Year 2012 – Iteration Complete – RTM

It’s holiday  time, so I’ve got some time to make some personal review of 2012.

First of all, I reach all my personal targets that were set for this year, special thank you to my Wife almost for 15 years now, and to my inspiration David that reach his 4 Birthday , for supporting me all the time , even were also hard times.

Targets for  2013 –

First of All – Mens sana in corpore sano – need to spread 6kg

Second – Happiness with family

Innovation – More Cloud, More Native and give live to some ideas that will bring some of the new trends together in some – sure  Apps

Commitment –

Hardware – Yes is time to change, in 2013 will be may be year of Kinect 2 with gasses , and Tablet and and multi-touch All in one that our Digital Home will have some fun.

News – yea , I am Microsoft ALM ranger again – http://blogs.msdn.com/b/willy-peter_schaub/archive/2010/07/30/introducing-the-visual-studio-alm-rangers-cosmin-dumitru.aspx

TFS and VS studio same as parallel computing makes fun.

I whish you dear reader, an Happy Holiday, traditional Mary Christmas and and Happy Healthy 2013.

Troubleshooting Hyper-V on window 8–part 1

Understanding VHD structure – avoid HDD expansion 

Occasionally the purpose of snapshotting VMs in Hyper-V is misunderstood (and hence misused), and people find that their initial guesstimate as to required disk space was insufficient, so try to extend it after the fact.

If there was an eleventh commandment, it should possibly be “Thou shalt not expand a VHD file if it hath snapshots”.

Scenario:

Virtual machine FOO has a 1GB dynamically expanding VHD file.

A snapshot is taken of FOO, then it is shut down.

The “Edit Disk” function in the Hyper-V Manager is used to expand the VHD file to 2GB, where the following warning is presented and dutifully ignored by the user:

A request is made to start FOO, which fails with the following error:

The following events are recorded under Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Hyper-V-Worker > Admin:

Event 12142:
‘FOO’: Failed to open virtual disk ‘C:\Virtual Machines 2\Test Machines\FOO_1CE6964B-29B6-4D37-97AA-E847195217F3.avhd’.
A problem was encountered opening a virtual disk in the chain of differencing disks, ‘C:\Virtual Machines 2\Test Machines\FOO.vhd’ (referenced by ‘C:\Virtual Machines 2\Test Machines\FOO_1CE6964B-29B6-4D37-97AA-E847195217F3.avhd’): ‘The size of the virtual hard disk is not valid.’ (0xC03A0012).
(Virtual machine ID CAC3EE73-20EC-43A5-BE9C-04177CAEFEB8)

Event 12140:
‘FOO’: Failed to open attachment ‘C:\Virtual Machines 2\Test Machines\FOO_1CE6964B-29B6-4D37-97AA-E847195217F3.avhd’. Error: ‘The chain of virtual hard disks is corrupted.
There is a mismatch in the virtual sizes of the parent virtual hard disk and differencing disk.’ (0xC03A0017).
(Virtual machine ID CAC3EE73-20EC-43A5-BE9C-04177CAEFEB8)

Event 12010:
‘FOO’ Microsoft Emulated IDE Controller (Instance ID {83F8638B-8DCA-4152-9EDA-2CA8B33039B4}): Failed to Power on with Error ‘The chain of virtual hard disks is corrupted.
There is a mismatch in the virtual sizes of the parent virtual hard disk and differencing disk.’ (0xC03A0017).
(Virtual machine ID CAC3EE73-20EC-43A5-BE9C-04177CAEFEB8)

Event 12030:
‘FOO’ failed to start.
(Virtual machine ID CAC3EE73-20EC-43A5-BE9C-04177CAEFEB8)

(It does not matter that the VM has no OS installed, or that one would not fit on such a small disk – this is for illustration only, and the contents of the virtual disks are irrelevant as far as Hyper-V is concerned.)

So what went wrong (other than the user disregarding the warning that something bad might happen)?

First, you might want to familiarise yourself with this TechNet article which points to the document with the details specs for the VHD file format.

Citing relevant parts here to give some background:

The basic format of a dynamic hard disk is shown in the following table.

Dynamic Disk header fields

Copy of hard disk footer (512 bytes)

Dynamic Disk Header (1024 bytes)

BAT (Block Allocation table)

Data Block 1

Data Block 2

…

Data Block n

Hard Disk Footer (512 bytes)

Every time a data block is added, the hard disk footer must be moved to the end of the file. Because the hard disk footer is a crucial part of the hard disk image, the footer is mirrored as a header at the front of the file for purposes of redundancy.

All hard disk images share a basic footer format. Each hard disk type extends this format according to its needs.

The format of the hard disk footer is listed in the following table.

Hard disk footer fields

Size (bytes)

Cookie

8

Features

4

File Format Version

4

Data Offset

8

Time Stamp

4

Creator Application

4

Creator Version

4

Creator Host OS

4

Original Size

8

Current Size

8

Disk Geometry

4

Disk Type

4

Checksum

4

Unique Id

16

Saved State

1

Reserved

427

Original Size

This field stores the size of the hard disk in bytes, from the perspective of the virtual machine, at creation time. This field is for informational purposes.

Current Size

This field stores the current size of the hard disk, in bytes, from the perspective of the virtual machine.

This value is same as the original size when the hard disk is created. This value can change depending on whether the hard disk is expanded.

Now let’s take a look at the Hard Disk Footer of the VHD file before it was expanded (as the Reserved bytes are all zero I have truncated the view to the interesting bits):

63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 13 21 5D 1A 77 69 6E 20
00 06 00 01 57 69 32 6B 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 08 20 10 3F 00 00 00 03
FF FF F1 2E 79 05 30 D3 82 5C 22 44 86 97 5B F9
70 B3 53 4C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

I have coloured the bytes for the Original Size, Current Size and Disk Geometry, as it is logical to assume these would be the bits changing when the disk is expanded.

0x0000000040000000 == 1GB, as we would expect both sizes are set to this.

The disk geometry shows us the C/H/S values are 0x820 / 0x10 / 0x3F (convert these values to decimal and multiply by 512 bytes per sector and you magically get 1GB).

Here is the Hard Disk Footer of the snapshot (or “differencing”) disk:

63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 13 21 5D 9A 77 69 6E 20
00 06 00 01 57 69 32 6B 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 08 20 10 3F 00 00 00 04
FF FF EF F6 41 AE 88 9D 5D CA 6C 40 AE 2D 01 3C
E0 5C F7 7D 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

No great surprises here – the header is very similar, except the Disk Type field is 4 instead of 3, and the Unique Id is, well, unique – both of these mean that the Checksum is different too, unsurprisingly.

So what happens to the VHD’s Hard Disk Footer when we ignore the warning and expand it?

63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 13 21 5D 1A 77 69 6E 20
00 06 00 01 57 69 32 6B 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 10 41 10 3F 00 00 00 03
FF FF F0 C5 79 05 30 D3 82 5C 22 44 86 97 5B F9
70 B3 53 4C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

0x0000000080000000 == 2GB, which is the new value for Current Size.

The Disk Geometry has changed (the cylinder count is up to 0x1041), and the resulting Checksum has therefore been modified.

There is no reference to the differencing in the parent (why would there be? there can be many differencing disks all using the same base VHD) so it’s not unsurprising to find that disk was untouched and still believes its size to be 1GB.

So now we try to start FOO, which is pointing to the snapshot as it’s “Now”, and the chain of virtual disks is checked… and fails because the disks do not agree.

The correct approach would be to merge the snapshots before expanding the disk, but how do we get out of this problem state?

If there’s a backup of the VHD before it was edited, this is the best time to put it back… what do you mean “the snapshot is our backup”?

NOTE: Snapshots are not, repeat NOT backups, and you are advised to avoid running production servers on snapshots for any length of time – just long enough to verify that any configuration change or patching you did has not had horrible side effects.

Basically we need to undo the changes made to the Hard Disk Footer (both of them, at the start and end of the file) – luckily there is “vhdtool” which has a “/repair” switch which can attempt this job for you:
http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/vhdtool

If you’ve mounted the VHD file in a running VM and changes were made to it, there is a possibility you will get data loss or corruption.

I ran the tool on the VHD and AVHD pair and here was the output:

C:\Virtual Machines 2\Test Machines>vhdtool /repair FOO.vhd FOO_1CE6964B-29B6-4D37-97AA-E847195217F3.avhd
Status: Resizing base VHD “FOO.vhd” to match the size indicated in child VHD “FOO_1CE6964B-29B6-4D37-97AA-E847195217F3.avhd”.
Status: Attempting to open file “FOO.vhd”
Status: File opened, current size is 6144
Status: Attempting to open file “FOO_1CE6964B-29B6-4D37-97AA-E847195217F3.avhd”
Status: File opened, current size is 70144
Status: Opened “FOO.vhd” as base VHD file, type is dynamic-sized.
Status: Base VHD’s identifier is “d3300579-5c82-4422-8697-5bf970b3534c”
Status: Opened “FOO_1CE6964B-29B6-4D37-97AA-E847195217F3.avhd” as child VHD file.
Status: Child VHD’s parent identifier is “d3300579-5c82-4422-8697-5bf970b3534c”
Status: Resizing base VHD to match child size of 1073741824 bytes
Status: VHD footer generated
Status: VHD footer written to file.
Status: VHD footer written to file.
Status: Operation complete.
Status: Complete

The current sizes mentioned are the size of the (VHD and AVHD) files on disk in bytes, not information stored within the files – the important line is the one that reports it is resizing the base VHD file, this is the Hard Disk Footer surgery being performed on Current Size.

The broken VM now starts up – looking at the Hard Disk Footer for the base VHD file there are some slight differences to the original, however:

63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78 00 00 00 02 00 01 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 13 21 60 E2 68 61 63 6B
00 02 00 00 57 69 32 6B 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 08 20 10 3F 00 00 00 03
FF FF F0 3F 79 05 30 D3 82 5C 22 44 86 97 5B F9
70 B3 53 4C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Time Stamp is different – given the action we are performing, not a surprise.

Creator Application is different – from 0x77696E20 to 0x6861636B… what gives?
Let’s have a look in the spec doc:

Creator Application

This field is used to document which application created the hard disk. The field is a left-justified text field. It uses a single-byte character set.

If the hard disk is created by Microsoft Virtual PC, “vpc ” is written in this field. If the hard disk image is created by Microsoft Virtual Server, then “vs  ” is written in this field.

Other applications should use their own unique identifiers.

0x77696E20 == “win “
0x6861636B == “hack”
vhdtool is following the recommended practice 🙂

Once more, Checksum is different as it’s calculated from the sum of all the other bytes in the data structure.

Creator Version has been changed from 0x00060001 (6.1) to 0x00020000 (2.0) – this is because the original creator was Windows Server 2008 R2 (NT 6.1) and the new creator is vhdtool v2.0.

“Why does vhdtool need the snapshot file if the changes are being made to the base VHD file?”

vhdtool needs to know what to set as Current Size and Disk Geometry in the base VHD file, as this information was overwritten by the disk expansion.
If you manually trash the snapshots and point the VM configuration to the base VHD file (and the Hard Disk Footer’s Checksum field adds up okay) then you have effectively rolled back without reducing the disk size back – but all the data in the snapshots is obviously lost.

“What happens if I have multiple snapshots of a VM? Do I need to do multiple edits?”

No – as the virtual disk chain check fails, the VM cannot be started or more snapshots taken after the disk expansion, so if there are already multiple snapshots they should have the same Current Size value which we are restoring in the base VHD.

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Source: SQL Server 2012 Books Online

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SQL Server 2012 Books Online
Reference

XQuery is a language that can query structured or semi-structured XML data. With the xml data type support provided in the Database Engine, documents can be stored in a database and then queried by using XQuery. XQuery is based on the existing XPath query language, with support added for better iteration, better sorting results, and the ability to construct the necessary XML.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Books Online
E-book publication date: June 2012
234 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner
Overview
Our purpose in this book is to point out both the new and the improved in SQL Server 2008 R2. There are a lot of exciting enhancements and new capabilities engineered into SQL Server 2008 R2 that will have a positive impact on your applications, ranging from improvements in operation to those in management.
Applies to: SQL Server 2008 R2
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: April 2010
216 pages
XPS | PDF | Source content

Introducing Microsoft SQL Server 2012
Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner
Overview
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is Microsoft’s first cloud-ready information platform. It gives organizations effective tools to protect, unlock, and scale the power of their data, and it works across a variety of devices and data sources, from desktops, phones, and tablets, to datacenters and both private and public clouds. Our purpose in this book is to point out both the new and the improved capabilities as they apply to achieving mission-critical confidence, breakthrough insight, and using a cloud on your terms.
Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: March 2012
288 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Master Data Services Capacity Guidelines
Yair Helman
Quick Guide
This document provides capacity planning guidelines for Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services (MDS).
Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: TechNet Wiki

E-book publication date: May 2012
6 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Solutions Guide for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
LeRoy Tuttle, Jr.
Quick Guide

This white paper discusses how to reduce planned and unplanned downtime, maximize application availability, and provide data protection using SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn high availability and disaster recovery solutions.

A key goal of this paper is to establish a common context for related discussions between business stakeholders, technical decision makers, system architects, infrastructure engineers, and database administrators.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: White paper

E-book publication date : May 2012
32 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | DOC | Source content

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services Multidimensional Performance and Operations Guide
Thomas Kejser and Denny Lee
Guide

Download this book to learn about Analysis Services Multidimensional performance tuning from an operational and development perspective. This book consolidates the previously published SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Operations Guide and SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Performance Guide into a single publication that you can view on portable devices.

Applies to: SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012
Source: White paper
E-book publication date: May 2012
200 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content 1 | Source content 2

QuickStart: Learn DAX Basics in 30 Minutes
Owen Duncan
Quick Step-by-Step

This QuickStart is for users new to PowerPivot or tabular model projects authored in SQL Server Data Tools. It is meant to give you a quick and easy introduction on how you can use Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) to solve a number of basic data modeling and analytical problems.

Applies to: PowerPivot for Excel (all versions), SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012
Source: TechNet Wiki
E-book publication date: May 2012
13 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services – Data Mining
SQL Server 2012 Books Online
Step-by-Step

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services makes it easy to create sophisticated data mining solutions. The step-by-step tutorials in the following list will help you learn how to get the most out of Analysis Services, so that you can perform advanced analysis to solve business problems that are beyond the reach of traditional business intelligence methods.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: SQL Server 2012 Books Online

E-book publication date: June 2012
213 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services – Multidimensional Modeling
SQL Server 2012 Books Online
Step-by-Step
This tutorial describes how to use SQL Server Data Tools to develop and deploy an Analysis Services project, using the fictitious company Adventure Works Cycles for all examples.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: SQL Server 2012 Books Online

E-book publication date: June 2012
168 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Analysis Services – Tabular Modeling
SQL Server 2012 Books Online
Quick Step-by-Step

This tutorial provides lessons on how to create a SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services tabular model running in In-Memory mode by using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: SQL Server 2012 Books Online

E-book publication date: June 2012
57 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Reporting Services
SQL Server 2012 Books Online
Quick Step-by-Step

This book contains tutorials for SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services: Create a Data-Driven Subscription, Create a Basic Table Report,  Create a Sample Report in Power View, and Optimize a Sample PowerPivot Model for Power View Reports.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: SQL Server 2012 Books Online

E-book publication date: June 2012
61 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

SQL Server 2012 Tutorials: Writing Transact-SQL Statements
SQL Server 2012 Books Online
Quick Step-by-Step

This tutorial is intended for users who are new to writing SQL statements. It will help new users get started by reviewing some basic statements for creating tables and inserting data. This tutorial uses Transact-SQL, the Microsoft implementation of the SQL standard. This tutorial is intended as a brief introduction to the Transact-SQL language and not as a replacement for a Transact-SQL class. The statements in this tutorial are intentionally simple, and are not meant to represent the complexity found in a typical production database.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: SQL Server 2012 Books Online

E-book publication date: June 2012
21 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

SQL Server 2012 Upgrade Technical Guide
Ron Talmage, Nigel Sammy, Allan Hirt, Herbert Albert, Antonio Soto, Danilo Dominici, Régis Baccaro, Milos Radivojevic, Jesús Gil, Dejan Sarka, Johan Åhlén, Simran Jindal, Paul Turley, Craig Utley, Larry Barnes, Pablo Ahumada
Guide

This technical guide takes you through the essentials for upgrading SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008 R2 instances to SQL Server 2012.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: White paper

E-book publication date: June 2012
454 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF

Visual Studio

Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Patrice Pelland, Pascal Paré, and Ken Haines
Guide
This book is for professional developers who are working with previous versions of Visual Studio and are looking to make the move to Visual Studio 2010 Professional.
Applies to: Visual Studio 2010
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: September 2010
36 pages
XPS | PDF | Source content

Web Development

Deploying an ASP.NET Web Application to a Hosting Provider using Visual Studio
Tom Dykstra
Step-by-Step

This series of tutorials shows you how to make an ASP.NET web application available over the internet by deploying it to a third-party hosting provider. The deployment method used is Visual Studio one-click publish. The tutorials illustrate deployment first to IIS on the development computer for testing. They then show you how to deploy to the hosting provider as the production environment.

Applies to: ASP.NET 4.0 and earlier, Visual Studio 2010
Source: ASP.NET site

E-book publication date: May 2012
162 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Developing Modern Mobile Web Apps
patterns & practices
Guide

This project provides guidance on building mobile web experiences using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Developing web apps for mobile browsers can be less forgiving than developing for desktop browsers. There are issues of screen size, the availability of specific feature support, and other differences between mobile browsers that will impact how you develop your apps. In addition, there are various levels of support for the emerging standards of HTML5 and CSS3, and standards for some features, such as touch, are just beginning to take shape. All of these factors suggest that it is best to keep your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as simple as you can in order to ensure compatibility with as many devices as possible. This project illustrates how to do this, as well as how to add more advanced functionality where supported.

Applies to: ASP.NET MVC 4, HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript
Source: MSDN Library (patterns & practices)

E-book publication date: June 2012
111 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

The Entity Framework 4.0 and ASP.NET Web Forms – Getting Started
Tom Dykstra
Step-by-Step

In this book, you’ll learn the basics of using Entity Framework Database First to display and edit data in an ASP.NET Web Forms application.

Applies to: ASP.NET 4.0, ASP.NET Web Forms, Entity Framework 4.0, Visual Studio 2010
Source: ASP.NET site

E-book publication date: June 2012
257 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Getting Started with ASP.NET 4.5 Web Forms (Beta)
Erik Reitan
Step-by-Step

This series of tutorials guides you through the steps required to create an ASP.NET Web Forms application using Visual Studio 11 Beta and ASP.NET 4.5 Beta.

Applies to: ASP.NET 4.5 Beta, Visual Studio 11 Beta, ASP.NET 4.5 RC, Visual Studio 2012 RC
Source: ASP.NET site

E-book publication date: May 2012
59 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Getting Started with the Entity Framework 4.1 using ASP.NET MVC
Tom Dykstra
Step-by-Step

In this book, you’ll learn the basics of using Entity Framework Code First to
display and edit data in an ASP.NET MVC application.

Applies to: ASP.NET 4.0, MVC 3, Entity Framework 4.1, Visual Studio 2010
Source: ASP.NET site

E-book publication date: June 2012
59 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Intro to ASP.NET MVC 4 with Visual Studio (Beta)
Rick Anderson and Scott Hanselman
Step-by-Step

This tutorial will teach you the basics of building an ASP.NET MVC Web application using Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Express Beta for Web, which is a free version of Microsoft Visual Studio.

Applies to: ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta, Visual Studio 11 Beta, ASP.NET MVC 4 RC, Visual Studio 2012 RC
Source: ASP.NET site

E-book publication date: May 2012
115 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Introducing ASP.NET Web Pages 2
Mike Pope
Step-by-Step

This set of tutorials gives you an overview of ASP.NET Web Pages (version 2) and Razor syntax, a lightweight framework for creating dynamic websites. It also introduces WebMatrix, a tool for creating pages and sites. The tutorials take you from novice programmer through seeing your site live on the Internet. Topics include how to install Microsoft WebMatrix (a set of tools for creating sites); how to work with forms; how to display, add, update, and delete data; how to create a consistent site layout; and how to publish to the Web.

Applies to: ASP.NET Web Pages 2 RC, Visual Studio 2012 RC
Source: ASP.NET site

E-book publication date: June 2012
147 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Project Silk: Client-Side Web Development for Modern Browsers
patterns & practices
Guide

Project Silk provides guidance for building maintainable cross-browser web applications that are characterized by rich graphics, interactivity, and a responsive user interface, resulting in an immersive and engaging user experience. Project Silk also illustrates how you can take advantage of the fast JavaScript engines of the modern, standards-based web browsers to achieve a user experience and execution speeds that rivals desktop applications.

Applies to: SQL Server 2012
Source: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Books Online
E-book publication date: September 2011
319 pages
PDF | Source content

Windows

Deploying Windows 7: Essential Guidance
Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine
Guide
Looking for guidance specific to Windows 7 deployment? Check out what the industry’s leading experts have to say in this free Microsoft Press eBook with selected chapters from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine.
Applies to: Windows 7
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: October 2009
332 pages
PDF | Source content

Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (Second Preview)
Kraig Brockschmidt
Guide
This book is about writing Windows 8 apps using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Our primary focus will be on applying these web technologies within the Windows 8 platform, where there are unique considerations, and not on exploring the details of those web technologies themselves.
Applies to: Windows 8
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: August 2012
158 pages
PDF | Sample code | Source content

Windows Azure

Autoscaling Application Block and Transient Fault Handling Application Block Reference
patterns & practices
Reference

The Autoscaling Application Block provides a mechanism for adding autoscaling behaviors to Windows Azure applications based on predictive usage patterns or reactive rules. The Transient Fault Handling Application Block provides a set of reusable and testable components for adding retry logic into your Windows Azure applications by using Windows Azure SQL Database, Windows Azure storage, Service Bus and Caching Service. This makes your Windows Azure application more reliable and resilient to transient faults (such as temporary network connectivity issues or temporary service unavailability). This also improves overall application stability. The blocks are part of the Microsoft Enterprise Library Integration Pack for Windows Azure.

Applies to: Windows Azure SDK for .NET (includes the Visual Studio Tools for Windows Azure), Windows Azure SQL Database, Windows Azure Service Bus, Enterprise Library 5, Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.0, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Source: MSDN Library (patterns & practices)

E-book publication date: June 2012
159 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Building Elastic and Resilient Cloud Applications – Developer’s Guide to the Enterprise Library 5.0 Integration Pack for Windows Azure
patterns & practices
Guide

The Microsoft Enterprise Library is a set of reusable application blocks that help developers meet common enterprise software development challenges. The Microsoft Enterprise Library Integration Pack for Windows Azure is an extension to the Microsoft Enterprise Library 5.0 that can be used with Windows Azure. It includes the Autoscaling Application Block, the Transient Fault Handling Application Block, a protected configuration provider and the Blob configuration source.

Applies to: Windows Azure
Source: MSDN Library (patterns & practices)
E-book publication date: June 2012
220 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Building Hybrid Applications in the Cloud on Windows Azure
patterns & practices
Guide
This guide focuses on the common challenges you will encounter when building applications that run partly in the cloud and partly on-premises, or when you decide to migrate some or all elements of an existing on-premises application to the cloud. It focuses on using Windows Azure as the host environment, and shows how you can take advantage of the many features of this platform, together with Windows Azure SQL Database, to simplify and speed the development of these kinds of applications.
Applies to: Windows Azure, Windows Azure SQL Database, SQL Server, Windows Identity Foundation, Windows Azure Service Bus, Enterprise Library, Windows Azure Diagnostics, Windows Azure Management Cmdlets
Source: MSDN Library (patterns & practices)
E-book publication date: July 2012
405 pages
PDF | Source content

Create Your First Application: Node.js and Windows Azure
Windows Azure Developer Center
Quick Step-by-Step

Create your first application using Node.js and Windows Azure. 

• Implement a simple Hello World application in Node.js and deploy the application to a Windows Azure Web Site. 
• Learn how to use the Windows Azure PowerShell cmdlets to create a Node.js application, test it in the Windows Azure Emulator, and then deploy it as a Windows Azure Cloud Service. 
• Implement a Node.js application using WebMatrix, and then deploy it to a Windows Azure web site. 
• Implement a task list application using Node.js and MongoDB.

Applies to: Windows Azure, Node.js
Source: Windows Azure Developer Center

E-book publication date: June 2012
86 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Drupal on Windows Azure
Rama Ramani, Jason Roth, Brian Swan
Quick Guide

This e-book explains the migration, architecture patterns and management of your Drupal based website on Windows Azure.

Applies to: Windows Azure
Source: MSDN blogs

E-book publication date: June 2012
20 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content 1 | Source content 2

Migrating Data-Centric Applications to Windows Azure
Kun Cheng, Selcin Turkarslan, Norberto Garcia, Steve Howard, Shaun Tinline-Jones, Sreedhar Pelluru, Silvano Coriani, Jaime Alva Bravo
Guide

This guide provides experienced developers and information technology (IT) professionals with detailed guidance on how to migrate their data-centric applications to Windows Azure Cloud Services, while also providing an introduction on how to migrate those same applications to Windows Azure Virtual Machines. By using this guide, you will have the planning process, migration considerations, and prescriptive how to’s needed for a positive migration experience.
Capturing the best practices from the real-world engagements of CAT and the technical expertise of the SQL Database Content team, Migrating Data-Centric Applications to Windows Azure can help you simplify the migration process, provide guidance on the most appropriate migration tools, and drive a successful implementation of your migration plan.

Applies to: Windows Azure
Source: MSDN Library

E-book publication date: June 2012
143 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Moving Applications to the Cloud, 2nd Edition
patterns & practices
Guide

This book demonstrates how you can adapt an existing, on-premises ASP.NET application to one that operates in the cloud. The book is intended for any architect, developer, or information technology (IT) professional who designs, builds, or operates applications and services that are appropriate for the cloud. Although applications do not need to be based on the Microsoft Windows operating system to work in Windows Azure, this book is written for people who work with Windows-based systems. You should be familiar with the Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual Studio, ASP.NET, and Microsoft Visual C#.

Applies to: Windows Azure SDK for .NET (includes the Visual Studio Tools for Windows Azure), Windows Azure SQL Database, Microsoft SQL Server or SQL Server Express 2008, Windows Identity Foundation, Enterprise Library 5, WatiN 2.0, Microsoft Anti-Cross Site Scripting Library V4, Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.0, Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Source: MSDN Library (patterns & practices)

E-book publication date: June 2012
128 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Windows Azure Prescriptive Guidance
Larry Franks, Sidney Higa, Suren Machiraju, Christian Martinez, Valery Mizonov, Walter Myers III, Rama Ramani, Jason Roth, Mark Simms, Paolo Salvatori, Adam Skewgar, Ralph Squillace, Patrick Wickline, Trace Young
Guide
Windows Azure Prescriptive Guidance provides you with some of the best practices and recommendations for working with the Windows Azure platform. Categories cover planning, designing, developing, and managing a variety of different types of Windows Azure applications, including mobile, enterprise, and consumer-based applications. It also provides guidance for developers using non-.NET applications, libraries, and stacks with Windows Azure.
Applies to: Windows Azure, Windows Azure SQL Database, Windows Azure Cloud Services, and Enterprise Integration Applications
Source: MSDN Library
E-book publication date: May 2012
422 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Windows Azure Service Bus Reference
Seth Manheim and Ralph Squillace
Reference

The Windows Azure Service Bus provides a hosted, secure, and widely available infrastructure for widespread communication, large-scale event distribution, naming, and service publishing. The Service Bus provides connectivity options for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and other service endpoints – including REST endpoints — that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to reach. Endpoints can be located behind network address translation (NAT) boundaries, or bound to frequently-changing, dynamically-assigned IP addresses, or both.

Applies to: Windows Azure Service Bus
Source: MSDN Library
E-book publication date: May 2012
260 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Windows Phone

Developing an Advanced Windows Phone 7.5 App that Connects to the Cloud
patterns & practices
Guide

This guide provides an end-to-end walkthrough of how to create an advanced Windows Phone 7.5 app that integrates with remote Windows Azure-based services. The guide can help you understand how to implement individual features for Windows Phone 7.5 and how to use them together to build an app.

After reading this book, you will be familiar with how to design and implement advanced applications for Windows Phone that take advantage of remote services to obtain and up-load data while providing a great user experience on the device.
Applies to : Windows Phone 7.5, Windows Azure
Source: MSDN Library (patterns & practices)
E-book publication date: January 2012
208 pages
PDF | Source content

Programming Windows Phone 7
Charles Petzold
Guide
Get started building applications for Windows Phone 7—expertly guided by award-winning author Charles Petzold. You’ll focus on the core concepts and techniques for creating apps with Microsoft® XNA and Microsoft Silverlight®, with coverage of Microsoft Visual Studio®, .NET Framework managed code sandbox, the phone emulator, sensors, and location. As always, Charles brings a unique combination of pragmatism and authority to his instruction—along with an eminently readable style and a wealth of hands-on examples. 
Note: This book is not applicable to Windows Phone 7.5 or Windows Phone 8 development.
Applies to : Windows Phone 7
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: October 2010
960 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Windows Server

A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control, Second Edition
patterns & practices
Guide

Imagine a world where you don’t have to worry about authentication. Imagine instead that all requests to your application already include the information you need to make access control decisions and to personalize the application for the user. In this world, your applications can trust another system component to securely provide user information, such as the user’s name or email address, a manager’s email address, or even a purchasing authorization limit. The user’s information always arrives in the same simple format, regardless of the authentication mechanism, whether it’s Microsoft® Windows® integrated authentication, forms-based authentication in a web browser, an X.509 client certificate, or something more exotic. Even if someone in charge of your company’s security policy changes how users authenticate, you still get the information, and it’s always in the same format. This is the utopia of claims-based identity that A Guide to Claims-Based Identity and Access Control describes. 

Applies to: Windows Identity Foundation (WIF), Microsoft Active Directory® Federation Services (ADFS) v2, and Windows Azure Access Control Service (ACS)
Source: MSDN Library (patterns & practices)
E-book publication date: December 2011
411 pages
PDF | Source content

Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2
Charlie Russel and Craig Zacker with the Windows Server Team at Microsoft
Overview
In this book, we focus on the new features and refinements in Windows Server 2008 R2. This book is targeted primarily at Windows server administrators who are responsible for hands-on deployment and day-to-day management of Windows-based servers for large organizations.
Applies to: Windows Server 2008 R2
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: October 2009
200 pages
XPS | PDF | Source content

Introducing Windows Server 2012
Mitch Tulloch with the Windows Server Team
Overview
This book represents a “first look” based on the RTM release of Windows Server 2012 and is intended to help IT professionals familiarize themselves with the capabilities of the new platform.
Applies to: Windows Server 2012
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: June 2012
256 pages
EPUB | MOBI | PDF | Source content

Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions: From the Desktop to the Datacenter, Second Edition
Mitch Tulloch with the Microsoft Virtualization Teams
Guide

This book is for IT professionals who want to learn more about the latest Microsoft virtualization technologies, including Hyper-V and Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, and Microsoft’s private and public cloud computing platforms including Windows Azure.
Applies to: Windows Server 2008 R2, System Center
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: February 2010
466 pages
XPS | PDF | Source content

Learning & Career

Own Your Future: Update Your Skills with Resources and Career Ideas from Microsoft
Katherine Murray
In this book, students will find a wealth of Microsoft resources they can
use to identify the technology skills they need, and gather knowledge and
experience to help them take charge of their careers. Here at Microsoft, we care about students’ career success and hope these resources will open doors to learning that will lead them to better opportunities and a deeper understanding of the way technology continues to change and improve the ways people work—both here in the U.S. and around the world.
Applies to:
Publisher: Microsoft Press
E-book publication date: February 2010
126 pages
XPS | PDF  | Source content

I hope find these resources to be helpful in learning about and using the various solutions and technologies reference. And, if you do, please share these with your peers and colleagues so that they too can take advantage of these and benefit from them.

The source: E-Book Gallery for Microsoft Technologies on the TechNet Wiki.

How to Enable BitLocker to prompt for PIN during startup

 

You can do this after BitLocker has encrypted the entire drive. First you have to enable the local policy to require a PIN during startup. You could also do that centrally enterprise wide through Group Policy (GPO). To do this:-

• Click Start > Run.
• Type “gpedit.msc”

• Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > BitLocker Drive Encryption > Operating System Drives.
• One the right pane, double-click on Require additional authentication at startup.

• Choose Enabled
• Uncheck the Allow BitLocker without a compatible TPM
• Under Configure TPM startup PIN:, choose Require startup PIN with TPM

After all that is done, you need type a few commands to get it going. Here’s how.

1. Start your command prompt (make sure you run it as an administrator).
2. Type; “manage-bde -protectors -add c: -TPMAndPIN”.
3. Then type; “manage-bde -status” to check whether the TPMAndPin protector has been added.

After you’ve done this and still realise you’re not prompted for PIN during startup, you might want to try this. http://weikingteh.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/how-to-get-bitlocker-to-prompt-for-pin-during-startup/

Enjoy!!!

Personal Use – Email Certificates (SMIME Certificates)

Email certificates, also known as SMIME certificates, are digital certificates that can be used to sign and encrypt email messages.  The recipient can also be sure that the email hasn’t been changed in any way.

Why do I need email certificates?

If you don’t use an email certificate, your emails can be read by anyone, or any server, that is used to pass the emails to the recipient. This can be a lot people. This would be like sending a postcard through the mail so that all of the postal workers and anyone who really wants to can read it. With an email certificate, you are 100% guaranteed to have secure email while it is being transmitted.

Some email servers use a different kind of certificate called a server authentication SSL certificate. This secures all email transmissions from the server to your local computer, but once you send an email to another email account on another email server, it leaves the safe haven and travels to the unprotected lines of the Internet where anyone can read it. An SMIME certificate ensures end-to-end security.

How do I get email certificates?

The process of getting an email certificate is very simple. You simply apply for one from an SSL Certificate Authority and then prove that you own your email address. You’ll typically respond to an email that the certificate provider sends to your address. They will then send you the certificate file that you can install to your email client using the instructions below.

Some email certificates are free for personal use while others cost money. Use the following chart to find an email certificate provider:

Provider	Cost	CA Rating	Trusted By Default?	More Info
Comodo	Free for personal use From $12 for business use			Personal Email Certificates Business Email Certificates
Verisign	$19.95			Digital IDs for Secure Email
Startcom	Free			S/MIME Certificates
GeoTrust	$19.95			My Credential Certificates
CACert	Free			Email and Client Certificates

How do I install an SMIME certificate?

For step-by step instructions on how to order and install and SMIME certificate, see the following tutorials:

• Getting a Free Comodo Email Certificate
• Install Email Certificate In Mail 3.0 – Leopard OS X
• Getting a Thawte Email Certificate

How does an SMIME Email Certificate work?

Once you install the SMIME (Secure / Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) certificate in your email client, you will send a signed email to people that need to send encrypted emails to you. Your contacts’ email client should automatically download your certificate add it the address book. From then on, your contacts can send you encrypted emails by clicking the “Encrypt” button when creating a new email. Different email clients handle this differently than others so make sure to check the documentation of the email client that you use.

What email clients can I use with an SMIME certificate?

Unfortunately, most webmail clients (OWA, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo), do not support SMIME certificates, but most desktop email clients, including the following, do support email certificates:

• Microsoft Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Apple Mail.app
• Netscape Messenger
• Qualcomm Eudora

Problems with Email certificates

• Not all email clients support SMIME certificates so users may be confused by the smime.p7s attachment on emails.
• Email certificates aren’t normally considered practical for webmail clients because the private key would need to be kept on the server, preventing end-to-end encryption.
• Malware can be sent to in an encrypted email without being stopped by a company gateway.
• The private key of the SMIME certificate could be lost and the messages would not be readable.