Windows Tools, Help & Guides

This book is a gift from the Windows Phone 7 team at Microsoft to the programming community, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Within the pages that follow, I show you the basics of writing applications for Windows Phone 7 using the C# programming language with the Silverlight and XNA 2D frameworks.

Yes, Programming Windows Phone 7 is truly a free download, but for those readers who still love paper—as I certainly do—this book will also be available (for sale) divided into two fully-indexed print editions: Microsoft Silverlight Programming for Windows Phone 7and Microsoft XNA Framework Programming for Windows Phone 7. [Note from Devon: we should have these ready for order in December 2010.]

The second part of this book focuses entirely on Silverlight, and the third part on XNA 2D. For your convenience, the chapters in each part build upon previous knowledge in a progressive tutorial narrative, and hence are intended to be read sequentially.

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I love Google Chrome but find it misses a few features i use a lot in IE.  In particular ‘Send to OneNote’.

If you use OneNote 2010 to take snippets from the web using this functionality you’ll know it’s a real time-saver and very handy.  Respectively, if you’ve moved to Chrome you’ll indeed miss this feature.

This Quick-Tip will show you how you can get ‘Send To OneNote’ back.

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If you own a website, have a home network, or otherwise need to transport files between two PCs, you’ve likely come across File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and FTP programs. I’ve used 20 or so FTP programs over the last 12 years and there are literally hundreds, if not thousands available. In this article, I list my top five. If you know of a program you really like, which is not here, let us know in the comments.

You may also want to check out:

• Top 5 Remote Access Applications [2010 Edition]
• Home Network Setup, Sharing, Streaming, and Backup Series

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For those of you who haven’t been introduced to Live Mesh before, it’s a great way of synchronising folders between two or more computers, as long as they are both on the internet, quite similar to DropBox. It also gives you remote access capabilities, and 5GB of online space using SkyDrive, so that you can access all of your data online.

And for those of  you that have heard of it, or use it, you’ll need to know that the beta will be discontinued as of March 31st, 2011. In the last few days, they have sent e-mails out letting users know as well. If you currently have it, you’ll need to remove it from your computer, and install Live Mesh 2011. You need to then re-add your folders, and you’ll be good to go!

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In Part 1, I covered some printing techniques to reduce paper wastage, namely Duplex Printing, Multiple Pages per Sheet, Content Editing, Print Preview, and Digital Format. If you haven’t come across it, you are welcomed to look into Part 1 before going into Part 2.

In this part, I will be covering some software that are specifically written to assist computer users in reducing paper wastage, as well as help in saving printing inks (they are expensive!) The software covered are mixed with free and commercial versions, and I list out the pros and cons for each software, and give some recommendations for those who are looking at a free solution. There is one common characteristic for all these software: all of them will be installed as a virtual printer in your operating system to streamline the printing process. So let’s begin with the first printing software:

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A couple of weeks ago, we asked you if you used Windows XP Mode and many of you responded by saying you didn’t know about it. In the past, we showed you how to Windows XP Mode but didn’t really explain the purpose of it. This guide serves as an update to the previous guide; in this guide, we’ll cover the following:

• What is Windows Virtual PC?
• What operating systems can I install with Windows Virtual PC?
• What is Windows XP Mode?
• Why do I need Windows XP Mode?
• What are the system requirements of Windows Virtual PC?
• Where can I download Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode?
• How do I install Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode?
• How do I use Windows XP Mode?
• What else should I know about Windows XP Mode?

If you get to the end of this guide and still have questions about Windows Virtual PC or XP Mode, please ask them in the Windows 7 forum.

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