January 2009 Entries
It looks like our friends at Microsoft have finally pushed .NET 3.5 as an important update to all Windows Server 2003 machines; luckily for us, Windows Home Server fits into that category too! Here’s the proof (screenshot from my production Windows Home Server, that definitely did not have .NET 3.5 installed prior to this update): It’ll be interesting to see if we get a spike in the number of Add-Ins built with .NET 3.5 in the next few months. Bring on the W*F Add-Ins.
WGS have posted the results of their Reader Awards 2008 competition. Windows Home Server Disk Management was beaten out this year by Kentdome Technologies’ Grid Junction Add-In. Of course, I can’t complain; I use Grid Junction on a number of Windows Home Servers myself! So, congratulations to Alexander on winning this year! We’ll have to be content with second place.
Using WiX to install and start a Windows Service as part of your Add-In install is fairly easy. The only thing you really have to watch out for is the KeyPath value for your service executable; it has to be set to yes, while all other file KeyPaths must be set to no. Make sure you also use your own GUID values for UpgradeCode and Component ID values. This code works with the latest WiX 3.0 weekly build. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
<Product
Name="Windows Home Server Disk Management Add-In"
Id="*"
...
<Wix xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/wix/2006/wi">
<Product
Name="My First Add-In"
Id="*"
UpgradeCode="{1a7c55f0-ceed-11dd-ad8b-0800200c9a66}"
Manufacturer="Sam Wood - Tentacle Software"
Version="0.0.0.1"
Language="1033">
<Package
Manufacturer="Sam Wood - Tentacle Software"
InstallerVersion="200"
Languages="1033"
...