While you are working with IIS installing and uninstalling web applications you might run into this issue on AppFabric Dashboard: Another example is this error message: There are two steps necessary to get a cleaned AppFabric Dashboard. Delete old virtual paths Old virtual paths might remain in %windir%\system32\inetsrv\config\ApplicationHost.config. To get rid of these crappy virtual paths switch to command line tool and use the following script: C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv>appcmd.exe list vdir VDIR "Default Web Site/" (physicalPath:%SystemDrive%\inetpub\wwwroot) VDIR "Default Web Site/Service/App1/" (physicalPath:C:\Service\App1) VDIR "Default Web Site/Service/App2" (physicalPath:C:\Service\App2) VDIR "Team Foundation Server/" (physicalPath:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Server 12.0\Tools\Templates) VDIR "Team Foundation Server/tfs/" (physicalPath:C:\Program Files\Microsoft Team Foundation Serve...

In my daily work I am always stumbling on two annoying features in Visual Studio, and I think it could be improved easily. Here is what I am complaining about. WCF Test Client WCF Test Client might be a nice tiny tool for small WCF tests, especially when you are testing smaller scenarios or when you are starting to learn how to implement web services with .NET. But it can be very annoying when you are working on more advanced stuff and your are testing with your local IIS. WCF Test Client always(!) starts automatically when you press F5 for debugging and your opened .svc.cs file has the focus: When I have configured local IIS is the target for debugging, then I expect my application will start with local IIS and not with WCF Test Client. Always. Here is my first urgent request: Please give me an option to disable WCF Test Client completely! Update 03.03.2014: Workaround for WCF Test Client Issue Select project file -> Right click -> Properties -> Web -> Sele...

To get started with ETW I highly recommend this pluralsight course by Kathleen Dollard. It gives you a really good introduction, including background and some examples. It will be much harder to succeed just by googling or reading books. I will not spoil anything from this course. Here I will just give a few more hints and annotations to show where I struggled with ETW, to help you not doing the same mistakes. After finishing the pluralsight course I was really eager to get going with my own implementation but I ran into some annoying trapped doors. Nuget package for EventSource The current nuget package for EventSource (Vers. 1.0.16) will create the manifest file automatically (it validates your implementation upfront, only when validation succeeds manifest file will be created. Otherwise there will be no updated or no new manifest file in your bin folder!). Therefore there is no need to create it by hand. wevtutil.exe Running wevtutil.exe without parameters to see its help,...

In my opinion it is really hard to get started with Windows Server AppFabric. There is good material, but it is shuffled around in different sources. A good intro can you find here: this all-in-one intro by Scott Hanslmann  this caching intro by Wade Wegener  Additional helpful resources are Microsoft's Introduction Part 1 and Microsoft's Introduction Part 2 by Jon Flanders  Pluralsight's Hosting Fundamentals   Pluralsight's Caching Introduction   Microsoft's Caching Documentation   Good books are Microsoft Windows Server AppFabric Cookbook   and Pro Windows Server: AppFabric Please also watch out for software updates, currently there is CU 4 . To keep yourself updated subscribe to Distributed Services News Feed . Updated my list on 11.03.2014 with one more Download the Windows Server AppFabric Samples

Windows Server AppFabric is a great enhancement for IIS and its caching capabilities are great for .NET applications. But currently there is a very annoying bug regarding its monitoring UI, so called “Dashboard”. Especially for me as a non WF guy (I am actually just working with WCF) it was really hard to figure it out. Hence, many thanks to Gianluca from Distributed Services at Microsoft! Windows Server AppFabric Dashboard does not work on Windows Server 2012 / Windows 8. You will receive this error message "Unable to cast object of type 'System.Management.Automation.PSCustomObject' to type 'Microsoft.ApplicationServer.Management.Data.GroupByInfo'." This error will cause that you cannot see any request statistics neither WF nor for WCF: The reason is, I quote Microsoft here: "[...] the root cause is a powershell script embedded in AF code that returns different results when ran on Windows 2012. This script is about statistics for Idle & per...

My feeling is that two-step verification is still not very common, although a lot of services are listing this feature. Here you will find them: Facebook Google Microsoft Twitter Evernote Dropbox Apple (currently just available in U.S., UK, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand)  Helpful apps are e.g. Google Authenticator or Authy . Updated my list on 27.02.2014 with some more services Buffer Yahoo! Apple added, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain Updated my list on 10.03.2014 with one more Hootsuite Updated my list on 26.03.2014 tumblr Updated my list on 02.04.2014 APP.NET LinkedIn

Castro is still pretty fresh in the iOS App Store (currently version 1.0.6, first release came in late 2013) but has already beaten the competitors in my opinion. Here is why: Castro is winning by simplicity. Focusing on features and using using the fresh iOS 7 design. Great simple feed search engine (worked perfect for my favorite German podcasts). Push notification works. It is stable. Once again, I like the simple intuitive design.   Other settled podcast player in iOS market help Castro to succeed by not fixing their issues. I am coming from Instacast and this is why I think it does not fit anymore: When I open Instacast by sliding push messages on my lock screen it crashes nearly up to 50%. Up Next Feature does not work for me. Lists are useless, everything works just through Up Next. Sync feature with its OS X app is a mess, similar to Apple’s Podcast app. This is why Apple’s Podcast app does not work either: Sync with other iOS and OS X devices is a mes...