Windows Dev Center: Tools, samples and docs to build Windows apps.

Metro style apps.

Home

Learn

Design resources

Downloads

Samples

Community

Internet Explorer.

Home

Learn

Downloads

Samples

Community

Desktop.

Home

Learn

Downloads

Samples

Community

Hardware.

Home

Learn

Downloads

Samples

Community

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

Windows Neptune is the project of developing the most famous of Microsoft operating systems that have never seen the light.

Neptune was the codename for a version of the Windows operating system that was under development by Microsoft during 1999. It was based on Windows 2000 and was scheduled to be the first consumer version of Windows to be built on NT code, to replace the Windows 9x series.

In early 2000, Microsoft merged the team working on Neptune with that developing Windows Odyssey, the upgrade to Windows 2000 for business customers. The combined team worked on a new project codenamed Whistler, which was released at the end of 2001 as Windows XP. In the meantime, Microsoft released another home user DOS-based operating system called Windows Me.

Only one alpha build of Neptune, 5111, was released to testers under a non-disclosure agreement, and later made its way to various beta collectors' sites and virtual museums. Also, there were at least two other builds, which were Build 5000, which was released to very few people, and Build 5022. Build 5000 is very heavily debated.

In the early roadmap for Neptune's development (shown in the Anti-Trust documents) there were five service packs planned. In the Microsoft Anti-Trust documents, it shows that Neptune was to have a successor named Triton which would be a minor update with very few user interface changes, and service packs were planned for it. Internally, the project's name was capitalized as NepTune.

 Features.

Neptune largely resembled Windows 2000, but some of the new features introduced such as the firewall, were later integrated into Windows XP as the Windows Firewall. It introduced a logon screen similar to that later used in Windows XP. Neptune also experimented with a new user interface, called Activity Centers, for task-centered operations.

Screenshots.

 

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

Nvidia’s GTX 680 emphasizes efficiency, pours on the speed

Nvidia’s GTX 680 emphasizes efficiency, pours on the speed

Nvidia takes the wraps off Kepler, its next-generation GPU, and quite possibly the greatest step forward for graphics processing since it unveiled the G80 in November 2006. 

The first desktop card out of the gate is the GTX 680. Unlike the 5xx series, which were based on a refined version of the Fermi architecture Nvidia debuted back in 2010, Kepler uses a new GK104 GPU — and its design is a sharp departure from Nvidia’s previous architectures.

Over the past five years, Nvidia’s GPU strategy has more-or-less amounted to “Everything+Kitchen Sink and we’ll sort things out when we do the refresh.” After the disastrous debut of its R600 architecture in 2006, AMD adopted a strategy of building smaller, mid-range oriented parts and doubling them up to address the high end of the market — Nvidia, in contrast, adamantly stuck to its monolithic guns. Until Kepler.

The transistor counts below are from Nvidia; Kepler’s die size is estimated but should be close to the mark. Kepler’s die size and transistor count are notable achievements in and of themselves, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of the new core. Here’s a table comparing the vitals of NV’s GT200 that debuted in 2008, (the “Tesla” moniker refers to the GPU family, not the high-end scientific computing cards), Fermi, and GK104.

Shaders are now clocked at the same speed as the graphics core. Kepler is clocked 30% higher than Fermi and packs 3x as many cores, but we want to highlight a change Nvidia wouldn’t explain during its presentation — the GK104′s cores aren’t as capable as the GF110′s. With 3x the core count and a 30% clock speed boost, Kepler “only” offers twice the GFLOP throughput. Not that that’s a bad thing.

A number of other GPU resources have been shuffled around as well.

Nvidia’s ratio column is remarkably unhelpful; it only describes the increase between Fermi and Kepler rather than how resources are distributed relative to each other. GK104 packs four times the special function units (SFUs) and twice the texture units as GF110; the core is capable of processing twice as many instructions per clock (though it has three times as many cores to fill with those instructions).

 

One area Nvidia did shed some light on are the changes it made to its warp scheduler. In weaving (with a loom), the term “warp” refers to the longitudinal threads in a pattern; Nvidia uses the term to mean a group of threads. For our purposes it roughly corresponds to the thread scheduler.

Fermi’s scheduler was designed with hardware stages to “prevent data hazards in the math datapath itself.” Registers were tracked and checked before data was issued to ensure that they were ready for new instructions, while decoded instructions were kept available for fast dispatch when applicable. Kepler simplifies this structure and handles some of the checking in software; dispatch latency instructions are now issued alongside the instructions themselves.

The company also notes that “We also developed a new design for the processor execution core, again with a focus on best performance per watt. Each processing unit was scrubbed to maximize clock gating efficiency and minimize wiring and retiming overheads.”

What all this adds up to is a rearchitected GPU with a focus on power efficiency that’s been notably lacking from the company’s previous high-end efforts. Those of you familiar with Nvidia’s historic naming schemes will recognize the GK104 moniker as one that Team Green typically would reserve for a mid-range GPU. Thus far, there’s no indication of a higher-end part in the works, and no obvious places where NV might have disabled compute units to improve yields, as it did with GF100.

Nvidia wasn’t able to ship us a card for testing — heck, the company wasn’t even able to brief us until less than 24 hours ago — so we have to preface our data with the hefty caveat that these figures are drawn from Nvidia’s own testing. The only good news is that these figures are from the company’s whitepaper rather than poorly labeled slides, meaning we were able to at least check the Appendices for config details. The company also included results in a wide range of titles and two prominent resolutions. Generally speaking there’s an inverse relationship between a company’s confidence in a product’s performance and the results they’ll hand you on launch day.

For those of you who are curious, the GTX 680 is a consistent 14% faster than the highest-end Radeon 7970. That’s not a variance that flat blows the doors down, but there are other factors to consider. The GTX 680 is priced at $499 (we’ll see if NV can hold the price there post-launch), while the Radeon 7970 is $50 more. This time around, Nvidia appears to have beaten AMD on both die size and transistor count. Other factors, such as opting for 2GB of RAM instead of 3GB, and using a smaller 256-bit memory bus instead of the Radeon’s 384-bit option, also tilt cost structures in Nvidia’s favor.

Its been years since Nvidia has been able to claim to have a GPU that decisively took home both the power efficiency and performance crown, but the GK104-based GTX 680 appears to have done just that. We’ll reserve final judgment until we’re able to run our own numbers, but this chip is impressive on multiple fronts. The one fly in the ointment is its GPU compute performance; figures on that front were very noticeably absent from Nvidia’s briefing yesterday, but the technical data available suggests that GK104 trades some raw math muscle for its new gaming oomph. Then again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing — AMD has effectively left the GPGPU compute field (at least where scientific computing is concerned).

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace will officially shut down on May 9.

What a long, strange trip it’s been. As Microsoft throws their considerable weight behind the Windows Phone platform, they’re running out of love for their still-kicking Windows Mobile OS, and today they’ve driven another nail into its coffin. According to a new email being circulated to users as I write this, the Windows Mobile 6.x Marketplace will officially shut down on May 9.

The move to kill the Windows Mobile Marketplace (not the newer Windows Phone Marketplace, to be clear) has been in the works for a while now — it began back in June 2011, when Microsoft announced that Windows Mobile users would no longer be able to download apps from the Marketplace website.

Fortunately, apps could still be downloaded directly to a user’s device though that functionality will soon go dark. Microsoft advises WinMo users (all 9 of you, really) to make sure to snag whatever updates you can, because you’ll be out of luck before long. It’s worth mentioning though that while Microsoft is pulling the plug on the Marketplace, there’s still no shortage of communities dedicated to pushing out new (and dare I say cool) apps to the aging OS.

I doubt that the news will break many hearts today, but Windows Mobile was an important stepping stone in the evolution of the mobile operating system. It tried (perhaps too hard) to bring translate the standard PC experience to a different kind of device, and while Microsoft ultimately tried to revamp it with Windows Mobile 6.5, the dual onslaught of iOS and Android meant it was already fighting a losing battle at that point.

Of course, Windows Mobile isn’t completely dead and buried yet. You’ll probably find more than a few WinMo-devices support your local big box store’s stock system, and a nifty mod lets you run Windows Mobile within Windows Phone — a bit of Winception, if you will.

Screenshots.

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

Introduction to SQL Azure.

Since the SQL Azure database services are in the cloud, you do not have to worry about high availability and scalability. SQL Azure will maintain a “Monthly Availability” of 99.9% during a calendar month. For example, you or your network administrators do not have to spend time on high availability which is taken care by the services. Also, you don’t have to worry about security patches and service packs which will be installed by the service provider.

Using SQL Azure.

SQL Azure is still in CTP , the SQL Azure Database CTP is available for free and you can register below to receive an invitation. Due to high demand for the SQL Azure Database CTP, there may be some delays in receiving your invitation codes. http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149681&clcid=0×09

Editions & Pricing.

There are two editions for SQL Azure, namely Web and Business. While self-managed DB and auto high-availability features are supported in both editions, there are few differences between them.

Main difference is the storage, as the Web edition supports only 1 GB of database storage space and the Business edition supports 10GB. 

In case you need to store more that 10GB of data, you will have to break the databases into small sizes. Apart from basic T-SQL facilities, there will additional features like auto-partition and CLR in the business edition. However, these features are not yet available in CTP.

Upon the availability of production ready SQL Azure, the fee will be as below:

•Web Edition: Up to 1 GB relational database = $9.99 / month

•Business Edition: Up to 10 GB relational database = $99.99 / month

•Bandwidth = $0.10 in / $0.15 out / GB

Using SQL Azure Databases.

As there are no options in the web interface to create tables or databases, you will need to use other tools for creating and designing Azure based databases:

SQLcmd

SQLcmd is supported on SQL Azure and you can connect to an Azure database using the below command.

C:>sqlcmd -U <User> -P <PPassword> -S <ServerName> -d master

Management Studio

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) is the most frequently used tool to connect to SQL Server databases. However, when connecting to SQL Azure there several additional steps you need to follow.

1. Open SSMS

2. Cancel out of the first connection dialog that pops up and click on the New Query button from the toolbar. If you enter credentials without performing this step the following error will appear: (Microsoft is working on this issue).

3. When you are prompted to connect to a database, cancel that dialog.

4. You should be left with an empty management console. Click New Query.

5. For the server name, take the fully qualified host name from your SQL Azure connection string. It should look something like mlqe0vurwb.database.windows.net.

6. Choose SQL Server Authentication as SQL Azure does not support Windows Authentication. Supply the username and password that you used for your database.

7. Click on the Options button on the bottom right of the dialog box

8. Set the database name, manually, to the name of your database. It will not show up in the drop-down list. Please note that in case you need to connect other databases, you have to connect again.

9. Make sure the server type is set to the database engine.

10. Click Connect.

For SQL Azure SSMS does to show the objects in the Object Explorer and you will need to write T-SQL for all your needs.

Visual Studio

You can view the connection strings for the relevant databases by clicking the Connection String button.

Using above connection strings, you can connect to SQL Azure from Visual Studio.

?
 

Third Party Tools:

As demonstrated, SSMS may not be a good tool for SQL Azure. There are couple of third party tools that I have been working with:

Omega Web Client

Omega Web Client has a great set of functionalities. It has a great object explorer. You can access this tool online at https://onlinedemo.cerebrata.com/SQLAzureClient/default.aspx and therefore no installation is needed.

Below is the main view of the UI that you will see from this tool.

SQL Azure Manager

SQL Azure Manager is another tool which supports SQL Azure. However there are quite number of draw backs which will be discussed laterò.

You can download this tool from http://hanssens.org/tools/sqlazuremanager/.

The SQL Azure Manager UI is much better than SSMS or the Omega web client.

Though SQL Azure Manager has a much better UI than SSMS 2008 or Omega, it is still lacking a lot of features in the object explorer. For example, it shows the views in object explorer, but does not allow the user to create the alter script for a view. Also, it does not display stored procedures or functions in the object explorer and can only show data of tables with the dbo schema.

SSIS & SQL Azure.

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is used to integrate data between different data sources.

The first thing to note is that SQL Azure currently does not support OLE DB. The normal recommendation for SSIS is to use the OLE DB Source or Destination to access SQL Server. However, if you want to work with SSIS and SQL Azure, you must use the ADO.NET Source and Destinations. This is fine for 2008, but if you are using SSIS 2005, there is no ADO.NET Destination, so you will have to implement your own through a script component. This can be done by creating a source or destination and then using the SSIS control flow tasks and data flow tasks.

After it will be the standard way of write SSIS packages.

When using SSIS for SQL Azure, tables without a clustered index are not supported hence you are required to create a clustered index.

Migrating From SQL Server to SQL Azure.

The SQL Server Migration Wizard helps you to migrate your local SQL Server 2005 / 2008 databases to SQL Azure. The wizard walks you through the selection of your SQL objects, creates SQL scripts suitable for SQL Azure, and allows you to edit / deploy to SQL Azure. You can download SQL Server Migration Wizard from http://sqlazuremw.codeplex.com/

I have copied few screen shots to demonstrate the product. However, it is fairly simple.

After selecting the Source database, next you have to select the required options from the following screen.

You can select either a new database or an existing database with the credentials to login to the SQL Azure database.

Next, the wizard will transfer data and objects to SQL Azure.

Not Supported on SQL Azure:

· The backup command is not available due to the multi-tenant nature of the service. You can use BCP or SSIS instead.

· Server options (sp_configure)

· SQL Profiler

· SQL traceflag

· Data Types like HierachyID, Geography

More Information.

SQL Azure Database:

http://www.microsoft.com/azure/data.mspx

SQL Server News Blog:

http://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2009/07/08/microsoft-sql-services-is-now-microsoft-sql-azure.aspx

SQL Azure Team Blog:

 http://blogs.msdn.com/ssds/

2

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

The Windows Azure Platform is an application platform in the cloud that allows Microsoft datacenters to host and run applications.

Microsoft on Monday announced a version of Windows that runs over the Internet from inside Microsoft's own data centers. 

Dubbed Windows Azure, it's less a replacement for the operating system that runs on one's own PC than it is an alternative for developers, intended to let them write programs that live inside Microsoft's data centers as opposed to on the servers of a given business. 

"It's a transformation of our software and a transformation of our strategy," said Ray Ozzie, a computing industry pioneer who now serves as Microsoft's chief software architect. (For a play-by-play account of Ozzie's speech, see "PDC 2008: Windows Azure live blog.")

Microsoft first outlined a shift to "Live Services" at an event in San Francisco in 2005. The company has released a few things piecemeal, such as Live Mesh, but Monday's announcement marked the first real discussion of how Microsoft's disparate Internet strategies fit together. 

The announcements come at the start of Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference here. On Tuesday, Microsoft plans to go into more detail on Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, due out by about January 2010. 

With the launch of Azure, Microsoft will find itself in competition with other providers of Internet storage and computing services including Amazon, Salesforce.com, and Rackspace. 

Ozzie said he was tipping his cap to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos for innovating the hosted computing model. Amazon "established a base-level design pattern, architecture models, and business models that we'll all learn from," he said. 

Microsoft is making Windows Azure in preview form to developers, with a limited subset of the features that it plans to have in the product before its final release. 

There weren't many details on how Microsoft will charge for Azure, saying it will be free during the preview period. Final pricing, Ozzie said, "will be competitive with the marketplace." 

The company itself plans to offer businesses the option of running over the Internet the kinds of software that have traditionally run on a company's own servers. Microsoft already sells its Exchange corporate e-mail software in this way, but that is just the beginning, said Microsoft vice president Dave Thompson.

"All our enterprise software will be delivered as an online service as an option," Thompson said. 

 

The Windows Azure Platform is an application platform in the cloud that allows Microsoft datacenters to host and run applications. It provides a cloud operating system called Windows Azure that serves as a runtime for the applications and provides a set of services that allows development, management, and hosting of applications off-premises. All Azure Services and applications built using them run on top of Windows Azure.

Windows Azure has three core components: Compute, Storage, and Fabric. As the names suggest, Compute provides a computation environment with Web Role, Worker Role, and VM Role while Storage focuses on providing scalable storage (Blobs, non-relational Tables, and Queues) for large-scale needs. Relational Database functionality is offered through SQL Azure, which is a scalable version of SQL Server that runs on the Azure platform.

The Windows Azure fabric is the networking underpinnings of the Windows Azure platform which uses high-speed connections, and switches to connect nodes consisting of several servers together. The Fabric along with the Compute and Storage resources make up the Windows Azure Platform.

Fabric resources, applications, and services running are managed by the Windows Azure Fabric Controller service. It acts as the kernel of the Windows Azure distributed cloud operating system, providing scheduling, resource allocation, device management, and fault tolerance for the nodes in the Fabric. It also provides high-level application models for intelligently managing the complete application lifecycle, including deployment, health monitoring, upgrades, and de-activation.

The Windows Azure Platform provides an API built on REST, HTTP, and XML that allows a developer to interact with the services provided by Windows Azure. Microsoft also provides a client-side managed class library which encapsulates the functions of interacting with the services. It also integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio so that it can be used as the IDE to develop and publish Azure-hosted applications.

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog: