Where to download Silverlight 5.1.10411.0 Tools/SDK/Developer Runtime

Here are the links required to prepare a Silverlight 5 development environment for those that need to target Silverlight 5.1.10411.0 even when Microsoft remove the links to the downloads from their download site(s). Both the Developer runtime and normal runtime for 32-bit and 64-bit are included. Note: this release of Silverlight uses the same SDK and Tools version as for the previous release – links have been included for convenience.
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SQL Server 2008: Create administrator account without admin login

Deploying our development machines from virtual machine templates saves us a lot of time, however every now and then we hit frustrating little speed bumps. Here is the latest – SQL Server 2008 / SQL Server 2008 Express not having an administrator account enabled.

To fix this problem you must first stop the SQL Server 2008 instance, and start it in “single user mode” (you need to be local administrator for this to work).

  1. Stop the SQL Server instance in Service Manager
  2. Open cmd prompt
  3. browse to appropriate SQL Server installation: e.g. cd\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQLEXPRESS\MSSQL\Binn
  4. Start SQL Server in single user mode using the “-m” switch:
    For a default instance: sqlservr.exe -m
    For SQLEXPRESS/named instance: sqlservr.exe -m -sSQLEXPRESS
  5. You can now connect to the SQL Server instance via SQL Server Management Console and create your administrative user, or use SQLCMD from the command prompt e.g.:
    C:\> SQLCMD -S .\SQLEXPRESS -E
    1> CREATE LOGIN [YOURDOMAIN\justin] FROM WINDOWS
    2> go
    1> exec sp_addsrvrolemember @loginame='YOURDOMAIN\justin', @rolename='sysadmin'
    2> go
    
  6. Stop the server (Ctrl+C)
  7. Start the service again from Service Manager

Where to download Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 Tools/SDK/Developer Runtime

Here are the links required to prepare a Silverlight 5 development environment for those that need to target Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 even when Microsoft remove the links to the downloads from their download site(s). Both the Developer runtime and normal runtime for 32-bit and 64-bit are included.
Continue reading Where to download Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 Tools/SDK/Developer Runtime

Where to download Tools/SDK/Developer Runtime for Silverlight 4.0.60831.0

With the release of Silverlight 5 it is of course now difficult to find a download for the latest Silverlight 4 Developer Runtime for those of us developing for restricted client environments (again).

Silverlight 4 Developer Runtime 4.0.60831.0
http://silverlight.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/D/C/2/DC2D5838-9138-4D25-AA92-52F61F7C51E6/runtime/Silverlight_Developer.exe

Silverlight 4 Runtime 4.0.60831.0
http://silverlight.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/D/C/2/DC2D5838-9138-4D25-AA92-52F61F7C51E6/runtime/Silverlight.exe

Silverlight 4 SDK 4.0.60310.0, April 2011 Update
http://download.microsoft.com/download/B/9/B/B9BDD218-6974-4816-A309-0FC85A105521/sdk/silverlight_sdk.exe (from here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=15636). You should install this after you have installed the Silverlight 4 Tools for VS2010.

The above were found by going to Silverlight.net and selecting the “Silverlight 4 (Previous Version)” -> Silverlight 4 Runtime, however you have to use IE. Using Chrome resulted in downloading the latest version 5 runtime instead. Once downloaded I reviewed the final URL that was used to download, then changed Silverlight.exe to Silverlight_Developer.exe to get the developer runtime as well.

MonoTouch: Auto scroll UITextField or other views hidden by keyboard

Here is a snippet that I use in my base view controller class to handle scrolling views that would be hidden by the keyboard when it appears. Any view within a UIScrollView can be made to scroll automatically to be visible when the keyboard appears over it.

This is based on the following Apple documentation example: Managing the Keyboard: Moving Content That Is Located Under the Keyboard.

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C# – Screen capture and Overlays for Direct3D 9, 10 and 11 using API Hooks

So it’s been almost a year and I have finally got around to finishing a new version of my screen capture project that supports Direct3D 9, 10, and 11! This solution still uses SlimDX for the Direct3D API wrapper along with EasyHook to perform the remote process hooking and IPC between the host process and target process.

Some of the changes since the previous version:

  1. 100% C# implementation
  2. Added Direct3D 10 and 11 support
  3. Capturing multi-sampled/anti-aliased images (for 10 & 11) is supported
  4. Re-organised code making it easier to support multiple D3D versions
  5. Implemented a new and improved test bed application
  6. Provided example overlays for D3D 9 and 10
  7. Improved debug messaging from Target application to Host (mostly removed when compiled with “Release” configuration)

Update 2012-04-14: code now hosted on Github

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Where to download Tools/SDK/Developer Runtime for Silverlight 4.0.50524.0

This one is for anyone who has had to deal with Company Standard Operating Environments (SOE’s), and the red tape involved with deploying updates to applications such as Silverlight.

We have been working on a Silverlight 4 application, and along the way our development environment had its Silverlight Tools and Runtime updated to a more recent version than what the SOE machines are currently running. When we went to test the deployment, of course nothing worked.

“Ok that’s cool” we said, “we’ll just install the previous versions of the Developer Runtime, SDK and Tools”.

After a few frantic minutes of searching through hard drives, and our development installation area (where it SHOULD have been), we discovered that we didn’t have a copy of what we needed.

“Ok that’s also cool” we naively said, “we’ll just download them from Microsoft”.

Have you ever tried to search for the download anything other than the current version of an application from download.microsoft.com? We discovered today what a nightmare it can really be!

A good while later, after of trawling through blog posts and comments about how to downgrade and where to download, we finally found the following three working links for what we need to compile for Silverlight 4.0.50524.0.

Silverlight 4 Developer Runtime v4.0.50524.0:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/5/8/C5877489-8022-42A6-8456-D05C2A6C8DFB/runtime/Silverlight_Developer.exe

Silverlight 4 Tools for Visual Studio 2010 (SDK v4.0.50401.0) – (compatible with v4.0.50524.0):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/B/4/5B46BF8A-9350-49D5-B1E7-7789818FBF41/Silverlight4_Tools.exe

And the runtime version installed in the SOE (just in case you want to test your application before trying to deploy):

Silverlight 4 Runtime 4.0.50524.0:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/5/8/C5877489-8022-42A6-8456-D05C2A6C8DFB/runtime/Silverlight.exe

Here are the links to information that helped us find it all.

1) Developer Runtime was found here: Silverlight Release History http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=1B7A3205-B5F8-4E20-BF42-792DE5923454&displaylang=en

We then changed the link for the version we found from Silverlight_Developer.exe to Silverlight.exe to get the standard runtime release without debug information.

2) A post from Tim Heuer showed us that there was no updated Tools/SDK so the original final release of the SDK (v4.0.50401.0) would work fine http://timheuer.com/blog/archive/2010/06/03/silverlight-4-minor-update-june-2010.aspx. The link to the original Tools was then found in a blog comment somewhere – sorry I can’t remember where it is, and can’t see it in amongst the 20 odd Chrome windows + tabs open .

Time Heuer’s blog also had some helpful information on downgrading your Silverlight installation (e.g. uninstall the current SDK, reinstall the one you want and away you go).

I hope this saves someone a few minutes of their time!

C# – Screen capture with Direct3D 9 API Hooks

Since investigating screen capture techniques for Direct3D 9 applications a year ago I have wanted to look into hooking the Direct3D 9 API to utilise the much faster GetBackBuffer for my screen captures. Well here it is at last – a mostly managed C# solution providing easy and safe hooking of the Direct3D 9 API thanks to EasyHook, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit.
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