Mehrdad's space: Microsoft

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:17:13 GMT

I've just set up the beta release of the latest version of the Web browser; Windows Internet Explorer 8!

It looks much better. No problems so far, the performance seems much better than IE7.

Here is the screenshot:

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 shipped!

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:43:15 GMT

In the past few seconds, I heard a great news! Visual Studio 2008 is here!!!
FINALLY!!

Visual Studio 2008 Thank You Gift

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:56:40 GMT

Yesterday night, I received an email from Microsoft about the Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Thank You gift (Everyone calls that ShipIt! cube!). I've received the 2005 ShipIt and I had many problems receiving it (since MS can't ship it to Iran ). Therefore, I have to search for someone overseas once again to bring it for me.

By the way, I'm so happy to see that VS2008 is approaching RTM; and even happier for having the chance to contribute to it.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped making this wonderful product possible.

Thank you guys!!!

Visual Studio 2008 at first glance

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:19:57 GMT

I've just installed Visual Studio 2008 on my laptop and of course, the first thing I noticed when I launched it was the slightly redesigned start page.

I felt I should share it, so here it is:

click to enlarge

I'm sure I'm gonna love it!

Personally, I tried to swtich to 2005 since beta 1. And in beta 2 of VS2005, I used it as my primary development environment, and this is what I'm going to do with this build as it looks very stable and bug-free and yes, it does have a Go Live! license!

Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 12:56:27 GMT

I haven't blogged for a long time! As you might already know, I'm building a blog service provider myself which is nearly completed and I didn't want to post anything to spaces until it's completion, but this news was so exciting that I couldn't resist!

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 and I'm currently downloading it. The download started a couple of days ago, just after release, and it's going to complete in a couple of hours from now! (Notice how fast the connection is!)

I'm pretty sure this release rocks, and since it has Go Live! license, I'm planning to build many production-class applications on top of it!

It's a new day,

It's a new VS!

I'm certain this release is gonna be HUGE!!!

MS DevDiv Guys,

YOU ROCK!

Microsoft Visual Studio Codename "Orcas"

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:37:02 GMT

I just installed the latest community technical preview of Microsoft's upcoming development environment (currently codenamed "Orcas," much likely to become Visual Studio 2007). This CTP is officially called January 2007 CTP but about dialog among other things show that it should have been December 2006 CTP. Anyway, I'm putting a couple of screenshots of it here. I'll definitely post about it later, but since I've downloaded it a few hours ago at the university, I haven't had the chance to play with it. It's just installed on my PC.
So, more on it later!

Microsoft: Bug potential, our problem!

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 13:22:58 GMT

At first, let me mention that Maryam has interviewed Sanaz. It was a great interview. But this is not the main thing I'm talking about. After watching the interview, I tried to post a comment on Maryam's blog. I wrote the comment and clicked the "Add" button; few seconds later, a red bar appeared with a sentence similar to 'an error occurred while communicating to the server', so I clicked the "Add" button once again. The red bar reappeared. I thought for a second and revisited the blogpost page. Two comments where there. I understand that this is a small bug but these kind of bugs totally make me angry. I really love Microsoft products. The big problem is when you're using only Microsoft products (Windows, Internet Explorer 7) to visit a Microsoft Web page, you can't tell that the problem is not related to Microsoft!

Dear Microsoft devs, please be a little more careful.

Microsoft Windows Codename "Longhorn" Build 4008

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:21:11 GMT

Today, I was organizing stuff in my Yahoo! account and I suddenly noticed something in one of my Yahoo! Photos albums: an screenshot of my desktop running build 4008 of Microsoft Windows Codename "Longhorn"! The thing that eventually became Windows Vista. I never forget the happy times I had with such an unreliable but full of ideas operating system. I'll post the screenshot here!

[image uploaded to Yahoo! Photos on 29-Apr-2003!]

PS. I haven't blogged for a relatively long time. And, wait...

Happy New Year!

Windows Vista RTM

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 19:59:27 GMT

After waiting for nearly 5 years, today, finally, I finished downloading Windows Vista RTM (Build 6000). A nasty nasty bug still exists in Windows Media Player 11 for Windows Vista, an ugly yellow-blue strip constantly flashes at the middle of videos. I don't know what happens! Since it doesn't happen on other systems that I've seen (they have WDDM drivers), I think it's related to the graphics accelerator's driver.
Anyway, I'm so happy. And I'm starting to wait for Windows Vienna!

Microsoft Zune

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 19:26:35 GMT

November is the month of releases, and we have the next release in a couple of minutes!

Microsoft Zune is coming soon! Throw out iPods now!

THE LONG LONG STORY, FINALLY OVER: Windows Vista has RTM'd!

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 19:59:24 GMT

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Windows Vista has been released to manufacturing

I can't believe it! It's finally over! I've lived 5 years with the long story of Longhorn and Vista!

I can't talk more, I'm so happy!

Just THANK YOU GUYS! THANKS FOR BUILDING SUCH A GREAT PRODUCT!

.NET Framework 3.0 shipped!

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:54:49 GMT

Wow! November is a great month, great products are being finalized!

Exactly one year ago, on the same day, the lovely Visual Studio 2005 had been launched, and today, we have the new version of .NET Framework available for download via the Microsoft Web site.

I'm getting ready for Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation and Windows CardSpace!

Golden Release of the 2007 Microsoft Office System

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:27:39 GMT

Congrats to those who work on Office, those who contribute to Office, those who use Office and those who simply love Microsoft Office!

I just heard the announcement of the completion of Microsoft Office code! Yes, 2007 Microsoft Office System has just hit the finish line! I'm so happy to see that such a great product is finally completed. I want to thank Microsoft Office team for the great project management, so much improvement of product and release of such a high quality product. Probably everyone at Microsoft should learn from Office team (and of course the Visual Studio team!).

Once more, congratulations!
I'm waiting to finally, finally, for the release to manufacturing of the ever beloved version of Windows; Windows Vista (version 6.0.6000!) I can't believe this long waiting is going to finally be over! Although this release of Windows is not the thing I expected from Microsoft, I've always loved it.

Microsoft guys, you rock!

Microsoft strategy, rewritten!

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 08:33:50 GMT

Wow!

I have to mention a couple of things:

1. Microsoft has changed Windows Vista licensing terms, so we'll be no more limited to one time transfer.

2. Microsoft to Promote Linux

I can't do anything except to shout "WOW!"

Linux guys, we're no more enemies! (Well, some may disagree, but over time they'll have to agree with me!)

Once more, just Microsoft!

Five years with Windows XP

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 07:07:14 GMT

Yeah, today is October 25, 2006. I'll never forget the day Microsoft launched Windows XP. It was exactly 5 years ago. And now, in a few days, we have the ever loved Windows Vista. Yes, Windows Vista is going in RTM stage, well, without WinFS, without many other great features, without extensively using .NET, and with strict licensing terms. But I've always loved Windows Vista, and I still love it!

Shame on you, Microsoft

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:20:04 GMT

I'm a Microsoft fan. I've always fought for Windows against other operating systems. But this time, the story is totally different. I've just heard that Microsoft has restricted the number of times you can transfer your Windows license to just once. Hey guys, this is MY COPY and I WANT TO DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT. WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? YOU ARE ALIVE BECAUSE OF USERS, WHO ARE YOU TO RESTRICT THEM? Shame on you, Microsoft! I didn't like this thing at all. You're doing this just when everyone expects more flexibility and more openness. I've never liked Richard Stallman's ideology, because I believe his ideology makes even music more valuable than software which I don't like at all. But this is not a good thing at all. I hate restriction. Even if I never transfer my license, I don't like to be under restriction. Microsoft, just a note: "don't do things that your always supporters (unfortunately, the count of them is decreasing) go after other things"!

PS. I've never liked to blame Microsoft like this, but I'm really angry, mostly because I believe these strategies lead to more enemies and people are more likely to go for other things which are constantly improving, most notably Ubuntu.

[update: I prefer to provide official document: http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Windows%20Vista_Ultimate_English_9d10381d-6fa8-47c7-83b0-c53f722371fa.pdf, important parts are copied here:

b. License Model. The software is licensed on a per copy per device basis.

a. Licensed Device. You may install one copy of the software on the licensed device. You may

use the software on up to two processors on that device at one time. Except as provided in the

Storage and Network Use (Ultimate edition) sections below, you may not use the software on any

other device.

a. Software Other than Windows Anytime Upgrade. The first user of the software may

reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device

becomes the “licensed device.”

b. Windows Anytime Upgrade Software. The first user of the software may reassign the

license to another device one time, but only if the license terms of the software you upgraded

from allows reassignment.

a. Software Other Than Windows Anytime Upgrade. The first user of the software may make

a one time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party. The first user

must uninstall the software before transferring it separately from the device. The first user may

not retain any copies.]

New Orcas CTP is out

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 11:32:31 GMT

Today, Kiarash told me about the new Community Technology Preview of Microsoft Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas". It's available as a Virtual PC image file. Go get it!

Vista 5728 is out

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:40:21 GMT

It's been a few hours since Windows Vista build 5728 is out! It's a build from RTM branch (5700 branch).

I should go sleep. because I should go to the university tomorrow morning.

Charles Simonyi is going to space too!

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 11:22:09 GMT

Wow! While reading news about Anousheh's launch, I found out that Charles Simonyi has the same plan! For those who don't know, I should introduce him: One of early Microsoft guys who has created the so called "Hungarian Notation" (preceding the name of variables with their type, such as iVar for an integer variable). He was the main guy in building Word and Office. Happy journey Charles!

New Vista, new home page, new Live.com!

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 23:29:44 GMT

Just after the release of Windows Vista RC1 (which just like IE7RC1 has a new home page by default, Live.com), Live.com had an update. What you'll notice at first glance is it much more responsiveness and some little changes in the UI but according to live.com blog, they've done more significant changes. It seems that we're going to have good times with new releases of Microsoft products. Guys at MS are starting to ship products! I can't wait to see more. By the way, I've heard that a new release of Windows Live Messenger (version 8.1) is in beta stage.

Thanks a lot, Microsoft!

PS. Where's the first release of the REAL Orcas (Not these extensions to VS2005)? I'd love to makes my hands dirty with it! C'mon, what are guys at developer devision doing?

Quote

live.com update

Last night we released an update. The key focus of this release has been quality and addressing our top customer pain points, not new features... we've fixed hundreds of bugs, so it's not reasonable to enumerate all of them :) Here are some of the most significant improvements:

Responsiveness

We have done a lot of work around responsiveness; interacting with the app, clicking on different pages, rss rendering, navigating away from live.com and memory leaks have all been significantly improved.

User flow changes

Let's start with some definitions:

Anonymous - users that have never signed in

Identified - users that have signed in at least once, but are currently not signed in

Anonymous users are now prompted to sign in after a certain number of changes enabling them to roam their settings.

For identified users, we now better protect user data from unauthorized changes. Users can view their data without signing in, but will need to sign in to make changes.

Search page changes

First, the page is much faster. The search box is wider and we're including messaging for key new features. You'll also notice that the Jewel (the drop down in the upper left hand corner) is now available on this page.

New gadgets

Our partner teams have built some very cool new gadgets that are now included in our directory. Some include:

- Windows Live Expo: look for listings on Expo using this gadget (click here to add it)

- Team scores & news by FOX: keep track of your favorite team scores and news (click here to add it)

- Auto listings: looking for car? find it using the MSN Auto listings gadget (click here to add it)

Direct URLs to personalized page and search

This has been a popular request by many users. Now you can type beta.search.live.com (soon search.live.com) and go directly to the search page. Similiarly you can type my.live.com and home.live.com and go directly to the personalized page.

Accessibility

live.com is now accessible including screen reader mode which can be enabled via the 'Options' dialog.

Other

many many other bug fixes and under hood changes to improve robustness and reliability.

Enjoy! let us know what you think.

The first build of Longhorn Server I'm going to have!

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 22:09:17 GMT

Just several minutes before I write this, Kiarash announced the completion of Microsoft Windows Server Code Name Longhorn (build 5600, 32 bit) download process. This is going to be the first build of Longhorn Server I'll ever see! He immediately sent me the initial setup screenshot. And I'm sharing it here immediately for those who are new to it (Just like me!).

I think he was too excited about Longhorn Server as he didn't use Alt+PrintScreen! He probably took a screenshot of the whole screen and cropped it!

This one is taken correctly! since it's not really a window. And oh, you're a good guy! You do help people and you also want to help make Windows installation better!

Thanks Kiarash for the screenshots!

Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 Screenshots

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:20:24 GMT

Windows Vista RC1 rocks! It's really a great operating system. Fast, responsive, easy to use. It had thrown just 1 exception so far. No driver problems. But there are application incompatibilities around. There are several problems though, no IP over IEEE1394 driver. And my laptop's graphics device is Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 which doesn't have a WDDM driver so no Aero Glass for me. I don't want to talk more about it. I'm going to write a comprehensive review about the evolution of Longhorn (since M4, build 4008, the first build I had) to Vista RC1 (build 5600) so I'll not write more about it now. I posted some screenshots in my space. Be sure to check them out if you haven't installed RC1 yet!

A couple of screenshots for first impression: (more)

Download finally complete

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 12:05:20 GMT

Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 (Build 5600) for x86 architecture download is finally complete. I didn't download it via BitTorrent because I was going to take forever. I downloaded via other channels. It took about 36 hours to download it with my connection but fortunately, the painful download was successful! Wow! The setup is complete! bye

Downloading Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 via BitTorrent

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:52:34 GMT

I started downloading Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 via BitTorrent, because I can't wait anymore for HTTP/FTP download since I'm neither a Microsoft employee, not I'm a TechNet or MSDN subscriber. So I have only 2 choices. Wait, wait, wait... I HATE WAITING! I've been waiting for Windows Vista since 2003 (at least). The second choice is just going with slow BitTorrent download over a 128/32Kbps (at most) connection. The problem is even the second choice requires waiting. I want Vista. :( :( :(

Since, my brain is single-threaded (hardware management has its own processing subsystem!), I can't think about any other solutions (The single thread is just thinking about Vista!). If you have any idea, please inform me as soon as possible. Thanks!

Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 Rocks!

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 22:03:36 GMT

I'm among those geeks that install the latest pre-release products on their main machines and don't fear data loss and other problems they may cause!

Yesterday, I downloaded Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 (Once more, only available to genuine Windows owners) I had installed beta 1 when it became available, but I found, among cool things, some nasty bugs in media library and performance problems and I couldn't stand it more than a few days! I switched back to 10! But this one is so cool that I'll completely switch to!

Actually WMP is one of the MS products that I've never participated in giving direct feedback (Most of the time, I contribute to Visual Studio!) but I've used WMP betas. I remember the WMP10 beta had an ugly visual bug in it.

I would like to thank Windows Media Player team, and Digital Media Division as a whole that does the great job of delivering the best digital media experience to users! I should also thank Amir Majidimehr, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Consumer Media Technology Group and former vice president of Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. He did a phenomenal job in building Windows Media formats and leading the whole Windows Media division. I believe without him, Windows Media player would've never been at this place. Thanks Mr. Majidimehr, I wish you all the best! [update: According to Robert Scoble's post, he should be the leader of the most EVIL team at Microsoft he manages the Digital Rights Management which restricts us to copy media illegally!]

Compilation Complete!

Sat, 02 Sep 2006 08:24:56 GMT

I've just heard that the compilation process of Microsoft Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 is complete! Wow! I can't wait anymore for RC1. It should be available for download soon.

Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express Beta Released

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 18:54:41 GMT

On August 14, Microsoft promised to make the initial beta release of Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express available on August 30. Now it's here. I'm currently downloading it. Unfortunately, the initial beta release targets only Microsoft Windows platform, and it's still not possible to write games for XBOX 360. Let's see what's new!

It requires DirectX Software Development Kit August 2006 that I'm also downloading, but it's a huge file (about 500MB)

It also requires Microsoft Visual C# Express Edition, it will not work on Visual Studio professional edition (However, it can be installed side-by-side with VS). Hopefully, I have this one already installed on my Windows XP. In the initial release, it requires Windows XP SP2. While XNA will support Windows Vista in the final release, currently it's not a supported platform.

Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 23:36:49 GMT

Microsoft XNA Framework is a game development platform which is going to be the future managed game development platform for Windows Vista and XBOX 360. Microsoft has announced that "Microsoft XNA Game Studio Express" will be out on August 30. I'm waiting until tomorrow to get my hands dirty with it! Until then, I'm going to sleep a little! Last night, I sleeped on 5:00AM because I was recovering the SQL Server database of a Web site which belongs to one of my friends.

Waiting to see what XNA Framework will offer!

By the way, what is the most important feature you would like to see included in the new gaming platform? I'm curious!

Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 or Life without ClearType!

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 09:26:31 GMT

As everyone knows, I do check Microsoft's home page at regular intervals many times a day (actually, it was my home page before live.com came out), and most of the time it remains unchanged! But I'll never become disappointed. Yesterday, in one of these periodic checks, I was completely surprised, yes, Windows Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 was out! I couldn't wait a second to have it. (It requires genuine Windows validation, hopefully, you guys who use pirated Windows can't install it! Well, hopefully!) I immediately started the setup. You don't have to uninstall the old version (unlike earlier betas) to install IE7RC1. It automatically uninstalled beta 3 and installed itself. RC1 seems to be much more stable (I haven't had encountered any unhandled exception yet!). It's much better when clicking links (In earlier betas, I occasionally clicked a link, the page couldn't be displayed -of course, without sending request!- and when clicking the refresh button, everything was fine.)

But there is a strange thing that I immediately realized when I came to my space in Windows Live Spaces. The text showed up without ClearType. I even double checked that the "Always use ClearType for HTML" is checked. The strange thing is that other pages work well [update: I could find other pages that IE7RC1 shows without ClearType, but they are relatively few, and I noticed a page that just a part of it was rendered without ClearType]. I couldn't figure out why this happens :( I'm a ClearType fan, and I turn it on even when I use CRT displays. Working without ClearType on LCD displays is really a bad experience.

[update: The ClearType problem was solved when I changed the space's theme to a simple one. When I change the theme back to the original one, the problem still arises. I don't know what's wrong with IE!]

I hope this problem goes away in the next build.

Windows Live and Yahoo! Integration

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 08:49:51 GMT

I'm so happy!

I was waiting since October announcement for the day in which I can throw out the buggy, unpleasing Yahoo! messenger and use Windows Live Messenger to IM my Yahoo! friends. Now this dream has come true! I can use Windows Live Messenger to do so. Check out Windows Live Ideas to try out the new service. My only complaint is that the user on the other side is required to have Yahoo! Messenger 8 with Voice to use this service. And I still have to use Yahoo! messenger until I make all of my friends switch to the latest version

Thanks Microsoft, Windows Live, and in particular, Windows Live Messenger team!

I got Windows Vista Beta 2

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 08:56:26 GMT

Yesterday evening, I ran to my friend's home and got a Windows Vista DVD from him. He has a fast connection (about 80KB/sec) [update: OK, I agree, 80KB/sec can not be considered fast, but everything is relative! If you were me, -and had an unreliable 128Kbps connection which costs about $50/mo as the only choice after dial-up, you'll agree that 80KB/s is fast!] and I tell him to download things. It's wonderful! I'll post a complete review somewhere as soon as I have time.

[update: As you may know, I've been with "Longhorn" since the M4 build. (And yes, it had sidebar, and it has the Plex visual style! I think it's build number was 4008) After that I had Longhorn 4074 build (The gray build, the sidebar is still there!), Windows Vista Beta 1 (The first build officially named Windows Vista! and I think the first public build) and Windows Vista February CTP. Even though I love Microsoft, I have many complaints regarding Microsoft's strategy in Windows Vista. When I first heard about Longhorn, I was so happy about the features. It was a completely brand-new OS. In fact, Microsoft changed the feature set completely several times, which is not the way that MSF suggests (Microsoft, do you make us do something that you don't do?!)! I agree that it was just a prototype and even not a public beta. But Microsoft should understand one thing. If it's a prototype, don't allow it to be published. I've seen photo's taken at Apple's conference that addressed MS as a photocopier (This also shows us that Apple doesn't have any technical content to publish and they should just make fun of MS; Hey Steve Jobs, don't you have any work to do!) In fact this is Apple that photocopied the early features of Longhorn, the innovative concepts of it and created a complete copy of it (Mac OS X Tiger (WinFS => Spotlight, Sidebar => Dashboard, ...)) If Microsoft guys can't completely implement features before the deadline, at least they shouldn't disclose it to allow competitors take advantage of. Windows Vista Beta 2 is a huge leap forward from February CTP, but it still a failure in satisfying me even as a beta product. (How stable Whidbey beta 1 was?) I'm pretty sure that RC1 will be my favorite OS and allows me to completely migrate to it. Let's wait and see what happens]

Microsoft drops PDF support!

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 09:32:02 GMT

I'm so happy. I hate PDF and I heard that Microsoft removes PDF support from Office 2007! Adobe wants to charge Microsoft for PDF format! What have you thought with yourself Adobe? You think it's a great format. I don't think it's more than a piece of ... ! Microsoft, get going with XPS and forget these garbage formats!

New features of SQL Server 2005

Sat, 22 Apr 2006 06:47:38 GMT

I was exploring my hard disk and suddenly I've seen the article about SQL Server 2005 that I had written when it was going to be released, but I had not published it. Since there is no "DevCT" around yet I'm going to copy and paste in to my blog. While it's too late, it may still be useful for my friends that stick to SQL Server 2000!
Please don't forget to comment
By the way, who says blog is not a good place to put articles?!!!

Overview of new features in Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005

Mehrdad Afshari, MCP in SQL Server 2000

Introduction

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is the new database development and management platform from Microsoft; but it’s much more than a classic relational database engine. It’s a modern database management system that supports high-end scripting technologies and programmability features by integration with Microsoft .NET. It introduces many new features than its predecessors. In this article, I want to talk about some of its new features.

1. Microsoft .NET Programmability

As a .NET developer, I’ve found Microsoft .NET programmability features in SQL Server 2005, the most interesting new feature. Before SQL Server 2005, we had only two ways to program SQL Server; Transact-SQL which lacks extensive features, and Extended Stored Procedures which you could write using C/C++ (By the way, there is a third way in which you can build COM components and use it methods in SQL Server, which has many disadvantages). Programming extended stored procedures is not easy at all; and since it runs in the address space of SQL Server, a malfunctioning extended stored procedure can corrupt SQL Server’s memory. You can now develop stored procedures using any programming language that generates .NET assemblies. The advantage of programming managed procedures is that not only it’s far easier to program than extended stored procedures; it uses a very interesting .NET feature. It uses the concept of “Application Domains” to run the managed stored procedure. While SQL Server runs the procedure in the SQL Server process for improved performance (SQL Server itself is now a CLR host), it runs it in a separate application domain. With this strategy, the procedure’s malfunctioning (which is not likely to happen due to automatic memory management in .NET) can not corrupt SQL Server. Thanks to .NET, SQL Server can simply unload the application domain running the malfunctioning procedure and stay in healthy state! You can also create managed user defined types, functions and aggregate functions! You’re no longer limited to a few aggregate functions provided by SQL Server.

2. Row Versioning Support

Earlier versions of SQL Server used only locking to maintain database concurrency. Now, SQL Server can also use row versioning to maintain database concurrency. There is a new transaction isolation level called “Snapshot” which is based on row versioning. To use it, you should set the “ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION” database option to ON. Also, there is a new implementation of READ COMMITTED isolation level using row versioning. To use it, you should set “READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT” database option to ON. To maintain row versions, SQL Server uses the “tempdb” database. Therefore, special consideration for the performance of tempdb database is critical for successful database implementation in SQL Server 2005.

3. SQL Server Service Broker

One of the brand-new features of SQL Server that makes it much more than a database engine is the “Service Broker”. Service Broker is a component that turns SQL Server into a messaging application! Service Broker allows you to execute a stored procedure asynchronously using a message queue. The great advantage is you don’t have to code anything manually. Just create a service using the CREATE SERVICE statement and SQL Server will figure out other things for you!

4. Enhancements in Transact-SQL Language

Transact-SQL is the primary language in SQL Server. SQL Server 2005 introduces many enhancements in T-SQL. Some of them are listed below.

1. TOP Clause Enhancements

SQL Server 2000 supported TOP clause only in select statements and with a constant count parameter. It was not possible to use a T-SQL variable as the row count parameter of a TOP clause. Now, SQL Server allows T-SQL variables to be used as the row count parameter; and more! SQL Server also supports TOP clause in DELETE, UPDATE and INSERT statements.

2. Ranking and Windowing Functions

Before SQL Server 2005, if we were interested in having a row number column in the result set, we were supposed to write a relatively low performance query; and if we liked to window or partition data, the situation became worse. In such situations, SQL Server 2005 allows you to write a simple and more efficient query using new ranking and windowing functions.

3. Database and Server Triggers

Most database engines only allow us to write triggers for DML (Data Manipulation Language) statements on tables only. Some of them allow us to create triggers on views too. SQL Server 2005 even goes further and introduces new types of triggers to the world of database engines: DDL triggers. The ability to write trigger in response to a database or server event is a new powerful feature of SQL Server that makes a big distinction between it and other database management systems.

4. PIVOT and UNPIVOT Clauses

In generating reports, you frequently want to pivot a result set. In older versions of SQL Server you had to do it manually in database engine or in your client application. Doing such a thing in server required a large, relatively inefficient query. Now you can achieve the same thing easily using the PIVOT clause in a SELECT statement. There is also an UNPIVOT clause that does the reverse thing.

5. Common Table Expressions (CTE)

In SQL Server 2005, you can have a temporary named result set known as a common table expression (CTE). CTE is very useful in writing recursive queries which were supposed to be very hard and inefficient to implement.

6. New security related statements

Previously, we used some stored procedures to manipulate logins, roles and application roles in a database. Now we have new T-SQL statements like CREATE LOGIN which allows us to manipulate these objects in a cleaner and more consistent way.

5. Database Snapshots

In some cases, we are interested in having a snapshot of a database at some point of time. Previously we had to create a backup of our database which can be time and space consuming, especially for large databases. Currently, we have a new feature to create a snapshot of our database and make it available as a new read-only database; this feature does not copy data immediately from main database; instead it will create a small file called a “sparse file”. When a page in the original database is changed for the first time after the snapshot creation, the original version of that page is copied to the sparse file. This is called a copy-on-write operation. The copied page will not be copied again on subsequent changes. A database snapshot can help us in some cases that we need to restore database from a backup. For example, we issue a DROP TABLE statement on a database after creating a snapshot of it, and we want to restore it back. If we had a database backup, we had to restore the full backup, not just a table. With database snapshot, however, we can easily copy the table from the database snapshot to the original database without affecting other objects.

6. Replication Enhancements

Previously, we could replicate data between a SQL Server and an Oracle instance by configuring a SQL Server as publisher and Oracle as subscriber but not vice-versa. SQL Server 2005 also supports subscribing to an Oracle database engine configured as replication publisher.

SQL Server 2005 supports replication over HTTP channels secured by SSL. Previously, we had to establish a VPN to replicate data over the Internet which is considered a tedious task.

7. XML Support

1. XML Data Type

In SQL Server 2005, XML support has been improved in many ways. There is a new data type designed specifically to keep XML documents. We can use SQL Server XQuery engine to query XML data. There are special indexes called XML indexes to perform XML queries faster and more efficiently.

2. SOAP Endpoints

SQL Server 2005 has built-in ability to publish XML Web services, which allows you to execute a stored procedure remotely as if it were an XML Web service method. This feature can be used alone or with integration with IIS. Using SOAP endpoints, clients that do not support TDS (Tabular Data Stream) –which is SQL Server’s native data format-, as well as clients behind firewalls can connect to SQL Server. Using SOAP endpoints has also the advantage that you can use well-established and standard HTTP security mechanisms (like SSL) and network services (such as proxy servers).

8. Client Enhancements

1. Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS)

Before SQL Server 2005, we could not have more than one open result set active on a connection. Now we can have multiple active result sets on a single connection by simply setting the MultipleActiveResultSets property in connection string to True. Using this feature especially makes sense in development of applications that take advantage of asynchronous queries.

2. Query Notifications

One of the great features of SQL Server 2005 is query notifications. Client applications can request SQL Server to notify them about data change events they are interested in.

3. Shared Memory Protocol

SQL Server 2005 offers a new communication protocol to the client applications that run locally. It’s called the shared memory protocol that offers improved performance by bypassing the TCP/IP or named pipes overhead. Even it doesn’t have the cost of inter-process data marshalling.

9. Security

1. No remote connections by default

By default, SQL Server 2005 only supports local connections. The TCP/IP protocol is disabled by default. This is due to Microsoft’s “secure by default” strategy. To allow remote connections you should manually enable TCP/IP protocol in the “SQL Server Configuration Manager” utility.

2. Cryptography services

SQL Server 2005 includes extensive cryptography services. It’s possible to encrypt or decrypt data directly in database engine using only simple Transact-SQL statements!

10. Development and Administration Features

1. SQL Server Management Studio

SQL Server 2000 had two primary management utilities: Query Analyzer and Enterprise Manager. Microsoft has merged these tools and built a new great tool on top of the Visual Studio 2005’s solid foundation. The SQL Server Management Studio is a great tool for managing and building applications for SQL Server. It offers much prettier appearance and more streamlined user interface to manage SQL Server database engines, analysis services, and other related things. The good thing is a less featureful but still powerful version of Management Studio is coming free along the Express edition of SQL Server 2005.

2. Dedicated Administrator Connection

SQL Server 2005 provides a feature to administrators that they can use to connect locally to an instance of SQL Server using a specific port and perform administrative tasks in very special situations, such as a SQL Server instance under heavy load which can not accept any more normal connections.

Conclusion

Obviously, SQL Server 2005 is a very powerful product that revolutionized the world of relational database management systems. The features mentioned in this article are just a small subset of new things that SQL Server 2005 offers. SQL Server team has done a fantastic job making the new SQL Server a really phenomenal product. SQL Server 2005 is the first major upgrade to SQL Server 2000; while SQL Server 2000 is still a great product (even after 5 years), SQL Server 2005 has much more things to offer than 2000. I would like to thank everyone who worked hard to make SQL Server such a great product! Thank you!

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 20:11:34 GMT

Hi,

I just heard a news from one of my friends that I thought I should blog about it:

Microsoft released the SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1!

It seems to have full support for database mirroring, one of the great SQL Server features which has been implemented for testing in the first release.

By the way, since I'll post many things about Microsoft technologies and products, I created a specific category for this.

Happy database implementation!

Mehrdad

New Microsoft Certifications

Mon, 20 Feb 2006 12:43:47 GMT

Hi,

I just heard that the first wave of new generation of certifications is released:

• Exam 70-528: TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 - Web-based Client Development

• Exam 70-431: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 - Implementation and Maintenance

• Exam 70-441: PRO: Designing Database Solutions by Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Also Microsoft is offering the second shot offer once again if you take your exam before June 30, 2006.

The upgrade beta exams for MCPD: Enterprise Application Developer (upgrade from MCSD.NET) and MCPD: Windows Developer (upgrade from MCAD) and MCPD: Web Developer (upgrade from MCAD) are also available for MCSD.NETs and MCADs respectively for free until March 12, 2006.

Unfortunately, as I live in Iran, I can't go and take MCPD exams . I should go to somewhere else to take exams as I did for MCSD certification, but currently I can't do this.

Go and take new exams,

Mehrdad

Challenging Windows Security!

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 15:54:28 GMT

Hi,

I usually put my phone in vibration mode at night. Last night it was in vibration too. Suddenly at 2:46 AM I heard the vibration sound for just a second. I saw that my closest friend (Kiarash Akhlaghi) called. I slept. Today, when I came back from school, I called him to see what did he want to say. He told me he didn't want to call; he had sent a message (This should be in the "Why I hate my country category!": In Iran the communication infrastructure is so awful that many SMS messages don't reach the receipent, an experimental solution to this that just sometimes works is to make the receipent's phone ring after sending a message! Although the message didn't come to me after he rang me!). He wanted to tell me a news:

iDefense, a division of VeriSign awards $10000 to anyone who finds a security problem in Windows operating system that makes Microsoft publish a security bulletin!

See how Microsoft products can be secure that a third party corporation awards people when they find bugs in the Windows operating system! I have a question from those who love open source world: Does anyone do such a thing for Linux or such terrible operating systems?! (www.microsoft.com/getthefacts)

Thanks Microsoft for producing such wonderful products!

Mehrdad