Hmm.

 

AWellKnownTestCompany: "We can't run the Certified on Vista pre-certification tests on your application as it requires Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express edition."

 

Me: "Er... Excuse me?"

 

AWellKnownTestCompany: "2005 Express hasn't been Certified on Vista yet so we can't certify your application"

 

Me: "D'oh! I had not thought of that..."

 

Hmm; one wonders if one may have inadvertently stumbled onto the Bleeding Edge.

 

Still never mind: One quick re-write later and hey presto - it doesn't use Microsoft SQL Server for it's database anymore!! (Yay!)

 

I'm assuming the .net 3.0 Framework is Certified for Vista, no?  :o)

 

Stuart

 

 

 

 

Yes, yes, yes! I'd not seen a demo of Windows Presentation Foundation that really sold it to me in terms of actually selling packaged software to real, live business people. Until yesterday at the MSDN Roadshow, Reading.

 

Previously I've always tried hard to make the imaginative jump across the void from the current grey WinForms (or heaven forbid - WinForms running on XP with an applied USER CREATED CUSTOM THEME applied (aurghhh..)), to something, well, a bit more interesting and dare I say, "Wizzy".

 

Trouble is I've never been able to imagine what the other side of the UI chasm would look like, apart from some of those far out Macrodobe Flash offerings one stumbles across via sites like www.internettinyawards.com. All very 'cool' and all, but I can't really see a be-suited business manager in a UK standard SME really being all that impressed ('yes I'm sure this is all very nice but how is this going to save me money? And what do we do when we loose our internet connection again? And we can't have our commercial data hosted outside of the company so can we just have this as a desktop application?')

 

Anyway, Mark Johnston did a really sharp demo of how to create a web service based photo album app using both Expression Blend and Visual Studio which was *so good* that even my business brain got partially excited.

 

The missing piece of the .net 3.0 for desktop application development on Vista for me was : Expression Blend. It almost makes me want to become a designer, except I don't have enough hair for a pony-tail and I'll never *really* enjoy French art films (I'm refering to a specific individual here, so please don't imply an extrapolated generalisation here!).

 

It's amazing how simple it is (or rather 'is going to be' as Expression Blend is in RC phase so not quite live, and also sadly not on MSDN Subscription yet either I note, but I'm not going to open that particular can of worms here as I'm guessing about a million other people have got that one covered. :o)

 

 

Now I can write my usual vb.net desktop apps in VS2005 with SQL Server 2005 Express databases attached and maybe a sprinkling of Crystal Reports, but give it a nice user experience that won't look too out of place in a business environment but will actually be quicker, easier and more intuitive for a standard untrained office worker to use - Now that I can sell!!

 

Stuart

 

 

Have just installed the new Virtual PC 2007 system from Microsoft. We are going to use it for our initial 'Certified for Vista' testing, so just building the test instance now...

 

Oh Lordy. Did you know that the Verisign Authenticode Certificates that they are specifically promoting for signing Windows Vista applications, cannot be installed from the Verisign site onto Windows Vista (Doh!)...

 

or on IE7 (double Doh!!).

 

Strangely their web system is perfectly happy to accept your order from a Vista/IE7 box; you just can't install the darn thing.

 

Verisign told me that they, ahem, 'have a bug' but are confident they are going to have it fixed for an April 2007 release.

 

Luckily I found a work around:- All I had to do was uninstall Vista an install a new copy of XP, go through the process of asking for the certificate to be re-issued, wait a day for the certificate to be re-issued, install the new certificate from the Verisign site, copy the public and private key files onto a dvd, re-install Vista, download and install OneCare, Visual Studio, SQL Server 2005, all the various updates and service packs, then finally install the certificate on the 'new' box!

 

Well, that's what I would have had to do if I didn't happen to have more than one pc, but you get the point!?

 

Hmm, might have been nice for Verisign to have perhaps mentioned that upfront maybe? Didn't dare asking them in case they told me "It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign outside the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."

 

Oh well; such is life...

 

 

It's never easy is it? Just spent the best part of an hour trying to figure out why I can't use the new Verisign certificate to digitally sign the main ProcessBridge app's ClickOnce manifest.

 

I've got both a MyCredentials.spc file and a MyPrivateKey.pvk file, but Visual Studio wants a .pfx file. No idea what that was. No clue from Verisign even though the certificate is specifically marketed as a Microsoft Authenticode certificate.

 

Eventually stumbled across this page in MSDN for a Visual Studio tool called pvk2pfx which, funny old thing, exports a pvk file to a pfx file.

 

We are back in business...