Visual Studio 2013 APPCRASH KERNELBASE.DLL

I've spent the last two night trying to figure out why Visual Studio 2013 crashes roughly two minutes after loading. 

Faulting application name: devenv.exe, 
version: 12.0.31101.0, 
time stamp: 0x54548724
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, 
version: 6.3.9600.17415, 
time stamp: 0x54504ade
Exception code: 0xe06d7363
Fault offset: 0x00014598
Faulting process id: 0x940
Faulting application start time: 0x01d056d558e8e214
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\KERNELBASE.dll

It started right after I had applied a couple of Windows updates so I started trying to resolve the problem by rolling those back. No change.

I tried resetting the Visual Studio users settings. Nope.

Integrity scan of the disk. No problems found.

Turned to the Internet and found this answer in the Microsoft forums. It seems that my User Profile was corrupted. I created a new account on the machine, killed the previous one. Done.

Windows Phone 7 syncing to online Exchange results in Error 85010014

I upgraded my phone to the Mango update yesterday. Everything went fine except or so I thought. This morning I noticed that my phone hadn’t synced to the company’s Exchange account (Microsoft BPOS) for over 10 hours. When I forced a sync, it resulted in the following error message:

Not Updated
There’s a problem with red001.mail.microsoftonline.com. Try again later.
Last tried xx seconds ago
Error code: 8510014

I screwed around with the configuration for more time than I should have. I tried reentering the server. I tried entering the password again. I even removed the account from the phone and recreated it.

I even went to the Mobile Devices section on OWA and removed the device and then removed the account AGAIN.

Nothing worked.

This evening I stumbled onto something that did work.

I recreated the account on the phone (for the fourth or fifth time) and received the error again. On a whim, I unchecked all the content types under the Content to Sync section (Email, Contacts, Calendar and Tasks). I then issued a sync and it worked! I then added Email and re-synced. That worked! I continued to add the other three items, one at a time and followed by a re-sync.

Now everything is good again.

Notes from //build/ - Windows 8

I attended the Microsoft //build/ conference last week. This was the public world’s second introduction to the next version of company’s OS, Windows 8. It was also the first time that any real depth about the product was provided. The general consensus from those I spoke with was they were very pleased with the features shown.

Metro style apps

First, and most obviously, the Metro style from Windows Phone 7 has been brought forward as the primary user experience in Windows 8. Along with that, the OS has been optimized for touch but the stylus, mouse, and keyboard are all still supported.
 

(Attribution: Microsoft Corp.)

Note: It was pointed out that the correct capitalization is “Metro style apps” with a lowercase “S” on style and a lowercase “A” on apps.

The Start button has been morphed from a popup to an entire screen that consists of 1x1 or 2x1 “Live” tiles.
 

The Start screen has all the apps that were pinned. There is an Apps screen that can be reached via Search. It contains all the apps that are installed:
 
You can imagine that this screen could become quite crowded once a user starts installing apps. To help with this, Microsoft has introduced Semantic Zoom. Semantic Zoom used the “pinch zoom” gesture but instead of making the image larger, the entire view can be changed, providing something that is useful.

Using Semantic Zoom on the Apps page changes the view to:
 
Semantic View was demonstrated on the Start page for the keynote, but it has been disabled in the Windows 8 preview that Microsoft released to the public.

Live Tiles

The content of the tiles can change to reflect information that is important to the user. The intent is to create a personal connection with the user. For example, the Stocks application will cycle the most recent information for each stock symbol that the user has added to the application. This will continue even if the application has been suspended.

 

Suspended?

Yes. When the user navigates away from an app, the app will be suspended. The app will be notified that it is being suspended and given an opportunity to save any transient state. When the app is launched, it will be given an opportunity to restore that state. This is the Tombstone functionality that is currently used by Windows Phone 7 applications.
There is no concept of closing an app within the Metro style. Windows 8 will take of that for you.

Developing apps

A controversy was created when Windows 8 was first introduced to the public. Microsoft announced that HTML5 and JavaScript were the tools that would be used to create the new Metro style apps. At //build/ we learned the truth: Use what you know.

“Use what you know” was the tagline attached to the conference title and the message that Microsoft was delivering. At //BUILD/ Microsoft introduced a new development platform for Windows: Windows RunTime or WinRT. Using WinRT, a developer can create Metro style apps using:

-    C/C++
-    C#, VB.Net
-    HTML5 & JavaScript
 

(Attribution: Microsoft Corp.)

The best way to think of WinRT is as the Base Class Libraries for Metro style apps.
I plan to do another article that addresses WinRT.

And .NET?

.Net is still an applicable platform for developing both Metro style and Desktop (think traditional) apps. Not all of the .Net framework is exposed when developing a Metro style app. Where there is functionality that is duplicated with WinRT, or not allowed, those .NET APIs have been hidden.

Is Silverlight dead?

Microsoft did not deliver any message about Silverlight during the conference. Silverlight will be supported in the Desktop version of IE (The Metro style version of IE does not allow any plugins, for security and stability). I don’t expect Microsoft to make any announcement about Silverlight in the near term. This is a preview version of Windows 8. We are a long time from RTM.
There are still a lot of solutions to deliver, and since Silverlight will continue to be supported by Windows 8, I feel that Silverlight is still a valid solution platform.

Is a Metro style app written in HTML5 & JavaScript accessible via the browser?

Nope. A Metro style app is not a web page. They must be installed from the App store (consumers) or side-loaded (Enterprise).  Don’t let the HTML5 & JavaScript fool you. This is just the choice of presentation platform and language. It is no different from choosing XAML and C#.

Getting started

The keynotes, and most of the sessions, were recorded and are available on the //BUILD/ website (www.buildwindows.com).
The preview of Windows 8 can be downloaded from the Windows Dev Center (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516). One download contains a preview of both Visual Studio Express 11 and Expression Blend. If you’d rather install them yourself, you can download them separately from the Visual Studio website: (http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=27543).

ALTER COLUMN on XML column results in Error 511

We frequently change the schema that constrains an XML column in one of the tables. When it’s time to update the schema collection and re-type the column, we use the following steps:

1. Remove the type with the ALTER TABLE statement:
   ALTER TABLE <table> ALTER COLUMN <xml-column> XML;
2. Change the schema collection by recreating it.
3. Reset permissions:
   GRANT EXECUTE ON XML SCHEMA COLLECTION…
4. Reapply the schema constraint to the column:
   ALTER TABLE <table> ALTER COLUMN <xml-column> XML(<schema collection>)

Twice I’ve started getting error 511 on step one:

Msg 511, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Cannot create a row of size 8073 which is greater than the allowable maximum of 8060.
The statement has been terminated.

This thread from the SQL Server XML forum indicates that the behavior is “by design.” There seems to be a limit to the number of times that you can alter a column. The good news is that there is a work-around. Rebuilding the indexes on the table appears to reset the alter-count.

Upgrading TFS 2010 B2 to the RC

The Release Candidates of Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server were made available last week and I’m finally getting around to upgrading my installation of TFS. In this post, I’ll record the steps that I took and the problems encountered.

1. Backup the server
I’m actually running TFS in a VM hosted within a Hyper-V 2008 Server. To backup my server, I shutdown the VM and used the Hyper-V Manager to create a snapshot of it.

2. Uninstall TFS 2010 Beta 2



Happily the uninstall didn’t encounter any problems

3. Using the Hyper-V Manager, I mounted the TFS RC ISO.

4. Next I started the install of the Release Candidate.

5. After the install completed, I selected the Upgrade wizard. After stepping through the pages and providing all the information, the Configure step is kicked off to do the real work.

6. After a very short amount of time – success!

The final test was to fire up a VM containing an install of VS 2008 and access the new TFS installation. Unlike the rest of the upgrade, this didn’t work the first time. Instead I was met with:

The Forward Compatibility Update (KB974558) is a patch to VS2008 SP1 that enables interoperability with TFS 2010. I didn’t need this to access the Beta 2 install but who am I to argue with the computer…

KB974558 is a short download and a quick install. I launched VS2008 again and Team Explorer happily reached out to the TFS server!

And with that – my TFS 2010 installation has been upgraded to the RC. Kudos to the TFS team!!

Outlook Date Tricks

I love it when a piece of software surprises me in a good way - since it so rarely happens. In this case, I’m talking about Microsoft Outlook and some convenient functionality that’s embedded within its date fields. I actually ran into this a rather long time ago but have only now gotten around to writing it up.

Say that you’re creating a new meeting request for tomorrow. You could always use the scheduling bars to select the start and end times of the meeting. The greed bar represents the start time and the red for the end. It works well when the meeting is within the next couple of days. But what if meeting is for next Wednesday? You could:

1. Scroll some number of days on the Scheduling page
2. Calculate the date and type it in to the Start Time box
3. Use the drop-down calendar to select the appropriate date
4. Enter “next Wednesday” into the Start Time box

Yup. If you enter “next Wednesday” and press tab, Outlook will do the calculation for you:

Try it!

Through experimentation, I’ve discovered that the following also works:

• name of a day (ex. Monday, Tuesday, etc)
• “today”, “tomorrow”, “yesterday”
• “last” {name of day}
• “[number] week[s] from {today | tomorrow | name-of-a-day}” (ex. 2 weeks from Monday)
• “last day of {this|next| last} month”
• “last {name of day}”
• “Christmas” (I was surprised!)

There’s probably more.

Upgraded the laptop to Windows 7

I’ve had Windows 7 on my Dell Vostro 1500 laptop since the RC was made available. For the RC, I took the opportunity to get a new hard drive. I wanted to create two partitions. One for the OS and one for data. I periodically repave the machine and it’s painful every time. So I look for opportunities to minimize the hurt.

That’s why I started doing all project work and installing betas in virtual machines (VMware Workstation). I don’t have to worry about a refresh affecting one of my projects nor do I have to worry about an install for one project affecting another.

When I read that Windows 7 was to be released,I wasn’t looking forward to spending the hours reinstalling. I was quite pleased when a co-worker brought this article to my attention.

I followed the instructions, using VMware Workstation to mount the ISO as the CD drive. And just in case, I burnt everything to a DVD after modifying the configuration file.

I had no problems with the Windows upgrade, but after it rebooted, the AVG firewall wouldn’t start. The firewall reported the following error description:

Firewall cannot start because on error has occurred in communication with a driver. Please contact AVG Technical support.

Reinstalling AVG corrects the problem.

I’m now running the RTM of Windows 7 and I only had to reinstall AVG and VMware Workstation.