Wictor Wilen

Wictor Wilén is Product Leader at Microsoft. Former Microsoft Regional Director and SharePoint MVP, as well as an author and a well known international speaker

XPS

Dissecting XPS - part 3 - the Fixed Document

This is the third part in the Dissecting XPS Series and this episode will focus on the Fixed Document parts of an XPS document. The previous part described how an XPS document is packed into a package and how we could find the actual document within it. FixedDocument and PageContent The FixedDocument element [1] is the part of the XPS document which contains the actual pages, which are represented as PageContent elements. The PageContent elements appears in the exact same order in which they should appear in the document and contains a reference to the FixedPage Part and optionally size (width and height) of the page.

• 4 min read
XML

Dissecting XPS, part 2 - inside the XPS document

This is the second part of the Dissecting XPS series, last post generally described the XML Paper Specification. This post in the series will describe the XPS file format internals. This will give you an overview of how the XPS files are built from ground and up, instead of reading the XPS Specification which covers 453 pages. The XPS file The XPS file, with the .xps extension, is a ZIP file - called the physical Package, and consists of a number of XML and binary files - called Parts. There are also files describing how the files are organized and connected together - called Relationships. 
• 4 min read
Microsoft

Dissecting XPS, part 1 - The basics

I will in a number of posts try to explain the XML Paper Specification document format, XPS format, that has been developed by Microsoft. I think the XPS initiative is nice from a developer and ISV perspective, since creating and reading XPS documents is easy and supported from various environments. This series of XPS articles will start off with an introduction to the XML Paper Specification and then continue with general support and competitors and then of course some nice introduction on how to use XPS in applications.

• 4 min read
Windows Vista

Missing icons in Windows Vista Notification Area

Numerous times my Windows Vista has been missing icons in the Notification Area (when did Microsoft stop calling it System Tray?). The icons that has been missing is normally Network, Volume and Power. In Windows Vista you can easily enable these three notification icons, as well as the Clock, in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog, accessible by right-clicking the Start icon and selecting properties. But the problem is that I can’t enable these icons when they disappear after starting Vista - they are disabled.

• 1 min read
Microsoft Expression

Expression Design beta 2 available

Just a few days ago Microsoft Epression Blend RC was released and now Expression Design beta 2 is available for download. The first beta of Design was a real disappointment for me, since all pixel editing and all Live Effects was removed. Beta 2 is still only vector editing but the Live Effects are there. The focus seems to be the Design/Blend/XAML/WPF integration to start with, which is fine but the technical previews of Design (then called Interactive Designer) really had it wen you could combine vector and pixel layers.

• 1 min read
Internet and the Web

Quintura - see & find is updated

The really nice visual web search engine Quintura has been updated with a better and improved interface. Quintura allows you to enter a search word and then using a visual user interface in which you can navigate a cloud of related search terms and the include or exclude them from your search to refine you result. Quintura allows you to get an overview of which search terms are releated to your search term and it’s fun to use and browse into new areas.

• 1 min read
Microsoft

The new communicating DELL - DELL 2.0

DELL, one of the largest PC computer-hardware companies , has really understood how important it is to communicate and interact with customers. First of all I am a very satisfied DELL user, except for some problems with my Inspiron 9100, and I think that the DELL support has been great. But having good stuff to sell an providing satisfactory support is not everything. To be able to stay on top you have to evolve and get with the trends and listen to your customers/community.

• 2 min read
Windows Vista

Windows Vista Ultimate Extras update information

About a week ago the released Windows Vista Ultimate Extras was updated and re-released on Windows Update with no information on the updates. The reason for the updates of BitLocker tools and Texas Hold’em game was bug fixes, localization issues and parental control issues. The information is now available in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, in these articles Windows Vista Secure Online Key Backup release information (932926) The Hold ‘Em game for Windows Vista Ultimate is available from Windows Update (932925)

• 1 min read