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Xamarin Studio: F# project does not work with message "Build failed. MSBuild operation failed"

Followed installation instruction from  http://fsharp.org/use/windows/  to install F# using option #2. Installation was not smooth (could be because of my internet connection). Retried several times with few workarounds (delete corrupted files, install files manually, etc). Tried to create a new F# project with all default values, running it failed with the message Build failed. MSBuild operation failed Build: 1 error, 0 warnings Took me several days (tried several minutes a day to check logs, tweak settings, etc). Finally found a workaround. In Project | [project] Options | Main Settings , ensure that " Use MSBuild build engine (recommended for this project type) is unchecked . Tags: F# Xamarin Studio Windows 8.1

Starting Virtualbox guest shows VERR_SSM_LOAD_CONFIG_MISMATCH

The host machine experienced a power failure, when a guest machine was started up it failed with error message below. Failed to open a session for the virtual machine MACHINENAME. ahci#0: The target VM is missing a device on port 0. Please make sure the source and target VMs have compatible storage configurations [ver=6 pass=final] (VERR_SSM_LOAD_CONFIG_MISMATCH). It seems like Virtualbox virtual machine configuration was corrupted. Looking at the virtual machine settings noticed that the virtual HD attached to the SATA port was gone. To workaround this case, re-attached the latest snapshot to the VM. Use Virtual Media Manager to determine the correct UUID.

Mounting Samba share in Windows 7 yields System error 58 has occured

Got a Windows 7 SP1 32-bit Pro machine that have seen various large applications already. So I am not sure if the security policy of the machine is the default. When trying to mount a Samba share got the error message below. System error 58 has occurred. The specified server cannot perform the requested operation. This was done via net use \\<ip>\share . Mounting the share via Windows Explorer yields nothing, just a long wait for nothing. The fix for my case was to change Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options | Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always) to disabled . You have to reboot the machine for the changes to take effect. References: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/5dd9991b-78e7-4fa3-b17c-366e4ae0092f/cant-connect-to-samba-from-windows-7-vista-xp-ok-many-popular-solutions-tried-without-success?forum=w7itpronetworking

Windows 8.1 Pro RTM auto-resize guest display not working in VirtualBox 4.2.18

Microsoft changed course and released Windows 8.1 to MSDN and TechNet users earlier than planned. It was made available last Sept 8, 2013 . This got me excited to play with this latest version. Downloading the ISO was quite frustrating as I can't use Firefox Download Them All plugin, just does not work. Downloading via IE10 was also painful but there is a workaround. VirtualBox also released 4.2.18 last Sept 6, 2013. This must be good, two good products released in the past few days. Upgrading of VirtualBox didn't work the first time. I have to do a repair to get it to work. So essentially, I have to install it twice. Installing of Windows 8.1 into VirtualBox was nonevent. But getting guest additions was challenging. I had to read lots of blogs including VirtualBox 4.2.18 release forum discussion topic . So, how did I get guest addition auto-resize to work? I have to install guest additions *twice*! This is what was working for me: Install guest additions... then re

XFCE: Install a lighter weight version of XFCE in Ubuntu 13.04

Default XFCE 4 install in Ubuntu comes with a lot of applications that I don't need. So I always install from alternate method using mini.iso to have a bare bones system and yet usable. I have been using LXDE for a while but I think it is time to experiment with XFCE. From a minimal install of Ubuntu, adding XFCE with minimal applications is a breeze, like: $: sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xubuntu-desktop

XFCE: Remove Mail Reader entry in menu

How to remove Mail Reader entry in XFCE menu. As a matter of good practice, backup the original configuration. Create a backup folder in your home directory like ~/backup . Copy  /usr/share/applications/exo-mail-reader.desktop to ~/backup . We will be making global (machine level) change so all users will not see Mail Reader entry. Edit exo-mail-reader.desktop using your favorite editor, comment out the line like #OnlyShowIn=XFCE; then add the following line  NotShowIn=XFCE; .

Enable directory browsing for IIS 8 Server Express

Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web Update 3 comes with IIS 8 Server Express. By default, the server is configured not to list directory contents for security reasons. But since I am using it for development purposes, security is not my main concern but speed of development. When trying to browse a directory, you may get this error message: HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden The Web server is configured to not list the contents of this directory. To enable browsing do: Open console (cmd.exe) Change directory to C:\Program Files\IIS Express Type appcmd set config /section:system.webServer/directo ryBrowse /enabled:true to enable browsing.

VirtualBox paravirtualized network adapter driver

From VirtualBox manual, paravirtualized network adapter provides the best performance. To get this interface from working within VirtualBox, you need to download the drivers separately/manually. Note that Windows driver online update utility does not have it as well. Since driver is open source it can be found in few locations. A good source is from Red Hat, download it from this location  http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/virtio-win/latest/images/ . Download virtio-win*.iso, mount it and install driver for your OS.

VBA: Using FileSystemObject to create a file

Sample code to create a file in VBA using FileSystemObject which is part of Microsoft Scripting Runtime. See this link on how to reference MSR. Option Explicit Sub TestMe() Dim fs As FileSystemObject Dim ts As TextStream Set fs = New FileSystemObject Set ts = fs.CreateTextFile("C:\tmp\file.txt", True) ts.WriteLine "Header1, Header2" ts.WriteLine "1," & CStr(DateTime.Now) ts.Close Set ts = Nothing Set fs = Nothing End Sub

Referencing Microsoft Scripting Runtime for FileSystemObject class in VBA IDE

From Visual Basic for Applications IDE, do Tools | References... then look for Microsoft Scripting Runtime or browse for C:\Windows\System32\scrrun.dll. Microsoft  Scripting Runtime provides the following classes: Dictionary Drive Drives Encoder File Files FileSystemObject Folder Folders TextStream

Excel 2013 enable developers toolbar

Do File | Options | Customize Ribbon | select Developer option.

Powershell Quick Tips: Start an interactive session on a remote computer

For the Linux/Unix geeks, ssh is preferred way to establish an interactive session to a remote machine. In Windows ssh can also be used but you have to install extra software. To perform interactive task on remote machine (though not as cool as ssh) one can try Powershell. So, to connect to a remote machine MACHINE1, do: C:\>powershell PS C:\>Enter-PSSession -ComputerName MACHINE1 For this to work, you need to have proper credentials on MACHINE1 (I have only tried with users members of domain admins).

TF259641: To use the environment, you must install a compatible test agent in all machines of the environment. Click 'Install Agents' to complete this task.

On a small domain test system that is connected to a production domain, see below for the network architecture, creating a new test environment with workgroup computers may not deploy the VS Test Agent 2012 properly. The reason automatic deploy is not working is that the Test Agent deployed on the workgroup machines will try to contact the Test Controller located on another domain (DOMAIN1) but will not resolve as the Test Agents DNS server entries are configured from a DCHP connected to production domain. You will typically get the following error message. TF259641: To use the environment, you must install a compatible test agent in all machines of the environment. Click 'Install Agents' to complete this task. Workaround: In the workgroup machines, modify the IP (v4) Properties to point DNS of DOMAIN1.  Tags: - TFS 2012 Update 3 - SCVMM 2012 Sp1 - Lab Manager 2012 Update 3

scrot - command line screen capture utility for minimal Lubuntu install

I have a minimalist installation of Ubuntu 13.04 using Lubuntu minimal package. By default it does not come with screen capture utility. To get Print Screen function working in Lubuntu, install scrot, like: $$: sudo apt-get install scrot Pressing PrtSc in Lubuntu will cause it to create a file in the home directory normally named <date>_<screen resolution>_scrot.png. In Ubuntu 13.10, you have to run scrot first before PrintScreen works.

TF259137: The following account does not have sufficient permissions to complete the operation: domain\user. The following permissions are needed to perform this operation: Create.

When importing virtual machine in MTM Lab Center you may encounter error message below: TF259137: The following account does not have sufficient permissions to complete the operation: domain\user. The following permissions are needed to perform this operation: Create. From what I know there is no UI that would allow the TFS admin to grant the necessary privileges related to library management. To fix this, do: Open a console where tfslabconfig.exe. In VS 2013 with MTM installed, it is located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\IDE. Run the following command: TfsLabConfig Permissions /collection:http://[TFSMachineName]:8080/TFS/DefaultCollection /user:domain\user /allow:create,Read,ManageLocation,Write,edit,delete,start,stop,ManagePermissions,ManageChildPermissions,Pause,ManageSnapshots Of course you have to replace [TFSMachineName] with the name of your TFS Server and this has to be run by user with TFS admin rights. You also have to change Default

Check version of VirtualBox guest additions installed

$: locate vboxguest If this returns nothing either you don't have VirtualBox guest additions installed or you need to update the database used by locate . If you suspect that the database may need a refresh, you can do sudo updatedb . Alternatively, you can check contents of /opt . If you have the additions installed, it should have an entry like VBoxGuestAdditions*.

Mounting a Windows share using smbfs with read-write access

To mount a Windows share using smbfs do the following: #: mount -t cifs -o username=your_user_name,uid=1000 //machine_name/share_name /mnt/point Or the old style: #: mount -t smbfs -o username=your_user_name,uid=1000 //machine_name/share_name /mnt/point Note here that uid=1000 is not a magic number but rather your linux userid. You can get this value from passwd file normally located in /etc/passwd. The user with uid=1000 should be able to manipulate files pointed to by //machine_name/share. And when connecting to a share that is mananged by Active Directory, need to escape the backslash for it to work, e.g.: #: mount -t smbfs -o username=domain-name\\username,uid=1000 //machine_name/share_name /mnt/point Notes: Need to install smbfs for this to work, like (Debian/Ubuntu): #: sudo apt-get install cifs-utils ~ts~

ERROR: No configuration file found when booting Ubuntu 13.04 using USB stick

I created a boot-able network install of Ubuntu 13.04 on USB stick using Pendrive's Universal USB Installer (Universal-USB-Installer-1.9.3.9.exe). Booting this USB stick on my old Eee PC 900 shows "ERROR: No configuration file found". To fix this rename/copy isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg . As an alternative to Universal USB Installer, you may try Unetbootin( http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ ) Reference(s): http://www.pendrivelinux.com/error-could-not-find-kernel-image-linux/

PS Quick Tips: Display service start times

PS C:\> Get-WmiObject win32_service | Where-Object {$_.State -eq "Running"} | ForEach-Object {Write-Host ((Get-process -id $_.ProcessId).StartTime)","$_.PathName","$_.DisplayName} Run this in elevated prompt to get correct information. PS C:\> Get-WmiObject win32_service | Where-Object {$_.State -eq "Running"} | ForEach-Object {Write-Host ((Get-process -id $_.ProcessId).StartTime.ToString("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss.fffff"))","$_.PathName","$_.DisplayName} This add milliseconds to the service information Keywords: PowerShell Process start times

Installing TFS 2012 Update 3 screen capture tour

Below are screen captures installing TFS 2012 Update 3 using the default configuration.

Booting to BIOS in VMware Workstation 9

I have grown accustom to drilling down to several layers of menus and options in VMware vSphere (ESXi) so that I can boot the VM to the BIOS. I did the same thing in VMware Workstation 9 and could not find it where I was expecting it. Surprise... surprise it is actually in the main menu.

Windows 8.1 now supports 4 different tile sizes.

Back in Windows 8.0, tiles can be either small (smaller) or large (larger). Now in Windows 8.1 Preview, a tile can be small , medium , large , or wide . Small tile does not show application name at all, so can be confusing if you are not familiar with the applications. Medium is what used to be the " smaller " version and Wide tile is equivalent to Larger . Large is one of the new sizes. See below for screen captures showing different sizes for Desktop tile.

Android Studio Early Access Preview installation tour

Android Studio is a new Android development environment based on IntelliJ IDEA. Similar to Eclipse with the ADT Plugin, Android Studio provides integrated Android developer tools for development and debugging. On top of the capabilities you expect from IntelliJ, Android Studio offers: Gradle-based build support. Android-specific refactoring and quick fixes. Lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility and other problems. ProGuard and app-signing capabilities. Template-based wizards to create common Android designs and components. A rich layout editor that allows you to drag-and-drop UI components, preview layouts on multiple screen configurations, and much more. This was tested on: Windows 7 64-bit Pro JDK 1.7 update 25 64-bit Workaround(s): Android Studio bundle 130.677228 gets confused when multiple versions of JDK are installed on the machine. To workaround set JAVA_HOME and PATH environment variables accordingly. For example, set JAVA_HOME

Cannot install VirtualBox Guest Additions in Windows 8.1 Preview

When installing Windows 8.1 Preview from ISO, I am unable to install Guest Additions. Below is the error message. The search is on how to fix or find a workaround for this issue. Update(s): - Even running in compatibility mode is not working - This is now working on VirtualBox 4.2.16 (Type=Microsoft Windows, Version = Windows 8.1) References: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=55260

Disable grouping of files in Windows Explorer

I am not a fan of Windows 7 Explorer grouping feature. It makes the list of files cluttered and not easy to navigate or find object. See below for a screen capture.  Anyway, to disable that feature, press Alt to show Windows Explorer menu, then select View | Group By | None .

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Installation step by step

SQL Server 2012 Sp1 Standard installation step by step screen capture. This was done on a Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit operating system in Hyper-V VM with 4GB of memory.