This post is a more of a reminder for myself as I have to do this every few months and I end up googleing it every time, because I don't remember what exactly needs to be done.

The problem:

How to get your hands on the DLL (as a file) that is stored in GAC.

The solution:

When you go to Windows\assembly directory you will see something like the screen below.

The above Shel extenstion is great for quickly checking which versions of GACed DLLs are installed on the machine.

The problem arises when you want to copy the DLL itself (as a file). In this shell extension (Assembly Cache Viewer (SHFusion.dll) you're not allowed to do that. You may wonder why would you want to copy those DLLs in the first place. Well, for example when you want to install the DLL on the machine and the only copy of the DLL you've got is in GAC.

Ok, enough foreplay. Here's the actual solution:

For first time on each machine add key:

DisableCacheViewer in

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion

Set the DWORD value to 1.

Now if you go to the assembly directory you'll see the following screen.

For all future usage, simply toggle the registry value.

NOTE: There are other ways of doing this, such as disabling SHFusion via command line, but I find this one the easiest.

Disclaimer: Nobody paid me for this post. I am not endorsed by anyone in any way. Although, I do accept donations :D.

 

 

I’ve been using tools from xSQL for a few months now. I have to say, I love those guys.

 

There are the three products I use the most.

 

xSQL Data Compare, which is a typical application for synchronizing data between databases. The cool part is that they have a free edition for smaller databases. It’s great when you’re just starting a project and there not many tables, sps… and yet, you still have to continuously keep data synchronized between versions.

 

The other tool that I absolutely adore is xSQL Script Executor. All it does is runs numerous SQL scripts as batch. If you use VSS for storing all your tables, sps and relationship scripts you will really appreciate this tool. Thanks to it you can rebuild whole database in a matter of seconds. Furthermore, I believe this is the only tool like that on the market (meaning, google didn’t find anything that was even similar J ).

 

Finally, a truly innovative approach to working with DBs: xSQL Object Search. It allows you to search for objects (tables, sps and such) based on their name. This tool is invaluable when you get an existing project that uses behemoth of a database, and you have to locate some related objects (say, you want to fix some functionality of the system).

 

On the final note, did I mention that xSQL Script Executor and xSQL Object Search are totally free!!!

If you’re a Vista laptop owner you definitely want this application installed on your machine.

It’s a Vista Battery Saver !

 

 

 

 

What it does, is when you switch from A/C to batter it will disable Sidebar and Aero (all of this is of course configurable). I can squeeze out over 40 minutes more of battery time with this little application. Also, this is and open source project written in C#. Here’s the code. It’s a very interesting read.

Hope it helps.

I’ve just finished writing a small application for myself. It’s called Application Launcher and yes, it does launch applications…..

 

There were two reasons for writing this small app:

1. It takes forever to start my system since there are over 10 applications that are invoked at startup. What is ever more annoying all of them start at the same time! This leads to 1-2 minutes after system starts when I cannot use the system since everything is stating up.
2. I needed a sort of like a Startup utility for my USB key. When I put it in, I want to be able to start my email client, calendar, and RSS reader with least amount of clicks and of course I want to avoid the ‘Startup freeze’.

 

Welcome the application launcher.

 

Features:

• Launches applications (duh)
• After each launch there is a configurable delay before the next application launches
• When closing the application it tries to close all the started applications.
• When needed it uses relative path (which is great when you’re using USB key)
• If you want, you can have various configurations of what applications are starting even in one directory, simply rename the application and for each name it will have different configuration.

 

Here is the exe (ApplicationLauncher.zip (74.87 KB)) and the source code (ApplicationLauncher - source.zip (181.58 KB)) of the application. It has been written in .NET v2.0.

 

 

 

Nowadays everybody has a USB key. They are also getting really big right now. I don't see people with keys smaller then 512 MB. What else? Oh yeah, most people have a computer at work and at home. True? True.

So what's the problem here, well let's say you're at work and want to check your personal email, or add a personal calendar entry. Well, there are couple ways to do that.

-> Log into your computer from work (has anyone ever done it?) -> Use new web apps (like google's calendar and such), of course then you agree that google will harness all the information you provide there to sell it later to advertisers.... -> Use Portable Apps! (yup, this is the right way to go....)

So what are those Portable Apps?

Well, they are basically applications we all know and love, that are slightly modified; so that they don't need a hard drive to run (they run from the USB key). When I say that they don't need a hard drive to run, I mean, that they don't store anything in AppData, registry and so on.

So now, if you want to check your personal email without the need to go to the website, plug in your USB key, and run Thunderbird.

Maybe the email application is not the best example, but think about some diagnostics applications. Furthermore, wouldn’t it just be nice, to plug in your USB stick to a machine, and have Skype, MSN and such already installed, with all the history. Beauty.

Currently available in the Portable Apps Suite we have a whole list of goodies: web browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus, sudoku game, backup utility.

So go on. Download the application and start converting old applications into Portable Applications.
Go to: Portable Apps

Being on the subject Apple recently patented (of course it’s not out yet) a patent, that you will be able to plug a portable device (I’m thinking iPod) into any Mac and it will instantly become your computer: your applications, documents, wallpaper. Everything….