Visual Studio 2010 Premium Themes Issue

After the much awaited release of the RTM version of Visual Studio 2010 I am still disappointed that the menu item "Theme" doesn't work.  I had the RC version installed and had been creating apps left and right.  One of the first things I noticed with the new version of VS (Visual Studio for short) is the option to change the IDE's theme to an array of choices.  The theme choices are Default, High Contrast, Autumn, Emerald, Silver and Custom Colors.  The Default theme colors look different than the previous versions of VS.

So you can see how the IDE looks with the default theme set as active.  Now when I change the theme to anything else other than the default theme the IDE changes to a yellow, blue, white and redish colors.  The newly applied theme renders the IDE almost unreadable and annoying.  I had thought at first when I was using the Beta and RC version that maybe since it was a "new" option it just had some bugs that needed to be worked out.  Well I was wrong.  Now that I have the Release To Manufacture, which I downloaded off my MSDN Subscription, I am still exhibiting the exact same problem.  Here is an example of what my IDE looks like when I apply any other theme besides the default setting.

The newly applied theme almost looks like I had applied the High Contrast theme, but that is not the case.  So I figured well maybe I can just go to the custom colors option and apply my own theme.  I end up receiving this error when I click on custom colors..

 I don't exactly understand why this is happening.  I will however resolve this issue but you would think since this is a new IDE and as many people who use VS as their number IDE, that I would not be the only person having this issue.  I hope that someone will post a comment about how to resolve this or possibly point me to an assembly that needs to be registered or something.  I have tried the usual things like reboot, uninstall and reinstall, different machine that NEVER had VS Beta or RC installed on it and I am still exhibiting this problem.  I thought, when I seen the ability to change the theme, wow this is a good idea Microsoft!  Low and behold I was let down once again by the software giant and yes I like Microsoft people but sometimes they never cease to amaze me with their idiosyncrasies.  Thanks for reading and happy postings!!

Installing a custom action MSI on Windows Server 2008

If you receive the "Installer encountered an error.  The error code is 2869" then you need to do the following to resolve this issue:

1. Open console prompt by right-clicking and Run as Administrator.
2. Navigate to the directory where your msi is located.
3. Type the following: msiexec /i "appname.msi" and hit enter

This will raise the privileges of the installer and allow your custom application to install.  I was running into this error when I was attempting to install a service-based application on my Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition x64 server.  I already lowered the UAC (User Account Control) to the lowest setting and was still getting this error.  However, the above command allowed me to install my application.

How to make Windows 7 boot faster using Msconfig

While the other day I was reading something off the Win 7 News newsletter i receive and there was an article on how to go into the Msconfig and set your machine to use all your processor cores during boot.  The argument was why does Microsoft ship the operating system to automatically use all available cores during boot and Microsoft's reply was that "This wasn't suppose to have an affect", however, so many users have complained that it does make a difference when this little controversial fix is done.  So on to the "controversial" fix:

Open Msconfig by clicking on Start and then type Msconfig.  Now click on the Boot tab.

Click on the Advanced options... button and another window will open which is shown below

By default the Number of processors isn't check and neither is the Maximum memory.  Click the check mark for the Number of processor and then click the drop down  and choose the number which coincides with the amount of processor cores you have, usually the highest number.  Click on the Maximum memory checkbox and the total amount of memory in your machine will be entered automatically for you.


Now the question I have is that if the check box isn't checked then doesn't that mean it will use all available processors/cores?  I would think so however, everyone including me, have seen a performance increase in the start up times.  Let me know if you don't see a performance increase after performing this little fix because there are so many variations in machines out there that some people may not see a performance increase.  I can tell you that on my machine I run several instances of Visual Studio 2010 or 2008, Firefox with at least 6-10 tabs open at any given time, IE8 running and downloading certain things, streaming SIRIUS satellite radio, outlook open, well you get the point my machine is rather fast, so if i can tell a difference then I am almost positive you should see an increase on boot times.  Hope this tutorial was helpful...

Wireless g extender v1 by Linksys...

Let me tell ya this little device has to be one of the worst pieces of hardware to setup I have ever tried to setup.  I have successfully dealt with ASA firewalls, ProCurve switches, ISDN routers, and various other networking devices.  First off this device is of the first generation family and on these generations there isn't a RJ-45 connector to do the initial setup.  The process of configuring this version is the following:

1.  Connect to wireless router using your ethernet NIC and change it's IP to lets say 192.168.2.1 from 192.168.1.1. Save changes

2.  Connect to the wireless extender using your wireless NIC (extender's default IP is 192.168.1.240 and it is better to hard-code your IP settings to 192.168.1.1 so you can connect to the extender) and make nessecary changes like; configure IP & default gateway address to match the wireless router, change device name to match wireless router, enable security and configure it the same as the router, change the mode it operates on like B & G or just G, configure the channel to be the same as the router, and last but not least ad the MAC address of the router.  Save changes.

3.  Disable the ethernet NIC.

4.  Now using the wireless NIC (revert back to obtain IP address automatically before doing this) connect to your wireless router again since you changed the IP and also because you were previously connected to the extender and cross your fingers and hope the wireless extender and wireless router are functioning together nicely. 

The chances of this working as advertised are slim to none if you aren't using a Linksys router with the Linksys extender.  This goes back to a previous post of mine where i stated how I like to use the same manufacture in conjunction with one another for compatibility reasons.  I have noticed that just about everybody else out there states the same thing when it comes to using the Linksys Wireless-G Extender (WRE54G).  I do not understand why no other company has come out with their version of a wireless extender like, D-Link, US Robotics, Netgear and so on.  So after approximately 2 hours of messing with this piece of shit device i like to call a Linkbrick i came up short on being successful.  So i give this device a 2 thumbs down of overall performance.

DVD vs Online Download?

I recently purchased the Visual Studio Professional 2008 with MSDN Premium subscription from http://msdn.microsoft.com and I was glad to see that I am still able to get a hard copy (CD/DVD format) of all, or a majority, of the software that came with the subscription. Who wants to sit there and download all the software that comes with that subscription? For those of you who have never dealt with a MSDN subscription there is approx 381 various products to download and that is NOT including the various versions within those products such as; x86, x64, ia64, Enterprise, Web, Developer, Standard, Professional, Ultimate, Premium, Starter, etc.. To add to it all you have to use a burning software (Roxio Creator 10 with a Plextor SATA drive is by far the fastest solutions i have used, not saying there isn't a faster solution out there) to create the bootable/installation disc. What a PIA ya know!

The purchase of a new laptop is another example of not receiving the installation media with your newly purchased machine. Sometimes and yes not ALL the time, do you even get the resource CD which contains the drivers if you ever have to reinstall a piece of hardware. you have to go out to the manufactures website and search to hopefully find the correct driver for the correct version of that piece of hardware. The Operating System (OS) disc NEVER comes with the new device, however, HP does offer the ability to create a restore disc. The ability to create the restore disc is a one shot thing so don't screw up the burning process or think you have the right discs to burn with and, like me one time, have 2 discs that work then the rest don't. Makes no sense sometimes just supply the damn discs!

There are times that when having the ability to download software online is nice. I will take the Games for Windows Live for an example, I recently purchased the Batman Arkham Asylum and it gave me the ability to download it from their site rather than wait for the disc to show up several days later. I know I could have gone to Best Buy or some other comparable store and purchased the hard copy but this was 10 pm and Best Buy isn't exactly open then and I wanted to play the damn game, lol!

So I guess what I am trying to get at is give the customer the CHOICE to choose whether or not they want the discs when they have paid good money for something, rather than not supplying the discs or giving the option to obtain the discs in some tangible format. The ability to get the discs use to be a standard, no questions asked, you just received the discs in the package.