listing of shows and movies on HBO.

What About the Hardware?

As for the hardware, well, the Xbox One will rock an 8-core CPU with 5 billion transistors, 8GB of system memory, 500GB hard drive, Blu-ray drive (yes, the Xbox is finally getting Blu-ray!), 802.11n Wi-Fi, HDMI in/output, and USB 3.0 support. Beyond that, it's not clear if that RAM will be unified like it is on the PlayStation 4 or which exact processor and GPU Microsoft is tapping into, or whether it will be x86 based like Sony's console. We suspect those details will come to light in the coming months, and potentially at E3, where Microsoft will make several Xbox 360 announcements.
On the platform side, Microsoft described a three-in-one OS architecture:

1. Xbox software that gives developers deep access to the sysem and hardware
2. A Windows kernel
3. Special software to connect the two above OSes

Following the press conference, Nvidia revealed to us that the company will offer the console PhysX support. Whether that is on the GPU side or CPU side is still up in the air. Maximum PC has tried reaching out to Nvidia for more clarification on the matter to only recieve a "no comment" reply. Regardless, with PhysX support coming to the Xbox One, this will be especially interesting as earlier rumors pegged the Xbox One as using AMD components for both the CPU and GPU. This could theoretically mean the green and red team may be collaborating on the console in some capacity.
UPDATE: AMD has confirmed it is indeed designing an APU for the Xbox One. “AMD is very excited to be working with Microsoft on their next-generation Xbox One. The Microsoft Xbox One leverages a single-chip, semi-custom AMD APU, with custom components co-developed with Microsoft designed to enable unique attributes of the system Microsoft is bringing to market,” said Saeid Moshkelani, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's Semi-Custom Business Unit. 

Updated Kinect Sensor and Controller

A new Kinect sensor will be paired with every Xbox One console. It expands to 1080p, can read more joints than before, understands subtle movements like a flick of the wrist, and can even detect your heartbeat when exercising. Microsoft also updated the familiar controller so that it's more ergonomic, though retains the same semi-butterfly shape as previous versions.

Xbox Live

Sorry folks, Microsoft isn't giving up its subscription-based Xbox Live service in favor of free online play for everyone. The same memberships as today will exist, though the backend infrastructure is significantly overhauled. While today's Xbox Live service taps into 15,000 servers, there will be 300,000 servers powering Xbox One's Live service.
Microsoft will put that horsepower to use in part for better matchmaking. It will search for opponents in one game while you're playing another, and overall, Microsoft envisions a deeper, richer Live experience.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Finally, Call of Duty: Ghosts made an appearance towards the end of the event. Microsoft announced that will continue its exclusive downloadable content (DLC) deal with Activision, ensuring Xbox One gamers get DLC before gamers on other devices.
There's a new game engine being introduced in Ghosts. It will run at a steady 60 frames per second while you control new characters in a new game world. The script is being hammered out by Stephen Gaghan, writer of Traffic and Syriana.
Dogs will be part of your squad and are able protect your team and sniff for explosives. Other animals, like fish, will move out of your way as you get close, which is part of a new artificial intelligence (A.I.) system. There will be dynamic events like earthquakes, and player-driven events too. You'll be able to customize your characters in multiplayer, choosing heads, bodies, helmets, and other gear.
"It will be the best Call of Duty game we've ever ever made," Activision's Erik Hirschberg declared.
That wraps up the highlights. Microsoft didn't announce a price or release date, instead confirming what we already know, which is that Xbox One will be available "later this year."
What did you think of the announcement? Are you as bummed as we are that more hardware details weren't revealed? Let us know in the comments!
Source

Microsoft : http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xboxone/what-it-is?xr=shellnav

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Make Free International Calls for a Month with Skype

This holiday season, you can talk to your far-away relatives and friends to your heart’s content without having to worry about the phone bills. The @Skype team has just tweeted an offer that is too good to ignore. →
Skype to Skype calls have always been free but you can now also use Skype to make free and unlimited voice calls to mobile phones and landlines for 30 days. In addition to phone calls, you can also have video calls with a group of 3-10 friends during the same offer period.

To get started, use this special link to sign-in to your Skype account, enter your credit card or PayPal details (you won’t be charged) and complete the sign-up process. Once your Skype Premium service is activated, you can cancel your recurring subscription immediately while the premium services will continue to work for the entire 30-day period.
The fine print says that you can make free calls to landlines and mobile phones in Canada, Guam, Hong Kong S.A.R., Puerto Rico, Singapore, Thailand and United States.
The countries where you can call landline numbers for free include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and Venezuela.

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Microsoft Has Reportedly Slashed Surface RT Orders By Half

There’s a growing concern that Redmond-based Microsoft is not achieving the kind of orders it had initially hoped or expected of its Surface RT, and it’s now looking like the company’s orders are petering out – as opposed to increasing – in the run-up to Christmas. CEO Steve Ballmer’s note of "modest" sales at launch has done very little to instill confidence recently, and to compound the situation, upstream supply chain sources have revealed the software maker has reduced orders of the Surface RT by half.

If true, the news teeters dangerously close to catastrophic, and although nobody presumed the Surface would outsell the big-name devices this Fall, Microsoft will be alarmed by what looks to have been an unexpectedly slow start. After all, if the biggest name in the company uses the word "modest" to describe sales of a very, very important product, it’s more than likely the sales have been nearer the "poor" end of the spectrum.

The Surface, which packs in a 10.6-inch touch display, has quite a few things going for it. Aesthetically, you couldn’t say it’s any less beautiful than the market-leading iPad from Apple, and if you like 16:9 displays, sharp edges, and connecting various USB peripherals, the new, Windows RT-packing tablet is a great option.

However, it’s those two hard-hitting, inconspicuously significant letters – "RT" – that I think go some way to explaining the mediocrity in sales of the Surface hitherto. While the Surface Pro – scheduled to release in January – will run on Intel processors and a full version of Windows 8, the RT iteration runs on an ARM-based NVIDIA Tegra quad-core processor. Clocked at 1.3GHz, it’s not a bad little runner, but it lacks one key skill – the ability to run legacy apps.

So, considering how Surface Pro delivers a full-blown desktop experience, it’s a good idea to churn out a few extra bucks and go with the Surface Pro instead. Priced at $899 and $999 for the 64GB and 128GB models respectively, it’s not cheap, but if you take into account how much it has to offer along with portability, then it’s definitely the go-to solution for your desktop replacement needs.

Perhaps not such a big deal to some, the lack of support for those apps PC users have come to rely on provides the Surface RT (and Windows RT) with a major setback. The fact that the Surface has been marketed as a hybrid is somewhat misleading to some, because save for the bundled, unfinished Office 2013, there’s really not a great deal to get excited about if you’re looking to use the Surface RT as some kind of notebook replacement – Touch / Type Cover or not.

Time will tell as to whether the Surface RT does have a market, but with little interest thus far, and the prospect of rich app support not looking too promising, the immediate future of the one-month-old device does look rather bleak.

via: RedmondPie

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Microsoft Office 2010 for $9

Yes, you are correct. Microsoft Office 2010 is available for $9.

Microsoft Professional Plus 2010 Home is availble for 9$ at microsofthup website. check the Microsoft Home Use Program website for more details. Microsoft Home Use Program

To get Microsoft Office 2010, all you need to do is enter your email id and the Program Code. To get Program Code ask your employer.

For any Queries, check the FAQ 

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Microsoft Security Essentials Now Protecting Over 31 Million PCs

Antivirus vendors went on the offensive when Microsoft announced it was dropping its Windows Live OneCare in favor of offering a free security suite, Microsoft Security Essentials. One year later and with 31 million installations now under its belt, Microsoft is free to serve up a slice of humble pie to the competition.
'It's been a busy year for Microsoft Security Essentials. As we observed right after the first week of release, Microsoft Security Essentials had already detected threats on over half a million computers,' the Redmond outfit said in a TechNet blog post. 'As Microsoft Security Essentials enters into its second year with over 31 million installations, 27 million of those computers have reported infections to the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC).'
In other words, MSE isn't just popular, it's also working (you can read our review of Microsoft Security Essentials right here). It's also a global hit.
'The country with the most installations is the United States, but the next 10 countries with the most installs show that Microsoft Security Essentials has a global install base,' Microsoft points out. 'It is available in 27 languages – so language shouldn’t be a barrier to good security. Money is no problem, either – Microsoft Security Essentials is available at no cost!'

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AT&T to Launch Windows Phone 7 Devices on November 8

Citing 'people familiar with the launch plans,' The Wall Street Journal reports Microsoft will officially unveil a handful of Windows Phone 7 devices on October 11, 2010, with AT&T offering them for up sale four weeks later (November 8, 2010).

AT&T will initially be the exclusive carrier of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 series and will help Microsoft market the devices in return. At launch, AT&T will offer three handsets provided by Samsung, LG, and HTC.

It isn't a big shock that AT&T scored an exclusivity deal with Microsoft, giving that the Redmond outfit named the carrier its premier Windows Phone 7 partner in the U.S. back in February. But it's at least interesting considering AT&T also carries Apple's iPhone.

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Chrome Gains Market Share, IE Slips a Tick

The latest browser market share statistics are out from Web analytics firm Net Applications, and of all the browsers, only Google's Chrome made any kind of notable gain.

Chrome bumped up its position from 7.52 percent in August to nearly 8 percent in September, which is more than twice the market share it held one year ago.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer continued to slip, dropping from 60.40 percent to 59.65 percent in that same time frame. Both Firefox and Opera held steady by increasing their share a nominal 0.03 and 0.02 percent, respectively, while Apple's Safari browser continued its slow but steady climb, rising from 5.16 percent to 5.27 percent.

Released in the middle of September, Microsoft's IE9 Beta accounted for 0.25 percent of browser usage in the last two weeks of the month.

Image Credit: jhonlara.com

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Time for IE 9 Beta

Its time for Internet Explorer 9 Beta. Has been out few days back. Improvements in IE9 are as follows. 

• Streamlined Design: 

• Pinned Sites: 

• Download Manager:

• Enhanced Tabs:

• New Tab Page:

• Search in the address bar:

• Notification Bar:

• Add-on performance advisor:

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HOW TO: Show large icons in Windows Vista / XP QuickLaunch bar?

Are you sick and tired of small icons in your QuickLaunch bar? Or you like them but you would like to try out something new? Well look no more, in this short HOW TO article I will show you how easy it is to enlarge icons in QuickLaunch bar and make your Taskbar distinctive.

I will suppose that you are using Windows Vista, but I think this option is also available on Windows XP so if someone can confirm that to me by putting comment on this post, I will add it in this article.

EDIT: Thanks to Davor, now I can confirm that this will work on Windows XP as well. Thanks, Davor!

So, basically, we want to achieve this kind of look for our QuickLaunch:

We will start from this look:

Right-click on QuickLaunch and pop-up menu will appear. Ensure that your Taskbar is unlocked (no check-mark by Lock the Taskbar option). Click onView and then select Large Icons. After that you will have large icons in your QuickLaunch bar. Nice and simple, right?

You can decide number of icons visible at the same time by moving the gripper (option is available after unselecting the Lock the Taskbar option) left or right.

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Windows 7 Release Candidate unveiled

Microsoft has made available the Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7.  Also available is a beta of Windows XP Mode, a compatibility tool to help users migrating from XP to Windows 7.  The code will be generally available on 5 May from Microsoft's Windows site.

The RC code introduces a number of changes from the earlier beta release, many of these are under the hood and will not be noticeable to users. Many of the changes are based on customer feedback to the beta release, improving features such as Jump Lists and the multi-touch user interface.

"We've changed everything from major through to minor, but it won't look a lot different," said John Curran, Windows Business Group lead at Microsoft UK.

Windows XP Mode, disclosed earlier this week, will enable consumers and small business customers to run any software not compatible with Windows 7. It is available only for the Professional and Ultimate editions of Windows 7.

XP Mode is based on a forthcoming version of Virtual PC for Windows 7, but has been customized to hide the fact that applications are running in a virtual machine.

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ASP.Net 3.0 Interview Questions and Answers

Here is a collection of .Net 3.0 Interview Questions and Answers. I hope you find the list useful. Keep learning, keep sharing, keep posting.

1. What is the Windows Presentation Foundation?
The Windows Presentation Foundation is the unified presentation subsystem for Windows. It consists of a display engine and a managed-code framework. The Windows Presentation Foundation unifies how Windows creates, displays, and manipulates documents, media, and user interface, which enables developers and designers to create visually-stunning, differentiated user experiences that improve customer connection. When it ships, scheduled for 2006, the Windows Presentation Foundation will be available on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and all future releases of the Windows operating system. When delivered, the Windows Presentation Foundation will become Microsoft’s strategic user interface technology.

2. What is the Windows Communication Foundation?
The Windows Communication Foundation is a set of technologies for building and running connected systems.
The Windows Communication Foundation is a new breed of communications infrastructure built around the Web services architecture. Advanced Web services support in the Windows Communication Foundation provides secure, reliable, and transacted messaging along with interoperability. The Windows Communication Foundation’s service-oriented programming model is built on the .NET Framework and simplifies development of connected systems. The Windows Communication Foundation unifies a broad array of distributed systems capabilities in an extensible architecture, spanning transports, security systems, messaging patterns, encodings, network topologies and hosting models. The Windows Communication Foundation will be an integral capability of Windows Vista and will also be supported on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft has also done significant work to integrate the Windows Communication Foundation with existing Microsoft technologies for building distributed systems including COM+, MSMQ, and ASP.NET Web services. Applications built with those existing technologies can now be exposed as services without modification to the application. This infrastructure-level solution greatly assists developers in exposing existing applications as services. The Windows Communication Foundation also provides simple and mechanical mechanisms to migrate applications that use .NET remoting, ASP.NET Web services, and .NET Enterprise Services to natively use the Windows Communication Foundation programming model.

3. Is C# used for any core features of Windows Vista?
Yes, for example, much of the Windows Presentation Foundation is written using C#

4. Why do we need XAML as a new way to create applications in .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX)?
The new application model in Windows Vista separates out declarative code (XAML) from procedural code (C#, VB.NET, J#, etc.). One major reason for using XAML is to bridge the gap between developing an application for Microsoft Windows and developing an application for the Web.
XAML does not give you new functionality; it is just a declarative way to instantiate and initialize Microsoft .NET objects. XAML does, however, provide you with a way to solve problems such as:When you write procedural code (C#, etc.) to create a number of controls, and compare that to the equivalent XAML, the XAML is more compact, less redundant, and less error-prone. Writing a designer for XAML will be a lot easier than writing a forms designer for C# or VB.NET, since the designer won’t have to do all that code parsing to figure out where to insert or change the setting of a property.
In the real world, many customers find requests coming in at the very last minute asking for changes to the user interface—a button needs to be moved or removed or the company logo needs to appear on every window. It is especially at the end of the development process, when you think your code is “frozen” and tested, that you’d rather not have to dive into the source code and start changing things. Who knows what subtle interaction you might break? With XAML, most—if not all—of the presentation layer is in its own file, thus providing a high degree of certainty that making a user interface change in the XAML will not break business logic code.
XAML enables professional graphic designers or user interface specialists to add beauty, style and grace to an application without modifying source files directly. Partitioning the user interface and the logic that drives it means each of us can get our job done without getting in each other’s way or having to understand the myriad details of one another’s tools.
XAML is considerably smaller than the equivalent C# code. Since there is less code, there are fewer opportunities for errors

5. Is XAML only used for quick UI prototyping?
XAML will be used for production work, not just for prototyping. Specifically, localizing your application or ensuring that it is accessible—common for most applications today—will be a lot more work if you build your own user interface from code instead of using XAML

6. Will XAML replace other programming languages like C# and VB?
No. XAML complements procedural languages, much the same way HTML complements ECMAScript. You can very quickly declare how you want your user interface to look with XAML, then use a language like C# to define the business logic behind that user interface

7. Can XAML be used to develop both Web and client-server applications?
XAML is used as part of Windows Presentation Foundation to write smart client applications that take advantage of the power of the PC and benefit from all of the power of the CLR. For Windows Presentation Foundation applications, the logic runs on the client, unlike ASP.NET, which processes on the server. ASP.NET continues to be the answer to producing powerful Web applications that take advantage of the benefits of the CLR on the server

8. Q: What is NET Framework 3.0 ?
A: NET Framework 3.0 is the managed-code programming model for Windows, starting with Windows Vista. NET Framework 3.0 is a superset of the .NET Framework, designed to expose the new functionality in Windows Vista to the developer through managed classes. If you know how to write managed code on the .NET Framework today, NET Framework 3.0 will be familiar to you. Put another way, at PDC 2000, Microsoft debuted the .NET Framework, which introduced a new managed programming model on top of our existing Windows operating systems. With Windows Vista and NET Framework 3.0, we’re keeping that managed programming model while building new core parts of the operating system, such as moving the Windows Presentation Foundation subsystem next to GDI and User.

9. Q: What is the difference between Windows Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 ?
A: The .NET Framework 3.0 is a managed-code programming model, including APIs for the Windows Presentation Foundation and the Windows Communication Foundation.
10. Q: Where is the new functionality in the .NET Framework 3.0 (such as WCF, WF, WPF, and CardSpace) installed to? Is that different from where the .NET Framework 2.0 is installed to?A: Components shared with the .NET Framework 2.0 are installed at %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\V2.0.50727. Components that are new to the .NET Framework 3.0 are installed to %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\V3.0. Check out the .NET 3.0 Deployment whitepaper for more information on installation and deployment.

11. Q: How large is the .NET Framework 3.0?
Does this change make the release larger? A: There’s no change to the size of the .NET Framework 3.0 as a result of the name change from WinFX. It is about 49Mb, and that includes the .NET Framework 2.0, which is about 22Mb.

12. Q: How does servicing work for the .NET Framework 3.0?
If I install the .NET Framework 3.0, can I get service updates for the .NET Framework 2.0? Servicing will be available for the .NET Framework 2.0 components as long both it and the operating system it is installed on are still in service. Any service updates for the .NET Framework 2.0 will work for the 2.0 components installed as a part of the .NET Framework 3.0 as well.
13. Q: What operating systems will the .NET Framework 3.0 be available for? A: The .NET Framework 3.0 will be available for and supported on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 (SP1), Windows Server 2003 SP2, and Windows XP (SP2).
14. Q: When will the .NET Framework 3.0 be released? A: The .NET Framework 3.0 is included as part of Windows Vista, and customers who get Windows Vista will receive the .NET Framework 3.0. The first release of Windows Vista to business customers is currently planned for November 2006, although the final date will depend on customer feedback.At the same time, we will make the .NET Framework 3.0 broadly available for download to all customers using Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
15. Q: How does the .NET Framework 3.0 relate to Windows Vista? A: The .NET Framework 3.0 is a core component of the Windows Vista operating system, and is installed by default on Windows Vista. It will also be available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
16. Q: Are there any parts of the .NET Framework 3.0 that only work on Windows Vista? A: Though there are some optimizations in the .NET Framework 3.0 that take advantage of new functionality in Windows Vista, we’ve striven to provide a consistent experience for the .NET Framework 3.0 across Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP.
17. Q: Why is the .NET Framework 3.0 a major version number of the .NET Framework if it uses the .NET Framework 2.0 runtime and compiler? A: The new technologies delivered in the .NET Framework 3.0, including WCF, WF, WPF, and CardSpace, offer tremendous functionality and innovation, and we wanted to signal that with a major release number.
18. Q: How does “Side by Side” work for the .NET Framework 3.0? A: Since the .NET Framework 3.0 includes only new components that are added to the .NET Framework 2.0 and there is no overlap between the assemblies of the .NET Framework 2.0 and the .NET Framework 3.0, there’s no real “Side by Side” scenario. You can run applications based on the .NET Framework 2.0 and applications based on the .NET Framework 3.0 on the same machine.
19. Q: I’m running an application built on WinFX today. Do I need to do anything different to make it run on the .NET Framework 3.0? A: No, applications running on WinFX will now run on the .NET Framework 3.0 without any changes. Of course, since the .NET Framework 3.0 is still under development, there may be changes to the framework in the future.
20. Q: Can I remove particular .NET Framework 3.0 components? A: No, the .NET Framework 3.0 components (WPF, WCF, WF, and CardSpace) are part of a single package, and are installed together.
21. Q: Will C# 3.0, VB.NET 9.0, Atlas, or Linq be included in the .NET Framework 3.0? A: No, these features are planned for future releases of the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework 3.0 includes only the technology formerly described as WinFX.
22. Q: Will there be a .NET Compact Framework 3.0 release with release of .NET Framework 3.0? A: No. We are currently working on developing a version of the .NET Framework 3.0 functionality that will be supported on the Compact Framework, but shipping plans and included functionality have not been announced.
23. Q: What is the version number for the next version of the .NET Framework, codenamed “Orcas”? A: We’re still planning the “Orcas” release, and so this number is not yet defined.
24. Q: What happens when I install the .NET Framework 3.0? How can I upgrade if I already have the .NET Framework 2.0 installed?A: When you install the .NET Framework 3.0, the installer will check to see whether you already have the .NET Framework 2.0 (released version) installed. If not, the .NET Framework 3.0 installer will install the .NET Framework 2.0 for you, and then install the new .NET Framework 3.0 components. If you do have the .NET Framework 2.0 installed, the .NET Framework 3.0 installer will only install the new components of the .NET Framework 3.0.
25. Q: My organization went through the approval process of supporting the .NET Framework 2.0 in production. Do we need to go through the same process all over again for the .NET Framework 3.0? Do I need to do any application compatibility testing for my .NET Framework 2.0 applications?A: Because the .NET Framework 3.0 only adds new components to the .NET Framework 2.0 without changing any of the components released in the .NET Framework 2.0, the applications you’ve built on the .NET Framework 2.0 will not be affected. You don’t need to do any additional testing for your .NET Framework 2.0 applications when you install the .NET Framework 3.0.
26. Q: Will the name change be reflected in any of the existing .NET Framework 2.0 APIs, assemblies, or namespaces? A: There will be no changes to any of the existing .NET Framework 2.0 APIs, assemblies, or namespaces. The applications that you’ve built on .NET Framework 2.0 will continue to run on the .NET Framework 3.0 just as they have before.
27. Q: Which version of the Common Language Runtime (CLR) does the .NET Framework 3.0 use?The .NET Framework 3.0 uses the 2.0 version of the CLR. With this release, the overall developer platform version has been decoupled from the core CLR engine version. We expect the lower level components of the .NET Framework such as the engine to change less than higher level APIs, and this decoupling helps retain customers’ investments in the technology.
28. Q: What is the .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX)?A: The .NET Framework 3.0 is Microsoft’s managed code programming model. It is a superset of the .NET Framework 2.0, combining .NET Framework 2.0 components with new technologies for building applications that have visually stunning user experiences, seamless and secure communication, and the ability to model a range of business processes. In addition to the .NET Framework 2.0, it includes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows CardSpace.
29. Q: What happens to the WinFX technologies?A: The WinFX technologies will now be released under the name .NET Framework 3.0. There are no changes to the WinFX technologies or ship schedule — the same technologies you’re familiar with now simply have a new name.
30. Q: How does the .NET Framework 3.0 relate to the .NET Framework 2.0? A: The .NET Framework 3.0 is an additive release to the .NET Framework 2.0. The .NET Framework 3.0 adds four new technologies to the .NET Framework 2.0: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows CardSpace. There are no changes to the version of the .NET Framework 2.0 components included in the .NET Framework 3.0. This means that the millions of developers who use .NET today can use the skills they already have to start building .NET Framework 3.0 applications. It also means that applications that run on the .NET Framework 2.0 today will continue to run on the .NET Framework 3.0.
31. Is XAML only used for quick UI prototyping?XAML will be used for production work, not just for prototyping. Specifically, localizing your application or ensuring that it is accessible—common for most applications today—will be a lot more work if you build your own user interface from code instead of using XAML
32. Will XAML replace other programming languages like C# and VB?No. XAML complements procedural languages, much the same way HTML complements ECMAScript. You can very quickly declare how you want your user interface to look with XAML, then use a language like C# to define the business logic behind that user interface
33. Can XAML be used to develop both Web and client-server applications?XAML is used as part of Windows Presentation Foundation to write smart client applications that take advantage of the power of the PC and benefit from all of the power of the CLR. For Windows Presentation Foundation applications, the logic runs on the client, unlike ASP.NET, which processes on the server. ASP.NET continues to be the answer to producing powerful Web applications that take advantage of the benefits of the CLR on the server
34. Why do we need XAML as a new way to create applications in .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly WinFX)?The new application model in Windows Vista separates out declarative code (XAML) from procedural code (C#, VB.NET, J#, etc.). One major reason for using XAML is to bridge the gap between developing an application for Microsoft Windows and developing an application for the Web.XAML does not give you new functionality; it is just a declarative way to instantiate and initialize Microsoft .NET objects. XAML does, however, provide you with a way to solve problems such as:
When you write procedural code (C#, etc.) to create a number of controls, and compare that to the equivalent XAML, the XAML is more compact, less redundant, and less error-prone. Writing a designer for XAML will be a lot easier than writing a forms designer for C# or VB.NET, since the designer won’t have to do all that code parsing to figure out where to insert or change the setting of a property.
In the real world, many customers find requests coming in at the very last minute asking for changes to the user interface—a button needs to be moved or removed or the company logo needs to appear on every window. It is especially at the end of the development process, when you think your code is “frozen” and tested, that you’d rather not have to dive into the source code and start changing things. Who knows what subtle interaction you might break? With XAML, most—if not all—of the presentation layer is in its own file, thus providing a high degree of certainty that making a user interface change in the XAML will not break business logic code.
XAML enables professional graphic designers or user interface specialists to add beauty, style and grace to an application without modifying source files directly. Partitioning the user interface and the logic that drives it means each of us can get our job done without getting in each other’s way or having to understand the myriad details of one another’s tools.
XAML is considerably smaller than the equivalent C# code. Since there is less code, there are fewer opportunities for errors
35. What is XAML?“XAML, Extensible Application Markup Language, is Microsoft’s XML-based language for creating a rich graphical user interface….XAML was introduced in 2003 as the language behind Windows Presentation Foundation, then known as Avalon.”
36. Why do we need XAML?Well, OK, in the real world, there’s been a move towards declarative programming for a while. XAML is in some ways a logical successor to SGML-based markup languages like HTML and XML. Although of course XAML is an XML dialect it provides a way to bind presentational data (the declarative list of UI elements) with some or all of the code used with them. Now why, you might ask, would Microsoft be so bothered about that? Simply put, Microsoft needs to find new ways to exploit the processing power of the client as well as the server, if it is to continue selling operating systems for the next few decades. If true thin-client computing ever really got started, it would eviscerate the OS market. That’s what Google is aiming for, and it’s exactly the thing that Microsoft fears.XAML allows you to export processing to the client machine in a way that mere script doesn’t. In effect, you can stream the interface of an application, plus a portion (or even all) of its logic, over the wire using a protocol that’s open on most firewalls. You can stream XAML into the browser and get something roughly equivalent to ActiveX controls or Java applets (which exports .NET to the browser as Silverlight has done, something Microsoft has been planning for a while). Silverlight is the first fruit of this particular plan.However, don’t expect XAML-over-HTTP to stay within the browser for long. It’s a perfect way to provide desktop apps without installers, software-as-a-service, all the stuff Microsoft was supposed to be planning years back when people were still talking about Windows.NET - you didn’t think they just gave up on all that stuff, did you?Add to this the bare-metal hypervisor stuff they are developing - ‘Viridian’ for Windows Server 2008 will be a hobbled implementation of this, but there’s more coming, and it will likely be the core architecture of whatever ‘Vienna’ turns out to be - and you can see a model developing of (supposedly) safe, sandboxed, virtualised applications streamed from the net over fast connections, always up to date, running partially on the client and partially on the server, potentially replacing today’s stateless browser-based model of internet application.I doubt the reality will live up to the dream - it never does with Microsoft, any more than it does with anyone else - but that’s the reason they want you to buy into XAML in a nutshell.
37. What is XAML?Transaction Authority Markup Language (XAML) is a vendor-neutral standard that enables the coordination and processing of online transactions in the rapidly emerging world of XML web services - the revolutionary new model of Internet-based computing that is now being adopted by all major systems and software vendors. XAML is intended to be a completely open standard for web-based business transactions.The standard defines a set of XML message formats and interaction models that web services can use in order to provide business-level transactions that span multiple parties across the Internet.
38. Why is XAML important for the delivery of e-commerce solutions? As plug-and-play e-commerce emerges, businesses are mixing and matching web services from multiple partners to create sophisticated business web services. Because these “business webs” are comprised of aggregated calls to loosely coupled web services distributed across the web, and provided by multiple businesses, coordination among these web services is imperative, in order to carry out business-level transactions. There needs to be the notion of a transaction at the web service level, as well as a means by which software systems can coordinate the processing of calls to multiple web services to provide higher-level business transactions.
XAML will provide the standard mechanism to enable XML web services to participate in business transactions spanning multiple parties across the Web. Web services provide unprecedented business interoperability by enabling businesses to share processes and competencies on the web, creating a new era of business connectivity and dynamic, “plug-and-play” e-commerce.
39. What kind of applications will XAML enable?As plug-and-play e-commerce emerges, businesses are mixing and matching web services from multiple partners to create sophisticated e-business applications. Because these “business webs” consist of loosely coupled web services distributed across the web from multiple businesses, coordination among these web services is imperative, in order to carry out business-level transactions. There needs to be the notion of a transaction at the web service level, as well as a means by which software systems can coordinate the processing of calls to multiple web services to provide higher-level business transactions.
40. Who is supporting XAML? Bowstreet, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle and Sun are leading the XAML initiative to ensure distributed e-business transactions across the Internet. However, XAML is not owned by any one vendor. Instead, the standards proposal will be submitted to an appropriate open standards body to ensure that it remains an open industry standard in which any company and organization can participate.
41. How does XAML relate to other Web Service standards?In order to understand how XAML relates to many of the existing standards, it is first necessary to understand what function each of these standards performs.When a web service is built, described, discovered and used, there are many elements that will be required. The combination of these many different elements is called a web services architecture. Some categories of these elements are: registries, business process modeling, negotiation, service description and web service transport protocols.
In order to use a web service, the existence of the service must be discovered. This discovery usually takes place in a “phone book” of web services known as a registry. Registries, such as UDDI and the ebXML registry/repository, contain human readable information that can be browsed and searched to find companies and their services.
Once a desired service is located, the terms of use can be reviewed and/or negotiated. The e-speak framework provides an elaborate negotiation mechanism. ebXML addresses the same issue through TPAML (Trading Partner Agreement Markup Language.)
Now that you know which service you need, you still have to know some additional things before you can use the web service; where is it located, what type of input it expects, what type of output it produces, which web service protocols it uses, etc. Service description languages, such as WSDL, provide a standard mechanism to outline all these details about a web service. Typically, for publicly available web services, their service descriptions are also made publicly available. The URI of the service description can be registered with a web service in a registry.
Once you know those details, you can start formulating a message to send to the service. However, some web services will require special packaging wrapped around the message, letting the web service know what to do with the message.
In this situation, an underlying web service transport protocol may need to be used, which can provide: an envelope which defines what is in a message and what program should deal with it2. specific information about how to exchange instances of application-defined data-types in a serialized format (You can think of this as how the programs agree on the format of a text-based XML file to send across the internet which contains information about a relational database or other complicated data structure within an application)3. a definition of a convention that can be used to represent remote procedure calls and responses.
XML-based web service transport protocols include: SOAP, XP (W3C XML Protocol) and ebXML Transport. Most of these web service transport protocols make use of existing protocols, such as: HTTP, SMTP, TCP, etc., to carry web service requests and responses across the internet.Another layer in the web services architecture is business process modeling. These languages define the business level descriptions of what needs to be accomplished. For example, they can describe a business scenario such as, “if a purchase order is received by my purchasing web service, the steps that need to be completed are: check inventory; if the inventory is available, ship product; if product ships, let accounting know, etc.” Business process modeling languages determine what needs to be completed and the necessary order of completion. However, they do not control nor monitor the underlying transactions themselves, where XAML is used to initiate, monitor, commit, cancel, retry, or initiate a compensating transaction.Consider this web services architecture example: A distributor of groceries needs to process an order from ACME grocery store. Included in the order is an order for 100lbs of fresh tomatoes. The grocery distributor needs to process this order. In order to fulfill this order the web services architecture will be used in a variety of ways.
The first requirement (even before the distributor gets the order) is to discover that Johnny’s Tomato Farm and Jimmy’s Refrigerated Transport provide the necessary business services. Both services are discovered via a registry; in this case, the distributor searched several different registries.
The second action is to make sure the distributor’s business web understands how to talk with each of these web services. This is done by downloading a service description for each of the two services. The registry entry indicated that Jimmy’s Refrigerated Transport is described as an e-speak service; whereas, Johnny’s Tomato Farm services are based solely on SOAP. An XML description is retrieved for the e-speak service and a WSDL document is retrieved for the SOAP service. Links to the service description documents were found in the registry entries.
An additional action must also happen before the order is placed. The business process model of a purchase order must be executed. 1)check to make sure that the person ordering is authorized to order; 2)check to make sure the ordering company has paid their last invoice; and 3)proceed to order the merchandise by ensuring that both services get managed using XAML. This entire business process is defined by an ebXML business process model. Some additional models may need to be set up…. If the item is perishable, then verify the transport availability, etc.
Now, the grocery distributor is ready for action and can accept a tomato order from ACME grocery store.
The order from ACME grocery store is taken via the distributor’s business web, and according to the business process model, the person is authorized and the finance department gives the approval. The transaction is begun on a business level. Because Tomatoes are marked as perishable, the “perishable food” model is initiated.
This model determines the business logic which states that transport must be arranged before tomatoes can be officially ordered. This logic is then used by the software that coordinates the calling of the relevant web services. The calling system prepares a message directed to a web service at Johnny’s Tomato Farm using SOAP, along with XAML to specify initiation of the transaction. In like manner, the system requests a web service at Jimmy’s Refrigerated Transport to supply the truck and driver, again using XAML to stage the request. Once both web services have responded confirming availability, the calling system interacts with the web services using XAML to facilitate the completion of the business process.
42. How does XAML relate to registries (UDDI)?UDDI defines a registry for companies and their services. In a typical scenario using UDDI, a user/program would browse through categories (like in a yellow pages) for a particular service. Once the desired XML service is found, the ’service description’ for that service can be used to retrieve the details of calling that service (see service description languages section.) The ‘service description’ (WSDL, etc), defines the semantics of calling a specific service. As with any other type of service, XAML services will be able to be registered and located within UDDI registries. UDDI can register XAML services.
43. How does XAML relate to service description languages (WSDL, XMI)?Services description languages define the details that are needed to use a web service. Typically that includes: schema for the input, schema for the output, URI of the service, type of transport used (SOAP, XP, HTTP GET, …) The XAML group will consider providing binding information to service description languages.
44. How does XAML relate to business process modeling languages (ebXML business process, BPML)?BPML covers dimensions of business process modeling that are specific to processes internal to the enterprise, including business rules, security roles, distributed transactions, and exception handling. XAML is targeted at coordinating business transactions that span web services crossing corporate boundaries.
45. How does XAML relate to XML-based web service transport protocols (XP, SOAP, ebXML Transport)?XAML is designed for the coordination of transactional web services, not XML transportation and packaging issues. XAML will work with standard XML-based service transport protocols, including W3C XML Protocol (XP), SOAP and ebXML transport protocol.
46. How does XAML relate to ebXML?ebXML is an OASIS/UN initiative to define all the layers in the web services stack. That includes categories such as registries, business process modeling, service descriptions, and transport/packaging/messaging. Please refer to the above explanation for details on how XAML relates to each of these categories.
47. How does XAML relate to e-speak?E-speak is an open software platform designed for supporting the description, registration, and discovery of e-services, the ability to compose multiple e-services into higher-level e-services, the ability to negotiate among e-services, and the ability to manage e-service interactions. XAML will enhance the e-speak platform for the coordination and processing of online business transactions involving e-services. XAML provides e-speak with a standard set of XML message formats and interaction models for e-services to use to provide business level transactions that span across companies over the Internet.
48. How does XAML relate to BizTalk/.NET?BizTalk/.Net is a Microsoft initiative to define all the layers in the web services stack. That includes four categories, registries(UDDI), business modeling languages (X-Lang), service descriptions (WSDL), and transport/packaging/messaging(SOAP). Please refer to the above explanation for details on how XAML relates to each of these categories.
49. What standards body will XAML be submitted to?At this time, the XAML group has not determined which standards body is the most appropriate for XAML. However, as the specification evolves, the group will vote on an appropriate organization and submit a draft of the specification.
50. How does XAML support/extend existing transaction monitors? XAML will enable web services to expose transactional semantics of the resources providing the services. Given that TP monitors commonly provide some of the management and coordination functions of these resources ‘behind the firewall” today, one of the goals of XAML is to enable TP monitors to participate and support the transactional semantics offered by web services. This includes passing of transaction ID’s through web service messages, and supporting the XAML web service operations of commit and cancel. At the level above individual web services, there is a new layer of software providing business-level transactions. This software makes calls to multiple web services, often spanning business boundaries. Given that XAML enables individual web services to support transactional semantics, there is also an opportunity for XAML to specify standard means for coordinating business-level transactions across collections of web services. To this end, one of the goals of XAML is to define message interfaces and interaction models that help software systems providing the business-level transactions to coordinate the interactions among web services. There is an opportunity to define XML interfaces and interaction models for a new breed of web services that would help software systems at the business transaction level. These services would provide brokering capabilities for managing the interactions among web services, for both web services supporting XAML, as well as web services that do not support XAML. This new breed of web services requires XML interfaces and interaction models that defines how software systems at the business transaction level would interact, to request assistance in shepharding a set of web services towards completion.
51. What is the relationship between XAML and other transaction protocols? Classical online transaction management (OLTP) is the process of making simultaneous changes in several places “atomically” - that is, all the changes related to a transaction are made or none of the changes are made. For example, within a single database connection, the DBMS provides some means of demarcating the beginning and end of a transaction. This demarcation ensures that changes to the database are made atomically. Sometimes, changes must be made atomically across multiple databases. For example, an insurance company might have to change both its claims information and its audit information at the same time, even though the audit information is in a separate database from the claims information. This multiple-database change would ensure that, during a later audit, the company would know which agent took the first report of the loss. In this case, the existing XA (Transaction Authority) protocol is useful. XA provides a standard mechanism for coordinating changes to multiple databases (called resource managers or RMs) as an atomic unit of work. Basically, the XA protocol asks each RM to vote on whether a commit will be successful. Once an RM has voted “yes,” it must be able to commit the open unit of work without failure. The commit occurs only if all RMs vote “yes.” This process of obtaining a vote, and then performing a commit, is called a “two-phase commit.”
Resource managers are most frequently databases, but they can also be message-oriented middleware. XA allows completely heterogeneous collections of RMs within a single transaction; for example a transaction can commit across DB/2 and Oracle at the same time. All major database vendors support XA.
52. What is the relationship between XAML and JTS/JTA? J2EE includes support for distributed transactions through two specifications, Java Transaction API (JTA) and Java Transaction Service (JTS). JTA is a high level, implementation independent, protocol independent API that allows applications to access transactions. JTS specifies the implementation of a Transaction Manager which supports JTA and implements the Java mapping of the OMG Object Transaction Service (OTS) 1.1 specification using the IIOP protocol. The JTA API allows you to demarcate transactions in a manner that is independent of the transaction manager service or JTS.
While JTA provides an API for demarcating transactions in Java-based application logic, XAML provides an agreed upon protocol or a coordinated process of interaction among transactionally-aware web services over a defined transport. Given this, a web service internally implementing JTA could expose these transactional capabilities using XAML.
53. What is XAML?(Extensible Application Markup Language; pronounced “zammel”)XAML is a declarative XML-based language that defines objects and their properties in XML. XAML syntax focuses upon defining the UI (user interface) for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and is therefore separate from the application code behind it.Although XAML is presently for use on the Windows platform, the WPF/E (Windows Presentation Foundation/Everywhere) initiative will eventually bring XAML to other platforms and devices.XAML syntax describes objects, properties and their relationships to one another. Generic XAML syntax defines the relationship between objects and children. Properties can be set as attributes or by using ‘period notation’ to specify the object as a property of its parent.
54. Why Use XAML?XAML allows the programmer to separate the user interface (UI) definition from the underlying business logic. XAML, since it is parsed, offers the possibility that a single UI definition can be used on different platforms XAML allows the user to edit the presentation layer (not necessarily directly, but with a simple tool) without requiring the usual development tools or programming knowledge
55. How Is XAML Used?XAML is used for both web-based and client-based applications. Within those two segments, there are three camps regarding the usage of XAML:Declaratively programming 2D and 3D vector graphics (VG) Declaratively programming traditional (meaning no VG) UI’s and their controls (or widgets) As a general declarative programming language for UI and non-UI constructs
56. What is .NET 3.0 ?
57. What is WCF?
58. What are the important principles of SOA (Service oriented Architecture)?
59. What are end points, contract, address and bindings?
60. What are bindings?
61. Which specifications does WCF follow?
62. What are the main components of WCF?
63. Can you explain how End points, Contract, Address and Bindings are done in WCF?
64. What is a service class?
65. What is a service contract, operation contract and Data Contract?
66. What are the various ways of hosting a WCF service?
67. What are the major differences between services and Web services?
68. What is the difference WCF and Web services?
69. What are different bindings supported by WCF?
70. Which are the various programming approaches for WCF?
71. What is one way operation?
72. Can you explain server controls in Atlas?
73. Can you explain ScriptManager control?
74. What is the importance of UpdatePanel Control?
75. Can you explain update progress control?
76. Can you explain control extenders?
77. How can we data binding in Atlas?
78. Can you explain AtlasUIGlitz library?
79. I want to create a project like Google maps how can we do that with Atlas?
80. How can we integrate Atlas with Web services?
81. How can implement drag and drop using Atlas?
82. How do we do authentications using Atlas?
83. How can we access profiles using Atlas?
84. How can we access dataset in Atlas?
85. Can you explain duplex contracts in WCF?
86. How can we host a service on two different protocols on a single server?
87. How can we use MSMQ bindings in WCF?
88. Can you explain transactions in WCF?
89. What different transaction isolation levels provided in WCF?
90. Can we do transactions using MSMQ?
91. Can we have two way communications in MSMQ?
92. What are Volatile queues?
93. What are Dead letter queues?
94. What is a poison message?
95. WPF Interview questions What is WPF?
96. What is XAML?
97. What are different types of Workflow in Windows Workflow foundation?
98. When should we use a sequential workflow and when should we use state machiHow
99. Do we create workflows using designer?
100. How do we specify conditions in Work flow?
101. How do you handle exceptions in workflow?
102. What is the use of XOML files?
103. Twist: - How can we serialize workflows?
104. How can we pass parameters to workflow?
105. AJAX Interview questions
106. What problem does Ajax solve?
107. What is Ajax?
108. What is the basic fundamental behind Ajax?
109. What is JSON?
110. How do we use XMLHttpRequest object in JavaScript?
111. How do we do asynchronous processing using Ajax?
112. What are the various states in XMLHttpRequest and how do we check the same?
113. How can we get response text?
114. How can we create XMLHttpRequest component?
115. How can we create a class in JavaScript using Atlas?
116. How do we do inheritance using Atlas?
117. How do we define interfaces using Atlas?
118. How do we reference HTML controls using Atlas?
119. Can you explain server controls in Atlas?
120. Can you explain ScriptManager control?
121. What is the importance of UpdatePanel Control?
122. Can you explain update progress control?
123. Can you explain control extenders?
124. How can we data binding in Atlas?
125. Can you explain AtlasUIGlitz library?
126. What are dependency properties?
127. Are XAML file compiled or built on runtime?
128. Can you explain how we can separate code and XAML?
129. How can we access XAML objects in behind code?
130. What are the kind of documents are supported in WPF?
131. Windows workflow foundation(Vista series)
132. What is Windows Workflow Foundation?
133. What is a Workflow?.
134. I want to create a project like Google maps how can we do that with Atlas?
135. How can we integrate Atlas with Web services?
136. How can implement drag and drop using Atlas?
137. How do we do authentications using Atlas?
138. How can we access profiles using Atlas?
139. How can we access dataset in Atlas?
140. What is Windows Communication Foundation?
141. What is Windows Presentation Foundation?
142. What is Windows Workflow Foundation?
143. What is Windows CardSpace?
144. Are there advantages to building workflows using only XAML? Are there disadvantages?
145. What are the pros and cons of using an ExternalDataExchange service versus going directly to the WorkflowQueuingService?
146. When are attached dependency properties useful in WF programming?
147. What behavior does the default scheduling service provide?
148. How can my code participate in a database transaction with a workflow instance?
149. Why would I use a tracking service?
150. Describe a scenario where the WF runtime will cancel an executing activity.
151. Describe a scenario where I’d need to spawn a new ActivityExecutionContext.
152. Tell me why I’d use a compensation handler.
153. Tell me about the following activities: Replicator, Parallel, and Policy.
154. Are there advantages to building workflows using only XAML?
155. Are there disadvantages in building workflows using XAML?

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New Virus Conficker (Kido/Downadup)

There will be a widespread infection of the Conficker worm on April 1st 2009, which can infect a Microsoft Windows system from a thumb drive, a network share, or directly across the network if the system is not patched with MS08-067.

Millions of Windows-based personal computers worldwide, including thousands in China and India, have been affected by a family of network worms which goes by the name Conficker (also called Kido or Downadup).

Relevant URL(s):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx
http://www.us-cert.gov/current/index.html#conficker_worm_information

Solution:
Install the Microsoft Windows Patch MS08-067(KB958644).

How to check if your system is updated with Patch:
Note : Please ensure that your system Microsoft Windows Patch MS08-067(KB958644) is updated on your system. Please execute the following to check if your system is having these updates.
On Windows XP system Go to Control Panel -> Add/ Remove programs à select Show updates check box ,you will find the Security update for windows as shown below Picture 1.

On Windows Vista system Go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Installed updates, You will find the security update for Windows as shown in below Picture 2.


Picture 1 ( Windows XP )


Picture 2 ( Windows Vista )

How to check if your system is infected:

The presence of a Conficker infection may be detected if you are unable to navigate to the following websites:
http://www.symantec.com/norton/theme.jsp?themeid=conficker_worm&inid=us_ghp+link_conficker_worm
http://www.mcafee.com

If you are unable to reach either of these websites, the Conficker infection may be indicated (the most current variant of Conficker interferes with queries for these sites, preventing a user from visiting them).

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Visual Studio 2010

The next version of Visual Studio is Visual Studio 2010 and the next version of .Net Framework is .Net 4.0.

There are two major features of Visual Studio 2010.

1. Cloud Development : Microsoft Announced Windows Azure, The comprehensive cloud environment on Oct 27 2008. With Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio you can build, debug and deploy services and applications for Windows Azure.
2. Parallel Programming : Microsoft is committed to simplify parallel programming for both native and managed code developers, so they can safely and productively build robust, scalable and responsive applications.

Microsoft® Visual Studio 2010® bears the stamp of Microsoft’s commitment and provides a solid foundation for the parallel age. Its significant improvements to the core platform and tools for both native and managed applications offer developers improved confidence, simplicity, and productivity in producing parallel applications. It will include the following:

• Visual Studio IDE support for parallel programming
• Parallel Pattern Library: Native C++ libraries that use lambda functions and align well with STL
• Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework: Librarybased support for imperative data and task parallelism via the Task Parallel Library, support for declarative data parallelism via PLINQ, and work coordination and managing hared state via the Coordination Data Structures
• Concurrency Runtime: Resource management of the multicore hardware and task scheduling
• Parallel debugging windows which will provide a view of tasks running in the application, and a graphical view of parallel call stacks.
• Parallel profiling views which will give developers an understanding of their application’s core utilization, thread behavior and contention blocking, and thread execution pattern per core.

Some highlights

• The editor in Visual Studio 2010 has been rebuilt using WPF
• One Click Deployment
• Inline Call hierarchy
• Sharepoint Development
• C++ Development

Among the great new functionality in Visual Studio Team System 2010:

• Discover and identify existing code assets and architecture with the new Architecture Explorer.
• Design and share multiple diagram types, including use case, activity and sequence diagrams.
• Improve testing efforts with tooling for better documentation of test scenarios and more thorough collection of test data.
• Identify and run only the tests impacted by a code change easily with the new Test Impact View.
• Enhanced version control capabilities including gated check-in, branch visualization and build workflow.

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