Jump start building drivers for Windows 10 with Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 10

Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 10 provides you the environment necessary for creating efficient quality drivers for devices that must run on WIndows 10. This release has the following:

• Visual Studio Tools for Windows 10
• Windows SDK for Windows 10

With these tools you can

• Build
• Test
• Debug
• and  Deploy Windows drivers.

First install Visual Studio Community 2015 as described here. However this time you go for custom installation to install C++ and Common Tools for Visual C++ 2015
Also Install Windows 10 Tools

Also install Windows Driver Kit(WDK) 10 from here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=526733
New features of Kits and Tools here:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/hardware/dn927348(v=vs.85).aspx

Get yourself a set of good books on C++.

For starters using the Visual Studio Community 2015 IDE read these:
http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2015/07/how-do-you-create-c-windows-console.html
http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2015/08/how-do-you-create-visual-c-clr-console.html
 

Get Office 2016 now! Which one?

Office has been evolving for quite a long time and perhaps it has reached a state of perfection after the debut of Windows 10. Office 2016 brings the best of Office products with the best of Microsoft Windows operating systems.
This email alert prodded me to look up what is new in this offering.

Office2016_01

I have been subscribing to Office 365 from the beginning of this year but I am not using it as much, except for some real simple stuff. I am the only one using it for now. Also the feature I wanted to use in Excel was not supported in the Office 365 Business ($10/month) which somehow I did not notice it.   I have been writing about Microsoft Products for good many years but missed some information about this feature. The feature is only available in the Enterprise edition. I must cancel my subscription asap.

There are a number of Office products and, you have to be real careful what you are asking and getting. Actually I am not the only one confused (https://mcpmag.com/articles/2015/10/05/office-2016-confusion.aspx).In the next couple of images, I have tried to line them up. You can see the number of products is quite large and if you consider the features you are looking for, the search would require a stout heart.

Microsoft Office 365 caters to a variety of customers as shown.

Office2016_01a

Enterprise:
Enterprise Productivity Tools:
https://products.office.com/en-us/business/enterprise-productivity-tools

 

Empower your mobile workforce
Innovate with connected collaboration
Trusted cloud for productivity
Maximize sales productivity

Office2016_04
Looks like there is one more item missing in this list!

Office2016_05

Education:
Office 365 Education is a collection of services that allows you to collaborate and share your schoolwork. It’s available for free to students who are currently attending an academic institution. Office 365 Education includes Office Online (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote), 1TB of OneDrive storage, Yammer, and SharePoint sites. Some schools allow students to install the full Office applications on up to 5 PCs or Macs for free. If your school provides this additional benefit, you'll see the Install Office button on your Office 365 home page after you complete sign-up.

 

Office2016_09

Government:
The best choice for government organizations with advanced IT requirements that want the flexibility to move to the cloud at their own pace

Office2016_06

 

Non-Profit:
Try Office 365 for free and see how it can help your organization. Qualified nonprofits can receive Office 365 Nonprofit E1 or Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials as a donation or they can upgrade to the advanced features in Office 365 Nonprofit E3 or Office 365 Nonprofit Business Premium at a significant discount.
Office2016_07

There are also two more 'Office xxxxx'

• Office Home products

Office 2016_02.png

• Office for IT

I suppose this is for IT professionals in companies to make a case for rolling out Office 2016.

 

 

Office 2016_10.png

I wanted this to be brief and already it is too long but if want to dig in more go here:
https://products.office.com/en-us/home
Note: Some of the descriptions in this article have come directly from the above site. I have only arranged them as i tried to understand.
Now, What are you going to subscribe to?

Installing PHP 5.6 for Windows 7 using Web Platform Installer

 Web Platform Installer is one of my favorite programs that I often use. It has an extensive list of products and applications that you can download and install. It also shows if the product has already been installed on the computer as sometimes you may forget what you installed (version, etc) . It not only installs a program but all the required/dependent programs as well. For example IIS on my computer has many items installed and if needed I can install the others by just looking at this list.

 

WPI_00
Here are some latest Tools (Aug-Sep2015) from WPI5.0:

WPI_01

Herein I describe installing PHP 5.6 for Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 starting from the Web Platform Installer 5.0

Installing PHP using Windows Platform Installer (wpilauncher.exe) gives you instant access to working with PHP. In this post Web Platform Installer version 5.0 was used to install PHP version 5.6

Step 1: Download Web Platform Installer, the version used here is 5.0. After launching the WebPI search for php as shown. This has the latest products/services/programs for web platform.

php56_01.png

Step 2: Click on PHP 5.6.0 (9/7/2014).  On Windows 7 (x64) Ultimate you do have IIS and not IIS Express.

Click Add button and click Install at the bottom of the window.

Note the items to be installed by clicking the link at the bottom. The following window is displayed showing 3 items should you decide to install.

php56_02.png

Step 3: Close the item list window. Click Install. The previous window appears as shown with more controls.

php56_03.png

Here you need to accept license terms.

Step 4: Click I Accept. Install begins and a number of required items are installed showing progress as shown.
Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server.
Microsoft Drivers 3.2 for PHP  v5.6 for SQLServer
Installing Php5.3.28(?)
PHP Manager for IIS
Installing PHP 5.6.0

php56_04.png

After a while you get the Finish window showing installed products as shown:

php56_05.png

Step 5: Click Finish on Web Platform Installer 5.0.
You are done.

Launch the Internet Information Services and you see that Web Platform Installer is added to the Managemen Section.

If you were to run a PHP file such as phpinfo.php you will run into this error:

php56_06.png

Now open Programs & Features in Control Panel. Click Turn on/off window programs to turn on:
The following window gets displayed:

php56_07.png

The node for CGI is not checked. This is needed to work with IIS.  Place check mark for CGI and Click OK.

Microsoft Windows MSG appears that it is making changes. This may run for quite sometime depending on your computer.

php56_08.png

After sometime the Microsoft Windows MSG goes away.

Now try to bring up phpinfo.php in your browser in the IIS window and Presto! PHP now can be processed by the IIS using the FastCgiModule (only part of page shown here).

php56_09.png

Notice that the "Handler Mappings" now has PHP-Via_FastCGI and PHP53_via_FastCGI

php56_10.png

Notice that you have FastCGIModule in Add Module Mappings list:

php56_11.png

Good Luck, that's all.

Dialog Semiconductor acquires ATMEL for $4.6B

ATMEL product line is a great match for Dialog Smeiconductor in pushing the two companies towards the realization of great products for the IoT.  Here is Atmel's product listing:

Here is a piece of news copied over from Dialog Smeiconductor site:

Read the complete announcement here:
http://www.dialog-semiconductor.com/content/dialog-semiconductor-acquire-atmel-46-billion

Things you can you learn about Database and Analytics at Visual Studio Live!

If you do manage to attend you can get some new information and brush up on some old stuff. It should be interesting to track the developments.

These are the session details in the Database and Analytics area.

SQL Server of course is center stage. Topics under SQL Server 2014 covers the following:

• SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
• Reporting Services for Developers
• Memory-Optimized Tables and Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2014
• Microsoft Azure SQL Database

Topics
TH03 Implementing Data Warehouse Patterns - Attendees Choose
10/01/2015   8:00am - 9:15am
You will learn:
•Techniques for Populating Fact Tables and Dimension tables using T-SQL MERGE statements
•Special considerations for managing Type 2 Slowly Changing dimensions
•Tips for implementing many of the patterns found in the Kimball methodology
TH07: Power BI 2.0: Analytics in the Cloud and Excel
10/01/2015   9:30am - 10:45am
Get to speed quickly on what Power BI has done since version 1 and what's new in Version
Try to read up on my posts in blogs and you might have already learnt a lot!

TH11: Busy Develoepr's Guide to NoSQL
10/01/2015   11:00am - 12:15pm
You will learn:
•About NoSQLs
•What NoSQLs offer that the RDBMS don't
•When and how (and when not) to use them

TH15  Big Data and Hadoop with Azure HDInsight
10/01/2015   1:30pm - 2:45pm
 Learn what Hadoop is, how it works, what to do to get it running on the Azure cloud and how to integrate it.
Learn how to integrate it with SQL Server BI, Excel and third party tools

TH19  Predictive Analytics and Azure Machine Learning
10/01/2015   3:00pm - 4:15pm
You will learn:
•Learn the fundamentals of predictive analytics, including which algorithms work best for specific scenarios
•Learn how to build Azure Machine Learning experiments and models
•Get exposed to the R programming language and see how to integrate R code into Azure ML experiments

W19  SQL Server Reporting Services - Attendees Choose Topics
[This presentation takes some of the more complicated topics and offers them as choices that attendees can pick for the session.]
You will learn:
•About advanced SSRS features "in action", as implemented in actual SSRS client applications
•The implementation of mass-automated report delivery of data driven subscriptions in SSRS (and also see .NET code used in SSIS scripts for customized delivery of reports)
•A general understanding of Microsoft's current and future offerings for SSRS in the Cloud

W15  Transact-SQL for Application Developers - Attendees Choose Topics
09/30/2015 3:00pm - 4:15pm
[Attendees choose from 25 possible topics - plus you'll walk away with all 25 code samples.]
You will learn:
•About the new language enhancements in SQL 2012
•Where sub-queries are necessary
•To gain some appreciation of performance optimization

W11  Real World SQL Server Data Tools
09/30/2015   1:30pm - 2:45pm
You will learn:
•Techniques for importing existing legacy SQL Server schemas with old, dead code. Basically, how do you take the kind of messy, not-well-maintained databases that I see at customer sites and bring it into SSDT without losing your sanity and giving up?
•About real enterprise application databases that often have references across database boundaries, and how to identify and variable-ize these database objects and deal with cross-database and cross-SSDT project references.
•How to handle incremental automated deployment scenarios from the command line or TFS Build and manage 'lookup' data as part of these deployment scenarios.

M01  Workshop: Big Data, Analytics and NoSQL: Everything You Wanted to Learn But Were Afraid to Ask
09/28/2015  9:00am - 6:00pm
"Who has time to learn about Big Data, Analytics and NoSQL? "
Perhaps you can learn a little bit of all of the above and more  attending this workshop

Read more here: https://vslive.com/Events/New-York-2015/Tracks/Database-and-Analytics.aspx

Merge Healthcare will turbocharge IBM's Watson via Watson Health Cloud

Watson can deep dive and see everything health related with the exhaustive database from Merge Healthcare.

Watson is very good at image analytics and has cognitive abilities. Combine this with Merge Healthcare's Medical Imaging Management Platform and you have a great system to unlock the hidden information in the medical images to offer the patients and medical providers greater insight into health related issues. IBM likely to acquire Medical Healthcare was announced recently.

This is a quote from Merge Healthcare site

"Merge’s technology platforms are used at more than 7,500 U.S. healthcare sites, as well as most of the world’s leading clinical research institutes and pharmaceutical firms to manage a growing body of medical images.  The vision is that these organizations could use the Watson Health Cloud to surface new insights from a consolidated, patient-centric view of current and historical images, electronic health records, data from wearable devices and other related medical data, in a HIPAA-enabled environment"

Here is a short video you may want to watch.



Read more here

Get this Visual Studio Developer tool for Universal Windows Apps

 You can create both Universal Windows Apps as well as Classic Windows Applications with this free tool.

This download includes:

• Universal App templates
  

• Code editor

• Powerful debugger

• Windows Mobile Emulators

• Extensive language support

It is production ready with Windows Standalone SDK and emulators.

If you upgraded from Windows 8.1 and you already had Visual Studio 2015 Community
edition, it will be upgraded. I already had VS2015C from my old OS and I need to close and retry.

DevTools_01

Click Retry. This brings up the next screen.

DevTools_02

You need another 5 GB for adding this. Choose all and click Next. These features in the next image will be added and one program removed.

DevTools_03

Click Update. You may have to accept User Control Access permissions windows message before you get the next screen.

DevTools_04

It took more than 3 hours to download, install and cleanup, but it was successful.

DevTools_05

 Your download link is here for this tool.

Office Online Server (OOS) is rolled out

Office Web Apps are scaled down versions of  Excel, PowerPoint, Word and OneNote,. They are  Browser based.
Office Web Apps was free for consumers that Microsoft rebranded Office Web Apps free for consumers as Office Online apps.

OfficeOnline.png

Recetnly Microsoft rolled out Preview of Office Online Server which supports running Office Web Apps through the Organizations servers on the premises instead of a cloud service  such as Microsoft Azure. This supersedes the presently used Microsoft on premises product called Office Web Apps Server 2013. Now you have a new acronym to deal with, Office Online Server (OOS).
OOS will also work with (SharePoint Server 2016 (also backward compatible with SharePoint Server 2013) and Exchange Server 2016.

According to Microsoft OOS brings with it the following improvements

• Improved co-authoring support
• Significant additions to authoring features
• Heavy investments in performance and stability

You can download the OOS (.ISO) Preview here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2f1c21a0-54d3-44e5-8e35-a29f21bdc647

This preview works with a line of Microsoft products such as Sharepoint Server 2016, Skype for Business and Exchange Server 2016. Of course there is OOS farm to address multiple hosts and scaling out.

While you are checking out OOS Preview you sould also download SharePoint Server 2016 IT Preview Management Pack here.

 

Download SQL Server CTP 2.3 and check out enhancements

SQL Server 2016 CTP 2.3 is available since September 2, 2015. Several features have been enhanced. Looks like integration of R Language with SQL Server 2016 is built-in.

The following are the stated enhancements in this preview:

• Row Level Security support for in-memory OLTP tables
• A core engine scalability improvement, dynamically partitioning thread safe memory objects by NUMA or CPU, which enables higher scalability
• In-memory data warehouse (column store) performance optimizations
• Many-to-many derived hierarchies in Master Data Services
• Several performance improvements to SQL Server Analysis Services, including DAX query performance
• Enhancements to Reporting Services, including an updated Report Builder with a modern theme and report rendering for modern browsers

These are additional enhancements besides the above:
Improvements to the SQL Server Integration Service, Query Execution, and DBCC CHECKDB.

Technical Datasheet is  here (download PDF).

Download the evaluation edition here.

Power BI using data from a OData Web Service

RESTful Services are much better than SOAP based services using WSDL. SQL Server Database can be exposed as a resource through a RESTful service and using RESTful API you can get data formatted in a standard way for different kinds of applications.

Some of the database examples that can be used for working with RESTful web services may be found here:
Northwind Service:

AdventureWorks Service:
or AdventureWorks here

You can easily connect to OData data feed from the above services using PowerBI as detailed here:
http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2015/08/managing-relationships-in-power-bi.html

Once you are connected you can easily visualize data which is Page1 of the visualization as shown here:

V_Odata01.png

 For details of how to create a report from scratch review this post.

Windows 10: Fixing the Canon Scanner Problem

Well, Canon replied immediately to my scanner problem.

Here is the step-by- step procedure to make your Canon MX 432 work with all functionalities intact. Procedure provided by Canon Technical Staff. I am just sharing this information and I am looking through my stuff if the CD-ROM is saved. Of course I will run this procedure and see if it helps.

Uninstalling and reinstalling the network port and printer driver using the utilities on the CDROM should resolve this issue.  To perform the uninstall, please have the PIXMA MX432's CDROM in the CDROM drive and then follow these steps:

 1.  Put the PIXMA MX432's CDROM in the CDROM drive.  If the welcome screen appears, exit it.
 2.  Click on Start and then All Apps.
 3.  Click on Windows System.
 4.  Click on RUN.
 5.  Click Browse.
 6.  Double click the CANON_IJ CDROM.
 7.  Double click the folder named WIN.
 8.  Double click the folder named Driver.
 9.  Double click the folder named DrvSetup.
10.  Double click the file named DELDRV.  If you are using the 64 bit version of Windows 10, please double click DELDRV64.  In the Run box click OK.
11.  Click Execute to start uninstall and Yes to completely uninstall the drivers.
12.  Once finished,  click on Start and then All Apps.
13.  Click on Windows System.
14.  Click on RUN.
15.  Click Browse.
16.  Double click the CANON_IJ CDROM.
17.  Double click the folder named WIN.
18.  Double click the folder named Driver.
19.  Double click the folder named LAN.
20.  Double click the file named CNMNPU.exe
21.  In the Run box click OK and then Yes on the Delete BJNP Port window.
22.  The uninstaller will prompt you to restart the computer, please click Yes to restart the computer.


Please follow these steps to download the necessary files to begin installation once the computer restarts:
 1.  Visit Canon's website at: http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer
 2.  Type PIXMA MX432 in the "Enter Your Model Name" box and click GO.
 3.  On the Support page for your unit, click the 'Drivers & Software' link in the middle of the page.
 4.  Click Drivers.
 5.  Click on the MX430 series Mini Master Setup.
 6.  If you agree, please select the checkbox next to "I have read and agree to the terms of the Disclaimer and wish to continue with the download".
 7.  Click on the Download button.
 8.  When the Save As box comes up, click Save.

To install the unit for use over your network wirelessly, please follow these steps when the computer restarts:
 1.  Press the <Setup> button on your PIXMA MX432.
 2.  Use the left or right button to select Device Settings and press <OK>.
 3.  Use the left or right button to select LAN Settings and press <OK>.
 4.  Use the left or right button to select Wireless LAN Setup and press <OK>.
 5.  Enter your wireless password and press <OK>.  Please verify the password, as it is case sensitive and if entered incorrectly, will cause the printer and router to not communicate.  To switch between letters and numbers, press the * key.
 6.  Press <OK> on the confirmation screen.  The PIXMA MX432 will search for the access point.
 7.  When found, press <OK> on the Connected to the access point screen.
 8.  Back on your computer, open the Downloads folder and double click [mast-win-mx430-1_1-ucd.exe] to begin installation of the drivers.

Follow the prompts and installation will complete.
For additional assistance, there are guides that can be viewed by following this link:
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/printers_multifunction/pixma_mx_series/pixma_mx432#Wireless_Help

Canon support is excellent. It is not something new to Canon, but very common among Japanese companies. Years ago, approximately some 20 and plus I had a suitcase (another Japanese company) with keys having magnets. I lost the original keys and some three years later went back to the same place and asked them if they can find me replacements. He looked at the picture of the suitcase I showed him and after referring to his books his face lit up and he said, 'Hi, arimasu yo' (Yes, I have it). That is called 'support'.

Apple Live 2015

 Watching Apple Live event was only possible for these devices\versions:

• Live streaming uses Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) technology. HLS requires an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with Safari on iOS 7.0 or later
• a Mac with Safari 6.0.5 or later on OS X v10.8.5 or later, or
• a PC with Microsoft Edge on Windows 10.
• Streaming via Apple TV requires a second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 6.2 or later.

Microsoft Edge was able to play the streaming video from Apple site. Watched with interest at this Apple's special event. There were lots of things Apple showed off. There was the phones, the watch, the iPads and the Apple TV.

Read here for latest details as to what got better and what is new;
http://www.mobileworldlive.com/devices/news-devices/apple-gives-iphone-a-specs-bump-as-ipad-goes-large/

I only watched couple of minutes. Here are some stills from the streaming video on my Windows 10.

+ 

The Windows 10 Technical preview for Phones also runs Microsoft Edge. It still has lots of edges (no pun intended) like freezing up,  stopped videos etc but works most of the time OK. Needs switching off the phone the hard way and switch again to reset whatever that went wrong.

Here are some still captures on my Windows 10 Technical Preview for Phones:

Microsoft Edge Web Platform Site for Developers

As a web developer you may be interested in knowing where is Microsoft Edge  heading; what features are supported; which of the older features are getting removed and in general interested in finding out the status of a feature. If you are interested in such information you should really get acquainted with this URL. In fact if there is a feature which you think will be very useful, you can also vote for the feature. Your vote will be important to making the Internet more democratic and would pave way for features supported by most browsers. End to browser wars!

For example, Microsoft recently announced support for VP9 codec in Microsoft Edge. VP9 codec is open source codec, a very efficient video compression program for streaming HD content.

VP9codec.png
Similary you can see the status of webkit support.

WebKit

On this site you can find links to do many more things.

devcan

I tried to see screenshots (using Generate screenshots)  of my blog (http://hodentek.blogspot.com) on 9 different browsers using this tool, it just returned an error. I guess it has to be a www address.
 

Windows 10: Canon MX 432 Multi-function Printer's Scanner cannot be found

In my previous post I described the steps you need to take for your Canon MX 432 Printer to work in Windows 10 OS. The updated driver from Canon site (http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/printers_multifunction/pixma_mx_series/pixma_mx432#DriversAndSoftware) did install the correct drivers for Canon MX 432. However only the Printer and Fax functionalities were restored. The Scanner icon was missing from Control Panel | Hardware and Sound | Devices and Printers as shown here:


scanner09.png

However as shown in my previous post here, the Set Up results after updating the driver are as follows:
===========================================
Setup Results
===========================================
Model :

    Canon MX430 series

  Network Setup of the Printer :

    Completed

    Name :

    Canon MX430 series Printer (Copy 2)

    Port Name :

    CNBJNP_888717BBF935



 Network Setup of the Scanner :

    Completed

    Name :

    Canon MX430 series(88.87.17.BB.F9.35)
[ Port Name is missing]

Network Setup of the Fax :

    Completed

    Name :

    Canon MX430 series FAX (Copy 1)

    Port Name :

    CNBJNPFAX_888717BBF935

Network Type :

    Infrastructure

SSID :

    DG1670A72  - Oceanic Time Warner's Home Wi-Fi (using a WiFi enabled cable modem)
====================================================
As seen in the above, the scanner port name is missing. Unfortunately you cannot add a port unless the updating driver does it. I have tried to run the driver couple of times, but this does not improve. I see that the driver is being registered in the computer registry, but the interface does not pick it up.

Canon site has not completely responded to my detailed message. If you are interested please  revisit this site for an update later.

The need to learn R programming

This post highlights the importance of R programming Language. You also learn where to download it from and install on your workstation or laptop. The installation described here is for a Windows 7 (x64) Toshiba Laptop.

Rforwindows02

It is a language well suited to data analysis and visualization. It is strongly recommended for statistical computing as it is the world's most popular statistical programming language. Since SQL Server 2016 will be integrating with this language we will be seeing a great deal of development in the upcoming SQL Server and of course in PowerBI for analytical data visualization and predictive analytics. Read this white paper from RevolutionAnalytics.

Microsoft bought RevolutionAnalytics in the beginning of this year details of which you can read here. It will be integrated with the up and coming SQL Server 2016.

How and from where you download R language program?

While it is available for Unix/Linux, it is also available for Windows (both x32bit and x64bit). You can download the latest version here (R-3.2.2-win.exe) . The version you will be downloading is R 3.2.2 for Windows (32/64) 62MB. A small file for the complicated things it does.

Here are some download/install screen shots for those who like:

If you are installing for the first time choose that option after you access the download link above.

Rforwindows01

 

The set up for R on Windows needs to be selected:

Rforwindows04

Complete the Installation wizard screens and you are done.

You can invoke it from the desktop shortcut as shown here and the R-GUI will be displayed as shown:

Rforwindows08