Getting .dll files out of the GAC

Periodically, you may find it necessary to get a copy of a .dll file out of the the GAC (C:\Windows\Assembly).  Navigating to this folder, you will notice it doesn’t “feel” like a normal windows folder since it isn’t.  You can drag .dll files onto this folder to install, but you can’t drag anything out of [...]

WMIC Wildcard Search using like and %

This is a quick post to provide some detail on using the wildcard search for WMIC.  This feature of the command structure will allow you to use like conditions in a where clause to look for objects that match a specific pattern.  For those of you comfortable with the SQL syntax for the same task, [...]

Saving Changes is Not Permitted?

In order to test drive the data modeling features of SS2008, I decided to use the engine for a real-world application.  I’m now attempting to use SQL Server to manage the Bateman household.  My first table in the design is a simple list of chores that we need to make sure get done around the [...]

Cool New Features in SSMS – Recent Expensive Queries

Depending on whether you are more of a developer or more of a DBA you may care more or less about this next feature.  However, anyone can benefit from it.  SSMS 2008 makes it very easy to crack open the Activity Monitor as there is a noticeable button right on the toolbar.

Once inside you get [...]

Cool New Features in SSMS – Select Top 100 Rows

As I have been playing with the newest version of Microsoft’s SQL Server Managements Studio (SSMS), I wanted to share a few of the cool new features.  It seemed that the jump from Query Analyzer in SQL Server 2000 to SSMS in 2005 was not necessarily a smooth one and many people complained about SSMS.  [...]

Missing Web Site Templates in Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition

Continuing in my quest to experience the goodness of the new .NET 3.5 SP1 stuff from the ground up, I installed Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition.  After all, now that I have my AdventureWorks database up and running, I want to experiment with ASP.NET data scaffolding (ASP.NET Dynamic Data), JavaScript Intellisense, ADO.NET Entity Framework, [...]

SQL Server 2008 Sample Databases

If you remember good ol’ NorthWind, you’ll know that having a sample SQL Server database can be great for sampling new technologies and performing RDBMS experiments and tests.  As much as detail-oriented presenters and trainers like to use NorthWind, it is an old sample from SQL Server 2000 that doesn’t have many of the new [...]

Minor Detail, Major Impact in SSMS Script Wizard

After a few hours of pulling out what few stubs of hair I have remaining, I finally tracked down a rather perplexing problem relating to the Script Wizard feature of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
My goal was to script out all of the stored procedures in a database in a fully re-runnable state, one SP [...]

TeamCity 1 – CCNet 0

OK, so in my preliminary experiences I have to say that TeamCity is friggin awesome. It was amazing how simple it is to setup, and the features that come pre-installed are great. Effortless email notifications, build statistics including average build time and success rates, ability to monitor multiple projects in VSS — It’s [...]

Giving TeamCity another try…

Thanks to a comment from Eugene Petrenko, I decided TeamCity was worth another shot.  Everything I have heard has been positive, so I can’t let a little problem like not getting to my source control repository get in the way of continuous integration
Once again, I visited the TeamCity download site and read all [...]