Microsoft Offers Support for Vista SP1 (All Languages)

Hi,

Redmondians are limited time unlimited support till March 18, 2009 for Vista SP1 users. Support includes telephone-support, e-mail support and net-chat support.

Explore more at Vista SP1 Support

Desktop RSS Reader

Oops...!!!

Ive been searching a long for a Desktop RSS reader for Vista. Finally I got one. Its NewzCrawler.

Initially, I tried to use, Omea Reader. But, soon gave up, when i was unable to subscribe to ceratin feeds from http://www.asp.net site. My one of the fav site.

I's getting an error when i tried to subscribe to feeds from the asp.net site. I sent the error message along with a screenshot to e-mail id found in their website. But, I didnt get any respose from their support team.

I dont know why, enterprises behave in this way to a feedback mail. Is that so because, my mail went straight to junk folder. Might be. Couple of weeks back, I found a bug in http://forums.asp.net site & reported this in their complaint section via mail. Within an hour, I got a reply mail from the suppport team of asp.net site. See, how fast the reply is, if you really care about your bussiness.

Pretty good features are: it has an Outlook like 3-pane inerface and flagging. The best I like is the ability to download a webpage into the NewzCrawler itself. It will be automatically saved can be viewed at any time, by selecting the respective feed.

So, download and enjoy the feeds.

Oh! forgot to say one thing. I know everyone uses Google Reader. But, the tedious interface forced me to switch to Desktop RSS Readers. Ive tried almost 10 Desktop RSS Readers. The most I liked was Omea Reader & NewzCrawler.

Happy subscribing...

Full Game Download Links

By Profession, I'm a Software Engineer. But, I've one more Passion too. Ya, I'm a Gamer. Recently, I find a site with full game download links. Hope, it helps some gamers, like me.

http://fullgame.webnode.com/game-/action/productscbm_601235/15/

Enjoy, every moment of life.

Rapidshare Link

Today, I find a pretty good link for downloads, especially from Rapidshare.
Rapidraja Blogspot

The update does not apply to your system

If you got such an error dialogue-box when you try to install an update, manually. There is one possible reason for that. You might have installed that update already. Or your Windows-Update service have already downloaded the update for you.

To confirm it, you can navigate as follows :
Start -> Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> View Installed Update [left-menu].

No cross-check the update version listed with the version you're trying to install.

Cookies in ASP.NET Membership

Following are the default cookies used in ASP.NET Membership service.

a) ASP.NET_SessionId -> Session Cookie
b) .ASPXAUTH -> Authentication Cookie
c) .ASPXROLES -> Role Cookie

Installer encountered an error : 0x80070422

 

Hi. This content has been moved to Installer encountered an error – 0x80070422. Please follow the link: Installer encountered an error – 0x80070422 to view it.

Sorry for an inconvenience.

Thanks.

Password Protecting Single File

Password protecting comes under the section of ASP Membership & Security. ASP.Membership & Security can be employed to protect a file-access from an unauthorized user. By default, we can protect aspx pages only. However, we can add additional file-extension using the IIS Configuration Manager.

Below code segment protects secret.aspx from unauthorized uesrs. A '?' denotes anonymous/unauthorized users; whereas a '*' represents all user.

web.config

<configuration>
   <location path="Secret.aspx">
      <system.web>
         <authentication mode=”Forms” />
         <authorization>
            <deny users="?"/>
         </authorization>
      </system.web>
  </location>
</configuration>

Absolute Expiration Policy

If you have strict security requirements, you can use an absolute expiration policy rather than a sliding expiration policy.

web.config

<configuration>
   <system.web>
      <authentication mode=”Forms”>
         <forms slidingExpiration=”false” timeout=”1” />
      </authentication>
   </system.web>
</configuration>

SMTP Settings in web.config

<configuration>
   <system.net>
      <mailSettings>
         <smtp>
<network host="SMTP_IP_or_ServerName" userName="User_ID" password="Password" defaultCredentials="true"/>
         </smtp>
      </mailSettings>
   </system.net>
</configuration>

Upload Large File

The default file-upload size in asp.net is 8MB. If you try to upload more than 8MB, the web-server throws an exception. However, you can increase the upload size by setting the maxRequestLength attribute of System.Web in the web.config


<System.Web>
   <httpRuntime maxRequestLength="409600" />


The above sample segment has a capacity to upload a file of 400MB.

Disable Debug & Trace in One-Step

For security and performance reasons, don’t put websites into production with debug enabled, custom errors disabled, or trace enabled.

On your production server, add thefollowing element inside the system.web section of your machine.config file:

<deployment retail=“true”/>

Adding this element disables debug mode, enables remote custom errors, and disablestrace. You should add this element to the machine.config file located on all of your productionservers.

Difference between Control-State and View-State

Control State is similar to View State except that it is used to preserve only critical state information. For example, the GridView control uses Control State to store the selected row. Even if you disable View State, the GridView control remembers whichrow is selected.

Series of Events raised when requesting an ASPX page

Following are the series of events that are raised when an ASPX page is requested :

a) PreInit
b) Init
c) InitComplete
d) PreLoad
e) Load
f) LoadComplete
g) PreRender
h) PreRenderComplete
i) SaveStateComplete
j) Unload

Large File Download using HTTPHandler

The below mentioned code-segment prompts you with an Open-Save-Cancel window. If you need a Save-Dialogue box instead of Open-Save-Cancel window, just include the below code:

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline; filename=" + file.Name);

instead of

Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + file.Name);

Complete Code:

// Page-Load
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   DownloadFile();
}

// File Download Function
private void DownloadFile()
{
   string filepath = Server.MapPath("samplefile.doc");

   FileInfo file = new FileInfo(filepath);
   if (file.Exists)
   {
      Response.ClearContent();
      Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=" + file.Name);
      Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", file.Length.ToString());
      string fExtn = GetFileExtension(file.Extension.ToLower());
      Response.ContentType = fExtn;
      Response.TransmitFile(file.FullName);
      Response.End();
   }
}

// Gets File Extension
private string GetFileExtension(string fileExtension)
{
   switch (fileExtension)
   {
      case ".htm":
      case ".html":
      case ".log":
         return "text/HTML";

      case ".txt":
         return "text/plain";


      case ".doc":
         return "application/ms-word";

      case ".tiff":
      case ".tif":
         return "image/tiff";

      case ".asf":
         return "video/x-ms-asf";

      case ".avi":
         return "video/avi";

      case ".zip":
         return "application/zip";

      case ".xls":
      case ".csv":
         return "application/vnd.ms-excel";

      case ".gif":
         return "image/gif";

      case ".jpg":
      case "jpeg":
         return "image/jpeg";

      case ".bmp":
         return "image/bmp";

      case ".wav":
         return "audio/wav";

      case ".mp3":
         return "audio/mpeg3";

      case ".mpg":
      case "mpeg":
         return "video/mpeg";

      case ".rtf":
         return "application/rtf";

      case ".asp":
         return "text/asp";

      case ".pdf":
         return "application/pdf";

      case ".fdf":
         return "application/vnd.fdf";

      case ".ppt":
         return "application/mspowerpoint";

      case ".dwg":
         return "image/vnd.dwg";

      case ".msg":
         return "application/msoutlook";

      case ".xml":
      case ".sdxl":
         return "application/xml";

      case ".xdp":
         return "application/vnd.adobe.xdp+xml";

      default:
         return "application/octet-stream";
   }
}


Response.TransmitFile() vs Response.WriteFile()

TransmitFile() method sends the file to the client without loading it to the application memory on the server. So, It is ideal to use for large files.

WriteFile() method loads the file being download to the server's memory before sending it to the client. It is ideal for small and medium size files.

Remote-Desktop Connection Tool (Light weight)

I finally find a light-weight Remote Desktop Conncting tool - TeamViewer. Its is far-far better than VNC, atleast I believe. Its a handy tool, to help your friends and relatives lost in trouble-pool. Feel it.

Here is the download link.
http://www.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewer_Setup.exe

Hiding Custom-Validator, on entering data in form

While using Custom-Validator, you may have noticed that once you get the error-message of Custom-Validator, the message won't dissappear even if you enter data into the missing field. That means, Custom-Validator dont behave like other Validators.

However, you can overcome this scenario using the JavaScript class library provided by the Microsoft. Just include the code-segment before the closing tag. Thats all.

<script type="text/javascript">
// ValidatorHookupControlID function is contained within
// Microsoft's Validation Script

ValidatorHookupControlID("<%= TextBox1.ClientID %>", document.getElementById("<%= CustomValidator1.ClientID%><%= CustomValidator1.ClientID%>"));

ValidatorHookupControlID("<%= TextBox2.ClientID %>", document.getElementById("<%= CustomValidator1.ClientID%><%= CustomValidator1.ClientID%>"));
</script>

Accessing Server-Controls in Client-Side

You can access the server-controls, on the client-side using JavaScript as below. Please note that your VS Intellisence may not recognize this. So you won't get a drop-down.

In the JavaScript script tag, just include the code as below:

<script type="text/javascript">
function show_textbox_value
{
var tbox_value = document.form1.<%= TextBox1.ClientID%>.value;
alert(tbox_value); // alerts the value of TextBox
</script>
}
...
...
...
<body>
<form id="form1" runate="server">
<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server ></asp:TextBox>
</form>
</body>

The above sample alerts the value inside the TextBox, when the function show_textbox_value(), is called.