Install minimal GNOME shell on Debian Stretch

#: apt install gdm3 xserver-xorg-legacy

This will install just the GNOME shell, pretty lean and mean (for GNOME standard :)

Note:

• This is a pre-release of Debian Strech
• Need to add xserver-xorg-legacy otherwise it will not work, might be related to this bug.

Howto: Installing pywin32 on Python 3.5.1 64-bit

Installing Python for Windows Extensions on Python 3.5.1 64-bit

C:\>pip install pypiwin32

If you are getting the following error message in importing win32gui install VC++ 2010 redistributable.

>>> import win32gui
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

Reference(s):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/
https://www.python.org/downloads/

Remove VirtualBox guest additions on Debian

# apt-get purge virtualbox*

Reference(s):
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=54881

Install minimalist GUI on top of Debian Stretch netinstall

LXDE is pretty lightweight desktop environment. There are other lighter weight DEs out there mind you but for most practical purposes LXDE serves most of the modern x86 machines.

To install minimalist (just the core) LXDE on Debian Strech, do:

#: apt-get install lxde-core lightdm

Note:

• This will also install a lighter version desktop manager LightDM
• This is a pre-release version, it may change without notice.

Allow changes to SQL Server table schema if the changes require table re-creation

Modifying an SQL Server table that requires the table to be re-created is not allowed by default using SQL Server Management Studio for good reason. For example, changing a column of type nvarchar from 10 to 20 will result with the following error:

Saving changes is not permitted. The changes you have made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created. You have either made changes to a table that can't be re-created or enabled the option Prevent saving changes that require the table to be re-created.

To allow schema change for the above situation using SSMS, do the following:

1. Open SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio). I am using SSMS 2014. 
2. For good measure, back-up the database.
3. Navigate to Tools | Options. 
4. Click on Designers.
5. Remove the check box on Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation. 
   
6. Click on OK. 
7. Proceed with changing the table schema.
8. Again for good measure, enable Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation to prevent accidental table schema change that might drop some information.

Reference(s):

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/956176

~Enjoy.

How to determine Hyper-V hostname inside the guest VM

On Hyper-V virtual machine with integration services installed the host machine can be identified by reading HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Virtual Machine\Guest\Parameters\Hostname on the guest machine itself.

Reference(s):

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/219.hyper-v-how-to-find-the-host-of-a-vm.aspx

Enable logging of .Net assembly binding via registry

You have a .Net application that fails to load and you are suspecting that it may have to do with assembly dependencies. On a development machine fuslogvw.exe will aid you in collecting failed assembly binding but fuslogvw.exe is not normally available on production environment. So what do you do?

Logging of assembly binding can be enabled via the Registry, to do so navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion. Add the following keys with corresponding values:

Key	Type	Value
ForceLog	DWORD	1
LogFailures	DWORD	1
LogResourceBinds	DWORD	1
LogPath	String	C:\FusionLog\

You need to restart the .Net application under test for this to take effect. The log files will be saved in C:\FusionLog.

Reference(s):
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1012252/using-fuslogvw-exe-on-a-machine-with-no-visual-studio-installed