Hi Folks, it feels great to share this information with you. I’ ve been awarded Microsoft MVP again this year in the Stream of ‘Setup and Deployment’. This would be my third consecutive year as an MVP. I would take this moment to thank all my friends, readers, session attendees, MS Product Teams, MVP Program and my Organization for the constant support and encouragement. You guys are fantastic..!!
I just received this below email..!
Dear Vijay Raj,
Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2010 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Setup & Deployment technical communities during the past year.
Also in this email:
About your MVP Award Gift
How to access www.mvpaward.com to begin taking advantage of your award benefits
Your MVP Identification Number
MVP Award Program Code of Conduct
The Microsoft MVP Award provides us the unique opportunity to celebrate and honor your significant contributions and say “Thank you for your technical leadership.”
Toby Richards
General Manager
Community & Online Support
If you feel you have the potential and wanna’ try being an MVP – Check this out
We all have this question in our mind. “Why does my application break when we change the Operating Systems?”
Typically, whenever a new OS is released, Microsoft makes every effort to ensure application Compatibility. Unfortunately, as the OS evolves and when reliability, security and performance improvements are made, there are some comprises which are made that ends up breaking some applications. Thankfully, when the changes are decided to be made, there is some mitigation planned to address the applications which are broken. Out of which, One of the mitigation tool is “Application Compatibility Toolkit”. In this article, we will look at how to setup this toolkit and Start the AppCompat Process.
ACT Toolkit is Collection of tools which can be used to gather inventory for software, hardware, and device assets. Get Vendor Support and community Statements, Recommendations for fixing applications and also tools to apply compatibility fixes or “shims” to applications. This tool is a free ware. As it has a capability to collect inventory, it needs a place to store these information. Hence, you will need a SQL Server as a pre-requisite. Even a SQL Express will do.
Step 1: Install the SQL Server on your machine. I already have SQL Express installed on my machine; I can see the SQL service running on my machine. (see image below)
Step 2: Start the installation of the Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.5 (Application Compatibility Toolkit.msi)
Step 3: Continue the installation by pressing the Next Button and Install Button.
Once the software is installed, you can see these tools as a part of the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.5. (We will look more in detail about these individual tools in the future videos.)
To configure the Application Compatibility Manager, First launch the program as an Administrator. (Right click and Run as Administrator).
Step 4: When you launch this shortcut for the first time, you will get a wizard to configure the program. This is necessary so that, the inventory of your apps can be gathered.
Leave it as the default Enterprise Configuration, Click Next,
Step 5: Now configure the Database; Click on the Combo Box, you will see the SQLServer Engine. (as shown below) . Click on the Connect Button. This would allow the ACT tool to connect to the SQL Database.
Step 6: Name your Database and click on the Create Button. For the demo purpose, i have entered ACTDEMO. Click Next to continue,
Step 7: This is another important Step, As this application would gather the inventory of the apps (from different machines also), you need to create a Writeable Share where the logs can be stored. Create a Folder and give Write permissions for everyone on this! Now mention that Shared path in this below dialog. (for eg: \\vj-pc\ACTLogs)
Step 8: Complete the Configuration. By clicking on the Finish Button.
If you observe in the above dialog, you have an option to join the ACT Customer Experience Program. By being a part of this, you can share and exchange your learnings and compatibility reports with the Microsoft.
This completes the Installation and configuration of the Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.5. For more detailed Demonstration -If you are on a good bandwidth or you prefer to see this as a Video, Check the same below.
Long-time Visual Studio developers understand that the Visual Studio Installer (VSI) tool is not ideal for most installation projects. It may look OK at first glance, but you soon realize VSI has many deficiencies, including:
Can’t manage components and features
Can’t customize dialog boxes
Can’t validate MSIs for Microsoft® Logo Guidelines
Limited support for custom actions
Can’t create updates and patches
Watch this Webinar from Flexera software to learn best practices for building reliable Windows Installer (MSI) installations inside the Visual Studio 2010 interface. Long-time Visual Studio developers understand that the Visual Studio Installer (VSI) tool is not ideal for most installation projects.
This Webinar explains how the world’s top software companies build reliable MSI installations inside Visual Studio 2010 using InstallShield. If you use Visual Studio 2010 to develop applications – and especially if you work in a large enterprise-level development environment – this Webinar is for you.
Learn best practices for building reliable Windows Installer (MSI) installations inside the Visual Studio® 2010 interface.
Webinar: Best Practices for Building Installations in Visual Studio 2010
Hi Folks, I got my MVP award (again) this year in the stream of Setup and Deployment. Last weekend, I got my award Kit and trust me the memento is just funntastic..!!
Thanks to all my blog readers & for the lovely ears who hav been hearing to me in the UG(Bdotnet and BITpro) meets 🙂
Hi Folks, it feels great to share this information with you. I’ ve been awarded Microsoft MVP again this year in the Stream of ‘Setup and Deployment’. This would be my third consecutive year as an MVP. I would take this moment to thank all my friends, readers, session attendees, MS Product Teams, MVP Program and my Organization for the constant support and encouragement. You guys are fantastic..!!
Can’t manage components and features
