How to get Google+ Invitation

"Google+", a new social network from Google:

Google Launches New Social Network “Google+”

Currently its invitation only. So you need an invitation to join Google+. At the moment Google has disabled sending invitations but here is how you can get it officially from Google:

Open following link in your browser:

Google+ Invitation

Fill your first name and email ID and click on Submit button.

That's it. Wait for some time and you'll receive an invitation email in your Inbox from Google.

[Firefox 4 Beta version Update]Firefox 4 beta 2 available to download

Mozilla released the Firefox 4 beta 2  yesterday.There are 1000’s of fixes made by Mozilla in this version.You can now download a second version of the beta of Firefox 4 from the Mozilla website.
The first beta version of Firefox 4 was launched earlier this month, offering built-in support for HD Video and a new Add-Ons Manager.
The new beta version, which is available in 23 languages, adds some new features including 'App Tabs'.
”App Tabs” are tabs for websites you visit regularly and keep open for tasks such as emailing or social networking. Rather than waste tabs on these commonly-accessed sites, you now have smaller App Tabs at the top left-hand side of the browser for quick and easy access.

The third beta of Firefox 4 is expected to land on 6 August.

Features still to be slotted into the browser include “Tab Candy”, which Mozilla hopes will help surfers better organise their tabs providing a separate window where you can lay out your tabs like playing cards and sort them into groups.

The full Firefox 4 beta 2 release notes can be viewed here and the latest build is available for download .

Download Link:

[Firefox Version Update]Download Firefox 3.6.8

Mozilla has updated its web browser Firefox to version 3.6.8. This new version fixes several stability and security issues.

You can use "Help -> Check for Updates" option to update your browser or it'll automatically notify you about the update very soon.

You can download it using following direct download links:

Download Link (Windows)

Download Link (Mac OSX)

Download Link (Linux)

Release Notes

Firefox 3.6.7 Released, Download Now[Latest Version Update]

Mozilla Firefox has updated its web browser Firefox to version 3.6.7. This new version fixes several stability and security issues.

You can use "Help -> Check for Updates" option to update your browser or it'll automatically notify you about the update very soon.

What’s New in Firefox 3.6.7:

Firefox 3.6.7 fixes the following issues found in previous versions of Firefox 3.6:

• Fixed several security issues.
• Fixed several stability issues.

You can download it using following direct download links:

Download Link (Windows)

Download Link (Mac OSX)

Download Link (Linux)

Release Notes

Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta Released

 

Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta Released.This Beta release represents the near final version of the tools for building applications and games for Windows Phone 7.

It’s time to get serious about building the actual apps and games for Windows Phone 7 that consumers will be looking for starting this holiday season.

One of the things I really want to do is just take a step back and congratulate the entire Windows Phone 7 team.  They have done an amazing job of delivering code month after month on our path to releasing later this year.  Check out this timeline:

• Feb 2010 – Windows Phone 7 was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
• Mar 2010 – The application platform was unveiled at MIX 10 in Las Vegas.  With that, we had the first CTP of the Windows Phone Developer Tools.
• Apr 2010 – The tools received an updated, and the CTP Refresh shipped.
• Jun 2010 – Windows Phone Marketplace details unveiled at TechEd 2010.  Get the Windows Phone 7 Application Certification Requirements.
• July 2010 – Beta release of Windows Phone Developer Tools, and the preview developer phones start shipping to ISVs

 

Here’s a link to the release notes for the beta, but I wanted to talk about a few top level items:

• Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone – Blend is now integrated completely into the Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta.
• Developer Registration Utility – Now you can unlock you Windows Phone 7 device for development purposes.
• XAP Deployment Tool – if you want to deploy XAP files directly to an unlocked device, now you can.
• The Windows Phone 7 API – we’re getting close to completion.  Many namespaces that were previously distributed over several different DLLs have now been consolidated into one.  In addition, there have been realignments and changes in several other namespaces as well.  Push Notifications, Accelerometer and App Bar APIs have all been updated.
• Additional Controls – There are some additional controls coming in the next few weeks (i.e. Panorama and Pivot) which didn’t make the beta release.  They are coming soon.
• Control Templates – Silverlight for Windows Phone control templates have been updated to match evolutions in the overall OS.

Get Trained – Windows Phone 7 Jump Start

Windows Phone 7 JumpStart is a FREE virtual live class for developers interested in developing applications and games for Windows Phone 7.  We’re providing this in partnership with our MS Learning team. The course is organized into four virtual instructor-led sessions that are of 3-hour duration.  They will be presented by forthcoming MS Press authors and MVP's, Andy Wigley and Rob Miles. It will provide developers a jump start for developing Windows Phone 7 applications.  The Labs will be completed offline with office hours access to the instructors.

The dates for these course sessions are:

• July 20 – 8am: Session One: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Phone and Silverlight
• July 20 – 1pm: Session Two: Programming Game Applications with XNA
• July 22 – 8am: Session Three:  Programming Applications with Silverlight
• July 22 – 1pm: Session Four:  Review and Wrap Up

Go register for the course now!

Devices for Developers

We made a promise last month that we would be getting pre-production preview devices to developers this month. We are keeping that promise. In fact, the very first preview devices were awarded last week to a pair of pretty amazing high-school students who won the Windows Phone “Rockstar” contest as part of the Imagine Cup. When we saw what they had done, we knew we had to get them preview phones.

Starting next Monday (July 19th), we start shipping the devices more broadly. Sadly, we will not be able to meet all of that demand.  We are planning to set up deploy and test labs in major cities to make it a little easier for everyone who wants to have access to a preview phone to have it. More on that soon.

Lastly, to get your name in the queue, assuming you haven’t already sent in an email, you can now send an email to wp7req@microsoft.com.  A field representative will get back to you as soon as possible. Again, these are preview phones, so they are limited in quantity. When you send email, please include the following information:

• Your name
• Company name, if applicable
• What city/state/country you are located in
• App(s) you plan on developing (category and brief description)

Download:

Get the Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta.

How to use IIS Developer Express from Visual Studio?

IIS developer express is a new web server from Microsoft for ASP.NET developers for non production use. The new developer edition of IIS comes with a lot of cool features from IIS and Visual Studio's built-in web server combined in to one software, making it a better tool for developers.
As of now, the IIS developer express is not a separate download and there is no separate installer. It need to be installed through the WebMatrix software install. WebMatrix can be installed using an installer called "Web Platform Installer", which can be used to install a bunch of web development tools from Microsoft and third parties.

On 7 July 2010, Microsoft announced Web PI 3 along with WebMatrix beta. WebMatrix is an integrated web application development tool which include a developer version of IIS called 'IIS Developer Express'.
The Web PI 3 installer can install a large number of web application development tools, including:

WebMatrix (which includes IIS Developer Express)

SQL Server Compact

SEO tools

Third party web application tools like DotNetNuke, Umbraco, WordPress and Joomla!

SQL Server Express
and many more.

The components included in Web PI installer are dynamically loaded from Microsoft web services, so this list can change and add more stuff any time.
You can download WebMatrix Beta installer (Web PI 3 beta) from here: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/download/

As of now, there is no Visual Studio integration for IIS Express. If you like to use IIS Developer Express from Visual Studio, your options are limited to:
1. Open WebMatrix, start IIS Express and then run your Visual Studio website against the site hosted in IIS Express.
2. Launch IIS Express from command prompt.

Manage IIS Express from system tray:
There is an IIS Express System Tray utiltiy (iisexpresstray.exe) which places an icon in the system tray and allow you to manage the sites hosted in IIS Express.
This utility allows you to view the list of all sites hosted in IIS Express and you can start/stop the sites from here.
When IIS developer express is started, by default the system tray utility also starts, unless you disable it explicitly.
One of the problems I found with this system tray utility is, it always starts in the bottom right corner of my screen, with only a small portion of it in the visible area of the screen. Rest of the screen is hidden outside the visible boundary of the screen. I had no ways to drag this screen to a visible area. The drag option simply does not work since the screen does not have a draggable title bar. My only option was to expand the size of the window so that most part of the content is visible.

How to run IIS developer express using command prompt(CMD)

IIS developer express is just launched and is currently under beta. In this article, I will cover how to launch IIS developer express from command prompt and how to use various command line parameters.

IIS Express executable and location

The primary executable file for IIS Express is "iisexpress.exe", located under "C:\Program Files\Microsoft WebMatrix". Notice that iisexpress is placed under the folder of WebMatrix.

How to launch IIS Developer Express from Command Prompt?

In order to launch IIS Express from command prompt, open command prompt. Navigate to the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft WebMatrix.
You can type "iisexpress.exe" from command prompt to launch the default site.
If you like to open a specifi site, you can use the command line switch "/site".
Example:

iisexpress /site:mywindowsclub

This will start the site mywindowsclub in the port specified for it. You may not see the site opening in the browser. When you launch the iisexpress from command prompt, it will start the iisexpress process and also will launch the iis express system tray icon.


If you like to open a website from any folder in your location, you can use the switches /path and /port to specify the path and port number respectively.


Example:

iisexpress /path:c:/myprojects/mywindowsclub/  /port:9010

You may experience a problem here. If you like to start a site from a folder, you should have configured the default document for iisexpress.


Another option is, enable directory browsing. To enable this, run the following command:

appcmd set config /section:system.webServer/directoryBrowse /enabled:true

How to solve invalid product key Windows 7 activation error

Windows 7 is the error less OS in the history of Microsoft.Some times we get an error while activating Windows 7. The error may say that the key entered by you is invalid. This article explains how to solve this kind of problem.After installing Windows 7, we have to activate Windows 7 after certain time period. Many of you might have got this kind of error ( Activation error of invalid key). For activating Windows 7, you need to type the product key.
During the activation of Windows 7, some times you may receive an error 0xC004F061. The meaning of this error is that you are using a product key for an upgrade version of Windows 7 and there is no previous version of Windows on your computer when Windows 7 was installed. So in order to install the upgrade version of Windows 7, you must install Windows Vista or Windows XP before installing the Windows 7. You may also receive an error indicating that you have entered an invalid key. To solve these kind of problems, please try the following solutions:

Type correct license key: First of all make sure that you are typing the correct license key. You can check for the product key sticker on your computer or it may be inside the Windows 7 installation package.

Is the product key intended for the version of Windows 7 that you are trying to activate?: You should make sure that the product key that you are trying to use is intended for the version of Windows 7 that you are trying to activate. For example. a product key for Windows 7 Basic cannot activate a Windows Ultimate product.

Make sure that the product key is valid for a full install of Windows 7. If it is only for an upgrade version of Windows 7, then you should have previous versions of Windows installed in your computer.

If you do not have previous versions of Windows installed in your computer, then try to get a valid product key and installation DVD for a full install of Windows 7.

If the product key for an upgrade version of Windows 7, then you install either Windows Vista or Windows XP and then upgrade with Windows 7 for which the product key will work.
If you still continue to get the error message, then you can leave the license box empty and continue with installation to finish the set up of Windows 7. But you will have only 30 days period to activate Windows 7.

Microsoft released Windows Server “Aurora” features in Video

Microsoft announced the  new small business server, code name “Aurora” .Microsoft have just released a 14 minute video walkthrough of some of the  server platform’s key features.

Specifically, the video demonstrates the ease with which user accounts can be managed, an outline of the storage pool features of Aurora, as well as information on client and server backup. It’s clear that there’s little requirement for deep server expertise to get up and running with Aurora.

The features demonstrated will be familiar to Windows Home Server owners, although the build demonstrated does have a number of improvements yet to be seen in Windows Home Server “Vail” Preview, including new graphics for the storage pool.

At this point, Aurora’s cloud integration – perhaps the most interesting new feature – is yet to be demonstrated – check out the video below.