Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate, Team Foundation Server 2012 Release Candidate, Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview, Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate and VS ALM Rangers Release Candidate bits Released!

Kudos to Microsoft Visual Studio, Team Foundation Server and Windows Teams from Microsoft with releasing of a bunch of products by May 31th. 

Thanks for the Rangers as well for releasing the RC Bits of some Rangers projects on CodePlex. Thank you all for your hard work and determination in making this happen! Proud to be part of this family BTW :-)

We really did ROCK!

Below the links to more information about the new released stuff by Rangers as by Microsoft Teams:

Willy’s post:  http://blogs.msdn.com/b/visualstudioalm/archive/2012/05/31/welcome-to-visual-studio-2012-alm-rangers-
readiness-rc-wave.aspx

CodePlex:   http://vsartesttoolingguide.codeplex.com

As part of the sim-ship, the following have also shipped (all are now available for download on MSDN):
·         Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate
           http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us

·         Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 Release Candidate
          http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29918&WT.mc_id=rss_alldownloads_devresources

·         Windows 8 Release Preview
         http://windows.microsoft.com/nl-NL/windows-8/release-preview

·         Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate
        http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh225126.aspx

Visit Microsoft Answers, TechNet, or MSDN to ask or answer questions about upgrading, security, apps, and more with Windows
8 Release Preview.
Microsoft Answers Windows 8 Forum: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8

TechNet Windows 8 Forum for IT Professionals: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/category/w8itpro

MSDN Windows Developer Center: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/

Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, there is also a new Developer Tools Blogs site, which aggregates key developer blogs
with a nice front-end:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/developer-tools

So I encourrage everyone to download, test and to provide the feedback on all the Rangers stuff and Tools linked above
Your feedback is much more appreciated to make things better :-)

Thanks in advance.

Hassan Fadili
MVP VS ALM
VS ALM Ranger

MVP Summit 2012 - MVP2MVP Day sessions Summary Links

First of all, Thanks to Neno Loje, Ed Blankenship and Charles Sterling for taking charge of this day.
Today started with a warm welcome from the organization, then many short sessions of 20 min are presented by many MVP's

based on job and daily experiences on VS ALM Stuff. NO breaks (Just 5 min between sessions to gap some refreshement)!

Below the list of some discused topics and links to sites/blogs for additional information to be up to date.

- ALM Rangers: Build Customization Guidance:
http://tfsbuildextensions.codeplex.com/

- ALM Rangers: Automating the Build-deploy-test Process with VS11 Lab Management:
http://vsarlabman.codeplex.com/

- Managing Dependencies with AIT Tools and how it compares to NuGet:
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/92a6416d-fc18-4b5b-9b66-fba7af728984

- Using Kinect to control TFS Build Monitors:
http://blackmarble.com/

-

Telemetry and Automated Error Reporting:
http://www.edsquared.com/2011/12/27/Integrating+Red+Gate+SmartAssembly+Into+TFS+2010+Build.aspx

- Managing Test Artifacts when going to the next Release:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/gg465257
- Git-TFS:http://www.richard-banks.org/

- Team Companion and Dev11:
http://www.teamcompanion.com/features/

- Lab Management for VMWare:http://vmwarelab.codeplex.com/ (coming soon on CodePlex)

- TFS Event Workflows
http://tfseventworkflows.codeplex.com/

This was a great day with a lot of FUN and very important content. Up to Product Team Sessions next days.

Stay tuned....

Hassan

TechDays Nederland is van start in het World Forum - Den Haag

Het jaarlijkse Microsoft Evenement genaamd TechDays voorheen DevDays van Microsoft Nederland is van start gegaan vandaag en maar liefts voor 3 volle dagen.
De eerste dag (15 Februari 2012) staat in het teken van IT Pro specialisten.
De 2e en 3rd dagen respectivelijk (16 + 17 Februari 2012) staan uiteraard in het teken van Developers.
Op deze beide Developers dagen, zal de Nederlandse Community aanwezig zijn in de zo geheten Community Area waarin de bezoekers terecht kunnen met hun vragen over alle Microsoft Technologieen en Tools.

Ben je geintereseerd in wat de nieuwe versie van Team Foundation Server (Hosted TFS), Visual Studio Application Life Cycle Management, Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview, MTM Test Tool-V11 en nog meer? en wil je ermee aan de slag tijdens dit Evenement, dan ben je van harte welkom op de Visual Studio ALM Booth.

Ik kijk graag uit naar jullie komst en het beleven van goede momenten.
Veel plezier op de TechDays Nederland.

December 2011 Power Tools Released‏!

December 2011 release of Power Tools is released last night by TFS Team. Many thanks to everyone worked on that great release and for those who helped testing this bits.
Brian Harry have a recent blogpost about this update. This can be found here.

The Radio TFS Podcast is rebooted as well, feel free to bring your topics and/or to participate.

Watch the recorded show about Power Tools here.

Have Fun.

SQL Server DATA Tools CTP4 Released!

SQL Server team has released the new SQL Server Data Tools CTP4. Congratulations and Thanks to Gert Drapers and his team with this great milestone.
To lear more about this SSDT CTP4 Release, check:

What’s new in SQL Server Data Tools CTP4?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/archive/2011/11/21/what-s-new-in-sql-server-data-tools-ctp4.aspx

SQL Server Data Tools CTP4 vs. VS2010 Database Projects
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/archive/2011/11/21/sql-server-data-tools-ctp4-vs-vs2010-database-projects.aspx

Top VSDB->SSDT Project Conversion Issues
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/archive/2011/11/21/top-vsdb-gt-ssdt-project-conversion issues.aspx

Uninstalling SQL Server Developer Tools CTP3 (Code-named “Juneau”)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ssdt/archive/2011/11/21/uninstalling-ssdt-ctp3-code-named-juneau.aspx
This actually points to a nifty PowerShell script to help you uninstall.

Have Fun.

Succesful Hosted TFS Event at VISUG by Hassan Fadili at Microsoft Belgium

On Tuesday November 22th, VISUG User Group has hosted an event at Microsoft Belgium about Hosted TFS by Hassan Fadili see http://www.visug.be/Eventdetails/tabid/95/EventId/48/Default.aspx. This event was very interactive and many as 60 people have taken part. The topic was about Build, Relase and Deploy with TFS2011 and MS Deploy. A combination of Slides and Demo's was perfect to explain this common mechanism for developers.

To learn more about this topic check the earlier article pubished by Hassan Fadili for Software Developer Network Community at:
http://www.sdn.nl/SDN/Artikelen/tabid/58/view/View/ArticleID/3199/Build-Release-and-Deploy-BRD-using-TFS2010-MS-Web-Deploy-and-WIX3X.aspx

If you have questions/Suggestions or thoughts about this topic, feel free to contact me by E-mail: hassanfad11@hotmail.com and/or via Twitter: @HassanFad

BUILD conference Day2. All about tools and Azure Services!

The BUILD event day 2 is started with a great Keynote where many tools and technologies have been announced today. Nice to see wich direction is Micrsoft driving us to go ahead with the technology and take more out the all technical facilities and possibilities to meet our and customer requirements developing powerfull and fast software systems for the web, desktop, mobile devices and cloud. Visual Studio 11 preview and Team Foundation Server 11 preview are the major tools I'm focussing on today to get more out them and to discover the secrets of the VS ALM product to support and advice the customers at time to make decisions for now and the future.


To see all the products announced today, Jason Zanders ,Martin Woodward and Brian Harry have blogged about the futures of these products.

For more preview futures see blogs of Jason, Martin and Brian.

The Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview, .NET Framework 4.5 Developer Preview, Team Foundation Server Developer Preview and many more tools are available today on MSDN subscription downloads and will be soon available publicaly.

Enjoy the BUILD conference.