Windows 10 Anniversary (Build 1607) messed up my virtual NAT Switch – a fix

I use a virtual NAT Switch to allow my VMs to talk to the outside world. The way I do this is documented in this post, based on the work of Thomas Maurer. The upgrade to Windows 10 Anniversary messed this up, just seemed to loose the virtual network completely, VMs failed to start with invalid configurations and would not even start. I had to recreate my NATSwitch using Thomas’s revised instructions, but I did have an problem....

August 10, 2016 · 1 min · Richard Fennell

Out with the Band in with the Garmin

I have been using the Microsoft Band (both version Band1 and Band2) since they came out, and been reasonably happy. However, a year or so on my issues with it have remained the same Poor battery life, I can live with charging it each day, but even with GPS Power-saver mode on I can’t go for any exercise over about 4 hours (bit of an issue for longer bike rides) It is not waterproof, so no swimming (and worried doing the washing up) Also there seem to be some build issues with the robustness of the Band2....

August 5, 2016 · 3 min · Richard Fennell

I’m on RadioTFS

The RadioTFS show that I was the guest on has just been published at http://radiotfs.com/Show/117. If you don’t listen to RadioTFS why not? It is a regular podcast (as you can see with over 100 episodes) on all things TFS and VSTS. A great way to keep up what is new in the technology space. Links to this and all my other recorded sessions can be found here

July 15, 2016 · 1 min · Richard Fennell

New Build Management VSTS tasks

Just published a new VSTS extension with a couple of tasks in it. The aim to to help formalise the end of a release process. The tasks Allow you to set the retension ‘keep forever’ flag on a build (or all builds linked to a release) Update increment a build variable e.g. all or part of a version number, in a build (or all builds linked to a release) The first just replicates functionality I used to have in house for builds...

July 13, 2016 · 2 min · Richard Fennell

Life gets better in Visual Studio Code for PowerShell

I have been using Visual Studio Code for PowerShell development, but got a bit behind on reading release notes. Today I just realised I can make my Integrated Terminal a Code a PowerShell instance. In File > Preferences > user Settings (settings.json) enter the following // Place your settings in this file to overwrite the default settings { // The path of the shell that the terminal uses on Windows. "terminal....

July 8, 2016 · 1 min · Richard Fennell