Friday, March 30, 2012

"Failed to connect to device as it is pin locked" error

I experienced the error "Failed to connect to device as it is pin locked." while deploying a Windows Phone 7 application onto my Samsung Focus phone. The solution was:

1) Login to your apphub account at http://create.microsoft.com/
2) Click on your profile name in the top right-hand corner of the screen
3) On the page that displays next, click on the "devices" link.
4) Delete the device that you are not able to deploy on. In my case, I just had one device.
5) Close the AppHup page
6) Start Zune
7) Register the phone using the following application: Start >> All Programs >> Windows Phone SDK 7.1 >> Windows Phone Developer Registration
8) Go back into Visual Studio and deploy your application into the phone device.

Monday, March 12, 2012

TechFest 2012 on Saturday Apr 28, 2012 with Scott Guthrie


Date & Time: Saturday April 28, 2012 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM 
Location: BCIT Burnaby Campus, 3700 Willingdon Ave, Burnaby, BC, V5G 3H2
Food: Snacks, Coffee, and Lunch
Wireless Internet Access: FREE
Closest skytrain stations: Brentwood Mall or Metrotown

Topic: TechFest 2012 on Saturday Apr 28, 2012 with Scott Guthrie

In case you have not heard yet, registrations have started for the mother of all Vancouver technology festivals. We call it TechFest 2012 and it is happening on Saturday April 28, 2012. Our keynote speaker is none other than Scott Guthrie himself. Check out Scott's wikipedia page. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see Scott Guthrie in person.

There will be six tracks:

- Azure (Sponsored by Microsoft)
- CMS (Sponsored by DotNetNuke)
- OS
- Mobile (Sponsored by Microsoft)
- Development
- Database

You can view the detailed sessions at http://www.vancouvertechfest.com/Sessions.aspx.

Registration:

Early bird special $50 valid until March 31, 2012. Register now.

After March 31, 2012: $75

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Installation of Windows 8 Consumer Preview on Oracle's VirtualBox 4.1.8 for Windows

Below are a list of VM technologies that currently support Windows 8:

- Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview
- Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2
- VMware Workstation 8.0.2 for Windows
- Oracle's VirtualBox 4.1.8 for Windows
- Parallels Workstation 6 for Windows
- Parallels Desktop 4 for Windows
- XenDesktop 5.5

My personal experience with Oracle's VirtualBox version 4.1.8 was smooth. I was able to install both "Windows 8" and "Windows 8 Server" without any problems.

Here are the steps I took for installing Windows 8 (Consumer Preview) on Oracle's VirtualBox 4.1.8 for Windows:

1) Download Orcale's Virtual Box host application from: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. After you download the product, go ahead and install it.

2) Download the Windows Server 8 (Consumer Preview) 64-bit ISO image file from: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso.

3) Create a directory named Win8ServerCP (or any other name you fancy) somewhere on your hard drive.
Remember this location as this is where we will later store the VM.

4) Start Oracle's VirtualBox

5) On the left side of the toolbar, click on the "New" button.

6) Click "Next" on the "Welcome to the New Virtual Machine Wizard!" dialog.

7) On the next "VM Name and OS Type" dialog, enter/choose the following:

Name:    Windows 8 64-bit Consumer Preview
Operating System:  Microsoft Windows
Version:   Windows 8 (64 bit)

Click "Next"

8) Click Next on the "Memory" dialog.

9) Click Next on the "Virtual Hard Disk" dialog.

10) On the "Welcome to the Virtual disk creation wizard" dialog accept the default file type "VDI (Virtual Disk Image)" and click Next.

11) Click Next on the "Virtual disk storage details" dialog.

12) On the "Virtual disk file location and size" dialog, click on the browse folder icon and navigate to the folder named Win8ServerCP created in step 1 above, then click Save.

Click Next to move on to the next dialog.

13) Click Create on the "Summary" window. It will take a while for the VM file to get created. Be patient.

14) In the left pane, double click on the virtual machine named "Windows 8 64-bit Consumer Preview".

15) Click Next on the "Welcome to the First Run Wizard!" window.

16) On the "Select Installation Media" window, click on the browse folder icon and select the downloaded ISO image file then click Next.

17) Click Start on the "Summary" window.

18) Complete the self-explanatory installation process of the operating system.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Some Windows 8 Keyboard Shortcuts

I downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview today, a day after it was released. I succeeded in getting it installed on an Oracle VirtualBox version 4.1.8. It was a fairly painless exercise.

It is quite a challenge getting used to the absence of the start button. I dug up the following shortcuts that make it easier for me to navigate this new O/S:

Peek into Desktop >> Win + ,
Start Narrator >> Win + Enter
List of Narrator Commands >> Win + ALT + F1
Stop Narrator >> Win + ALT + ESC
All Charms >> Win + C
Search Charm >> Win + Q
Share Charm >> Win + H
Start Charm >> Win
Device Charm >> Win + K
Settings Charm >> Win + I
Multiple Display Options >> Win + P
Search Apps >> Win + Q
Windows Explorer on Desktop >> Win + E
Search Settings >> Win + W
Search Files >> Win + F
Show Desktop >> Win + D
Start Button Functionality >> Win + X
Close an app >> Win + F4
Cycle through notifications >> Win + V
Cycle through applications >> Win + Tab
Toggle AppBar >> Win + Z
Swap from a snapped app to full screen >> Win + J

I'll update this list as I learn more. Meantime, enjoy !!!

March 17, 2012 - Found this great article on "Windows 8 How To": http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alfredth/archive/2012/03/10/dr-z-s-windows-8-how-tos.aspx