Functional Programming

Good article: [LINQ, functional]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh288084.aspx

Memory concepts

-> On 32-bit machines, a program instruction (basically a 32-bit pointer) can address to maximum of 4 GB of virutal memory. 32-bit programs still use the 4-GB tuning model (2 GB User and 2 GB Kernel).

Theoretically, a 64-bit pointer could address up to 16 exabytes. 64-bit versions of Windows have currently implemented up to 16 terabytes of address space.

-> Each process is assigned an address space of 4 GB of virtual memory, regardless of amount of physical memory. Each process is isolated and has its own 4 GB address space

-> The limit of memory used by all applications is:

RAM + maximum size of page file

Find out:

- what is first-chance and last chance exception?

- why does the Working Set/Mem usage on Task Manager value drops considerably when you minimize the application?

- what are good books on debugging windows?

- Other than breakpoints, how can you use Visual Studio for debugging applications?

- What are .pdb files? If we distribute an application in Release mode and with the .pdb files will it help in any way? Or How do we get the line no. of code when we distribute applications in Release mode?

- paged pool, non-paged pool of a process

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294418

- why is Obj folder created when you build a project? what is its purpose and why is it not distributed along with application?

- allocated , committed, reserved memory - what is the difference?

- How do you create installer for a windows service project?

- just create a windows setup project and add its output??

Regular expression cheat sheet

A cheat-sheet for Regex:

http://regexlib.com/CheatSheet.aspx

Use English language in non-English Windows 7 computers

Change language in Windows 7/ Vista:

http://www.froggie.sk/

A few days back I had to access a computer having Windows 7 in non-English speaking country. The problem was it had only French installed in it, and as it is the case with Windows 7 professional edition we cannot install additional language pack on it. Multiple language packs are supported only in Ultimate editions.

Vistalizator was at rescue.

Redistributing Visual C++ Files

MSDN article describing ways to distribute Visual C++ runtime libraries

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms235299(v=vs.80).aspx

BareGrep

A cool file finding and text searching tool:

http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baregrep/

Change type of TextBox on Installation screens

Many time during the installation of an application which requires database access - we may ask for database authentication details on the installation/setup screens.

If we have a requirement of changing one of the text fields to a password field - how do we achieve that?

The textboxes available on setup forms - they do not offer any attribute other than Name, Property...

We need to use Orca and change the field 'Attribute' of the control you want to modify. The new value of 'attribute' should be '2097159'. (by default it is 7).

If you are using the "WiRunSQL.vbs" and updating it in a post-build event then the query is:

"UPDATE `Control` SET `Control`.`Attributes`='2097159' where `Control`.`Control`='Edit4'"

('Edit4' is the name of control)

IMP: In SQL queries for MSI it is important to use ` and not ' to specify the column names.

EDIT: We could also have used transforms to update the MSI. Transforms can be created using Orca and applied using "msitran" tool.

Modifying MSI programmatically

If you are using Orca to make changes to MSI every time before a release, then you may look into this:

This approach uses WiRunSQL.vbs to update MSI (this can be added to post-build event)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368562(v=vs.85).aspx

TreeSize

How many times did we want to know the size of a folder and all its sub-folders?

For me it has been always the case whenever I clean up my hard drive. It is just too tiring to right-click and check out the properties.

TreeSize (free) lets you do just that. The interface is a tree view which shows the sub-folders with their sizes.

http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

Unpackage .msi file

A quick tip to unpackage the .msi file without installing the application:

MSIEXEC /a "msi file path" targetdir="install location"

The argument that works is "/a" which is for admin mode.