New Silverlight Toolkit v3

There's a new toolkit to go with Silverlight 3, essential if you are thinking of any serious development.

Full details from Mike Taulty: http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2009/07/27/the-silverlight-3-toolkit.aspx

Or download the toolkit straight from CodePlex: http://www.codeplex.com/Silverlight

Windows Azure Pricing

This just dropped in. Courtesy of http://geekswithblogs.net/iupdateable/archive/2009/07/15/azure-pricing-and-sla-announcements-plus-details-on-the-two.aspx

Full pricing details: http://www.microsoft.com/azure/pricing.mspx

Prices:
Windows Azure:

* Compute = $0.12 / hour
* Storage = $0.15 / GB stored / month
* Storage Transactions = $0.01 / 10K
* Bandwidth = $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB

SQL Azure:

* Web Edition – Up to 1 GB relational database = $9.99
* Business Edition – Up to 10 GB relational database = $99.99
* Bandwidth = $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB

.Net Services:

* Messages = $0.15/100K message operations , including Service Bus messages and Access Control tokens
* Bandwidth = $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB

Shipping an application with SQL Server Express 2008 - Rights

Shipping an application with SQL Server Express 2008? Don't forget to register for free redistribution rights: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/express/redistregister.aspx

Quoted from Microsoft:

This redistribution license agreement grants you the right to redistribute with your software application the following components:

*SQL Server 2008 Express
*SQL Server 2008 Express with Advanced Services
*SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools

Helpful download links for SQL Server Express 2008 Prerequisites

Windows Installer 4.5: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5a58b56f-60b6-4412-95b9-54d056d6f9f4&displaylang=en

.NET 3.5 SP1: http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/0/e/20e90413-712f-438c-988e-fdaa79a8ac3d/dotnetfx35.exe
SQL Server Express 2008 Redistributable: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=58ce885d-508b-45c8-9fd3-118edd8e6fff&DisplayLang=en

Enable Samesite for the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 bootstrapper package

Lifted from the full VS 2008 SP1 http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/2/8/A2807F78-C861-4B66-9B31-9205C3F22252/VS2008SP1Readme.htm#General%20Issues as I have seen quite a few people run into this.

If the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 bootstrapper package is selected in the Prerequisite dialog box for a Setup project or in ClickOnce publishing, and also the "Download prerequisites from the same location as my application" option is selected, the following build error is shown:

The install location for prerequisites has not been set to 'component vendor's web site' and the file 'dotNetFx35setup.exe' in item 'Microsoft.Net.Framework.3.5.SP1' cannot be located on disk.

To resolve this issue:

Update the Package Data

1. Open the [Program Files]\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 folder or %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 on x64 operating systems
2. Edit the Product.xml file in Notepad.
3. Paste the following into the < PackageFiles > element:
   < PackageFile Name="TOOLS\clwireg.exe" />
   < PackageFile Name="TOOLS\clwireg_x64.exe" />
   < PackageFile Name="TOOLS\clwireg_ia64.exe" />
4. Find the element for < PackageFile Name="dotNetFX30\XPSEPSC-x86-en-US.exe" and change the PublicKey value to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
5. Find the element for < PackageFile Name="dotNetFX30\XPSEPSC-amd64-en-US.exe" and change the PublicKey value to the same as in step 4 above
6. Save the product.xml file

Download and Extract the Core Installation Files

1. Navigate to the following URL: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?LinkID=118080
2. Download the dotNetFx35.exe file to your local disk.
3. Open a Command Prompt window and change to the directory to which you downloaded dotNetFx35.exe.
4. At the command prompt, type:
   dotNetFx35.exe /x:.
   This will extract the Framework files to a folder named “WCU” in the current directory.
5. Copy the contents of the WCU\dotNetFramework folder and paste them in the %Program Files%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 folder (%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFx35SP1 on x64 operating systems). Note: Do not copy the WCU\dotNetFramework folder itself. There should be 5 folders under the WCU folder, and each of these should now appear in the DotNetFx35SP1 folder. The folder structure should resemble the following:
   o DotNetFx35SP1 (folder)
   
   
   • dotNetFX20 (folder
   • dotNetFX30 (folder)
   • dotNetFX35 (folder)
   • dotNetMSP (folder)
   • TOOLS folder)
   • en (or some other localized folder)
   • dotNetFx35setup.exe (file)
   
   

You may now delete the files and folders you downloaded and extracted in steps 2 and 4.

Visual Studio 2005 Bootstrapper - Using Packages from VS 2008

Visual Studio 2005 bootstrapper packages folder: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\BootStrapper\Packages

The later, VS 2008, packages can be used in VS 2005 by installing the latest Windows SDK then copying the packages from C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0A\Bootstrapper\Packages into the folder listed above for Visual Studio 2005. Launch a new setup project in VS 2005 and the packages will be available as prerequisites.