Editor’s note: The following post was written by Community Program Manager Jan-Philipp Rombolotto

Munich was host to 100 MVPs from around Europe as experts gathered to learn, network and share their expertise. The two day event featured 15 sessions covering a wide range of topics such as Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Office 365, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media.

"It is always great to meet with MVPs because each of us share common ground in community and networking. Our German MVP Open Day events feel more like homecoming events.  We get to see old friends, make new ones and always enjoy each other's company and have a great time,” said Small Business Server MVP Oliver Sommer

Check out a great video recap from the German MVP Open Day event including interviews with Microsoft team members and MVPs.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

MICROSOFT COMMUNITY VIDEO TIPS SWEEPSTAKES

OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. 

PLEASE NOTE:  It is your sole responsibility to review and understand your employer’s policies regarding your eligibility to participate in trade promotions.  If you are participating in violation of your employer’s policies, you may be disqualified from entering or receiving prizes.  Microsoft disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for disputes arising between an employee and their employer related to this matter, and prizes will only be awarded in compliance with the employer’s policies.

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: Microsoft is committed to complying with government gift and ethics rules and therefore government employees are not eligible.

COMMON TERMS USED IN THESE RULES:

These are the official rules that govern how the Microsoft Microsoft Community Video Tips sweepstakes  will operate. This promotion will be simply referred to as the “Sweepstakes”throughout the rest of these rules. 

In these rules, “we,” “our,” and “us”refer to Microsoft Corporation, the sponsor of the Sweepstakes. “You” refers to an eligible Sweepstakes entrant. 

WHAT ARE THE START AND END DATES?

This Sweepstakes starts at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on October 29, 2, 2012, and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on December 16, 2012 (“Entry Period”).  The Entry Period consists of 1 Prize Period.  Entries must be received within the Entry Period to be eligible.

CAN I ENTER?

You are eligible to enter this Sweepstakes if you meet the following requirements at time of entry:

·         You are a professional or enthusiast in the field of software / IT technology, and you are a legal resident of the 50 United States and District of Columbia 18 years of age or older; and

o  If you are 18 of age or older, but are considered a minor in your place of residence, you should ask your parent’s or legal guardian’s permission prior to submitting an entry into this Sweepstakes; and

·         You are NOT an employee of Microsoft Corporation or an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary; and

·         You are NOT involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes; and

·         You are NOT an immediate family (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes.

This Sweepstakes is void outside of the geographic area described above and wherever else prohibited by law.

HOW DO I ENTER?

Create a short video (no longer than 7 minutes) that explains a user scenario and how that scenario is solved successfully by a Microsoft product, feature and/or an application available on Microsoft Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone 8, Windows Phone 7 or Xbox 360. Videos related to Outlook.com features, highlights and scenarios will also be eligible for a First Place prize drawing. The video that you create will be referred to as your “Entry.”Once created, upload your Entry to your Youtube.com channel and include the tag #MSTips. Entries must comply with the YouTube Terms of Service http://www.youtube.com/t/terms. To be eligible, the video must have been uploaded to Youtube after July 1st, 2012.   

To submit an Entry, complete the entry form located at: http://www.instant.ly/s/WadSgwMUYAA

This entry form Your name, your preferred contact email address (, your U.S. State of residence,  a link to the publically accessible website where your Entry or Entries are posted

You can submit multiple entrys per form.

To be eligible for entry, the video must be applicable to Microsoft products currently released in market.

You may submit a maximum of 100 unique entries per person.  To be considered a unique Entry, the video must have a unique URL and contain substantially different content than any of yoru other Entries. Non-winning entries will be included in any subsequent Prize Periods. 

We are not responsible for entries that we do not receive for any reason, or for entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason.

We will automatically disqualify:

·         Any incomplete or illegible entry; and

·         Any entries that we receive from you that are in excess of the entry limit described above.

We are not responsible for Entries that we do not receive for any reason, or for entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason.  In addition Entries must meet the following criteria to be eligible:

·         your entry must be your own original work; and

·         your entry cannot have been selected as a winner in any other contest; and

·         you must have obtained any and all consents, approvals or licenses required for you to submit your entry; and

·         if requested, you must provide proof of permission (or be able to grant permission) from any recognizable person featured in your entry materials; and

·         other than those of Microsoft, which you are granted a limited license to use for the sole purpose of submitting an entry in this Sweepstakes, your entry may not include any third party trademarks (logos, names) or copyrighted materials (literary works, music, images, video).

Entries may NOT contain, as determined by us, in our sole and absolute discretion, any content that:

·         obscene or offensive;

·         promotes alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms/weapons (or the use of any of the foregoing) or a particular political agenda;

·         communicates messages or images inconsistent with the positive images and/or good will to which we wish to associate; and/or violates any law;

We reserve the right to reject or disqualify any Entry, in our sole and absolute discretion, that we determine does not meet the above criteria.

HOW WILL MY ENTRY BE POTENTIALLY USED?

Other than what is set forth below, we are not claiming any ownership rights to your entry.  However, by submitting your entry, you:

·         are granting us an irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide right and license to: (i) use, review, assess, test and otherwise analyze your entry and all its content in connection with this Contest; and (ii) feature your entry and all content in connection with the marketing, sale, or promotion of this Contest (including but not limited to internal and external sales meetings, conference presentations, tradeshows, and screen shots of the Contest entry in press releases) in all media (now known or later developed)

·         agree to sign any necessary documentation that may be required for us and our designees to make use of the rights you granted above;

·         understand and acknowledge that the Sponsor(s) may have developed or commissioned materials similar or identical to your submission and you waive any claims you may have resulting from any similarities to your entry; 

·         understand that we cannot control the incoming information you will disclose to our representatives in the course of entering, or what our representatives will remember about your entry. You also understand that we will not restrict work assignments of representatives who have had access to your entry.  By entering this Contest, you agree that use of information in our representatives’ unaided memories in the development or deployment of our products or services does not create liability for us under this agreement or copyright or trade secret law; 

·         understand that you will not receive any compensation or credit for use of your entry, other than what is described in these Official Rules

Please note that following the end of this Contest your entry may be posted on a website selected by us for viewing by visitors to that website.  We are not responsible for any unauthorized use of your entry by visitors to this website.  While we reserve these rights, we are not obligated to use your entry for any purpose, even if it has been selected as a winning entry.

If you do not want to grant us these rights to your entry, please do not enter this Contest.

WINNER SELECTION AND PRIZES

On or around the close of the  Prize Period, we will randomly select 2 potential (pending confirmation of eligibility) Grand Prize winners from among all eligible entries received during the Entry Period. On or around the close of the  Prize Period, we will randomly select 2 potential (pending confirmation of eligibility) First Place Prize winners from among all eligible entries (videos related to Outlook.com only) received during the Entry Period.

(2) Grand Prizes:  ASUS VivoTab RT  -(total value is $599.99). Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $1199.98

(2) First Place Prizes:  ASUS VivoTab RT  -(total value is $599.99). Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $1199.98

Reference link: http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/ASUS-VivoBook-X202E-Touchscreen/productID.257339400/vip.true

The total Approximate Retail Value (ARV) of all prizes: $2399.96

We will only award one Grand prize or First Place prize per person during the Entry Period.

If you are a potential winner, we will notify you by sending a message to the e-mail address, the phone number, or mailing address (if any) provided at time of entry within seven (7) days following the random drawing.  If the notification that we send is returned as undeliverable, or you are otherwise unreachable for any reason, we may award the prize to an alternate, randomly selected winner.  Only three (3) alternate drawings will be held after which the applicable prize will remain un-awarded. If there is a dispute as to who is the potential winner, we will consider the potential winner to be the authorized account holder of the e-mail address used to enter the Sweepstakes . If you are a potential winner, we may require you to sign an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability/Publicity Release and a W-9 tax form or W-8 BEN tax form within 10 days of notification. If you are apotential winner and you are 18 or older, but are considered a minor in your place of legal residence, we may require your parent or legal guardian to sign all required forms on your behalf.  If you do not complete the required forms as instructed and/or return the required forms within the time period listed on the winner notification message, we may disqualify you and select an alternate, randomly selected winner. Only three (3) alternate drawings will be held after which the applicable prize will remain un-awarded.

If you are confirmed as a  winner of this Sweepstakes:

• You may not exchange your prize for cash or any other merchandise or services.  However, if for any reason an advertised prize is unavailable, we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value; and

• You may not designate someone else as the winner.  If you are unable or unwilling to accept your prize, we will award it to an alternate potential winner; and

• If you accept a prize, you will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the prize; and

• If you are otherwise eligible for this Sweepstakes, but are considered a minor in your place of residence, we may award the prize to your parent/legal guardian on your behalf; and

• Unless otherwise noted, all prizes are subject to their manufacturer’s warranty and / or terms and conditions. 

WHAT ARE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING?

Your odds of winning this Sweepstakes depend on the number of eligible entries we receive.

WHAT OTHER CONDITIONS ARE YOU AGREEING TO BY ENTERING THIS SWEEPSTAKES?

By entering this Sweepstakes you agree:

·         To abide by these Official Rules; and

·         To release and hold harmless Microsoft,and its respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees and agents from any and all liability or any injury, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with this Sweepstakes or any prize won; and

·         That Microsoft’s decisions will be final and binding on all matters related to this Sweepstakes; and

·         That by accepting a prize, Microsoft may use of your proper name and state of residence online and in print, or in any other media, in connection with this Sweepstakes, without payment or compensation to you, except where prohibited by law.

WHAT LAWS GOVERN THE WAY THIS SWEEPSTAKES IS EXECUTED AND ADMINISTRATED?

This Sweepstakes will be governed by the laws of the State of Washington, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of the State of Washington for any disputes arising out of this Sweepstakes.  

WHAT IF SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENS AND THE SWEEPSTAKES CAN’T RUN AS PLANNED?

If cheating, a virus, bug, catastrophic event, or any other unforeseen or unexpected event that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled, (also referred to as force majeure)affects the fairness and / or integrity of this Sweepstakes, we reserve the right to cancel, change or suspend this Sweepstakes.  This right is reserved whether the event is due to human or technical error. If a solution cannot be found to restore the integrity of the Sweepstakes, we reserve the right randomly to select winners from among all eligible entries received before we had to cancel, change or suspend the Sweepstakes.

If youattempt to compromise the integrity or the legitimate operation of this Sweepstakes by hacking or by cheating or committing fraud in ANY way, we may seek damages from you to the fullest extent permitted by law.  Further, we may ban you from participating in any of our future Sweepstakes, so please play fairly.

HOW CAN YOU FIND OUT WHO WON?

We will post the names of winners who received a prize worth $25.00 or more online at

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2012/10/22/microsoft-community-video-tips-holiday-2012-sweepstakes-winners.aspx 

This list will remain posted one month after December 17, 2012.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND THE OFFICIAL RULES?

The official rules will be posted here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2012/10/22/microsoft-community-video-tips-holiday-2012-sweepstakes-rules.aspx

WHO IS SPONSORING THIS SWEEPSTAKES?

Microsoft  Corporation

One Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

MICROSOFT MVP MICROSOFT STORE EVENT ATTENDEE  SWEEPSTAKES

OFFICIAL RULES

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. 

PLEASE NOTE:  It is your sole responsibility to review and understand your employer’s policies regarding your eligibility to participate in trade promotions.  If you are participating in violation of your employer’s policies, you may be disqualified from entering or receiving prizes.  Microsoft disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for disputes arising between an employee and their employer related to this matter, and prizes will only be awarded in compliance with the employer’s policies.

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: Microsoft is committed to complying with government gift and ethics rules and therefore government employees are not eligible.

COMMON TERMS USED IN THESE RULES:

These are the official rules that govern how the Microsoft MVP Microsoft Store Event Attndee sweepstakes  will operate. This promotion will be simply referred to as the “Sweepstakes”throughout the rest of these rules. 

In these rules, “we,” “our,” and “us”refer to Microsoft Corporation, the sponsor of the Sweepstakes. “You” refers to an eligible Sweepstakes entrant. 

WHAT ARE THE START AND END DATES?

This Sweepstakes starts at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on October 29, 2, 2012, and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on December 16, 2012 (“Entry Period”).  The Entry Period consists of 1 Prize Period.   Entries must be received within the Entry Period to be eligible.

CAN I ENTER?

You are eligible to enter this Sweepstakes if you meet the following requirements at time of entry:

·         You are a professional or enthusiast in the field of software / IT technology, and you are a legal resident of the 50 United States and District of Columbia 18 years of age or older; and

o  If you are 18 of age or older, but are considered a minor in your place of residence, you should ask your parent’s or legal guardian’s permission prior to submitting an entry into this Sweepstakes; and

·         You are NOT an employee of Microsoft Corporation or an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary; and

·         You are NOT involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes; and

·         You are NOT an immediate family (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes.

This Sweepstakes is void outside of the geographic area described above and wherever else prohibited by law.

HOW DO I ENTER?

You must attend one of the events hosted by a Microsoft MVP at a Microsoft Store from between October 29, 2012 and December 16, 2012. After attending the event, you must complete the online attendee survey located here:http://www.instant.ly/s/UadR-bV9wAA

Completing the event attendee survey includes stating, the city of the Microsoft Store that hosted the event, the first name of the presenter of the event, the day of the event, a rating of the event, whether the attendee would like to more of these event to be created, and whether the attendee intends to purchase a Microsoft Windows 8 product within the next 3 months. All repsonces will have NO affect on an attendees odds for winning a prize.

An attendee may submit one survey per MVP hosted event that they attend.

We are not responsible for entries that we do not receive for any reason, or for entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason.

We will automatically disqualify:

·         Any incomplete or illegible entry; and

·         Any entries that we receive from you that are in excess of the entry limit described above.

We are not responsible for Entries that we do not receive for any reason, or for entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason.  In addition Entries must meet the following criteria to be eligible:

·         your entry cannot have been selected as a winner in any other contest; and

·         you must have obtained any and all consents, approvals or licenses required for you to submit your entry; and

Entries may NOT contain, as determined by us, in our sole and absolute discretion, any content that:

·         obscene or offensive;

·         promotes alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms/weapons (or the use of any of the foregoing) or a particular political agenda;

·         communicates messages or images inconsistent with the positive images and/or good will to which we wish to associate; and/or violates any law;

We reserve the right to reject or disqualify any Entry, in our sole and absolute discretion, that we determine does not meet the above criteria.

HOW WILL MY ENTRY BE POTENTIALLY USED?

Other than what is set forth below, we are not claiming any ownership rights to your entry.  However, by submitting your entry, you:

·         are granting us an irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide right and license to: (i) use, review, assess, test and otherwise analyze your entry and all its content in connection with this Contest; and (ii) feature your entry and all content in connection with the marketing, sale, or promotion of this Contest (including but not limited to internal and external sales meetings, conference presentations, tradeshows, and screen shots of the Contest entry in press releases) in all media (now known or later developed)

·         agree to sign any necessary documentation that may be required for us and our designees to make use of the rights you granted above;

·         understand and acknowledge that the Sponsor(s) may have developed or commissioned materials similar or identical to your submission and you waive any claims you may have resulting from any similarities to your entry; 

·         understand that we cannot control the incoming information you will disclose to our representatives in the course of entering, or what our representatives will remember about your entry. You also understand that we will not restrict work assignments of representatives who have had access to your entry.  By entering this Contest, you agree that use of information in our representatives’ unaided memories in the development or deployment of our products or services does not create liability for us under this agreement or copyright or trade secret law; 

·         understand that you will not receive any compensation or credit for use of your entry, other than what is described in these Official Rules

Please note that following the end of this Sweepstakes your entry may be posted on a website selected by us for viewing by visitors to that website.  We are not responsible for any unauthorized use of your entry by visitors to this website.  While we reserve these rights, we are not obligated to use your entry for any purpose, even if it has been selected as a winning entry.

If you do not want to grant us these rights to your entry, please do not enter this Contest.

WINNER SELECTION AND PRIZES

On or around the close of the  Prize Period, we will randomly select 2 potential (pending confirmation of eligibility) Grand Prize winners from among all eligible entries received during the Entry Period.

(2) Grand Prizes:  ASUS VivoTab RT  -(total value is $599.99). Approximate Retail Value (ARV) $1199.98

The total Approximate Retail Value (ARV) of all prizes: $1199.98

We will only award one Grand prize per person during the Entry Period.

If you are a potential winner, we will notify you by sending a message to the e-mail address, the phone number, or mailing address (if any) provided at time of entry within seven (7) days following the random drawing.  If the notification that we send is returned as undeliverable, or you are otherwise unreachable for any reason, we may award the prize to an alternate, randomly selected winner.  Only three (3) alternate drawings will be held after which the applicable prize will remain un-awarded. If there is a dispute as to who is the potential winner, we will consider the potential winner to be the authorized account holder of the e-mail address used to enter the Sweepstakes . If you are a potential winner, we may require you to sign an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability/Publicity Release and a W-9 tax form or W-8 BEN tax form within 10 days of notification. If you are apotential winner and you are 18 or older, but are considered a minor in your place of legal residence, we may require your parent or legal guardian to sign all required forms on your behalf.  If you do not complete the required forms as instructed and/or return the required forms within the time period listed on the winner notification message, we may disqualify you and select an alternate, randomly selected winner. Only three (3) alternate drawings will be held after which the applicable prize will remain un-awarded.

If you are confirmed as a  winner of this Sweepstakes:

• You may not exchange your prize for cash or any other merchandise or services.  However, if for any reason an advertised prize is unavailable, we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value; and

• You may not designate someone else as the winner.  If you are unable or unwilling to accept your prize, we will award it to an alternate potential winner; and

• If you accept a prize, you will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the prize; and

• If you are otherwise eligible for this Sweepstakes, but are considered a minor in your place of residence, we may award the prize to your parent/legal guardian on your behalf; and

• Unless otherwise noted, all prizes are subject to their manufacturer’s warranty and / or terms and conditions. 

WHAT ARE YOUR ODDS OF WINNING?

Your odds of winning this Sweepstakes depend on the number of eligible entries we receive.

WHAT OTHER CONDITIONS ARE YOU AGREEING TO BY ENTERING THIS SWEEPSTAKES?

By entering this Sweepstakes you agree:

·         To abide by these Official Rules; and

·         To release and hold harmless Microsoft,and its respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees and agents from any and all liability or any injury, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with this Sweepstakes or any prize won; and

·         That Microsoft’s decisions will be final and binding on all matters related to this Sweepstakes; and

·         That by accepting a prize, Microsoft may use of your proper name and state of residence online and in print, or in any other media, in connection with this Sweepstakes, without payment or compensation to you, except where prohibited by law.

WHAT LAWS GOVERN THE WAY THIS SWEEPSTAKES IS EXECUTED AND ADMINISTRATED?

This Sweepstakes will be governed by the laws of the State of Washington, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of the State of Washington for any disputes arising out of this Sweepstakes.  

WHAT IF SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENS AND THE SWEEPSTAKES CAN’T RUN AS PLANNED?

If cheating, a virus, bug, catastrophic event, or any other unforeseen or unexpected event that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled, (also referred to as force majeure)affects the fairness and / or integrity of this Sweepstakes, we reserve the right to cancel, change or suspend this Sweepstakes.  This right is reserved whether the event is due to human or technical error. If a solution cannot be found to restore the integrity of the Sweepstakes, we reserve the right randomly to select winners from among all eligible entries received before we had to cancel, change or suspend the Sweepstakes.

If youattempt to compromise the integrity or the legitimate operation of this Sweepstakes by hacking or by cheating or committing fraud in ANY way, we may seek damages from you to the fullest extent permitted by law.  Further, we may ban you from participating in any of our future Sweepstakes, so please play fairly.

HOW CAN YOU FIND OUT WHO WON?

We will post the names of winners who received a prize worth $25.00 or more online at

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2012/10/22/microsoft-mvp-community-education-at-microsoft-stores-sweepstakes-winners.aspx

This list will remain posted one month after December 17, 2012.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND THE OFFICIAL RULES?

The official rules will be posted here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mvpawardprogram/archive/2012/10/22/microsoft-mvp-community-education-at-microsoft-stores-sweepstakes-rules.aspx

WHO IS SPONSORING THIS SWEEPSTAKES?

Microsoft  Corporation

One Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

1. Continuous Delivery to Windows Azure Not Only Microsoft Style with TeamCity

By Windows Azure MVP Magnus Martensson - @noopman

2. Phone 8 Wallet III : WalletAgents

By Visual C# MVP Olivier Matis - @GuruuMeditation

3. Windows 8 on HP Envy 15-1050nr

By Visual Studio ALM MVP Marcelo Hideaki Azuma - @marceloazuma

4. Sharing Code: Windows 8 and Windows Phone

By Windows Phone Development MVP Matt Hidinger - @MattHidinger

5.  Authenticating users in Windows Azure Mobile Services

By Development Platforms MVP Chris Klug

About the author

David Pallmann, a Windows Azure MVP, is the GM of App Dev for Neudesic, a national Microsoft SI partner, where he leads Windows Azure technical readiness, IP development, and business development. David has 3 decades of experience in software development. Prior to Neudesic he worked at Microsoft on the WCF product team, and has served in CTO roles at a variety of pubilc and private companies. David has written 4 technical books including The Windows Azure Handbook, Volume 1. He resides in Southern California.  Follow him on Twitter.

About MVP Mondays

The MVP Monday Series is created by Melissa Travers. In this series we work to provide readers with a guest post from an MVP every Monday. Melissa is a Community Program Manager, formerly known as MVP Lead, for Messaging and Collaboration (Exchange, Lync, Office 365 and SharePoint) and Microsoft Dynamics in the US. She began her career at Microsoft as an Exchange Support Engineer and has been working with the technical community in some capacity for almost a decade. In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, shopping for handbags, watching period and fantasy dramas, and spending time with her children and miniature Dachshund. Melissa lives in North Carolina and works out of the Microsoft Charlotte office.

1. Building your first Project Server app : Part Zero–The introduction

By Project MVP Alex Burton - @alexanderb

2. Exchange Server 2013: Deploying a new DAG – Pre-stating the CNO

By Exchange Server MVP Anderson Patricio – @apatricio

3. Installing Windows Azure SDK on Visual Studio 2012

By Server Solutions MVP Dhananjay Kumar – @debug_mode

4. WinPatrol 2013 Enhanced for Windows 8

By Consumer Security MVP Bill Pytlovany – @BillP

5. Add useful extensions to the BitArray class in C#

By Development Tools MVP Rod Stephens

Editor’s note: The following post was written by Microsoft Integration MVP Winson Woo

Keeping Windows 8 (UI) Clean!

Windows 8 provides a massive paradigm shift in terms of the operating system user interface and functionality. We have seen this quite clearly, especially with the marketing which Microsoft has done with the product. The focus is on cool user interface, the introduction around RT but little is said around the under the cover features. There is however an easy way for the new user interface to become easily cluttered. This may lead to frustration as it will become increasingly difficult to find items for a tablet user.

The following “Quick Tip” examines the UI on Windows 8 and how to make the most of this new tablet paradigm by keeping it clean.

New User Interface Clean up

The new user interface has been shown in many different demos and publications.

As with the Start, “All Programs” in Windows 95 all the way to Windows 7, people were becoming less and less diligent with keeping their program names clean and most users’ “All Programs” are quite the mess from all the different items we install and potentially uninstall from a day to day basis.

The paradigm shift to show all installed programs in the Start screen exposes this very flaw. RT style apples are not an issue but if you install older compatible applications, they will show typical Program names, Uninstalls, ReadMe etc.

To see the majority of the programs you need to interface with, you need to select the Show Administrative Tools in the Start >> Settings >> Tiles

The HelpLauncher application is a Help library from a freeware application.

From a tablet user paradigm, this is considered to be the“Desktop” when surfing, looking at Tile updates. Clutter will certainly detract from this. IT Pro users or power users can simply select the tile (right click by mouse, or up sweep with your finger ) to show the context menu

Selecting the  “Unpin from Start” will remove it from the Start Menu.

Not to worry as this can easily put back by selecting the“Pin to Start” Option

Note that for Enterprise Deployments, there are MDT scripts and non attended installs which may provide a customized clean look of the user interface.  This is covered in more detail here.

Conclusion

Windows 8 has the ability to truly create a new paradigm that can bring together the corporate user and the consumer. One item that can help ensure that the consumer table paradigm is successful is to keep the main interface free of clutter and clean.

About the author

Winson Woo is a Senior Business/Technology Professional with extensive Business
and IT expertise and a valued team player with strong leadership qualities.
Being proficient at Business Process Re-Engineering, managing the System
Development Life Cycle of projects, providing supporting Operations support
procedures and chairing meetings at all levels, Mr. Woo can conceptualize ideas
and drive them to completion on time and on budget while maintain customer
satisfaction. Mr. Woo's focus continues to be highly focused on the Microsoft
Server family including SharePoint, BizTalk and Dynamics CRM.  Follow him
on Twitter.

About MVP Mondays

The MVP Monday Series is created by Melissa Travers. In this series we work to provide readers with a guest post from an MVP every Monday. Melissa is a Community Program Manager, formerly known as MVP Lead, for Messaging and Collaboration (Exchange, Lync, Office 365 and SharePoint) and Microsoft Dynamics in the US. She began her career at Microsoft as an Exchange Support Engineer and has been working with the technical community in some capacity for almost a decade. In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, shopping for handbags, watching period and fantasy dramas, and spending time with her children and miniature Dachshund. Melissa lives in North Carolina and works out of the Microsoft Charlotte office.

Automated Build-Deploy-Test using TFS 2012

Editor’s note: The following post was written by Visual Studio ALM MVP Anuj Chaudhary

The automated build, deploy and test mechanism in TFS 2012 provides the ability to perform automated build, deploy and test on demand. A daily build could be scheduled which builds the latest code, deploys it to an environment and runs the tests on it. The build can be scheduled to run on a daily basis or on every check in to make sure that we test often and test early. To read more, click here

Shim Saves The Day in A Tricky Unit Test Situation

Editor’s note: The following post was written by Visual C# MVP William Wegerson

This is a story that actually happened to me and it illustrates how I could have used Visual Studio 2012 testing framework of fakes and shims to overcome an insurmountable testing failure that transpired at that time.

It all happened on a contract that I took at a financial company. They had an existing system going all the way back to VB6 and were just now (then) sprinkling in WPF into their existing system. They were unit testing freaks and by God or Buddha there had to be a unit test for every piece of code owned and even some that they didn’t own. If the blanket of code coverage didn’t safely tuck in the crying assemblies at night with a nice pacifier the project lead would wrap my knuckles like mother superior over a biblical infraction on the school yard. In retrospect I am linked-in to him this day so this story doesn’t turn out half bad. To read more, click here

Caller Details

Editor's note: The following blog post was written by Visual C# MVP Dustin Davis

There is no lack of new features in Visual Studio 2012. But even with all the bells, whistles and menu titles that yell at me, I wanted to look for meat closer to the bone. What I found were some neat additions to help with tracing and debugging.

With Visual Studio 2012 we get three new attributes from the System.Runtime.CompilerServices namespace, CallerMemberNameAttribute, CallerFilePathAttribute and CallerLineNumberAttribute. Using these attributes we can collect certain information about the code execution without having to do any additional work. As much as I love using reflection, these attributes are a welcome addition to my tool belt. To read more, click here

New Code Review feature in Visual Studio 2012

Editor’s note: The following MVP Monday post was written by Visual Studio ALM MVP Esteban Garcia

Code reviews are a critical part of software development. Not only do they help you keep you defect-count down, they are also a great way to learn from other people's code. Code reviews also allow teams to communicate changes to the application with their peers.

There have been a few different ways to incorporate code reviews into Visual Studio in the past, including some third party components. For the first time, Visual Studio 2012 includes a Code Review process out of the box by leveraging the Team Foundation Server Work Item Tracking system along with the use of shelvesets. All the information is easily accessible through the redesigned Team Explorer window and Team Foundation Server Web Access. This allows code reviewers to compare code files, annotate them, and send comments back to the requester. To read more, click here

Working with Multiple Solution Explorer Windows in Visual Studio 2012

Editor’s note: The following post was written by Visual Basic MVP Deborah Kurata

How many monitors can fit on your desk? As many as possible! It’s great that Visual Studio allows you to view your source code on both monitors. Visual Studio 2012 has enhanced its support of multiple monitors by allowing you to display multiple copies of Solution Explorer.

Open one of your solutions in Visual Studio 2012. Then open several files. Drag several tabs over to your second monitor to build a “raft”of tabs. If you want to see the same code file on both monitors, click the tab and select Window | New Window from the menu to create a second copy of the file. Then drag one copy to your second monitor. To read more, click here

Building a Windows 8 Touch application with WinRT JavaScript and Html5

Editor’s note: The following post was written by ASP.NET MVP Peter Kellner

Introduction

With the introduction of WinRT (which replaces the Win32 API we are all use to), Microsoft has provided JavaScript programmers first class access to system libraries previously unavailable. That is, because WinRT is available directly to JavaScript, device access (GPS, motion sensors, etc.) are all available directly to the application with no special security layer. That said, WinRT also brings with it restrictions which a typical browser does not have. Because it is possible with such tight access to the OS for applications to do harm, WinRT has a sophisticated security model in place to keep bad things from happening. In addition, a WinRT app forces you application to behave nicely or it may not work. For example, if you application takes too long to start, the WinRT library will automatically stop the application from proceeding.

Microsoft has done a good job of balancing the needs of many with the needs of a few with WinRT. That is, your application is really the needs of a few (well, you alone), while the needs of many (all the other applications and services running on your device) are all looked out for. To read more, click here

Continuous Feedback using Storyboarding, Code Reviews, and the Feedback Tool in Visual Studio 2012 ALM

Editor’s note: The following blog post was written by Visual Studio ALM MVP Mike Douglas

One of the key advantages of Agile or any other kind of iterative development process is to receive feedback early and often throughout the development process instead of waiting until the end. Traditionally this has been accomplished by teams working closely together where the decision makers can simply turn around to tell developers what they like and don't like. This type of collaboration becomes much more difficult with distributed development teams. Visual Studio 2012 has introduced several tools to help distributed teams collaborate better by being able to request, provide, and receive feedback throughout the development process. To read more, click here

This year, more than 850 MVPs representing 17 countries gathered together in cities across the globe to participate in 10 Open Days events.   These events feature technical sessions designed to enhance the community’s understanding of new Microsoft products, existing tools and new techniques.  But MVPs don’t come to learn just from Microsoft teams; many also present during Open Days, which allows MVPs to share their real-world knowledge of Microsoft technologies  in “Ask an Expert” sessions, key note speeches and technical sessions.   Below are the highlights from some of the recent worldwide Open Day events.

China

Approximately 107 MVPs from the China Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan gathered in Beijing for the 2012 GCR MVP Open Days.  The event featured technical break out sessions which covered topics ranging from Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 to Windows Phone 8 and the new Office.

“The technical breakout sessions are very exciting with riche content,” said one MVP.

In addition to the various technical discussions, 39 MVPs earned top honors and were recognized for their outstanding contributions in the past year.  MVPs didn’t waste any time while at the event, not even to eat.  MVPs scheduled breakfast and lunch meetings to continue sharing and absorbing the quantity of information being shared.

“During this breakfast meeting, I learned more about Microsoft than I had before and better understand the direction Microsoft is heading,” said ASP.NET/IIS MVP Shoubin yang.

Europe

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Munich was host to 100 MVPs from around Europe as experts gathered to learn, network and share their expertise. The two day event featured 15 sessions covering a wide range of topics such as Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, Office 365, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media.  Check out a great video recap from the German MVP Open Day event including interviews with Microsoft team members and MVPs.  To read more, click here

Spain and Portugal

This year’s Spain/Portugal Open Days event was held in conjunction with TechDay 2012.  The two-day event was lauded as a great success due in part to the high participation of MVPs.  A total of 58 MVPs lent their knowledge and expertise to the community through a variety of presentations, breakout sessions and “Ask the Expert” panels.  One MVP even spent the better part of a day performing a robotics demonstration at the “MVP Experts Booth.”  Organizers created achievement badges for attendees to show who deployed an Azure site, published an app, attended a lab and had their picture taken with an evangelist.   One MVP was overheard saying that this year’s event was, “THE best Open Day in history!”

Korea

The University of Seoul was home to 78 MVPs during a two-day event in which 12 MVPs received the 2012 Korean MVP Contribution Award.  The Korean Open Days event started off with a knowledge donation seminar presented by 9 MVPs at which university students, IT professionals, NGO group members and others were able to learn more about a variety of Microsoft technologies, including the newly released Windows 8.

“The MVP sessions were so well prepared.  We hope to have follow-up sessions,” said University Computer Center CIO Seongjong Choi.  To read more click here

Central Eastern Europe and Italy

Recently more than 85 MVPs from 18 countries came together for the second annual Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) & Italy MVP Open Days.  It was hosted in the beautiful venue of Osijek, right in the middle of the region (close to Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Romania),where  we had a great opportunity to network, strengthen relationships with MVPs in the region, and gather valuable MVP product and program feedback.  To read more, click here

Paris

MVPs gathered in Paris this October to attend the French Open Days event.   A wide variety of technical discussions were led by MVPs on a number of different topics including: Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, SQL Server and Windows Azure.  When all was said and done, 56 MVPs participated in the event held in the Microsoft France Conference Center.   After a long day of sessions, attendees had a chance to network, meet new colleagues and relax in Paris’s City Center.

MVPs took to Microsoft stores this holiday season to share their knowledge and spread a little technology cheer.  A total of 43 MVPs volunteered their time and energy to answer questions and give presentations on new Microsoft technologies and techniques.  MVPs  spoke directly with Microsoft customers at 19 different Microsoft stores during an impressive 78 expert sessions. 

With the highly anticipated releases of Windows 8 and the Surface, Microsoft stores were quickly packed with shoppers eager to get their hands on the latest products and learn about new features.

“I was surprised at the capabilities of Microsoft PowerPoint and the ability to create custom graphics. Sandy did a great job,” commented one session goer after PowerPoint MVP Sandy Johnson’s presentation.

MVPs covered new technologies and features like Windows Phone 8, Xbox, SkyDrive and, of course Windows 8. During one MVP presentation, consumers were able to sit down immediately after purchasing a Surface and learn about Windows 8 and the features of their new tablet.

MVPs had access to various technologies inside the Microsoft stores to help enhance the experience of attendees. This allowed cutomers to get a hands-on learning session and ask questions about their new purchases.

Guest blogger Mike Hickman is Microsoft’s Director of Global Community Engagement, including the MVP Award.

This has been a momentous year for the MVP community. We are poised to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the MVP Award and, as I look back on 2012, it serves to highlight the remarkable, dynamic nature of this community.

As the most recent, ambitious wave of Microsoft products reaches homes and offices around the world, the global MVP community is reaching out in new and innovative ways to help people make the most of their technologies.

Here are some examples:

·         MVPs hit the road for the Windows Server 2012 Roadshow, contributing their real-world expertise in more than 20 countries.  

·         This year more than 60% of the global launch events for Visual Studio 2012 featured MVP sponsorship or presentations (you can read some of their posts here).

·         In more than 40 languages, MVPs’ blogs, forum answers and presentations have helped people around the world as they make the move to Windows 8.

But, as always, the role MVPs play in the advancement of new technologies begins long before products launch. At last year’s MVP Global Summit, where MVPs were meeting privately with product teams from across the company, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and the Visual Studio 11 beta went public. Windows Azure corporate vice president Jason Zander personally asked MVPs to give his team their feedback. At the recent Windows 8 launch,  S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Developer Division, summed up their contributions: “Thanks to the MVPs for helping us build the right products as well as being the core part of our vibrant community,” he said.

In addition to the tens of thousands of people MVPs reach each day through social media, in forums, at user groups gatherings and as presenters at technology conferences around the world, MVPs have offered their advice and best practices through a host of Community Video Tips (you can see—and contribute—tips here). They’ve also greatly expanded their efforts to work directly with Microsoft customers, so far providing an impressive 78 sessions in Microsoft Stores this holiday season.

MVPs’ commitment to continually learning about and providing their feedback on Microsoft technologies is demonstrated through their willingness to take time out of their busy schedules to join Microsoft teams at in-person events around the world. This year, 850 MVPs representing 17 countries gathered together in cities across the globe to participate in ten Microsoft Open Day Events. And, as they have for nearly 20 years, we are looking forward to many more MVPs joining us in February for the 2013 MVP Global Summit at Microsoft’s corporate headquarters in Redmond.

On behalf of everyone here at Microsoft, I would like to extend my gratitude for the MVP community’s numerous and valuable contributions to enhancing the experience of technology users around the world. Here’s to a wonderful new year—and a truly memorable 20-year celebration!

1. Deploy an on-premise VM to Windows Azure with App Controller

By SCCDM MVP John Joyner - @john_joyner

2. Where I can find SQL Generated by Entity framework?

By Visual C# MVP Jalpesh P. Vadgama

3. SSAS: Executing MDX Scope Statements Using SSMS

By SQL Server Darren Gosbell - @darrengosbell

4. ALM Support and Suggestion Links for Visual Studio and Windows Phone

By Visual Studio ALM MVP Jeff Bramwell - @jbramwell

5. Preventing high speed socket communication on Windows Phone 8 going south when using async/await

By Windows Phone Development MVP Joost van Schaik - @LocalJoost

MVPs have shared their expertise and skills throughout 2012 by guest blogging for our MVP Monday series.  Here are the top 5 posts of 2012.  Thanks MVPs for your tireless contributions to the technological community!

5. Using sys.dm_os_ring_buffers To Diagnose Memory Issues in SQL Server

By SQL Server MVP Grant Fritchey

Because of the ways that SQL Server interacts with the Windows operating system, memory and memory management between the two can be pretty confusing. If you just look at the allocated memory within the operating system on a standard SQL Server configuration you’ll probably see all, or most, of the memory is used up by SQL Server. Within SQL Server if you look at resource counters like total server memory, these too don’t provide much information to help you determine whether or not you are experiencing pressure due to inadequate memory on your system. You need to be able to quickly and easily determine if you are experiencing memory issues. Taking advantage of the dynamic management object (DMO) sys.dm_os_ring_buffers can get you that quick and accurate determination if you have memory problems and if they’re coming from the Windows operating system or within SQL Server.  To read the entire post, click here

4.  MVPs for Office 365: Pre-Populating InfoPath 2010 Forms

By SharePoint Server MVP Clayton Cobb.

One of the most powerful features of InfoPath 2010 is the ability to dynamically populate fields in the form
with already-known data without input from the user – or with minimal input. With out-of-the-box (OOTB)
list forms, we cannot do this, which makes OOTB forms very limiting in their native form. However, once
we switch to InfoPath forms,the possibilities increase immensely.

In this article, we will provide a prequel to the article by Laura Rogers named SharePoint Designer
Workflow Tasks and InfoPath 2010. In that article, Laura showed us how to display relevant Expense
Report data when working with task forms within a SharePoint Designer workflow. In this article, I will
show you how to auto-populate data in the original form that the user is filling out to trigger the workflow,
and my scenario will be a Leave Request approval system, which is another common process in most
organizations. To read the entire post, click here

3. SQL Server 2012: Migrating BLOBs to FILETABLEs

by SQL Server MVP Matija Lah

The storage of large data used to present quite a challenge in previous versions of SQL Server, especially prior to SQL Server 2008. Although appropriate data types were already available in earlier versions of the platform (e.g. IMAGE, VARBINARY(MAX), or even TEXT, or NTEXT data types), the maintenance, as well as consumption, of large data, stored in the database, was cumbersome at best. This left many database developers with two choices: either to store large data in the database and face all the challenges of moving it in and out of there, or place it outside the database and deal with another set of similarly difficult challenges of keeping the files in sync with the metadata.

Large data management has changed significantly with the arrival of SQL Server 2008, introducing FILESTREAM, an alternative method of storing large data in a dedicated filegroup (rather than together with the rest of the data); in a way that also allowed client applications direct access to large object files. The client application could, after receiving an appropriate file handle from the Database Engine, consume the file as a stream, rather than having to load it in its entirety, and twice for that matter – first into the Database Engine, and then into the application. To read the entire post, click here

2. Leveraging Office 365 for Project Collaboration Success

By SharePoint Server MVP Dux Raymond

Are you stuck in an environment where project management procedure is more of a happy accident than a smooth process that properly employs tools that will enhance collaborative processes on projects?

Currently, you may be working in an enterprise where most project management efforts are ad hoc and not organized for maximum efficiency and effectiveness. In such scenarios, you may be used to using email, spreadsheets, Word documents, a file share (or ideally, SharePoint), and mobile devices to manage your projects.

These tools are integral to effective collaboration, but they don’t always provide a keenly robust project management solution on their own, without an established process in place to define how they’re used and integration to ensure that all project information is synced and collected in a central location. To read the entire post, click here

1. An Introduction to New Features in C# 5.0

By Visual C# MVP Fahao Tang

1. C# Evolution Matrix

Microsoft just published a new version of C# : 5.0 beta with CLR version 4.5 (Visual Studio 11 beta).
In order to get a big picture of the whole evolution of C# language, I summarized all the key features
into a C# Evolution Matrix for your reference as below diagram shows:

To read the entire post, click here

About MVP Mondays

The MVP Monday Series is created by Melissa Travers. In this series we work to provide readers with a guest post from an MVP every Monday. Melissa is a Community Program Manager, formerly known as MVP Lead, for Messaging and Collaboration (Exchange, Lync, Office 365 and SharePoint) and Microsoft Dynamics in the US. She began her career at Microsoft as an Exchange Support Engineer and has been working with the technical community in some capacity for almost a decade. In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, shopping for handbags, watching period and fantasy dramas, and spending time with her children and miniature Dachshund. Melissa lives in North Carolina and works out of the Microsoft Charlotte office.

Happy New Year! Today, 943 exemplary community leaders around the world were notified that they have received the MVP Award! These individuals were chosen because they have demonstrated their deep commitment to helping others make the most of their technology, voluntarily sharing their passion and real-world knowledge of Microsoft products with the community.

While there are more than 100 million social and technical community members, only a small portion are selected to be recognized as MVPs. Each year, around 4,000 MVPs are honored. They are nominated by Microsoft, other community individuals, or in some cases themselves. Candidates are rigorously evaluated for their technical expertise, community leadership, and voluntary community contributions for the previous year. They come from more than 90 countries, speak over 40 different languages, and are awarded in more than 90 Microsoft technologies. Together, they answer more than 10 million questions a year!

MVPs are recognized each quarter for this annual award, which continues to grow and evolve to reflect the development of Microsoft technologies.

Congratulations to the new MVPs, and welcome back to renewed MVPs. We are very excited to recognize your amazing accomplishments!

1. Deploying Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 on Azure – Introduction

By Dynamics GP MVP Mariano Gomez - @dgpblogster

2. [Windows (Phone) 8] Using SignalR in Windows (Phone) 8 apps!

BY Client App Dev MVP Thomas Lebrun - @thomas_lebrun

3. FriendlyURL : A new and exciting feature of ASP.NET

By ASP.NET/IIS MVP Brij Bhushan Mishra - @brij_bhushan

4. Using OAB Global Web Distribution in Exchange Server 2010

By Exchange Server MVP Anderson Patricio - @apatricio

5. Passing Data beween forms redux

By C# MVP Bonnie Dweitt - @BonnieB_DeWitt

Editor’s Note: In partnership with Microsoft Press, MVPs have been contributing to an ongoing guest series on their official team blog. Today’s article is from Visual C# MVP Peter Ritchie which is the 22nd in the series

Different deployment options in Windows 8

If you're used to some other app store or hub/portal-based deployment models, you might think that an externally hosted "store" might be the only option for deploying Windows 8 apps. That's simply not the case.

Windows 8 isn't just about consumer footprint devices; it's also about corporate and line of business (LOB) applications. Windows 8 is optimized for consumer electronics like touch laptops and tablets, but these form factors are also extremely important for a variety of organizations and businesses. There are a variety of businesses that can get a huge benefit out of a small, simple, touch device like a tablet. Vertical businesses like medical, on-site-customer relationship, service-oriented, etc.

If you think that the deployment option for Windows 8 applications will be the Windows Store, you might think that vertical LOB application deployment would be extremely difficult. Either you simply couldn't allow your app into the store for public consumption or you'd have to manually sideload a device at a time. That would be very limiting for larger organizations; but there are other options. 

Continue reading full article here.

About the author

Peter Ritchie is a software development consultant. Peter is president of Peter Ritchie Inc. Software Consulting Co., a software consulting company in Canada's National Capital Region specializing in Windows-based software development management, process, and implementation consulting. Peter has worked with such clients as Mitel, Nortel, Passport Canada, Innvapost from mentoring to architecture to implementation. Peter has considerable experience building software development teams and working with startups towards agile software development. Peter's range of experience ranges from designing and implement simple stand-alone applications to architecting n-tier applications spanning dozens of computers; from C++ to C#.

Peter is also the author of Refactoring with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 http://bit.ly/c13trs and Visual Studio 2010 Best Practices http://bit.ly/Px43Pw.  Follow him on Twitter.

About MVP Mondays

The MVP Monday Series is created by Melissa Travers. In this series we work to provide readers with a guest post from an MVP every Monday. Melissa is a Community Program Manager, formerly known as MVP Lead, for Messaging and Collaboration (Exchange, Lync, Office 365 and SharePoint) and Microsoft Dynamics in the US. She began her career at Microsoft as an Exchange Support Engineer and has been working with the technical community in some capacity for almost a decade. In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, shopping for handbags, watching period and fantasy dramas, and spending time with her children and miniature Dachshund. Melissa lives in North Carolina and works out of the Microsoft Charlotte office.

1. C#/.NET Little Wonders: The Parallel.Invoke() Method

By Visual C# James Michael Hare – @BlkRabbitCoder

2. Windows Server 2012 NIC Teaming Part 4 – Load Distribution

By Virtual Machine MVP Aidan Finn – @joe_elway

3. Splash Screens in Windows Phone 8–Who moved my cheese?

By Silverlight MVP Michael Crump - @mbcrump

4. Question: Difference between a struct and a class in C#

By Silverlight MVP Kunal Chowdhury – @kunal2383

5. The Role of Interfaces in TypeScript -

By Outlook MVP Diane Poremsky – @dicot

Editor’s note: The following post was written by Visual Studio ALM MVP Ridi Ferdiana

Abstract

Windows 8 provides you a good opportunity to create your local market. This activity can be done by creating useful and unique Windows Store application. In this article, it provides you an eight tips to sell your software in Windows Store. This tips is intended to individual developer who want to sell their application to the Store. By reading this article, an individual can build and sell a good and appealing product by leaving a common mistake that happens in many individual developer.

Tips 1. Starting from simple and “long tail” software solution

Have you heard about long tail opportunity by Chris Anderson? In Windows 8, Long tail means an application that has an opportunity to be used by many people. Long tail is about the market of your software. Long tail is about how you create a huge market from daily use of many consumer application. It’s easy to say but you should try it by “testing the water”. “Testing the water” is deploying your free application to the market and see the result. Here are the walkthrough to do this tips:

1. Visiting Windows store and see what great application there. You can do that by seeing top free category. Figure 1 shows you that many high rating application is a consumer application.

2. Download the software, try a little bit and shape your simple and unique idea. You can do this step iteratively and pick an application that you interested most.

3. Please note, that a good and high rating software is different for each country. If you want to see a top free in another country, just changes your local region to the another country that you wish.

4. It’s your “water test”, so be sure to create as simple as possible Windows store apps. I recommend you to build a software based on blank template in Visual Studio 2012. One page application will do!

5. It’s is your decision to build the free one or directly with the paid one. If you believe your tail market, go build the paid one without “test the water”

Figure 1 Top Free Application as your main idea gateway

Tips 2 Giving Reasonable Price for Your Solution

Price is about how fast you need to get your ROI (Return of Investment). Giving a high price means you just need less download to cover your ROI? However, giving a high price means your customer need further consideration before he buys your application. Reasonable price is about giving a best buck for their money. In Windows Store, many good and casual application sell in $2.99-$4.99. If you see a further, you can see simple application can be tagged as low as $1.49. So how about your software? Here are the tips:

1. If you did “testing water” and release your free application. You can see how much your application is downloaded. For example, I released my application in November 1, 2012. In November 30, 2012 my free software is downloaded 3000 times. It means the software has 100 times daily. 100 daily download is great! But it is free application, people don’t need further consideration when download your application. The statistic just shows a market opportunity of your application. If you see >100 download you can start build a similar software with a good price and off course better features.

2. As shown in Figure 2, Microsoft give you wide variety of your software price starting $1.49 to $999.99. Pick a good price by considering your investment. For example, if you spent $1000 to build the software and you pick $1.49 for your software, you will get 1$ for each download (there are rule 70% for you and 30% for Store). Therefore, you need 1000 download to get your ROI.

3. Give a good price, look at similar application and put your application price by considering it. Make your potential consumer never think the price when buy your application.

Figure 2 Pick a price tier is about your ROI and Future Revenue

Tips 3 Reaching the entire world by using plain English

This is the simplest tip in this article. The point is to select all markets as a target of your application. Figure 3 shows how you do that in the Developer dashboard.

Figure 3 Get better visibility by selecting the entire markets

In return, you should create your application with English language and others language that you want to support. A good advice is just use plain English and you are ready to go to reach the markets. You can set the language via Package Manifest in Visual Studio. Figure 4 shows the Package App Manifest in Visual Studio. I recommend you to always recheck the language in Package Manifest by switching to the code view (just right click in Package App Manifest and select view code).

Figure 4 Package app manifest in Visual Studio

Tips 4 Rich Keywords for better visibility

Keywords are your key in Windows Store search. Adding a proper keywords will help your customer to get your application based on their need. Windows Store provides you to put seven keywords and you should use wisely. Figure 5 shows you a dialog to put keyword. Here are the tips.

1. Use noun, try to avoid verb if possible. Keyword like ‘travel’ is better than ‘go’,

2. Put similarity. If you have a word about your app, try to find alternative word. For example, if you have a keyword “Finance” you can use other keyword like “Money” or “Wallet”

3. Adding a brand. If you are creating an application that based on popular application you can use that name, of course with their permission.

Figure 5 Keywords in Windows Store

Tips 5 Use the power of Screenshot

Screenshot is just like your application cover. Great screenshot will give you better opportunity to get the customer. Screenshot is vital for your application. Here are the tips:

1. Never manipulate the image, use just simulator to do the screenshot

2. Upload more than 3 images and describe it wisely

3. Never upload alike screenshot, present your screenshot as your unique value

Figure 6 Screenshot as a cover off your application

Tips 6 Never Neglecting the Promotional Image

If you want your application in a store highlight, my advice is to prepare promotional images. Figure 7 shows that you should create promotional image in four different shape. Create at least one, but I recommend you to create four.

Figure 7 Promotional Image as your added value

Tips 7 Reducing your solution size

When a customer download your application, they should get the best value of their money. Don’t make them disappointed because your application is take longer to download. In this case, efficiency take a serious consideration. Efficiency is not about only about your codes but also about your files. If you build your application based on a Visual Studio Template (like Grid Template), you should aware that some of files is not used. For example, the old icon, the old codes, or the others assets. Visual Studio doesn’t tell you about the unused resources so it is your job to solve it. Here are the tips

1. Visual Studio 2012 has a great template and efficient code samples. Therefore, less of the codes will be unused. The assets like image and icon is mostly unused since you build your own logo. Be sure to remove old logo, splash screen, and others unused assets

2. Reducing the graphics size. PNG can be compressed in several ways. For example you can reduce the quality or color depth. The free application like Paint.NET or Expression Design works great for this.

3. Removing the unused references. For example, you play around with an ads library for Windows 8 and you add the references for it. In the next day you decide not to use it. Visual studio 2012 doesn’t detect that, so it is your job to remove it manually.

Tips 8 the Application Lifecycle Management Tasks

Application lifecycle management (ALM) is not only about the Team Foundation Server (TFS) but it also about the software engineering discipline. When you sell your application to the international market, it will take longer than you submit it for specific country. ALM teach us to create efficient development process through define, develop, and operate steps. The point is how you create a release plan for each of your application. Here are the tips:

1. Define you scope application

a. Query a lot about the application keywords that you plan to build.

b. Download or buy the existing app and find your unique value for your application

c. Composing a team at least one developer and one designer.

d. Planning your application, do a shared vision and create the user stories with your designer or developer

e. Reserved your application name in Windows store

f. Choosing whether using HTML5 or C#. Both of them have different productivity angle and it’s different from one team to the others.

g. Kick of the project, and make sure to hit the date. Choose a good date for your customer such as winter season, holiday season, or a black Friday.

h. Set a good price for your customer.

2. Develop your application

a. Setting up the development infrastructure such as TFS, SQL Azure, and others.

b. Developing your application assets. Such as logo, wide logo, notification toast logo, splash screen, and of course a good UX for your application.

c. Building your prototype in one project iteration.

d. Testing your prototype to the potential user, build a list of feedback log.

e. Develop your application, be sure to pass Windows Application Certification Kit (WACK)

f. Do the unit test, do the user acceptance test. Be sure to deliver less bug in first version of your application.

3. Operate your application

a. Fulfill the tax profile as complete as possible.

b. Submit your application to the Windows Store when your tax profile is approved

c. Download and buy your own application when it’s already in the store. Play with your application ask yourself is good or not.

d. Use your application dashboard in Windows Store to see the rating and heard what your customer said in their review.

e. Revise your application and make your customer happy.

About The Author

Ridi is a lecturer and researcher in Universitas Gadjah Mada Indonesia. He finished doctoral degree in Software Engineering (ALM) focusing in Agile methodology. Since 2007, He has several Microsoft certifications such as MCTS, MCPD, MCITP, and MCT. As an Microsoft MVP, Ridi loves to write his thought at blog.ridilabs.net or tweet on his twitter at @ridife. You can reach Ridi through ridi@mvps.org

About MVP Mondays

The MVP Monday Series is created by Melissa Travers. In this series we work to provide readers with a guest post from an MVP every Monday. Melissa is a Community Program Manager, formerly known as MVP Lead, for Messaging and Collaboration (Exchange, Lync, Office 365 and SharePoint) and Microsoft Dynamics in the US. She began her career at Microsoft as an Exchange Support Engineer and has been working with the technical community in some capacity for almost a decade. In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, shopping for handbags, watching period and fantasy dramas, and spending time with her children and miniature Dachshund. Melissa lives in North Carolina and works out of the Microsoft Charlotte office.

1. Easily make owner-drawn ComboBoxes display with images and text in C#

By Visual Basic MVP Rod Stephens – @CSharpHelper

2. Table Storage 2.0 – Queries

By Windows Azure MVP Tyler Doerksen - @tyler_gd

3. Provisioning the Work Management Service Application

By SharePoint MVP Sean Wallbridge - @itgroove

4. Joins are Commutative and SQL Server Knows it

By SQL Server Michael J. Swart – @MJSwart

5. Playing sounds on Windows Phone using the MVVMLight Messenger

By Windows Phone Developer MVP Joost van Schaik – @LocalJoost

Editor’s note:  The following post was written by SharePoint MVP Jean Paul

SharePoint 2013 introduced a new feature called Apps. Apps are self-contained pieces of functionality that extends the capabilities of a SharePoint website. 

Apps will be executed outside the SharePoint Server, and in the Client machine or in the Cloud.  This makes Apps makes easier installation& cleanup.  Sandboxed Solutions are deprecated and new custom solutions should be provided through Apps.

The Advantages provided by Apps can be divided into following categories:

1.      Advantages to Users

2.      Advantages to Administrators

3.      Advantages to Developers

Advantages to Users

Following are the advantages of Apps from the User perspective:

1.      Apps are available through:

a.      App Catalog within Organization

b.      App Store outside Organization

2.      Apps provides easiest discover & installation

3.      More Apps are available through SharePoint App Store as compared with Sandboxed Solutions.

4.      Apps provides future upgrade support

Advantages to Administrators

Following are the advantages of Apps from the Administrator perspective:

1.      Apps are Safer than Sandboxed Solutions as they are executed outside server environment

2.      Apps induce Less Load to server than Sandboxed Solutions

3.      Apps are Configurable by Administrators allowing them to restrict usage of Apps by users

Advantages to Developers

Following are the advantages of Apps from the Developer perspective:

1.      Web Programming skills are reusable in creating Apps

2.      Common web standards of HTML, JavaScript, CSS can be used to develop Apps

3.      Visual Studio 2012 supports App project templates

4.      Like the Sandboxed Solutions, developer can access SharePoint lists & libraries within Apps

5.      Opportunity to create & publish Apps to SharePoint store

6.      More potential in developing revenues through Apps

Please note that Sandboxed Solutions are deprecated but still supported in SharePoint 2013 in order to provided backward compatibility.  This makes the need for developing new SharePoint custom solutions using Apps.  Additionally Farm Solutions are still supported in SharePoint 2013 and we can use it advanced scenarios.

Apps in SharePoint App Store

Following are some Apps listed in the SharePoint App Store:

You can access the site from the Apps for SharePoint link in following page:

            http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/store/

Please note that the above site has Apps for Excel, Outlook, Project & Word as well.

Building Apps

For starting with building Apps, you can follow the link:

            http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163230.aspx

References

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/office/apps/fp179930(v=office.15)

Summary

To summarize the article, following are the points worth noting:

1.      Apps are self-contained pieces of functionality

2.      Apps are executed in the client machine or cloud

3.      Sandboxed Solutions are deprecated

4.      Apps provides more safety, less impact to the SharePoint server

5.      Apps can be made available through SharePoint App Store

6.      Opportunity for Developers in generating revenue through selling Apps

About the author

Jean Paul is a Developer plus Architect working on Microsoft Technologies for the past 12 years. He is very much passionate in programming and his core skills are SharePoint, ASP.NET& C#.  In the academic side he do hold a BS in Computer Science & MBA. 

He had been honored with Microsoft MVP, MindCracker MVP, CodeProject MVP towards his contributions in development community.   He has written several books in the area of SharePoint & Design Patterns.

Most of the free time he will be doing technical activities like researching solutions, writing articles, resolving forum problems etc. He believes quality & satisfaction goes hand in hand.  You can view his blog at: www.jeanpaulva.com.   Follow him on Twitter.

About MVP Mondays

The MVP Monday Series is created by Melissa Travers. In this series we work to provide readers with a guest post from an MVP every Monday. Melissa is a Community Program Manager, formerly known as MVP Lead, for Messaging and Collaboration (Exchange, Lync, Office 365 and SharePoint) and Microsoft Dynamics in the US. She began her career at Microsoft as an Exchange Support Engineer and has been working with the technical community in some capacity for almost a decade. In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, shopping for handbags, watching period and fantasy dramas, and spending time with her children and miniature Dachshund. Melissa lives in North Carolina and works out of the Microsoft Charlotte office.