Direct Booking does not successfully book a resource in Outlook 2010

The Microsoft support article entitled Direct Booking does not successfully book a resource in Outlook 2010 discusses how to solve a problem booking resources in Outlook 2010. The following PowerShell one-liner will fix the problem:

New-ItemProperty "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Options\Calendar" EnableDirectBooking -Value 1 -PropertyType DWORD

Installing printers using PowerShell

Our developer team has a wiki page that describes very clearly how to use the Windows 7 UI to install network printers into developer machines. The document is well written, with all steps accompanied by screenshots. However, it is tricky and boring to follow, so I thought there must be a simpler way to add printers using PowerShell - and it turns out there is.

$net = New-Object -Com WScript.Network
$net.AddWindowsPrinterConnection('\\server\printer')

Different ways of installing Google Chrome on Windows

Google Chrome can be installed as:

• A standard MSI for all users on the machine.
• A standalone per-user install.
• A web-based per-user install.

Removing old versions of Chrome using PowerShell

Google Chrome leaves older versions of itself on disk, which can cause useful vulnerability scanners such as the fantastic Secunia PSI to report Chrome as vulnerable although the older version is not in use.

To automatically remove older versions from the current user, run the following PowerShell one-liner.

dir ~\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application | ? { $_ -match '\d+\.\d+\.\d+\.\d+' } | % { @{ File=$_; Version=(New-Object System.Version $_.Name) } } | sort -Descending Version | select -Skip 1 | % { del -fo -r $_.File.PSPath }

Versioning .NET assemblies

Providing meaningful version numbers to PE binaries (.EXEs and .DLLs) is a very good way to make sure that you can always find the correct source code that was used to build. Note that this should be used in conjunction with a symbol server, which is so trivially easy to set up in TFS 2010 that everyone should be doing it.

This is my currently recommended way for using the various versions available in .NET assemblies. Note that it is subject to change as new and better ideas come along!

The AssemblyVersion.cs file

Set up a single C# file that you will include in all your assemblies that need to be given the same version number. I currently give all the DLLs in a single releasable product the same version number so future releases of an assembly will have a new version number, regardless of whether any of the code in that DLL has actually changed. I find this the simplest way to ensure consistency of the product through the full SDLC. In this C# file, which could be called AssemblyVersion.cs, your continuous integration (CI) server will generate something like the following code:

using System.Reflection;

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.2.23456")]
[assembly: AssemblyInformationalVersion("1.0.1beta1 ($/Project/Main;223456)")]

You will need to put this file in a common location and include it as a linked file in each of your projects. This common file replaces the versioning information that is usually in AssemblyInfo.cs, so you will need to remove those attributes from each project that you include AssemblyVersion.cs in.

AssemblyVersion.cs in development and production

I like to make version number obviously different when building on developer machines, so I typically set the version to 0.0.0.0 or - in case Visual Studio Code Analysis complains - 0.0.0.1. The following AssemblyVersion.cs file would be checked into source control:

using System.Reflection;

[assembly: AssemblyVersion("0.0.0.0")]
[assembly: AssemblyInformationalVersion("development")]

And the following PowerShell script would be launched from within TFS, Jenkins, Cruise Control, or your CI server of choice to modify AssemblyVersion.cs.

param(
        [parameter(mandatory=$true)][int]$MajorVersion,
        [parameter(mandatory=$true)][int]$MinorVersion,
        [parameter(mandatory=$true)][int]$SourceRevision,
        [parameter(mandatory=$true)][string]$SourceBranch
)

#validate source parameters
if($SourceRevision -lt 0 -or $SourceRevision -gt 6553565535) {
    throw "Invalid SourceRevision."
}
if($MajorVersion -lt 0 -or $MajorVersion -gt 65535 -or $MinorVersion -lt 0 -or $MinorVersion -gt 65535) {
    throw "Invalid major / minor version."
}

$scriptFolder = Split-Path -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition -Parent
$versionFile = resolve-path (join-path $scriptFolder 'AssemblyVersion.cs') # script must be in the same folder as AssemblyVersion.cs

if(-not (test-path $versionFile)) {
    throw "Unable to find version file."
}

#calculate Build/Revision version component
if($SourceRevision -le 65535) {
    $rev1 = 0
    $rev2 = $SourceRevision
} 
else {
    $verStr = $SourceRevision.ToString()
    $rev2 = [int][string]::Join('', $verStr[-5..-1])
    if($rev2 -gt 65535) {
        $rev2 = [int][string]::Join('', $verStr[-4..-1])
    } 
    $rev1 = [int]$verStr.SubString(0, $verStr.length - $rev2.ToString().length)
}

$assemblyVersion = "$MajorVersion.$MinorVersion.$rev1.$rev2"
$humanVersion = $SourceBranch + ':' + $SourceRevision

Write-Host "Setting assembly version to $assemblyVersion and human readable version to '$humanVersion'."

(type $versionFile) -replace '0.0.0.0',$assemblyVersion -replace 'development',$humanVersion | Out-File -Encoding UTF8 $versionFile

AssemblyVersionAttribute

The Assembly version will by default also be set as the AssemblyFileVersion if the latter is not explicitly specified. One important piece of information I want to include is the revision number of the source code that was used to make the build. Each component in the AssemblyVersion is limited to 65535 (16 bit). Since it won't take long for 65535 revisions to be committed when checking in early and often, I spill over into the build number in a human readable fashion, so version 1.0 built from revision 223456 would be 1.0.2.23456.

AssemblyInformationalVersionAttribute

The AssemblyInformationalVersion attribute is a very useful free text string that will appear in the Product Version field when looking at the details of the DLL in Windows Explorer. I sometimes use a semantic version as the first part of that string, and always include an unambiguous reference to the source code that was used to build it i.e. branch and revision details for whatever source control system is in use.

Listing all keyboard shortcuts in Visual Studio 2010

The NuGet package manager for Visual Studio comes with a hidden gem - a PowerShell console called Package Manager Console. This console not only allows developers to install and configure NuGet packages, but also has a useful variable called $dte, which is the Visual Studio automation COM object.

To demonstrate the usefulness of this feature, I thought it would be interesting to list all the keyboard shortcuts that I currently had bound. To do this, I ran the following PowerShell one-liner:

$dte.Commands | ? { $_.Bindings.length -ne 0 -and $_.name.length -ne 0 } | sort Name | select Name, Bindings | % { $b = $_.Name; $_.Bindings | % { $_ -match '(.*)::(.*)' | out-null; new-object psobject -Property @{ Name = $b; Context = $Matches[1]; Key = $Matches[2]} } } | sort Context, Name, Key | select Context, Name, Key | ft -AutoSize

Of course, if you want to grab this information and format it for better printing, just replace the last step in the pipeline (ft -AutoSize) with ConvertTo-Csv | clip. This will copy all your shortcuts into the clipboard in CSV format, and you can paste them into Excel for better formatting and printing.

Requiring administrative access in Visual Studio 2010 C++ projects

In previous versions of Visual Studio, making any changes to the application manifest file for a C++ application required you to code one up manually, removing the advantages of the built-in manifest generation tool. However, in Visual Studio 2010, common tasks such as setting the UAC execution level are now baked into the project settings.

Below is a screenshot of how to set the execution level (requestedExecutionLevel) or UI protection (uiAccess) settings in the manifest using the project settings.

Name files by last write date

I have a Samsung HMX-H200BP/XSA camcorder, which I am really happy with. However, according to exiftool, it does not seem to stamp the record date and time into the movie metadata. Instead, it relies on the last write date.

The PowerShell command below will bulk rename all the MP4 files in the current folder so that they are named by the date and time taken i.e. the last write date.

dir hdv_*.mp4 | % { ren $_.Name ($_.LastWriteTime.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd HH-mm') + '.mp4') }

Undocumented PowerShell 2 Tail Functionality

One feature that I have often thought was missing from PowerShell is the equivalent to the *nix tail functionality, which will display lines as they are added to a log file. I have used the PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX) Get-FileTail cmdlet, but that can be frustrating because it is not available on all the computers I use, so I wanted to find a built-in equivalent.

It turns out that there is an undocumented built-in tail function. Use the Get-Content (alias = gc) cmdlet with the undocumented -Wait parameter. Apparently, it has performance issues with large files, so you may still need to carry a copy of PSCX around with you on a USB stick, but this should suffice for most scenarios.

Below is the documentation for Get-Content for PowerShell 2.0, with no mention of the -Wait parameter.

NAME
    Get-Content
    
SYNOPSIS
    Gets the content of the item at the specified location.
    
    
SYNTAX
    Get-Content [-LiteralPath]  [-Credential ] [-Exclude ] [-Filter ] [-Force
    ] [-Include ] [-ReadCount ] [-TotalCount ] [-UseTransaction] []
    
    Get-Content [-Path]  [-Credential ] [-Exclude ] [-Filter ] [-Force] [-Inc
    lude ] [-ReadCount ] [-TotalCount ] [-UseTransaction] []
    
    
DESCRIPTION
    The Get-Content cmdlet gets the content of the item at the location specified by the path, such as the text in a fi
    le. It reads the content one line at a time and returns an object for each line.
    

PARAMETERS
    -Credential 
        Specifies a user account that has permission to perform this action. The default is the current user. 
        
        Type a user name, such as "User01" or "Domain01\User01", or enter a PSCredential object, such as one generated 
        by the Get-Credential cmdlet. If you type a user name, you will be prompted for a password.
        
        This parameter is not supported by any providers that are installed with Windows PowerShell.
        
    -Exclude 
        Omits the specified items. The value of this parameter qualifies the Path parameter. Enter a path element or pa
        ttern, such as "*.txt". Wildcards are permitted.
        
    -Filter 
        Specifies a filter in the provider's format or language. The value of this parameter qualifies the Path paramet
        er. The syntax of the filter, including the use of wildcards, depends on the provider. Filters are more efficie
        nt than other parameters, because the provider applies them when retrieving the objects, rather than having Win
        dows PowerShell filter the objects after they are retrieved.
        
    -Force []
        Overrides restrictions that prevent the command from succeeding, just so the changes do not compromise security
        . For example, Force will override the read-only attribute or create directories to complete a file path, but i
        t will not attempt to change file permissions.
        
    -Include 
        Retrieves only the specified items. The value of this parameter qualifies the Path parameter. Enter a path elem
        ent or pattern, such as "*.txt". Wildcards are permitted.
        
    -LiteralPath 
        Specifies the path to an item. Unlike Path, the value of LiteralPath is used exactly as it is typed. No charact
        ers are interpreted as wildcards. If the path includes escape characters, enclose it in single quotation marks.
         Single quotation marks tell Windows PowerShell not to interpret any characters as escape sequences.
        
    -Path 
        Specifies the path to an item. Get-Content retrieves the content of the item. Wildcards are permitted. The para
        meter name ("Path" or "FilePath") is optional.
        
    -ReadCount 
        Specifies how many lines of content are sent through the pipeline at a time. The default value is 1. A value of
         0 (zero) sends all of the content at one time. 
        
        This parameter does not change the content displayed, but it does affect the time it takes to display the conte
        nt. As the value of ReadCount increases, the time it takes to return the first line increases, but the total ti
        me for the operation decreases. This can make a perceptible difference in very large items.
        
    -TotalCount 
        Specifies how many lines of content are retrieved. The default is -1 (all lines).
        
    -UseTransaction []
        Includes the command in the active transaction. This parameter is valid only when a transaction is in progress.
         For more information, see about_Transactions.
        
    
        This cmdlet supports the common parameters: Verbose, Debug,
        ErrorAction, ErrorVariable, WarningAction, WarningVariable,
        OutBuffer and OutVariable. For more information, type,
        "get-help about_commonparameters".
    
    -------------------------- EXAMPLE 1 --------------------------
    
    C:\PS>get-content -Path C:\Chapters\chapter1.txt
    
    Description
    -----------
    This command displays the content of the Chapter1.txt file on the console. It uses the Path parameter to specify th
    e name of the item. Get-Content actually passes the content down the pipeline, but because there are no other pipel
    ine elements, the content is formatted and displayed on the console.
    
    
    
    
    -------------------------- EXAMPLE 2 --------------------------
    
    C:\PS>get-content c:\Logs\Log060912.txt -totalcount 50 | set-content sample.txt
    
    Description
    -----------
    This command gets the first 50 lines of the Log060912.txt file and stores them in the sample.txt file. The command 
    uses the Get-Content cmdlet to get the text in the file. (The name of Path parameter, which is optional, is omitted
    .) The TotalCount parameter limits the retrieval to the first 50 lines. The pipeline operator (|) sends the result 
    to Set-Content, which places it in the sample.txt file.
    
    
    
    
    -------------------------- EXAMPLE 3 --------------------------
    
    C:\PS>(get-content cmdlets.txt -totalcount 5)[-1]
    
    Description
    -----------
    This command gets the fifth line of the Cmdlets.txt text file. It uses the TotalCount parameter to get the first fi
    ve lines and then uses array notation to get the last line (indicated by "-1") of the resulting set.
    
    
    
    
REMARKS
    To see the examples, type: "get-help Get-Content -examples".
    For more information, type: "get-help Get-Content -detailed".
    For technical information, type: "get-help Get-Content -full".