Visual Studio 2005 on WindowsVista Business... ...Success!

Yesterday saw a successful installation of Visual Studio 2005 on Windows Vista Business edition. Following Microsoft MSDN advice, I installed Visual Studio 2005, then Service Pack 1, then Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista.

After several hours of installation, I was able to actually run Visual Studio 2005! Thankfully all went well. I set up an Asp.net C# web application and run it using the local server. This ran with no problems whatsoever, and I can now happily continue with migrating programs.

Windows Vista Business Progress

Today has seen me install Windows Vista Business edition and grab a few screenshots. I must say that on first impression it all looks rather splendid. Everything installed so far works fine, but the real test will come when I have installed Visual Studio 2005 (my development tool of choice) and associated components.

I have two screenshots for you all, simply to show off the new interface and window transparency.





Tomorrow should see me post about the installation of VS2005.

Fingers crossed...

Windows Vista Business

I'm lucky enough to be enrolled at a university that is part of the MSDN Academic Alliance program. This entitles students to obtain select Microsoft software for free. The catalogue fo free software was updated to include Windows Vista, so I thought I'd give it a try this weekend to see if it can cope with my way of working. If all goes well, then I'll actually upgrade to it as my primary operating system.

The Windows Vista added to the MSDN Academic Alliance library is the "Business" version, meaning it is essentially the same as the "Ultimate" version, but minus the Media Center.

I'll post over the weekend to let you know how I get on, with any teething troubles identified. I'll also post some pictures. I am keen on trying the new interface, and especially interested to see if all the programs I use on my Windows XP install work without issue on Windows Vista Business.

Here goes...

XBOX 360 on my old CRT

After purchasing the Gears of War game for my XBOX 360, I found that the game wouldn't play because my XBOX 360 had its display settings set to Pal-50. Apparently, Gears of War requires Pal-60. No problem, as its just a simple case of changing the display settings. Or so I thought...

Previously, I had been playing my XBOX 360 by pushing the video signal through my PC's TV Card (as a composite signal) and the audio through the PC sound card. I then used InterVideo WinDVR to display the composite signal on my TFT monitor. When I tried changing the video settings to Pal-60 on the XBOX, InterVideo WinDVR seemed to mess the picture up. Numerous video capture programs were tried yesterday without success, and this made me consider purchasing the XBOX 360 VGA HD Display Cable. Being a poor student, I was reluctant at first to part with some much needed money.

This morning saw me re-arrange my desk (for the 900th time in the last 3 months) to accommodate my 17" CRT monitor that my mother donated to me, along with her old PC. It is a superb condition Philips "Slimline" CRT (if such a thing ever existed).

As things are never fully straightforward, I realised that the CRT has a moulded connection to the monitor, and a male connection on the other end of the cable (as you would expect to connect it to a PC). Trouble is, the XBOX 360 HD VGA Cable has a male connection at the other end to connect it straight into a monitor that has a VGA input. I contemplated the fact that I may have to source down a female-to-female VGA adapter, costing me even more money.

To my surprise, the XBOX VGA Cable also included a female-to-female VGA adapter, so all is well.

Since connecting it all together, I have my XBOX 360 pushing out a video signal at a 1280x1024 resolution, and I also now get the added bonus of no more lag whilst gaming (it takes time for a video signal to go through the TV Card, get processed and then displayed on screen). I have a CRT as if it were a dedicated XBOX 360 TV, and my games have never looked so good since the signal is now defaulted to Pal-60.

If only I could decouple the sound having to go through my PC's sound card and instead get it to go straight to the surround sound system, then that would be even better. Oh well, next pet project is decided at least!

Design, Exams and XBOX Live

So today saw me complete the technical design of my final year project. I'm slightly concerned that the final report will be accompianed by a huge appendix when I go to hand it in at the end of April. The report carries a word limit of 20,000 words. Thats roughly 100 pages. The repost is also due to contain 6 chapters, one for each of the following:

• Context and Preliminary Investigation
• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Testing
• Project Critical Evaluation and Summary

To put it bluntly, I have written 22,000 words, across 109 pages. I am yet to finish chapter 3.

Also consuming my time is the exams I have this week. Two on wednesday (with a one hour gap in between), and one on Thursday. To top it all off I have an End of Semester Viva Voce on Friday. What a fun packed week this week will be!

I have also recently discovered XBOX Live since getting a months free gold memberships with the shiny new XBOX360 I so gladly received on Christmas day from my father. I am addicted to Project Gotham Racing 3 at the moment, although I am being a good student and not letting it contend with studying for my time.

Oh well, back to revising Design Patterns, Advanced Porgramming Language Concepts and Algorithmics...