Girish's Blog - Are you developing ON the cloud?
Cloud, Cloud, Cloud
Cool new feature in Office 365 and Office 2013–Inline apps in Outlook, Word etc.,.
Both Office 2013 Clients and as well as the Office 365 products now have a cool feature...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/01/2013
TFS 2012 - Installing Remote SharePoint Extensions on a standalone SP server on Windows 2012
Issue One of my friends had an issue with installing the Remote extensions for SharePoint which...
Author: gpillai Date: 02/25/2013
How to edit TFS 2012 Build definitions and make changes to the Builds
This gets asked quite often, hence the post – how do I make my build to run on a...
Author: gpillai Date: 02/04/2013
TFS announces Git Support–WooHa
Today Brian Harry announced in his blog that TFS will support Git based repositories. To...
Author: gpillai Date: 01/31/2013
TFS Build definitions – How do I sort and organize a large number Build definitions?
Issue/Problem: I have a large number of build definitions, which are increasing by the day, as we...
Author: gpillai Date: 01/25/2013
TFS 2010 – Revoking database privileges to TFS accounts during normal operation
This question has come up quite a few times and this is my take on this. During installation...
Author: gpillai Date: 08/17/2012
TFS 2010 Backup tool(wizard) fails to launch
Sometimes when you try to launch the TFS backup tool from the TFS Admin Console, you might notice...
Author: gpillai Date: 08/10/2012
Bring back the colors–Visual Studio Team responds to User feedback while in VS 11 Beta mode.
A big source of user feedback when Visual Studio 11 beta was released was the emphasis on...
Author: gpillai Date: 05/08/2012
Windows Server 8 – Hyper-V –I call it Uber virtualization
Though Windows Server 8 is still beta, it is garnering a lot of attention from the virtualization...
Author: gpillai Date: 04/17/2012
TFS 2010 Build - Controlling QtAgent32.exe (the test agent process) startup and termination from within Build workflow
TFS 2010 and the associated Testing infrastructure for Testing (aka Test Lab capabilities) are...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/09/2012
TFS 2010 Power Tools – PowerShell Gems
One of the things that’s often overlooked is the availability of a strong set of PowerShell...
Author: gpillai Date: 02/22/2012
TFS 2010 : How to apply check-in policies to only certain branches or folders
This question keeps coming up frequently, and so I thought to make a succinct post on how to do...
Author: gpillai Date: 02/16/2012
TFS 2010 – Application Tier Version Control Cache Configuration details
Its been a while since I posted. Busy with lot of things and as well some internal projects....
Author: gpillai Date: 01/21/2012
Excel Dashboards on Project Portal for TFS 2010 “failed to refresh”
I had this nagging problem on one instance where the Excel dashboards on a TFS 2010 instance...
Author: gpillai Date: 10/07/2011
AWESOMENESS in its most AWESOME form - Hyper-V coming to Windows 8 desktop - aka Client versions
I have often fretted about the lack of 64 bit Virtualization capabilities on Windows Client OSs (aka...
Author: gpillai Date: 09/07/2011
Virtualization! Virtualization–what you should consider when going virtual. Some storage best practices for Hyper-V
These days it has become trendy to talk about Virtualization. Virtualization has its virtues –...
Author: gpillai Date: 09/02/2011
Two new Certifications achieved this year
WoHoo! Two new certifications achieved. The logos are downloadable from MCP site, only of one passed...
Author: gpillai Date: 06/18/2011
TFS 2010–Test Case Attachment Cleanup tool
This attachment cleanup tool can be downloaded from the link below....
Author: gpillai Date: 05/31/2011
Connecting to TFS from Microsoft Test Manager aka MTM
This question has come up a few times, so I thought I might as well blog. How to connect to...
Author: gpillai Date: 05/20/2011
FunAnimalCards– An interactive application for toddlers published in the Windows Phone marketplace
FunAnimalCards is an interactive application developed for toddlers to help them to explore...
Author: gpillai Date: 05/07/2011
TFS 2010 – Application Tier Version Control Cache Configuration
Sometimes people experience some kind of disk pressure on the Application Tier due to the cache...
Author: gpillai Date: 05/01/2011
Error: TF14908: Access Denied: User DOMAINUserName needs ManageBranch permission(s) for $/ParentBranch.
You are using TFS 2010 and have a complex branching hierarchy with parent child relationships. You...
Author: gpillai Date: 04/22/2011
HOW TO: Associate Automation for Test Cases in Visual Studio 2010
In 2010 version of Visual Studio one can author Test Cases and associate to the Test Cases...
Author: gpillai Date: 04/06/2011
TFS WITs – Running Hierarchical queries of WITs to pull linked Parent/Child items and flattening the list for sorts.
Sometimes or really quite often it is necessary to run a Team Foundation Server(TFS) Work...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/30/2011
HOW TO: Move SRC code from one Team Project Collection (TPC) to another TPC
This is applicable only when you want to move your SRC code across from a TPC to another for...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/23/2011
HOW TO: Add a new Build Quality filter for builds in the TFS 2010
A question that comes up occasionally from the Build Engineers or from the Release team is : How can...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/21/2011
Internet Explorer 9–the fastest browser in the market released to the world–Go get it and enjoy your life
Microsoft has released the final general availability of Windows Internet Explorer 9 in 39...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/14/2011
Windows Phone 7–tips and tricks
I am posting some of the things I found useful. Primarily for my own memory, as I forget how...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/08/2011
Windows Phone DEV - How to share storyboard animations and use them optimally in page transitions
Often when you create WP7 applications, you want to share storyboards across pages and make...
Author: gpillai Date: 02/08/2011
HOW TO: Access Hidden Features in Windows Phone
Now that the Windows Phone is out with its buttery smooth UI, some of you might find the following...
Author: gpillai Date: 12/07/2010
Microsoft introduces Rapid Application Development (RAD) with LightSwitch release
MS has just announced RAD with LightSwitch. Here is my first peek at it, as I walk through...
Author: gpillai Date: 08/20/2010
My First Windows Phone Application
Got some kick out of doing this very simple Hello World Application for Windows Phone 7 ...
Author: gpillai Date: 07/24/2010
Different Configuration Screens for TFS 2010
I created this for my own reference to TFS 2010 configuration screen shots, so that I could refer...
Author: gpillai Date: 06/14/2010
AD User Attribute conundrums – Reading a AD User Attribute when its value is “”
How does one read in and start processing an AD User Attribute when it’s value is NOT...
Author: gpillai Date: 06/06/2010
Visual Studio – Vanishing solution node when adding projects
A friend of mine today was quibbling a bit while using Visual Studio 2010 to create a solution and...
Author: gpillai Date: 06/03/2010
Mega Data Centers, Cloud Computing and Windows Azure
Microsoft has been building Mega Data centers at various cities in the World. To begin with Hotmail...
Author: gpillai Date: 01/10/2010
How to: Checking in another user’s changes in TFS
This question came up at a customer and while there could be a few ways to do this, the following is...
Author: gpillai Date: 01/08/2010
How to use Fiddler to capture HTTPS sessions and convert to a VSTS Web Test
This question came up quite a few times. So I thought I will post it here. There are a few...
Author: gpillai Date: 01/07/2010
TFS for SourceSafe users
This is really nothing but goodness. The TFS team has done a lot of studies and found there is a...
Author: gpillai Date: 10/05/2009
Views that are possible in Visual Studio 2010 Architecture Edition
Following are a few of the cool views that you can get in VS 2010. There are a lot more...
Author: gpillai Date: 07/05/2009
Bing It. Bing It. Bring it on
Hi - Bing is the name of the new search tool from Microsoft. It is pretty amazing in its capability...
Author: gpillai Date: 06/03/2009
Make Web Not War – from Microsoft
This is a slightly fun video for you tech junkies out there....
Author: gpillai Date: 05/07/2009
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Google Verification
Author: gpillai Date: 04/22/2009
DeepZoomPix – Stunning VISUAL Demos – Integrated use of Silverlight, DeepZoom and the Azure Services Platform
Today MS announced the go live of DeepZoomPix, a technology demonstration of Microsoft®...
Author: gpillai Date: 04/15/2009
IE8 Officially released – Top features and highlights
We released Internet Explorer 8 to the web for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server. Not...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/19/2009
MIX 09 announcements – IIS at MIX 2009: Extensions, Web Application Gallery, Web Platform Installer
The IIS team announced the release of 10 new extensions and launched a new end-to-end experience for...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/19/2009
Example of Integrating Live ID Web Authentication to your Web Sites
The following is a short video which shows how a Web Site has integrated Live ID and used it as one...
Author: gpillai Date: 03/04/2009
Engineering Enhancements to Windows7 based on feedback
The Win 7 team has been hard at work taking user feedback and incorporating them into Win7. Some of...
Author: gpillai Date: 02/27/2009