• See my previous posts on choosing OS and backing up your current machine
• Gather drivers for your machine (if wiping current machine, take a screenshot of all devices in Device Manager and save it)
• Ideally you will have at least 2 physical drives, if that is not possible create at least 2 logical ones. I prefer to create 3:
  • C — OS, program files, MSDN Library, etc. It should have at least 25GB to make sure you don’t run into space issues
  • D — All your data that needs to be backed up. I’ll explain later
  • E — All the data that you are ok loosing in case of a crash
• For best performance 2 physical drives are preferred: OS files should be on one and swap file should be on the other
• Install OS
• Install drivers
• Open Windows Components Wizard (Add/Remove programs) and install IIS:

• If installing 2003 Server, uncheck IE Enhanced Security Configuration

• Run Windows Update (probably a few times as it will install IE7 and Service Packs)
• Create Documents directory on D:\
• In Windows Explorer right-click on “My Documents” and choose properties. Click on “Move” button and point to D:\Documents

• Restore the data you backed up. See this post for items you should backup.

Disclaimer: make sure you have valid licenses for all the software you install. If you are reading this blog, you are most likely in software development business — show respect to your fellow developers by paying for their work

Software you need to be effective:

• Figure out which Personal Firewall software you want to use and install it right away.
• Anti-virus software
• Microsoft Office 2003/2007, most likely Enterprise Edition to make sure that integration with SharePoint is included
  • If you install 2003, install Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack to read Office 2007 files
  • Make sure to visit Office Update site to get the latest Service/Security Packs
• Acrobat Reader
• Zip/unzip utility (Ex: Winzip, Winrar)
• Image viewing/editing (Ex: Irfanview)
• Notepad replacement (Ex: Notepad++)
• SlickRun — excellent replacement for Run. Will have another post on this utility
• FolderShare — free service from Microsoft allows synchronization of folders. There are limitations around size and number of files, but should work well for many cases
• RoboForm – I will have a separate post about this tool, but I strongly recommend it to everyone.
• Screen capture program

You should also take a look at this resource: Hanselman Ultimate Tools List – I agree with most of Scott’s choices

Development Tools:

• MS SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
  • Latest Service Pack
• Visual Studio 2005
  • Visual Studio 2005 SP1
  • Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista
  • If you installed SQL Server, you can skip SQL Server Express
• Web Application Project — according to this page, SP1 should include support for Web Application Projects, but very often it doesn’t install correctly. Here is what you need to install to enable it
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 – Update to Support Web Application Projects
  • http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/0/6/906064ce-0bd1-4328-af40-49dca1aef87c/WebApplicationProjectSetup.msi
• MSDN Library — download the latest version of it to make sure it is up to date
• Source Control System: for us it is Team Explorer as we are working with Team Foundation System
• Consider Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals to manage your database projects
  • Database Professionals Power Tools
• “ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0″ and “ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit”
  • http://www.asp.net/ajax/downloads/default.aspx
  • Videos:

    ASP.NET AJAX Extensions: Installation and setup:
    Take your first steps toward learning Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX, from downloading and installing the framework to creating your first AJAX-style application. Duration: 7 minutes, 51 seconds.
    Watch the video

    ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit: Installation and getting started:
    Learn how to extend your ASP.NET AJAX applications using the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit. This video starts with the very basics, including downloading and installing the toolkit. Duration: 11 minutes, 15 seconds.
    Watch the video

• Firefox — if you are doing web development, you should be testing in at least Firefox and IE 6/7
  • Firebug — see my previous post about this excellent tool
• IE Settings:
  • Uncheck “Disable script debugging (Internet Explorer)”
  • Uncheck “Disable script debugging (Other)”
  • Check “Display a notification about every script error”

Development Productivity Tools:

• GhostDoc – free add-in for Visual Studio that automatically generates XML documentation comments for C#.
• ReSharper or Refactor!

Optional, but useful:

• Screen recording software (Ex: Captivate, Camtasia) if planning to record screencasts

See Part 4 (coming soon) for tips on:

• Creating an image of your setup so you can easily restore it
• Setting up backups

Mike Grushin
Partner, CTO

There are a few things that you should back up:

• If you are using Microsoft Office 2003, run “Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard” located within Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Tools. It is a very handy utility that backs up your document templates, outlook settings (rules, email accounts, signatures, etc) and many other items.
• Backup Outlook PST and OST files
• C:\Documents and Settings\{UserName}\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
• Favorites
• Firefox (or other browser you are using) Bookmarks
• My Documents
• Desktop
• MS SQL Server Data/Backup folders (C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL)
• TimeSnapper Snapshots (C:\Documents and Settings\{UserName}\Application Data\TimeSnapper\) move the whole folder to preserve settings
• Windows Live Writer drafts (usually WLW is smart to put everything into “My Documents\My Weblog Posts”)
• Cisco VPN Profiles: C:\Program Files\Cisco Systems\VPN Client\Profiles
• X1 Saved searches C:\Documents and Settings\{UserName}\Local Settings\Application Data\X1 Desktop Search\saved searches
• Look through C:\Documents and Settings\{UserName} folder
  • Specifically “Application Data” and “Local Settings\Application Data”
  • Many programs store your configuration files here
• I prefer to retain my Skype history, so I move it to my new computer before installing Skype C:\Documents and Settings\{UserName}\Application Data\Skype\{SkypeUserName}
• Look through Program Files and make sure you backed up all the licenses
• If you are planning to wipe your machine for a clean reinstall, open device manager, expand all nodes and take a screen capture
  • If you have some specific drivers, make sure to back them up. There are a few utilities that are available for this.
  • In most cases you are better off downloading the latest greatest

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread207339.html

Took me some time to find this link:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/clear-ie7-browsing-history-from-the-command-line/

Temporary Internet Files

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8

Cookies

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 2

History

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 1

Form Data

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 16

Passwords

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 32

Delete All

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 255

Delete All – “Also delete files and settings stored by add-ons”

RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 4351

 These commands should work in Internet Explorer 7 on XP or on Windows Vista.

~Mike

http://amb.vis.ne.jp/mozilla/scrapbook/

ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and manage the collection. Key features are lightness, speed, accuracy and multi-language support. Major features are:

• Save Web page
• Save snippet of Web page
• Save Web site (In-depth Capture)
• Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks
• Highlighter, Eraser and various page editing features
• Full text search and quick filtering search
• Text edit feature resembling Opera’s Notes
• See Features (1)
• See Features (2)
• See Features (3)

What I liked:

• Light
• Feature rich
• Ability to edit DOM, highlight text and add notes before saving the page (Screencast Demo)
• Combining multiple pages

Other tools:

• http://www.httrack.com/ – HTTrack is a free (GPL, libre/free software) and easy-to-use offline browser utility.
• Webaroo — reviewed here
• Wget — command line net retriever (reviewed here)

~Mike

This is a follow up on my previous post: Clearing Visual Studio recent projects list

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\Flash 8\Recent File List]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Macromedia\Flash 8\Recent File List]

We decided to add “live chat/support” functionality to our http://www.ReviewBasics.com offering and identified the following requirements:

• Ability to push/initiate chat
• Reasonably priced for multiple operators
• Easy to use
  • Canned messages, URLs
  • Customization (look-and-feel, data captured, etc)
• “desktop” functionality

Without doing a lot of research we identified the following 3 services:

• http://www.liveperson.com
• Probably the most well known and established
• Do not publish prices, need to contact their “live chat” representative
• Price for their Live Person Pro (chat-only) solution is $99/month/1 operator.
• They offer a more complete offering that manages support tickets, emails, etc
• Why we didn’t choose: high price
• http://www.websitealive.com
  • Version comparison: http://www.websitealive.com/matrix.asp
  • Offer a free account with limited options
  • $29.95/month for 2 concurrent operators. Each additional is $9.95/mo
  • Higher priced packages require setup feeds ($99.95-$149.95)
  • Reasonable price for a lot of functionality
  • Why we didn’t choose: somewhat higher price
• http://www.helponclick.com – our choice
  • Version comparison: http://www.helponclick.com/overview.php
  • Offer free account and 10 day trial
  • Unlimited number of operators for $39/month.
  • One-time charge of $59 for “system tray application” which makes it easier to track messages/chats
  • Give 2 months free if pay for the whole year

We signed up for HelpOnClick and are satisfied with features, level of customization and desktop extension.

We will provide more feedback as we continue to use this service

~Mike

Screenshots are an important part of documenting bugs and feature requests. Visual Studio 2005 out-of-the box functionality requires you to take a screenshot, save it and then add to a work item.

Here is a better way: jmanning posted an Add-In that makes this a lot easier. You can find source files here.

This Visual Studio Add-in allows “pasting” items (images, text, files) from the clipboard as attachments to Team Foundation work items.

Here are instructions and compiled add-in:

• Download PasteIntoWorkItem.zip
• Unzip into %My Documents%/Visual Studio 2005/AddIns
• Now when you open Visual Studio 2005 you should see “PasteIntoWorkItem” menu item under Tools

• Once you choose that menu item, you will see a window that allows you to provide comments
• Add-In can handle the following clipboard content
• One or more files 
• Image, PrintScreen, etc 
• Text

A few limitations:

• Text is pasted without formatting as “txt” file
• Mixed text and image are not supported — in case that you want to copy from Microsoft Word document that contains both text and images

A few other items:

• You can customize Visual Studio to have a keyboard shortcut for PasteIntoWorkItem
• There are a number of screen capture tools, but the following workflow works for me in most cases:
  • PrtScn or Alt+PrtScn
  • If I only need a part of the screen capture: open MSPaint (it is either “pinned” to my Start Menu or sits in Quick Launch) and copy only the part you need 
  • PasteIntoWorkItem

~Mike

Everyday we work with a number of interesting projects, such as integration of Flash/ActionScript and .Net, Visual Studio Add-Ins, Microsoft Office integration, advanced ASP.NET 2.0 implementations, Visuals Studio Team System implementations, to name a few. All the new tricks we learn will be posted here.

~SharpStyle Development Team