The Longhorn SDK enables you to create XAML apps from VS.NET, so I did.

One of the things I'll be looking for is an editor that generates XAML for me. Because, I find XAML "difficult" to write. Yes it's powerful and "easy" to do, but if you have to do it all by hand, it takes time. So I'm hoping there will be some editor fast :)

I've seen the demo during the DevDays, where you had a different layout per user. And one of those was the kiddie layout, with the very cool button, which was shaped totally different. So I set out course to create a 'NTFS Permissions For Dummies'.

Here's what i created in Photoshop as a quick idea of what I wanted:



Looks kiddie enough, doesn't it?

Then I started my quest, it seems Longhorn doesn't like it when i want to skew a Listbox with AngleX. When I go over the items it renders strange lines everywhere in my app. Gone was my idea to create these nice shaped controls.

But the gradient worked! And that's actually very nice.

Here's what I ended up with:

Update:
Here's an example of my skew experience: AngleX, AngleY. Notice the blue lines.
This is the XAML I used. It also happens with other values.

Well, here I am, playing mini-Evangelist in my class, telling about all nice .NET things.

And now with Longhorn installed, I wanted to show some screenies, and also prove that Pre-Alpha does not mean "If you touch it, it'll destroy your pc" ;)

I know you can find these anywhere, but these are *my* screenies, my personal sweeties, my preciousssss :)

First The Desktop.

Followed by hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del.

And don't worry, all your great software is still there, like Paint, Calculator and Notepad ;)

Here you got the proof that the IE team actually does add new things, and that it still exists. One of the features is to Clear Browsing Records. And in the back you see Visual Studio .NET Whidbey, with the nice yellow/green indicators to show which unsaved changes there are and which changes already have been saved.

And the end of this screenie round is during the Logoff, after which Remote Desktop closed.

I really like the default look, no kiddie look as in IE. But also not the Win98 look. Very nice black, stylish.

Regarding layout, Explorer doesn't seem to like me, it doesn't want to set my preferred settings for every map, even if I have told it to do so on every occasion.

I got Longhorn installed!

I'm guessing the .iso got corrupted during my download.

It didn't took as long as I expected to install, no 5 hours like some blogs say. But more something like one hour. I didn't use Virtual PC though, got my laptop running on LH.

No 4-bit mode on first boot, and after I used my gfx drivers (which installed without any problem) I got it back on 1024x768 on 32-bit.

First did all the tweaks posted on the net, disable the right dockingbar, disable services, ...

Everything was running smooth when I rebooted after those changes. Not so terribly slow, althou shutting down takes some time ;)

It doesn't like Winamp 5, gets closed immediately after it's started. Winamp 2 works great though. Trillian Pro going fine as well.

Then I installed VS.NET Whidbey. Which gave me about 3 BSOD. but in the end I managed to install it using the 'Repair' function. Going to look at the dump file later on. Could be that my laptop got to warm and that the hardware went crazy.

Made my first HelloWorld in Whidbey, I already love the green/yellow status on the side. As well as the great 'Format Document' together with all the new settings about braces and indenting.

Also did my first XAML file. Then I noticed that I'm missing the Longhorn SDK. Everybody is talking about the PDC DVD. But I only have a CD with Longhorn?

Anyway, after setting the PATH var to include the 1.2 Framework and setting the LAPI var as well, MSBuild works and everything compiles. Next thing I'm going to look for is how to make XAML files with C# codebehind in VS.NET and compile them there.

One big annoyance I'm having: the Download Manager is evil!

I have 2 files in there always saying 'Connecting' and I can't delete or pauze them. If I dare to do that, it doesn't respond anymore, killing explorer doesn't help, logging on again doesn't help either. Only thing I can do is reboot.

Well, I'm running on LH now. When I have some free time and am somewhat familiar with it, expect some comments on it from me.

Update: Apparently I can get the SDK anyway, must have looked over it, another 574.1 MB to download.

Update 2: I can NOT get Longhorn for you, do NOT request it in the comments, I won't give it to you, you have to get it yourself. There's no warez here...

I wanted to install Longhorn today. The 'Longhorn Pre-Alpha Client Preview' version.

So here I go, I format my laptop (which is a test pc) and insert the cd.

After entering the key, choosing where to install and clicking continue, when the timer jumps to "13 minutes left" I get an error.

"An error occurred while copying files". That's it, nothing I can do about this.

I looked on Google for help, but nobody got it, except for one person who fixed it by using another machine.

Then, I installed Virtual PC 2004 on my main computer and decided to install it there. That must work, after all it's a virtual pc, and everyone else already got it to run on Virtual PC.

No luck thou, same error message.

Does anyone have any advice in what I can do? I even don't know where it goes wrong, can I get some debug info here to pass on to the MS team?

There goes my plan to install Longhorn and Whidbey on my test pc :(

Love to hear from someone.

Update: I got some additional info, I mounted the .iso in Virtual PC now, same error. Happens when it has written 424.4MB.

Update 2: When I install Windows 2000, run the Setup from there it starts saying "18 minutes left", the progress bar goes a bit further, until the reboot message comes. Then it continues installing with "14 minutes left", and a bit after it goes to 13 it gives the same error again. I'm at a dead end now.