Recompress zip-files (PowerShell)
A PowerShell script that recursively re-compresses ZIP files with 7-Zip at maximum settings (Deflate64), reporting how much space each file saved.
19 articles in the notebook
Tips.
ASP.Net 5 Areas
Visual Studio 2015 has no GUI support for Areas in ASP.Net 5 yet. The workaround is simple: create the folder structure manually and add an area route in Startup.cs — shown here.
Optimizing RDP for casual use
A revisit of my 2011 RDP guide, updated for RDP 8.x: what to tweak on client and server for less bandwidth, higher throughput and adaptive transfers — the short story and the dirty details.
Windows 2012 Storage Spaces not mounting after reinstall
After reinstalling Windows Server 2012 R2 your Storage Spaces don't show up — not even in Computer Management. The fix: authorize the server for read-write and re-attach the virtual disks, via GUI or PowerShell.
IE favorites, NTFS symbolic links and Dropbox
NTFS symlinks are well-known to *nix users and unknown to most Windows users. Combine them with Dropbox and your IE favorites (or any folder) silently sync between machines.
Optimizing RDP for casual use (Windows 7 SP1, RemoteFX)
I have worked over RDP since around 2000, and bandwidth is usually the bottleneck. Concrete tweaks for RDP on Windows 7 SP1 with RemoteFX to squeeze a smoother desktop out of a slow line.
Should I defrag my SSD?
"Yes!" and "No, never!" — both answers are right. SSDs don't care about fragmented reads, but NTFS does interesting things when free space gets fragmented. What actually matters, and what to do about it.
.Net GUI thread crossing
"Cross-thread operation not valid" explained from the ground up: what the GUI thread actually does, why only it may touch your controls, and how to cross over correctly in WinForms and WPF.
Disable Windows 7 Sound Card Jack Sensing
Windows kept detecting my X-Fi's plugs in and out at random, so the speakers did too. The fix is a registry key: EnableDynamicDevices = 0. Took me days to find, hope it saves you the trouble.
Enabling Windows Firewall on Windows 2003 Active Directory Domain Controller
Active Directory lets NTDS, NTFrs and NetLogon pick random ports, which makes firewalling a domain controller a pain. Here is how to pin them to fixed ports and finally enable the firewall.
Tip: Upgrading VS2008 projects to VS2010
The VS2010 conversion wizard is defect: it tries to rewrite your code when only the solution and project files actually need changing. Convert, then keep only the new .sln and .csproj — step-by-step guide inside.
BitLocker startup error 0x26000070
BitLocker kept demanding the recovery key at boot — first because the docking station snuck new devices into the BIOS boot order, then error 0x26000070 after I tampered with the BCD. Both fixes documented here.
Optimizing virtual machines
We run a development VM per customer at work, so making them fast matters. A long list of concrete tweaks for Virtual PC, VirtualBox and VMware — from disk layout to services worth disabling.
Antivirus performance test
A good comparative performance test of antivirus products — some make a simple file copy take twice as long. Maybe disabling the antivirus now and then isn't such a bad idea.
Making ASP.Net recompile go faster
One web.config attribute — optimizeCompilations="true" — makes ASP.Net recompile only what actually changed. Less waiting between test runs; links to the patches needed for older Windows versions.
Tip: Always use ASP.Net State Server during development
Using ASP.Net State Server during development forces everything you put in Session to be serializable — which means switching to State Server or SQL sessions in production won't blow up in your face later.
Tip: Never use IP addresses
Hardcoded IP addresses are never actually required — DNS names or a hosts-file entry always work, cost nothing extra, and save you from hunting down every stale reference when a server moves.
.Net tools to use: log4net
First in a small series on .NET tools worth using: log4net, Apache's free logging framework. One line at the top of each class, a standard XML section in web.config, and you have proper leveled logging.
.Net tools to use: Nini
.NET tools to use, part two: Nini, an uncommonly powerful configuration library. Reads web.config, .ini and .xml config with type conversion and default values in a couple of lines.