If you are a web developer and use Visual Studio to design and develop web applications, this post will help you to improve your productivity. Last year we discussed how to improve your productivity using the “Default Browser Switcher Extension” in Visual Studio 2010.

Now here comes another post which will show you how to use the in-built “Browser Switcher” extension available in Visual Studio 2012. I hope that, once you start working in Visual Studio 2012, this will definitely help you to increase your productivity.

Everyday we use various social networking sites especially Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to connect with our friends virtually over the wire. These social networking sites are now directly and/or indirectly connected with our daily life.

As a computer user, many time we are familiar with Keyboard to do some operations and in such case we need to know the shortcut keys of those sites. In this non-technical blog post, I will share the shortcut keys of Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

During TechEd 2012, Telerik announced their first commercial library for building Windows 8 Metro applications. This control library is a set of controls for XAML and HTML apps. User can chose the language of their own choice and deliver a high end Windows 8 enterprise and consumer applications using these controls.

In this blog post, I will describe more about the controls and guide you to kick start with your Metro application development using the Telerik RadControls. The controls set is neither yet released nor available publicly to download. In case you want a special early adopter access, this blog post will help you to get one too.

Nokia announced that, they are coming up with a new Software Update for Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 in June – July timeframe. According to their announcement, this will be available in US and China from 22nd June and all other countries will get the update during July. You can get this update through Zune software. According to Nokia this update will be required for the new applications to work in Lumia 710 and 800.

Among the software updates, the most important update will be the Camera Extras which will include “Smart Group Shots”, “Action Shots”, “Panorama” and “Self-Timer” showcased for Windows Phone 8. Continue reading to know more about the Camera Extras.

Yesterday in Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft announced the new features of Windows Phone 8 consists of some interesting stuffs those coming in the way. Microsoft also announced that the existing devices running Windows Phone 7.x will not get the update of WP8, but there will be a update for those devices which will call as “Windows Phone 7.8”. Check out the post “Can we Upgrade our WP7 Device to Support WP8?” for more details about WP7.8 update.

Many of you might attended the Summit In-Person or Live from web. In this post, I will share the points on “What’s New in WP8” for you to bookmark for future. If you missed the event, this post will give you brief idea about what is coming next in Windows Phone 8. Continue reading.

Today in the Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft clearly mentioned that, there will not be any kind of upgrades of Windows Phone 8 in Windows Phone 7.x devices. Instead of that, they will throw a upgrade to WP7.8 for all the WP7.x handsets to fulfill the transitions between Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8.

This post will cover the new interesting stuff (from the Windows Phone Summit) that Windows Phone 7.8 will have to give you a look & feel of Windows Phone 8.

This is a common question “Do I need to install Silverlight Tools separately if I install Visual Studio 2012?” few people asked me online/offline. That’s why I came with this blog post.

If you are seeking for the information on the same topic, this post will tell you whether you need to install Silverlight separately and if it already comes with Silverlight, what are the versions that it supports. Continue reading and share to those who might find it useful.

Today morning, 19th June 2012 Indian Standard Time, Microsoft announced their all new Tablet PC running with Windows 8 operating system. Steve Ballmer (CEO, Microsoft) showcased the new Microsoft branded Tablet PC for the next generation named as Microsoft Surface tablet.

The tablet PC will be available in two different version named “Surface for Windows RT” and “Surface for Windows 8 Pro”. Both will have different configuration. Though the price details are not available yet, continue reading the post to watch a video demonstration of the Surface tablet, screenshots and system specific information.

On 27th May 2012, I kick started a Giveaway contest and mentioned that at the end of the contest I will raffle two (2) “Telerik Ultimate Collection License worth $1999 each” to the contest attendees. Initially the end date of the giveaway was decided as 8th June but on popular demand, I extended it up to 15th June 2012.

The contest is over now and it’s time to declare the Winners name. Cross your finger as it’s time to see whether your name is there in the winners list. Continue reading to see the winners name.

If you have installed Windows 8 Release Preview and Visual Studio 2012 RC, you might want to develop your first Windows 8 Metro Style Application. Unlike other version of Visual Studio, you need a Developer License to build your Win8 Metro apps. Without a developer license you won’t be able to deploy the app in your Windows 8 machine or Windows 8 simulator.

This blog post will help you to understand it better and will guide you to get a Free Developer License for Windows 8 Metro application development. Continue reading to get your developer license.

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2012 RC (Release Candidate) on 31st May 2012. This is the pre-release versions of the next release of Visual Studio.

In this blog post, I will share the installation experience of Visual Studio 2012 with you. The UI and installation steps changed drastically. Just go with it if you haven’t already installed this new IDE yet and try out the new Metro Style Application development.

Telerik released the sixth major version of RadControls for Windows Phone 7 (Q2.2012) on 11th June 2012. There are many new controls in this new release demanded by many developers. Now those controls are here for you. Get the latest bits and start using them.

In this post, I will share you the direct download link from where you can get the trial version of the product. If you have a license, you can get the full version from your Telerik account. Also, in this post I will share what are the new controls available in this release.

On 26th May 2012, we (KolkataGeeks) organized Developer Conference 2012 at Kolkata. The event was organized by Microsoft User Group Kolkata (KolkataGeeks). It is the premier technical event for technology professionals at Kolkata interested in learning, connecting and exploring latest Microsoft technologies.

In this event, I delivered one hour Technical Presentation and showcased Demos using Telerik Rad Controls for Windows Phone 7. In this blog post, I will share the slide of my WP7 session as well as few snaps from the Album. Continue reading for further details.

Microsoft released Windows 8 Release Preview (RP) on 31st May 2012. If you didn’t yet download the latest release of Windows 8, you can download it from here: Download Windows 8 Release Preview (All Languages, ISO/Offline/Standalone Installer).

I downloaded the latest release of Windows 8 (Release Preview) and installed it on my VMware Player. The installation experience improved a lot from the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and in this post, I will share the same experience with you. So, continue reading and share it to your connection and help them to understand it better.

Few days ago Gurmeet Kohli, Assistant Editor of Silicon India Network (www.siliconindia.com), took an interview of mine as a blogger to publish on their site. The interview is now available online for public view.

The interview covers the following points: Working Life Management, The Decisions That Mattered in my Life, My Role Models, My Job Profile, Degrees That Matter, Growth Strategy, Advice For New Professionals, Prized Accomplishment(s), The Journey So Far and My Plans For The Future. Continue reading the complete post to find out the link towards the interview page.

Windows 8 is coming at the door step. Microsoft already released the Release Preview version of Windows 8. There are many improvements and new features in this Windows 8 over Windows 7. Jason (Frugal Dad) published an infographic of the same and asked people not to hate Windows 8.

As per the request, I am sharing the same infographic in this blog post for my blog readers. Check it out and leave your feedback below for the original author.

Gaining better visibility in the search results has always been the main focus of the traditional search engine optimizer. It is very important to stay visible for the maximum percentage of time to the most correct buying audience. The website design and the layouts speak more and are the first thing to impress the visitor.

In this guest blog post, Kelly Marsh will help you to understand how to make your web pages communicate in a more effective way by following few tips. This blog post is targeted for all the readers. Do share and leave your feedback. If you have any queries, ask her in the below comments section and she will guide you.

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2012 RC (Release Candidate) on 31st May 2012. The available Visual Studio 2012 RC products and localizations are pre-release versions of the next release of Visual Studio.

This blog post will cover all the product details and the downloadable links to each product of Visual Studio 2012 including the web installer and ISO image link for offline installation.

Microsoft released Windows 8 Release Preview yesterday, 31st May 2012. It's an all-new touch interface. It's a new Windows for new devices. And it's easy to try now - whether you're installing it for the first time, or moving from Windows 8 Consumer Preview which was released few months ago.

In this blog entry, find out the links to download Windows 8 Release Preview. You can find the ISO images for all different languages, which you can download to install it offline.

The Telerik Q2 - 2012 Webinar Week is approaching! As always, Telerik is organizing this week-long event packed with hour-long webinar sessions to walk you through all the awesome things they have been working on during the past four months. If you’re eager to be among the first to learn how the Q2 bits can enhance your productivity, follow the post and book your seat now.

Webinar Week will be held June 18-22, 2012. And you know the drill, one lucky attendee at each webinar will win more than $2,000 worth of software. This time, as a token of appreciation Telerik is also granting each Webinar Week attendee with a discount code valid towards a next Telerik purchase, upgrade or renewal! For more details, read the complete post.

Today I am starting a new giveaway contest of Telerik Ultimate Collection License. The contest is starting on 28th May 2012 and will end on 8th 15th June 2012. At the end of the contest period I will raffle 2 Telerik Ultimate License worth $1999 each.

So, why are you waiting for? Take part in the contest, ask others to participate and win $1999 license for Free. As much as you share, the probability of winning will be high. For more details, check out the complete post.

JetBrains released a new Decompiler and Assembly Browser named “dotPeek” for .NET Application Developers. It is a FREE productivity tool which decompiles .NET 1.0 - .NET 4.5 assemblies to C# code and has support for .dll, .exe, .zip, .vsix, .nupkg, and .winmd files. It has many features like Quick jump, Effortless navigation, Support for downloading code from source servers and many more.

Continue reading the post to know details about the features and find the downloadable links. I have also embedded one video describing the features published by JetBrains.

Windows Phone 7 launchers and choosers enable users to perform common tasks in WP7 device by providing a consistent user experience throughout the Windows Phone application development platform. I already covered many of the Launchers and Choosers in my blog. On popular demand, I am sharing them in this single page post. I hope, this will be helpful for you to get started with the Windows Phone 7 launchers and choosers very quickly.

Let’s start discussing about launchers and choosers followed by links to all the launchers and choosers.

Telerik introduces a new component called “RadDiagnostics” in their Q1.2012 release. RadDiagnostics component enables an application developer to receive crash reports and other debugging information from the end user of the application.

As a WP7Dev, you may want to include a functionality in your application which will mail you the stack trace and other debugging information. This post will guide you to implement the same functionality in your Windows Phone app using the Telerik controls. Continue reading to learn more about it.

Kolkata Geeks are pleased to announce Developer Conference 2012 on Saturday, May 26th. Developer Conference is the premier technical event for technology professionals at Kolkata interested in learning, connecting and exploring latest Microsoft technologies.

This is an In-Person community event and is absolutely free, no registration charges required. Register now and be there, enjoy the flavor of cutting edge Microsoft technologies and win lots of prizes. Read out more to find about the session details.

I have two Windows Phone 7 devices, one of them is the HTC 7 Pro and the other one is the Nokia Lumia 800. I was using HTC 7 Pro for quite a long time but when I received Nokia Lumia 800 by participating in the Microsoft iUnlockJoy program, I am using that only.

Few people asked me to write a review on Windows mobile phones and hence I decided to write a small review on my current experience on Nokia Lumia 800. This post will cover specification of Nokia Lumia 800 and my review on that.

Currently I am working on a Windows Phone 7 application using the Telerik controls and learning a little more bit about the controls present in their library. So, I thought to share the same in my blog for next few days. If you are using these controls, it will help you to learn very quickly.

As a WP7Dev, you might want to build a stunning application with an animation to the page navigation or orientation changes. This article will help you to do so by using the Telerik RadControls for Windows Phone 7. Continue reading to learn more about the APIs and the implementation steps.

Here comes the “Monthly Summary” post of April 2012. Last month I published 14 blog posts, among them 12 was on “How to” series of my Windows Phone 7 Tutorial for developers.

In this summary post I am going to share them in a single page, so that, you can find them very easily. Continue reading to find out all the Windows Phone 7 tutorial series. Don’t forget to check out the API implementations of the SDK in the “How to” posts.

Continuing my Windows Phone 7 Tutorials on Launchers and Choosers. Today in this blog post we will discuss about the Windows Phone 7 class named “SaveRingtoneTask”. We will first describe about the internal class implementation of the SDK itself. Later we will see how to implement it in your application.

Continue reading to learn about the API and code implementation. Don’t forget to share your thoughts and feedbacks at the end in the comments section. Also, share this to your friends/colleagues who might feel it useful too.

Do you want to create an application or game for your Windows Phone 7 that can share links to various social networking sites of users choice? Then this post will help you to integrate the same in your application.

Continue reading the complete post to know more about the API, the internal implementation of the WP7 SDK and the way to include it in your application. Don’t forget to share your feedback and if you like the post, please share it to others as this might be helpful for them too.

Today I received a great offer from my blog partner who is giving away few eBooks on "Windows 7" for my blog readers. In this post, I am going to share 3 FREE eBooks on the same topic. You can request to download by clicking the "Request Now" button

Stay tuned to get more free eBook offers on various topics.

Today while debugging a Silverlight application, I noticed that, my Visual Studio 2010 was taking too much time to load the referenced assemblies and the browser was freezing for some time while loading the XAP. First I thought that it is due to the solution file but after doing some investigation I noticed that it is happening for all Silverlight application.

Finally I found the solution and thought to share with you. In case you come across same situation, this post will help you to resolve it easily.

Do you want to develop an application or game which will update your status or game result in some social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In and/or Windows Live? Then this post will help you to integrate such task in your app.

Using “ShareStatusTask” of the Windows Phone 7 SDK, you can update your status line on the social networking sites. Continue reading the post for more details of the API and the implementation steps.

In last few articles I was discussing on Launchers and Choosers of Windows Phone 7. In today’s blog post I am going to continue on that again. This time we will discuss on “SmsComposeTask” of the WP7 SDK, which you can use to create SMS from code.

SmsComposeTask launches the Messaging application with a new SMS message displayed and requires user intervention to send the message. Continue reading to learn in depth of the API implementation and uses of the API.

In last two blog posts we learnt how to save email address in WP7 and how to send email. We also learnt the internal implementation of the APIs used by the Windows Phone 7 SDK.

Today in this blog post we will explore how to retrieve email address from contact list with a simple example (including the internal implementation of the API). Don’t forget to provide your feedback. If you have any queries, let me know. I will try to answer you as early as I can.

In the last blog post we learnt “How to Save Email Address in WP7 using the SaveEmailAddressTask?” where we shared code snippet of the internal implementation of the SaveEmailAddressTask along with the code implementation of a demo app.

Today in this blog post we will learn how to compose an email using the Windows Phone 7 SDK class called “EmailComposeTask”. Also sharing the decompiled version of the class, so that you can know the SDK implementation. Continue reading and at the end don’t forget to leave your feedback.

Do you want to build an application which will allow you to save an email address? Then this post will allow you to understand the API of Windows Phone 7 SDK. In this post we will learn about SaveEmailAddressTask class and it’s API with a simple demo.

Continue reading to learn about it. Also, I will share the code snippet of the internal implementation of the SaveEmailAddressTask, which will help you to understand the actual implementation of the API of WP7 SDK.

In the last blog post, we learnt “How to Call a Number in WP7 using the PhoneCallTask?” We also learnt, “How to Save Phone Number in WP7 using the SavePhoneNumberTask?” So, how can you programmatically retrieve a phone number from existing contact list?

This post will help you to understand it. After reading this post, you will be able to programmatically retrieve the phone number in your application (this requires user’s interaction) using the PhoneNumberChooserTask. Don’t forget to read the complete post as this will help you to know about the internal implementation of the SDK API too.

Last day we learnt “How to Save Phone Number in WP7 using the SavePhoneNumberTask?” There we discussed on the basics of the API and details about the implementation stuff with step-by-step details.

Today in this small blog post we will learn how to call a number programmatically in Windows Phone 7 by using the PhoneCallTask API. We will also know what are the limitations of this API class. Continue reading to know further.

Do you want to integrate a task in your Windows Phone 7 application that will help users to save their contact details e.g. a phone number in their Contact List? If you want to do this, there is a class called SavePhoneNumberTask which will allow you to implement that task.

This small post will help you to understand the basics about the API and details about the implementation stuff with step-by-step details.

In last two blog posts we learnt how to programmatically Save Contacts in WP7 and Retrieve Contact Information. Now after these, you may want to programmatically search for specific contact. So how to do this?

Windows Phone 7 SDK provides that API for you. You can use that API to asynchronously search for a contact by different parameters. Continue reading the complete post to learn more about the class and search mechanism. Don’t forget to read out my other blog posts too.

Here comes the “Monthly Summary” post of March 2012. It was a hectic time for me and was busy with personal stuffs. During March 2012, I have published 9 blog posts, mainly on Windows Phone 7 development along with a good news that I have been officially added as the Telerik Insider.

In this post, sharing all the posts in category wise sorted for you, so that, you can find them easily from here.

In the last post, we learnt “How to Save Contact in WP7 using the SaveContactTask?” Today in this small post we will learn how to retrieve saved contacts in WP7 using the Windows Phone 7 SDK APIs.

If you are developing any application for Windows Phone 7 and wants to provide user an option to get any contact details (e.g. Contact Name, complete Address of the Contact), AddressChooserTask class will allow you to get such information of the selected contact. Continue reading to get more details about this API.

It’s a time for the great news. Feeling proud to announce that, officially I am now a Telerik Insider too along with the Telerik MVP award. After Lohith Goudagere Nagaraj (@kashyapa), I am the 2nd Telerik Insider from India.

Thanks to everyone for your continuous support. Read to know more about the program.

Windows Phone 7 SDK exposes API to provide user option to save any contact to the Contact list. In your app you may want to include contact saving option. This small post will help you to understand the API and after that, you will be able to use it in any of your applications.

The SDK has a sealed class called SaveContactTask, which you can use to implement this feature. Continue reading to know more about the class and implementation steps.

Sometime in our application, we want to launch the Media Library of the Windows Phone 7 device and also want to provide user the option to view any existing image from that library. So if you want to do this, how will you implement the code?

Windows Phone 7 SDK provides provides API to do this. Using the PhotoChooserTask you can actually launch the photo chooser application and handle the selected image. Continue reading to read more about this process from this small tips.

In last two post, we learnt about How to search in the WP7 Marketplace using the MarketplaceSearchTask? and How to Launch the WP7 Marketplace Hub using the MarketplaceHubTask? Today in this small post, we will learn how to launch the application details page.

If you searched application in Marketplace using the marketplace client, you would familiar about the application details page. The details page consists of information about the application including install & share button and reviews section. You might want to add that page in your application. Continue reading to learn about the API.

In our previous Windows Phone 7 tips, we learnt how to search applications and/or music in the WP7 marketplace using the MarketplaceSearchTask API.

Today in this post, we will learn about the MarketplaceHubTask API to launch the Windows Phone 7 Hub client in your phone device. Using the code, you can also launch it in the phone emulator. Continue reading to learn more about it.

In your Windows Phone 7 application, you may want to search for some application or music rom WP7 Marketplace. How will you do this? This small tips on Windows Phone 7 marketplace related API will help you to write code in your application.

You can easily achieve this by using the Marketplace Launchers task to call the search API. Continue reading to know more about it.

Microsoft launched Visual Studio 11 Beta and .Net Framework 4.5 Beta with lots of new, enhanced and improved features. Jason Zander, announced the availability of Visual Studio 11 beta and .Net Framework 4.5 beta in his Weblog on 29th February 2012.

Continue reading this post to find out the links towards the Web Installer as well as the Offline / Standalone Installer of Visual Studio complete suite.