Aaron Stebner's WebLog
Thoughts about setup and deployment issues, WiX, XNA, the .NET Framework and Visual Studio
Final versions of Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 are now available
As Soma announced on his blog yesterday, the final versions of Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 04/13/2010
Additional information about TurboTax 2009 setup issues caused by .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 verification errors
Back in January, I wrote a blog post about errors that can occur while trying to install TurboTax...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 04/05/2010
New XNA Game Studio 4.0 samples for Windows Phone released on the Creators Club site
Yesterday, we released several samples and mini-games to help you get started using the Windows...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 04/01/2010
Link to blog post describing how to port the platformer starter kit to XNA Game Studio 4.0 and Windows Phone
A colleague wrote a blog post today that describes the process of converting a game created from the...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 03/30/2010
Windows Phone 7 Series and XNA Game Studio 4.0 training links on Channel 9
There is some training material available on the Channel 9 site to help you get started with...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 03/26/2010
Possible issue deploying XNA Game Studio 4.0 CTP games to the Windows Phone Emulator
Since the release of the Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP and the XNA Game Studio 4.0 CTP...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 03/16/2010
Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP and XNA Game Studio 4.0 CTP now available for download
Earlier today in the MIX10 keynote, Scott Guthrie announced the availability of the Windows Phone...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 03/15/2010
Links to some introductory information about XNA Game Studio 4.0
There was some information announced today at GDC 2010 about the upcoming XNA Game Studio 4.0...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 03/09/2010
Link to an add-in that enables debugging for XNA Game Studio content pipeline extensions
My colleague, Stephen Styrchak, has created a Visual Studio 2008 add-in that allows you to debug an...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 03/04/2010
WiX v3.5 now includes support for the Visual Studio 2010 release candidate
Rob Mensching posted an announcement on his blog this week about the availability of a build of WiX...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 02/21/2010
Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 release candidate now available for download
As announced earlier today on Soma’s blog and Jason Zander’s blog, the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 02/08/2010
Link to a picture showing what version of the .NET Framework is built into what version of Windows
For a while now, I’ve been maintaining a list of what version of the .NET Framework ships with each...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 02/05/2010
TurboTax 2009 can fail to install because it thinks the .NET Framework is not installed, even when it is
I’ve heard from a few customers over the past few days who have had trouble installing the new 2009...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 01/26/2010
A simpler way to add Windows Installer major upgrade functionality to your MSI in WiX v3.5
Bob Arnson has been working on some simplifications to the WiX language in WiX v3.5, and he has...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 01/19/2010
Possible issue where machine.config can be overwritten by .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 setup
Description of the issue I heard from someone recently who noticed that some information was removed...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 12/21/2009
Fix for possible NGen service deadlocks during product installation is coming in the .NET Framework 4
A while back, I wrote a blog post about a scenario that can lead to deadlocks when using synchronous...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 12/04/2009
Mailbag: Why does Windows Update continue offering the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 after I install it?
Question: I recently installed the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 on my computer. Afterwards, I went...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 11/24/2009
Suggestions for resolving installation errors for .NET Framework security update MS09-061
I have heard from several people over the past week or so who have had problems getting the recently...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 10/23/2009
Link to information about .NET Framework 4 setup and deployment improvements
Peter Marcu has posted some detailed information about improvements that have been made to the setup...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 10/22/2009
Important uninstall instructions for migrating from the .NET Framework 4 and VS 2010 beta 1 to beta 2
As noted on Soma’s blog, the .NET Framework 4 beta 2 and Visual Studio 2010 beta 2 have been...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 10/19/2009
Diagnosing and resolving 1935 errors for Win32 assemblies that occur on Windows Vista and later
Introduction 1935 errors can occur during an MSI-based installation while installing .NET assemblies...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 10/07/2009
Mailbag: How to manage reboots when installing multiple versions of the .NET Framework
Question: I am planning a network deployment of the .NET Framework, and I need to deploy all...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 09/28/2009
XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions now available for download
The XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions was posted on the Microsoft Download Center today. ...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 09/15/2009
Possible workarounds for project type is not supported by this installation error in XNA Game Studio
Note - my colleague Yuichi Ito has provided a Japanese version of the information in this blog post....
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 08/30/2009
Media Center SDK for Windows 7 RTM now available for public download
As noted in this post on Niall Ginsbourg’s blog and this post on Charlie Owen’s blog, the Windows...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 08/17/2009
Problem upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 if you have .NET Framework 4 beta 1 installed
Description of the issue There is an issue with the .NET Framework 4 beta 1 and Visual Studio 2010...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 08/10/2009
Updated versions of .NET Framework cleanup and verification tools with Windows 7 support
Over the past week or so, I’ve posted updated versions of both the .NET Framework Cleanup Tool and...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 07/27/2009
XNA Creators Club web site has been refreshed
The XNA Creators Club web site was taken down today, and now it is back up with several...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 07/23/2009
Link to additional Avatar animation sample, rigs and animation pack
Since the release of XNA Game Studio 3.1, we have posted a few samples (described here and here) to...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 07/21/2009
Link to information about upgrading WiX v2.0 projects to WiX v3.0
Now that WiX v3.0 has officially released, you may want to start looking at upgrading your existing...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 07/17/2009
Japanese version of XNA Game Studio 3.1 now available for download
Last night, the XNA Game Studio team released a Japanese version of XNA Game Studio 3.1 and the XNA...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 07/09/2009
Final version of WiX v3.0 now available for download
Over this past weekend, the 3.0.5419 build of WiX v3.0 was declared the final production...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 07/06/2009
Updated sample code that supports detection of .NET Framework 4
I have posted updated versions of the .NET Framework detection code that I have previously written...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/25/2009
Link to new Object Placement on Avatars sample on the Creators Club site
Last week, we posted a few Avatar samples on the Creators Club site to help people get started using...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/19/2009
Link to details about sound effect API changes in XNA Game Studio 3.1
One of my colleagues, Ashu Tatake, started a blog last week. This week he wrote a helpful post...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/18/2009
Sample code to detect .NET Framework install state and service pack level
Introduction Many installers and applications require that one or more versions of the .NET...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/16/2009
Steps to upgrade an XACT2 project to XACT3 so it can be used with XNA Game Studio 3.1
If you have an XNA Game Studio project that includes an XACT2 audio project and plan to upgrade it...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/16/2009
New XNA Game Studio 3.1 Avatar sample content is now available on the Creators Club site
As announced in this forum post, there is some new sample content available on the XNA Creators Club...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/12/2009
Steps to install XNA Game Studio without using the setup bootstrapper
In the past, we've heard from a few people via the Creators Club forums who have had trouble getting...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/12/2009
XNA Game Studio 3.1 is now available for download
As announced today in this news item on the Creators Club site, XNA Game Studio 3.1 is now available...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/11/2009
Votive support for Visual Studio 2010 beta has been added to WiX v3.5
As Bob Arnson recently noted, the WiX virtual team has been working on getting initial builds of WiX...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/10/2009
Links to download Japanese versions of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 beta 1
A couple of weeks ago, I posted links to English download locations for the .NET Framework 4 beta 1...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/09/2009
Possible problem publishing content with ClickOnce in XNA Game Studio 3.0 or 3.1
I ran into an issue in a Creators Club forum post this week that I wanted to describe in more detail...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 06/05/2009
How to unblock installation of the .NET Framework 4 beta 1 on Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC Editions
Question: I tried to install the .NET Framework 4 beta 1 and Visual Studio 2010 beta 1 on my Windows...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 05/29/2009
Using WiX 3.0 to create an MSI-based installer for Visual Studio project templates
A while back, I wrote a blog post where I introduced a set of Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 project...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 05/22/2009
Links to download Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 beta 1
As Soma announced on his blog earlier this week, Visual Studio 2010 beta 1 and the .NET Framework...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 05/20/2009
Media Center SDK for Windows 7 release candidate now available for public download
I just noticed this item on Charlie Owen's blog and wanted to link to it here as well. There...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 05/15/2009
Links to introductory information about XNA Game Studio 3.1 Avatar APIs
My colleague Dean Johnson has posted a couple of items on his blog that I wanted to link to here to...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 05/12/2009
Links to GDC 2009 XNA Game Studio Developer Day session content
The PowerPoint slides and the audio recordings for the sessions that were presented at the XNA Game...
Author: Aaron Stebner Date: 05/08/2009