How many times we are in such a condition when our battery is going to die and we have to do some important calls or something else? If we poll for it, the count will be high. If you are a developer and building apps targeting Universal Windows Platform (aka. UWP), you might want to integrate the battery APIs already exposed.

 

This post will cover about the API today and we will learn how more about the API with proper demonstration. Continue to read more on this topic and don’t forget to check other posts on the same topic.

Published by on under CodeProject | Tips

If you are a developer building apps for Universal Windows Platform, you might have noticed that, at the time of debugging there are some strings of digit getting display just under the title bar of the application. This is called as Frame Rate Counter, which displays frame rate and per frame CPU usage.

 

Today in this small blog post, we will learn how to enable/disable the Frame Rate Counter in your Universal Windows apps. Countinue reading to know more about it.

Published by on under CodeProject | Tips

If you are a developer and building apps for Universal Windows apps, you might like to customize your app title bar to match your app theme. You can also change various colors of the buttons. Windows 10 SDK provides you to customize the title bar of Universal apps.

 

Today in this blog post, we will learn how to apply custom colors in apps built for Universal Windows Platform along with different other APIs exposed for it.

Published by on under CodeProject | Tips

Let’s come to basics of programming today. It’s a common interview question asked during an interview and many time candidates become confused with the difference between using directive and using statement/block. Today we will cover this topic and discuss various difference among those.

 

To learn or brush up the basic concepts, continue reading more. I hope, this will clarify all your doubts. If any feedback, do share below in the comments section.

Published by on under .Net | CSharp

Many time we need to programmatically retrieve the size of a file before downloading it from a web location or a network path. This is require to calculate the progress and/or the estimated time to download and display it to the user. For a local file it is easy, but to retrieve this information from a remote location, the implementation is little different.

 

Today in this small blog post, we will learn how to retrieve it dynamically using C# code. Continue reading to know about it. Code snippet has been shared in the post.

Published by on under .Net | CSharp
Everyone cares about his/her system's security and cares more when its related to virus. Here comes one new enhancement in security perspective in Windows 10 November updates and that's about Windows Defender. Its now more integrated with Windows Operating system.

We all know Windows defender is already present from Windows 7 on wards. Lets see what Windows November update has added more to Windows Defender.
Published by on under Manika-Chowdhury | Tips
You might be aware that, Microsoft planned to downgrade all OneDrive personal accounts from 15GB free space to 5GB and that will hit all of your account soon. Now they came with an offer which will allow you to keep your base storage quota and camera roll bonus, even after the changes rolls out.

If you want to keep your 15GB free OneDrive space, just follow the steps mentioned in this post and your account will not be affected when the amount of free storage changes.
Published by on under News | OneDrive

If you are running Microsoft Office 2010 and a regular user to it’s Outlook product, you might have recently observed that, many buttons, menus changed their state to disabled mode. If you are using any add-ins, those became disabled. This is because your Outlook switched into Safe Mode.

 

This is quite obvious and actual reason behind this is a little bit different. In this post, we will discuss more about the issue and a quick fix to resolve it. Continue reading.

Published by on under Office | Outlook

This could be one of the issue you might face while using service call or HTTP Post to server. Though this issue rarely happens but in case you encounter such error in your production, possibility is your client application is facing issue connecting to the server due to proxy server.

 

If you come across such issue, this quick blog post will help you to resolve it. You don’t need to do much, but just a configuration settings will help you.

Published by on under .Net | CSharp

Serialization and deserialization of .NET objects made easy using various serializer classes that it provides. But serialization of Dictionary object is not that much easy. For this, you have to create a special Dictionary class which is able to serialize itself. The serialization technique might be different in different business cases.

 

Today, let’s discuss how to implement the same with a sample. Code is shared in the post, which you can use in your application. Continue reading and let me know if you have any other approaches.

Published by on under .Net | CodeProject

“Linked Inbox” feature is now available again in Outlook Mail for Windows 10 Mobile. After a new build pushed recently, Microsoft pulled the same and replaced with an older version of the Outlook Mail due to some issues. The issue was causing the app to crash and close.

 

Good news is that, the app is again available in store with linked inbox feature, which will enable you to merge multiple mail boxes into one inbox. Continue reading to know about it.

Published by on under Windows | Windows 10

Microsoft has announced availability of Visual Studio 2015 Update 1. There are plenty of new changes in this final build apart from CTP release and RC release. Apart from our favorite IDE, the final release of Team Foundation Server Update 1 is also available. Download and checkout the new features.

 

In this post, sharing the download link as well as features list and release notes shared by the giant company. Go thru them while the download is in progress.

Published by on under DZone | News

You might have been heard about the product JIRA. It is a bug tracking product, developed by Atlassian. It can be used as general "issue tracker", “new feature request tracker” and more, rather than solely a bug tracker. It’s more customizable than BugZilla and queries also can be modifiable.

 

Today in this small blog post, we will learn how to create a query to list down all the issues “Resolved by” a particular user or you. Continue reading to know more about it.

Published by on under Atlassian | DZone

Microsoft brought a new set of enhancements along with Windows 10 November Update. Among them, one is lock screen enhancements which will allow you to set background image of lock screen from the Windows Spotlight and set/remove the login screen background image.

 

Today in this post, we are going to discuss on the same and will see how to set those various options in Windows 10 November update (aka. Threshold 2).

Published by on under DZone | Manika-Chowdhury

Microsoft restores the availability of Windows 10 November Update, which was pulled just after release. The giant company also explained why it was pulled. If you have the RTM build 10240, check out Windows Update. You might have got the notification to install version 1511 by that time.

 

If you have already installed the November Update (version 1511, build 10586), there’s a patch for you. To know more about this, continue reading the post.

Published by on under DZone | News

If you are building add-ins for Microsoft Word, at the time of add-in installation you might want to check whether user has installed MS Word on his system or not. Based on that, you might want to show a message to the user or take proper action as per your business need.

 

In this small blog post, we will learn what needs to be done using C# to find out whether the said Microsoft Office product is installed or not. Continue reading to know about this coding tricks.

Published by on under CSharp | DZone

On various scenarios, especially when you are building and shipping Add-Ins for outlook, at the time of add-in installation you might want to check whether user has installed outlook on his system or not. Based on that, you might want to show a message to the user.

 

In this small blog post, we will learn what needs to be done using C# to find out whether outlook is installed or not. Continue reading to know about this coding tricks.

Published by on under CSharp | DZone

The giant company brought a set of new features in Windows 10 November update. It’s the first big update after Windows 10 gone RTM. Along with other features and enhancements, it brought Start Screen/Menu enhancements. This includes more tiles and occasionally showing suggestions.

 

Today in this small blog post, we will discuss about these enhancements along with it’s settings to enable/disable the same. Continue reading to know more about it.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

I hope many of you have already installed the Windows 10 November Update on your system. This new build includes bug fixes, product improvements along with many new features. Among those new feature, one is to show or hide the background image in the sign-in screen.

 

Microsoft provided an option in the settings app. In this small blog post, I will show you how to do this. Continue reading to know about this new feature.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

Windows 10 November update features a new settings, which when enabled, let you receive fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your Lock Screen. This is a new feature, you will get in Windows 10 version 1511 (build: 10586.3) and above. If you didn’t receive this update yet, check the Windows Update service.

 

In this small blog post, I will show you how to enable or disable this option from the Windows 10 settings app. Continue reading to know more about it.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

Few days ago, I wrote a blog post about Windows 10 Start Screen image programmatically using C# code. Today in this blog post, we will discuss about changing Lock Screen background image of Windows 10 using C# code. Microsoft Windows SDK provides the API sets to call.

 

Let’s start learning about the API with a small piece of code. Continue reading. Code has been shared at the end of the post. If you have any comments, drop a line.

Published by on under Tips | UWP

Outlook and other office applications provides an easy way to restart itself. Though there are no directly exposed APIs to restart it, but you can easily write code to do the same operation. Today in this small blog post, we are going to discuss on the code to be implemented.

 

Just three simple steps and your code is ready. C# Code has been shared at the end of the post. Let me know if you have any queries. Would be happy to help.

Published by on under .Net | CSharp

Microsoft aired Windows 10 build 10586 for the fast ring Windows Insiders. If you are one of them, you can get it via Windows Update service. This build is mainly focused on bug fixes and improvements to move forward the final build of Threshold 2. As it is a developer preview build, has some known issues.

 

This post lists all the fixes and known issues in this build. Before installing, please go thru the lists. Windows Feedback app to report any problems that you might encounter with this build.

Published by on under News | WinDev

John Montgomery, Director of Program Management for Visual Studio, announced the availability of Visual Studio 2015 Update 1 RC (Release Candidate) stepping forward to release the final update of our favorite IDE. It has many new features to improve the productivity of the developers.

 

Find in this post the download link (ISO image for offline installation) and the features set. Try it, provide your feedback and report any bugs if you notice.

Published by on under News | Visual Studio 2015

Along with Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview build 10581, the giant company also released Windows 10 Insider Preview build 10576 for PCs. This is the first time when Microsoft released Windows 10 for both the platform. This build features few new changes along with a bunch of bug fixes and improvements.

 

If you are a Windows Insider in fast ring, you might have already got the notification about this update. Sharing here the new features set, list of bug fixes and known issues.

Published by on under News | WinDev

Microsoft Windows Insiders head, Gabe Aul, in a blog post announced the availability of Windows 10 Mobile Insider preview build 10581 for the fast ring users. If you are one of the fast ring insiders to test Windows 10 Mobile build before it flights the final one, you might have already got the update notification.

 

This build doesn’t have significant new features but has a no. of fixes and performance improvements. As it is still under development release, it has some known issues too. Find them listed in this post.

Published by on under News | WinDev

Windows 10 SDK provides API, by which you can programmatically change the Start Screen background image for both Windows 10 PC and Windows 10 Mobile. The API is located under Windows.System.UserProfile namespace. Using the API you can build apps and provides user easy access to change the start screen.

 

In this post, we are going to discuss about the API and also going to build a small demo app. The code snippet has been shared at the end of the post.

Published by on under Tips | UWP

“Find my Device” – not a new thing on Windows Platform. It was already there in Windows Phone and now the giant company thought to include in Windows 10. If you are using any prior build of Windows 10 build 10565, you would not get this as it has been  recently added to build 10565 for Windows Insiders.

 

In this post, we are going to discuss on this new feature. Please note that, it’s still under development stage and introduced in latest build just to showcase what’s coming next.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

Microsoft Virtual Academy is organizing a live event for the developers who has basic knowledge of JavaScript and looking forward to improve their JavaScript skill. Join Microsoft experts Christopher Harrison and Gabrielle Crevecoeur on 28th October and take your skills to the next level.

 

It’s a whole day event for experienced developers and yes, it’s completely free. So, don't miss! Read more to find out details and registration link for the event.

Published by on under Events | JavaScript

If you are using Microsoft Edge on Windows 10, you don’t need to separately install Adobe Flash Player. It comes along with Windows 10 and enabled by default. But in case you are facing issues or the plugin becomes disabled, you can easily enable it from Microsoft Edge settings.

 

In this post, I will share you the tricks to enable Flash Player in Microsoft Edge. In case you want to disable it, you can follow the same steps.

Published by on under Microsoft Edge | Tips

On 12th October, Microsoft started rolling out Windows 10 build 10565 to the fast ring Windows Insiders. The same build is now available to the slow ring users and also available as an offline ISO image. In this release, Microsoft released some new features and fixes along with Start Screen context menu improvements.

 

In this post, we are going to see the Start Screen context menu improvements that the giant company is going to make in forthcoming Windows 10 build.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

Syncfusion is providing Enterprise Edition of their product worth $9,975  for free to the individual developers and up to five users at companies with annual gross revenue below $1 million USD. If you are one of them, it’s the right time to grab the offer and use over 650 high quality components in your application.

 

Be a successful developer by using high quality product. Don’t wait!!! To know more about the products and get the free license of Syncfusion Enterprise Edition community license, read more.

Published by on under News | Syncfusion

Today I have received the certificate of recognition from Microsoft as a “Windows 10 Champion” for my contributions towards the Windows 10 Community. This means a lot for me. Thank you Microsoft, Biplab Paul and Gandharv Rawat for recognizing my contributions.

 

This post is not about any technical brief but just to share with you the love and the certificate of recognition that I received from Microsoft.

Published by on under Awards | Windows

Microsoft has announced a new Windows 10 build for the Windows Insiders and has already aired to the Fast ring users. If you are one of them, you might have already received update notification of the Windows 10 build 10565. This build came with some new features and bug fixes.

 

Read more to find out the list of new features, bug fixes and known issues. As it is a preview build, known and unknown issues are quite possible.

Published by on under News | WinDev

After the final release of Visual Studio 2015 in the month of July 2015, Microsoft has released the Update 1 CTP version of the all new Visual Studio 2015 IDE. This update has few new features for the developers, bug fixes and known issues. It’s a preview release and hence cannot guaranteed as bug free.

 

In case you want to try out the latest bits, find the download link in this post. Don’t forget to check out the release notes before downloading it.

Published by on under News | Visual Studio 2015

More or less everyone in this computing world are familiar with PDF documents aka. Portable Document Formats, which opens in Acrobat Reader or any other compatible PDF Reader applications. Prior to Windows 10, it was not quite easy to create PDF document unless you have Acrobat Writer or Office 2013 installed in your system.

 

With Windows 10, Microsoft brought this feature by default with the operating system, by which, you can now easily create PDF document from any files or web page. Let’s check how to do it.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

October 1st is generally a big day for me like others who are in the same renewal cycle of the most precious award called “Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP)”. I am happy to announce that, I have been rewarded as Microsoft MVP for the sixth time is a row for my continuous support in the developer community.

 

Thanks a lot to Microsoft, Microsoft MVP Award team and Biplab Paul for this special recognition. This means a lot for me. Thank you all my community friends for your support and feedback throughout the year.

Published by on under Achievements | Awards

Windows 10 provides an easy way to hide notifications. You can handle it in different ways; either you can completely turn off or can turn off for specific apps. If you are a presenter, you can also ask the system to turn off all notifications while you are in presenting mode.

 

In this post, we will discuss all the different approaches and guide you to easily handle it as per your convenient way. Continue reading to know further about it.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

If you are building an outlook Add-In and looking for a code to programmatically search and highlight texts inside an email body, this post will help you to understand the steps with proper code snippet. Just you have to plugin to proper event based on your  business logic.

 

Continue reading to learn and implement the same in your Add-In and in case you are facing issues, drop a line and I will try to reply back as soon as possible.

Published by on under Office | Outlook

The giant company made the announcement. 22nd September, the date was already set for this released and as expected the latest version of the company’s Office suite is now available. If you are using Office 2013, you will see a bunch of new features in this version focusing more on team collaboration.

 

Along with Office 2016 for Windows, Microsoft also released Office 2016 for Mac. Find out more links and videos attached in this blog post and know “why you should upgrade to Office 2016“.

Published by on under News | Office

With the Windows 10 preview build 10547 for fast ring Windows Insiders, Microsoft now allows you to add more tiles in a Start menu/Start screen group. In the prior version, it only supports 3 columns of medium sized tiles but with this build 4 columns of medium sized tiles is possible.

 

Continue reading this post to learn out more on this topic as well as to know the way to change the settings and allow more no. of tiles in a Start group.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips

Microsoft has released another new build of Windows 10 to the fast ring users of Windows Insiders, numbered as 10547. This new build introduces new features and improvements, as well as bug fixes. As this is a preview build, it definitely has some known issues and already mentioned in release posts by Gabe Aul.

 

This post is just an announcement along with the features list, list of fixes and known issues. Before going to download via the Windows Update, check out the issues list.

Published by on under News | WinDev

Gabe Aul, the head of Microsoft's Windows Insider program, in a blog post today announced that Microsoft has started rolling out Windows 10 for Mobile build 10536 for the fast ring Windows Insiders. If you are already part of Windows Insiders and in the fast ring, check out the phone update to get the notifications.

 

Before going further to update your device, you should first know what has been fixed and what are the known issues in this build. This post will detail those referring the announcement made by Gabe Aul.

Published by on under News | WinDev

If you are using Windows 10 in Laptop or Tablet PCs, you might notice that it drains battery little bit quicker. This is not due to the OS, but for the apps running in the background. In Windows 10, you can easily turn OFF the background apps and when needed, you can turn them back to ON state.

 

Today in this blog post, we will discuss how to turn ON or OFF the background apps with proper screenshots. Continue reading to learn more about the feature.

Published by on under Tips | Win10Tips