ChadSmiley Blog » Microsoft

Building Windows Mobile application with Visual Studio

ChadSmiley — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:30:00 +0000

I am still working on this Windows Mobile application. I am in the polishing stage now. It has been a challenaging project becuase of having to learn about SQLCE, Windows Mobile, wireless printing (which Windows Mobile does not support natively). One of my biggest frustrations was the Visual Studio build was getting longer and longer. It seemed the more I added the slower it got, but shutting down Visual Studio also helped. I could not find anything anywhere that described this problem or anyone else that had the same problem. Until yesterday I found VS2008 Windows Mobile 5 Project very slow to compile on a MSDN form. Yes, I have tried 2005 & 2008 version and they both act the same. The builds where taking 30 minutes. It got to the point that I started developing this application as a Windows application and the builds would take only a couple of minutes. This was fine until I got to the point of really testing the application using a mobile device, so I had to convert the project back. Believe me the 30 minute build only last a couple of days until I found a new way to build my project. It is not so new but different, because I am using MSBuild to do my compiling and taking only 2 minutes to compile. After the build I still use F5 to build the project and run, but now there is nothing to build so VS starts the deploy and I am a happy man!!! There is one BIG downfall to this approach, forgetting to use MSBuild to do the compiling and pressing F5. It does allow me to write this article though!!!! Here is my solution to slow builds in VS:

Open a VS 2008 command prompt (this is not a normal command prompt, it is a short cut by the VS short cut in the Start | Program | .. menu) ( this only needs to be done once)
Save all changes (Ctrl-Shift-S)
At the command prompt type MSBuild (drag the file from Explorer) & press enter
Wait for build to complete
Run (F5) your VS project

Hope that saves a few hairs.

Thanks for the Help

ChadSmiley — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Just trying to open a table from a SQLCE database. Update: Shut down Visual Studio and everything is working fine again.

SyncToy

ChadSmiley — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:41:00 +0000

Yesterday I was looking for Microsoft’s Tweak UI for XP and stumbled onto a new (at least to me) tool called SyncToy. There are more power toys some new and old that might be of interest to some. SyncToy caught my interest with having a memory stick that I like to keep files from work and home synchronized on. I also have a need at work to back up files that are only backed up for 30 days, I just lost some documentation that I don’t access that often and was deleted more than 30 days ago.. So I plan on using SyncToy and Windos Scheduled Tasks tool to take a backup of these files onto my machine or a different location on the server. One more thing, there is no registry trail after the tool runs. I installed it on my home machine and copied the files to my memory stick and launched it at work and nothing was ever added to the registry. The only trail is the ‘SyncToyData’ folder in your ‘My Documents’ folder where the settings .

Internet Explorer Developer Bar

ChadSmiley — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 12:38:00 +0000

If your a web developer here is a the Developer Bar for Internet Explorer. I would have to agree with Jake it is not as nice as Firefox‘s but better than nothing.
via: codestore.net – Internet Explorer Developer Bar

Just came across another toolbar.
via: Ferdy Christant – Rendering mode

SQL Query Analyzer Tricks

ChadSmiley — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 05:19:00 +0000

Here are a few tips and tricks when using Query Analyzer (via: The Cerebral Kitchen by Michael Earls)

Alt+F1 is really cool but Query Debugger wins best tip! What is your favorite feature of Query Analyzer?

Current User Temp Directory

ChadSmiley — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 15:24:00 +0000

I was looking for a solution to some problems that I have been having with my Canon PowerShot A85. The Canon support taught me a new command:

Select Start and then Run (Windows+R)
Type %temp%
Select OK

The temp directory of the current user will display.

Sutdown.exe XP

ChadSmiley — Thu, 31 Mar 2005 06:02:00 +0000

A co-worker showed me a quick way to shut down and restart a computer. I was really interested because I use Microsoft Remote Desktop feature to connect to a Domino server. The Domino server is on an older computer with a very loud fan so the less it runs the better. My problem was I did not have the option to shut down the machine from the start menu.. I now have two shortcuts on the desktop, one to turn off the machine and a second to cancel the shut down. Common shortcuts ShutDown.exe -l (Logoff) ShutDown.exe -s -t 30 (Shut Down) ShutDown.exe -r -t 1 (Restart Now) ShutDown.exe -r -t 30 (Restart) ShutDown.exe -a (Cancel) Shutdown Help Usage: shutdown [-i | -l | -s | -r | -a] [-f] [-m \\computername] [-t xx] [-c "comment"] [-d up:xx:yy] No args Display this message (same as -?) -i Display GUI interface, must be the first option -l Log off (cannot be used with -m option) -s Shutdown the computer -r Shutdown and restart the computer -a Abort a system shutdown -m \\computername Remote computer to shutdown/restart/abort -t xx Set timeout for shutdown to xx seconds -c "comment Shutdown comment (maximum of 127 characters) -f Forces running applications to close without warning -d [u][p]:xx:yy The reason code for the shutdown u is the user code p is a planned shutdown code xx is the major reason code (positive integer less than 256) yy is the minor reason code (positive integer less than 65536) If you are interested in selecting the same icon as the “Turn off computer” icons check out the c:\windows\system32\SHELL32.dll. I even assign shortcut keys to launch them easier, which works from anywhere!!! The shutdown command might work on other versions of Windows, but I have not done any testing. Thanks Tim for the idea.

Camera Problems

ChadSmiley — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:26:00 +0000

Update: The Canon cable was bad.

I have been having problems with Windows XP recognizing my Canon PowerShot A85. I just purchased it 20 days ago. Everything was working fine at first. Then my computer would not recognize the camera a couple of days later. I would get an “Unknown Device”. I downloaded the latest and greatest software and still no luck. After uninstalling, rebooting, installing, and then rebooting again my computer would see the camera the first time I plugged it in. Then it would no longer see it after that. At least I thought. I discovered that I was the problem. I switched the camera (while it was turned on) to picture mode while it was plugged into the computer. Once that happens your computer will never recognize the Canon A85 again until it is re-installed.

The Solution

Unistall the “Unknown Device” using Device Manager from the Hardware tab of System Properties
Unistall the 8 applications that Canon installs
Reinstall the Canon applications
Reboot machine
Turn off camera
Connect to computer
Make sure the camera is in play (not picture) mode
Turn on camera

I now can start taking some pictures again.

Undelete a file in NTFS

ChadSmiley — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 06:30:00 +0000

If you are looking to understand the insides of NTFS check out this undelete application.

http://www.codeproject.com/file/NTFSUndelete.asp

Refresh Fields in Microsoft Word

ChadSmiley — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 15:25:00 +0000

The concept of having page numbers and other fields in Word to dynamically display information works and sounds great. The only drawback is getting the information to stay up to date. Yes, there is the F9 feature that refreshes all the selected fields. Having to remember to select all the text and then press F9 is not bad. But the headers and footers are not selected so they do not get updated. Each different header needs to be updated individually. This macro will update all the fields in each section of the active document.

Create Macro

Select Tools – Macro – Macros from the menu bar
Enter RefreshAllFields for the ‘Macro Name’
Select ‘Normal.doc’ for ‘Macros in’
Select ‘Create’ option

Copy the following text between Sub and End Sub
Paste into Visual Basic Editor

Sub RefreshAllFields()
 '
 ' RefreshAllFields Macro
 '
 '
 For i = 1 To ActiveDocument.Sections.Count
 	If Not ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Headers Is Nothing Then
 		For h = 1 To ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Headers.Count
 			x = ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Headers(h).Range.Fields.Update()
 			 Next h
 		End If
 		x = ActiveDocument.Range.Fields.Update()
 		If Not ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Footers Is Nothing Then
 			For f = 1 To ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Footers.Count
 				x = ActiveDocument.Sections(i).Footers(f).Range.Fields.Update()
 			Next f
 		End If
 	Next i
 End Sub

Run Macro

Select Tools – Macro – Macros from the menu bar
Select RefreshAllFields for List of macros
Sit back and watch

I use this macro so often that I added it to my personal toolbar that is always displayed in every document.