NFI

.NET 1.1 target from 2.x environment

The other day I wrote a little tool for my daughter that encrypts and decrypts text based on a simple array lookup cipher, nothing fancy but it was what she was after.

The problem was that while I currently run Vista and use VS.NET 2005 I was forced to write and target the .NET 2.x framework which was not my ultimate goal given that the target machine was Windows XP with the .NET 1.1 framework installed.

A little bit of Googling provided me with a link to the MSBuild Extras toolkit (A.K.A MSBee). This tool lets us continue to develop in VS.NET 2005 and target the .NET 1.1 framework.

PNET Debugger Makes CVS

It finally happend! The debug code that Radek was working on finally made PNET CVS. You can download the Portable Studio IDE to take things for a spin.

You’ll first need to obtain a fresh checkout of PNET CVS and use the following configure options:


./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-debugger


MSI Security

Had a popup notice from Messenger Live 8.0 Beta that a new version was available. That in itself isn’t too interesting, however the fact that it was an MSI installer and exhibited none of the same issues that one normally expects as mentioned previously. The system did prompt me for an Allow/Disallow response in regards to the installation but why will this Microsoft application install and not others by them or other companies? hmmm

MSI Strikes Again

Ran into the MSI installation issue with Vista yet again when trying to install LLBLGen. The solution is to perform the same steps as mentioned in the previous blog entry. This is annoying to say the least and I hope that Microsoft addresses this in some fashion before the release the final product.

pnet debugging

Radek finally offered his debugger patch for us to have a play with. Should be interesting to see what comes of it. The complete Portable Studio tree and debugger (with patch) can be grabbed from Subversion here:

svn://svn.gna.org/svn/libide/trunk/studio studio

libjit enabled Winforms

I just received wonderful news that libjit/SWF enabled Portable.NET runtime is no capable of running Winforms applications. Excerpt from the email:


Hello All!

The obligatory screenshots are at:
http://maybe.dotgnu.info:8000/~krokas/screenshots/


IIS and WAS

One of the nice things that Microsoft provided with this beta 2 of Vista is pretty much all the bells and whistles. IIS 7.0 beta is one of those bells.

Turning this service on is not really all that difficult. Select the start menu, Control Panel, Programs, select Turn on or off Windows features. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be presented with a listbox where you can select IIS and the desired components.

The problem here is that the WAS (Windows Activation Service) was already installed and IIS depends on that service, otherwise it will fail to run. Normally this is not a problem, but you can install and uninstall IIS until the cows come home and WAS is just not anywhere to be found in the Services management console. This is after a fresh install of the operating system as well and Windows indicated that WAS was indeed installed (all options checked).

The solution to this is to remove BOTH WAS and IIS (expected reboot required and kindly prompted for) and reinstall both at the same time after the reboot.

Suddenly IIS services start as they should and you can continue on to the new IIS 7 management console.

MSI not installing as User/Administrator

Okay, after 5-10 minutes of screwing around with trying to get a Microsoft product (Atlas) installed in Windows Vista beta 2 with zero success due to the new user protection, I started to pull out what little hair I had left.

In a nutshell, a user (even if they’re in the Administrators group) is not allowed to install MSI files (completely). You’ll usually get 98% of the way done, then WHAM! unable to access some file (usually install state) followed by the wonderful installation rollback.

The fix to this however, is to create a batch or command file that calls the MSI in question. For example:

atlas.bat:
atlassetup.msi


Once you have done that, you can then right click on the batch or command file and select ‘Run as Administrator’ and you’ll be right as rain! I hope this helps someone else out because it was starting to do my head in.