Developer Support
Advocacy and Innovation
Latest posts
AzureCon 2015 – What’s New in Azure for Developers
Pete Fuenfhausen, Senior ADM, shares highlights from AzureCon 2015 and what it means for developers. Microsoft held its first virtual Azure Conference, AzureCon 2015, on September 29, 2015, and what an event it was! From Scott Guthrie's kickoff keynote to deep technical sessions to customer and partner stories from companies as varied as Docker and Mesosphere to NASCAR and Alaska Airlines, AzureCon was a potpourri of Azure goodness for nearly anyone with an interest in the modern cloud. You can view it all any time you want, just point your browser to: Some highlights from AzureCon 2015 for deve...
Hololens Development Edition and Upcoming Roadshows (US)
Microsoft HoloLens devices will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2016. Apply now to help develop the future of holographic computing. Hololens Development Edition (Apply Here) Prerequisites Experience Microsoft HoloLens at in-person events If you are a curious developer, be sure to check out first-hand demos of Microsoft HoloLens and meet a member of the development team to learn more about creating holographic experiences. There are several in-person events scheduled in the upcoming months. Space is limited, so sign up now. Premier Support for Developers...
Team Foundation Server 2015 upgrade planning
The Microsoft Application Lifecycle Management blog is a great resource to help you stay informed of current announcements and guidance material. If you are in the process of planning your move to Team Foundation Server 2015, be sure and reach out to your ADM who can help with training, guidance, and support throughout the effort to ensure a seamless deployment. Here’s a helpful checklist from our friends on the ALM blog to help you get started: You can find more information here: Upgrade your deployment to the latest version of TFS. Premier Support for Developers provides ...
Install Android SDKs using Powershell
The Android SDK Manager requires a GUI and tedious searching for the SDKs that you want to install. There is a command line android.bat script that lets you install and uninstall these without the GUI but it's based on an ordinal index for each SDK so you have to run the script once, note the index(es) of the SDKs you want to install, then run another command. This of course can be automated. I have done so with this Powershell script.
Great Article on Understanding DevOps
Cross posted by Premier Developer Consultant Geoff Gray. We wanted to cross-post an article from Linked-In that does a great job of talking about what DevOps means. The author explains how DevOps is often misunderstood and explains a few key points that companies need to start understanding if they want their IT departments to start becoming successful. As a senior Test Consultant with more than 20 years in the business, I can assure you that the points made here are extremely relevant and (in my humble opinion) spot on. Read the article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-devops-venky-chennapragada
Why should diversity matter to Developers?
David S. Lipien, a Director in Microsoft’s Premier Services, collaborated with Stephen Barnes and Katie Konow to highlight the value of team diversity in application development. They are all part of the Enterprise Services Business, enabling clients to leverage IT for business success in the cloud and on the ground. Do you operate in or lead a team of ME? In Software Development, Delivery Leaders and Individual Contributors are under more pressure than ever to innovate, drive change, deliver on time, on budget and follow compliance standards – all while obsessing over stakeholders and clients. C...
You simply have to watch the Microsoft Windows 10 devices event
This week marked one of the most amazing demonstrations of Microsoft’s vision for Windows 10 and connected devices. There has simply never been a more exciting time to be a developer. Watch the event here!
Dissecting the Visual Studio Load Test Results Database (Part 1–Intro to the Schema)
Premier Developer Consultant Geoff Gray comes to us this week with the first post in a new series from his awesome ‘Testing the Testing Strategy’ blog. This series will focus on the structure of the Visual Studio Load Test results database and how you can derive insight on the performance of your application from this valuable data source. Sean Lumley wrote a good blog post years ago about the actual schema for the Visual Studio Load Test results database, but even with that post, navigating the DB and figuring out how things tie together can be confusing at the least, and sometimes almost impossible to fi...
Tasks are (still) not threads and async is not parallel
Premier Developer consultant Ben Williams recently had the honor of having one of his blog posts reposted to Wintellect’s Dev Center as a guest post. Here’s a blurb from that post, be sure to head over to Ben’s blog to check out the full technical deep-dive and download his sample WPF application. I talk to a lot of developers who are either new to .NET or are moving from an older version to the newer platform and tools. As such I’m always trying to think of new ways to describe the nature of Tasks vs Threads and async vs parallel. Modern .NET development is steeped in the async/await model and async/await...