Hyper-V

Hyper-V is hypervisor based virtualization system for 32/64 bit systems. It allows multiple operating systems to run concurrently on single host. Hyper-V is shipped with Microsoft Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 can be installed as Core or Full. The Core installation have only command prompt available. It does not have GUI installed on server. Both the installations can host Virtual Machines. These machines can be maintained using System Center (SCVMM) OR Hyper-V Manager. To work with Hyper-V Manager, one needs to have Windows 7 OR Windows Server 2008 running. Hyper-V Manager is component of OS 6.0 version. To use SCVMM client there should be System Center server installed.

More details about Hyper-V can be found at following location:
- Virtualization with Hyper-V
- System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Windows Error Reporting (WER)

WER captures application failure/crash data from users. This data can be used during development for testing performance and reliability of application on windows platform. It helps during beta testing to get early feedback on errors. It can be used to get crash/hang information of critical issues affecting users after release of application. The applications can be developed to capture the crash information and can be developed with capability to recover/restart. The applications can be registered with Windows Error Reporting Service. Following is the URL to register the company: https://winqual.microsoft.com/SignUp

More details can be found here.

A new kind of Java Script library

JQuery is an open-source JavaScript library that greatly simplifies the task of HTML development. Click for more information on JQuery.

Microsoft demonstrated JQuery's integration with IntelliSense in the planned Visual Studio 2010. Microsoft expects that it will reduce the workload for Developers building web pages using its ASP.NET, AJAX.

Google plugs ‘high-risk’ holes in Chrome browser

Google has shipped a high-priority Chrome browser patch. The patch provide fix for cross-site scripting and data theft attacks.

More details are at following URL:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2443

Invalid Update Control CTF File error during AVG update

I was trying to update AVG antivirus definitions. During update I started getting errors saying Invalid Update Control CTF File. Because of this error I could not update AVG.

The solution for this is very simple. I have deleted the .ctf files from AVG folder and could able to update normally.

You need to navigate to following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avg8\update\download\
You will find at least two .ctf files in this folder. You can rename those OR can remove. After rename/remove, try to update the AVG definitions again. It should work properly.

Happy browsing…

List of FREE windows software available to download

Today while surfing I came across a fantastic blog by Blake Handler. He has compiled a list of free windows software downloads from Microsoft. This is a fantastic list. I appreciate his work.

Following is the link to the blog:
Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft

Spiral Model

The spiral model was defined in 1988 by Barry Boehm. It is often used for large projects. Following are the steps for spiral model:

- Define requirements in details
- Create preliminary design
- Create prototype from design
- Evaluate prototype
- Define requirements for next prototype
- Create design for second prototype
- Create second prototype
- And so on...

One can define spiral model in four phases as below
1. Determine objectives
2. Identify and resolve issues/risks
3. Development and test
4. Plan next iteration