Get Started with Visual Studio Code

If you want to get started with development very quickly without the hassle of installing the full Visual Studio IDE (an hour long or more installation), then you should definitely check out Visual Studio Code!

Visual Studio Code installs in a matter of minutes similar to Notepad++ and offers extensions for C#, MSBuild, XML etc.

You can download Visual Studio Code from here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/?dv=win

You can then read more about how to use Visual Studio Code here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/whyvscode

To demonstrate how easy it is to get up and running with Visual Studio Code to begin writing C# class files with Intellisense, you can check out the screenshots below:

In less than 5 minutes, I was up and running writing C# class files!  Cool, huh??

Visual Studio 2017 Release Candidate released!

Visual Studio 2017 has now entered the Release Candidate phase and is available for download!
https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/visual-studio-2017-rc/

If you want a full overview of the new features and functionality introduced in Visual Studio 2017, you can check out the Release Notes here: https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/releasenotes/vs2017-relnotes

PluralSight Black Friday deal!

PluralSight is offering a Black Friday deal on an annual subscription to their training!

For just $199, you can get an annual personal PluralSight subscription! That is a $100 discount off of their normal annual subscription price!  Woo hoo!

You should hurry before this deal runs out!  https://learn.pluralsight.com/offers/black-friday-2016?aid=701j0000002B6ujAAC&oid=701j0000002B6ueAAC&promo=&utm_campaign=black+friday&utm_content=&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=social&utm_term=

Team Foundation Server 2017 Released!

In case you haven't already read the news, Team Foundation Server 2017 has been released!  https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/news/releasenotes/tfs2017-relnotes

One of the most exciting features of Team Foundation Server 2017 is the release of the much anticipated "Code Search" Feature: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/visualstudioalm/2016/11/16/announcing-code-search-on-team-foundation-server-2017/

Finally, you can search for code throughout your Team Foundation Server project repository!

In addition, most Team Foundation Server Power Tools functionality has been directly integrated into TFS 2017 so there should be little need to separately install the TFS Power Tools as has been common with all previous releases of TFS.

There are a large number of enhancements to TFS 2017 that seem to make it a worthwhile upgrade overall and a significant step up even from its predecessor TFS 2015!

Unfortunately, on the down side, Project Server integration has been removed with this release and will only be available via 3rd party integrations going forward.  https://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/work/office/sync-ps-tfs

A specified logon session does not exist in Windows 10

I was recently helping a friend with his Windows 10 machine to connect to his network NAS device and I encountered this error message:

"The mapped network drive could not be created because the following error has occurred:
A specified logon session does not exist. It may already have been terminated."

This was incredibly odd since he stated that it had been working fine just a few weeks earlier!

Well, after a quick search on the Internet, I came across this posting: http://superuser.com/questions/968879/windows-10-map-network-drive-a-specified-logon-session-does-not-exist

According to the posting, it stated that a Windows update changed the behavior of Windows 10 causing standard connectivity to network devices such as NAS devices using a guest account would require special setup through Credential Manager!

Here are the steps I followed to get this up and running:

I opened Credential Manager from the Windows Control Panel:

I then clicked on "Windows Credentials":

I then clicked on the link for "Add a Windows credential"

I then proceeded to enter the credentials for my network device in the format \\MYNASDEVICE

When I next connected to my friend's NAS device simply using \\MYNASDEVICE in Windows Explorer, it opened without any issues!  Hurrah!!

Get PowerShell scripts from PowerShell Gallery

For those of you scripting with PowerShell, in the past it has typically been very difficult to find PowerShell scripts that you can use for your own purposes.  You would usually have to scavenge and scour the Internet for numerous blog posts and discussion forums before perhaps finding the PowerShell script that you can actually use!

Well, Microsoft has decided to reduce the pain of searching for PowerShell scripts in the future by introducing PowerShell Gallery: https://www.powershellgallery.com/

From within PowerShell, just like .NET developers use NuGet today, PowerShell allows you to get PowerShell scripts from the PowerShell gallery.

You can browse the PowerShell scripts in the PowerShell gallery here: https://www.powershellgallery.com/items

Once you have found the appropriate PowerShell script, cmdlet etc. that you want to use, you simply either run Install-Module or Install-Script to install your respective PowerShell Module or PowerShell script!  For more information on using the PowerShell Gallery, you can check out this article here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/powershell/gallery/psgallery/psgallery_gettingstarted