Last September, I asked why aren't Windows file copies restartable ? It's a huge productivity killer - and very frustrating - when you're copying a large file from a network share or over a VPN and the copy fails when it was 80% complete. At that point, your file copy has just failed. Try again and hope...

Visual Studio 2008 has been out for over a week. I've upgraded three machines (two Vista, one XP) from Beta 2 to RTM, then upgraded a couple of projects. I've also been watching blog posts and listening in at the Twitter water-cooler to hear about other developers' experiences, problems, and recommendations...

One of the coolest things I saw at MIX07 was on a Linux computer. Miguel was showing us something on his laptop when all of a sudden the desktop turned into a cube and started spinning around. Miguel told us it was Compiz , which has been available for X Window System (GNOME, KDE) for over a year now...

Patrick Altman added his plugins to the Cropper Plugins bundle out on CodePlex . His SendToFlickr plugin has become an essential part of my blogging routine - I grab portions of the screen directly to Flickr, then add them to posts with the Flickr4Writer WindowsLiveWriter plugin . It only takes a few...

Jeff Atwood recently asked " Is your database under version control? " Well, is it? It's not as easy as it sounds. Until now, there wasn't a good, scriptable solution to the problem. I'll run through a few of the options I've looked at in the past, but let's jump to to the punchline: The Database Publishing...

I just posted about adding PowerShell syntax support to Notepad++ by adding a User Defined Language definition. It's pretty simple; here's a quick overview of how I did it. For a more in depth overview of the User Defined Language system, check out the Notepad++ docs . Like most of these editors...

I saw a request on the Notepad++ forums today to add PowerShell syntax support. Notepad++ has a pretty good extension system for adding user defined languages, so I went ahead and put on together. You can grab it from the Notepad++ download area (zip download). Installation information is in the included...

Here are a few batch files I whipped up to help our team keep development databases in sync with our Subversion repository. These handle detach / reattach from the database, so running the checkout script has us the latest version in the repository in twenty seconds. These scripts rely on 7-zip to compress...

Update 10/23/06 for the IE7 Release version Summary I just released a new version of the IE7 Standalone Launcher . Due to changes in this beta release of IE7, a simple batch file alone won't cut it. You can grab a zip package (two batch files, two reg files) on the new tools.veloc-it.com site. Finally...

Phil sent me a link to a Motorola / Skype Bluetooth Headset that automatically stops your music when calls come in. We both use Skype a lot - I hardly touch the phone anymore - and it sure sounded convenient to be able to switch from music or podcasts to a phone call, then automatically switch back when...