How to fix blurry images in Google Chrome

Problem
When browsing sites with thumbnail images, those images appear blurred in Chrome, but not in other browsers such as Internet Explorer
Resolution
Uncheck the use hardware acceleration option in chrome settings.

1. Open Chrome
2. Navigate to chrome://settings
3. Scroll to the bottom, and expand the Advanced options
4. Near the bottom, uncheck the Use hardware acceleration when available option, and then click the RELAUNCH link that appears after you change this option.

Problem 2
When browsing google maps, image and text appears blurred in Chrome, but not in other browsers such as Internet Explorer
Resolution

1. Open Chrome
2. Navigate to http://maps.google.co.uk/maps 
3. Press F12 to open Developer tools 
4. Click on the Application Tab, and then select Clear Storage
5. Check Local and session storage,  Cookies, Cache Storage and Application Cache
6. Click Clear site data
7. Relaunch Google Chrome

Inline Images not showing for Work Items in Visual Studio with 401 unauthorized error

To fix this, right click the broken image link from the Visual studio work item description pane, then copy the link from the properties dialog (it looks like a label, but you can select all on it by right mouse clicking).

Then simply copy and paste that into Internet Explorer bar, and when prompted enter your credentials.

Next, back in Visual Studio, just click the refresh work item button on the header of the work item window, and do this once for each in line image in the description.

Visual Studio Work Item Images broken

The case of the missing image…

Turns out this was due to my old windows credentials being cached on the tfs server credentials cache.

To fix this, I logged onto the tfs server directly via my admin account and updated the credentials there in the windows credentials manager.

Also ran fiddler in the background and cleared the winnet cache as well

Then it refresh a few times on the work item ticket back in visual studio, and hey presto they are all showing again.

Unshelving from one branch to another in TFS

 

This works fine…

tfpt unshelve /migrate /source:$/MyProject/Fb3.9.8 /target:$/MyProject/Main

But put quotes round and it does NOT work

tfpt unshelve /migrate /source:"$/MyProject/Fb3.9.8" /target:"$/MyProject/Main"

Further information can be found here…

http://geekswithblogs.net/TarunArora/archive/2011/06/06/unshelve-shelveset-created-from-one-branch-to-another.aspx

JetBrains dotMemory not attaching = reload .NET perf counters

If you get an issue using dotMemory where it wont connect to the profiler, then run the following two commands from a .net command prompt…
unlodctr .NETFramework
lodctr C:\Windows\Inf\.NETFramework\corperfmonsymbols.ini

The case of the disappearing TFS task board

So after wondering where all our tasks had disappeared to, it turns out that someone had changed the default Area path, and ticked it in the _admin/_areas section of the portal.

This has the knock on affect of removing any items from the task board that are not under ticked area paths, hence the stuff that was in our task board disappeared, even though the items were all still there in TFS and accessible via team explorer.

Catastrophic failure when attaching Visual Studio Debugger to IISExpress

Symptom: Unable to attach to the process. Catastrophic failure.
Resolution: Change project settings to enable edit and continue, then press F5 to start the web project in debug mode.

I also deleted my solution.suo file from the solutions directory as it was over 3MB! - more about that here -http://merrickchaffer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/visual-studio-hanging-running-slowly.html

Windows 7 Weather Gadget: Cannot connect to service issue

Please follow this to fix the issue.

1. Go to %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Live\Services\Cache
2. Open "Config.xml" , Right click on it Select Edit, it will open in Notepad.
3. Click on File>> Save (without doing any changes)
4. Restart the Gadget after a Minute and it should start working.

However, it may be a temporary fix.  Many (myself included) report the problem returning. 

(Note: This fix appears to work, even if you're testing in IE10 with ActiveX settings as follows, using this code here http://jsfiddle.net/4aww6o3t/

and you get the Access is denied error from the call to oMSN.GetService("weather")

try
{
    // Connect to Weather Service .dll
    var oMSN = new ActiveXObject("wlsrvc.WLServices");
    var oMSN2 = new ActiveXObject("wlsrvc.WLServices");
    this.oMSN = oMSN.GetService("weather"); // Object to send and recieve weather data queries and to poll for service existence
    this.oMSN2 = oMSN2.GetService("weather"); // Object to send a latlong query and recieve a location code corresponding to the latlong
}
catch (objException)
{
    this.isValid = false;
    this.statusMessage = getLocalizedString('ServiceNotAvailable');
    this.oMSN = new Object();
    this.oMSN2 = new Object();
}

Update: 10:48 03/03/2015

Have just managed to write a batch file that fixes this issue ongoing. By adding this batch file to a scheduled task using the Task Scheduler, I've managed to get the gadget to always work now.

Note to use this batch file you'll just have to create a copy of the Settings.ini and call it Settings3Monitors.ini in the folder %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar

taskkill /IM sidebar.exe /T /F

REM Fix for windows security update

pushd "%localappdata%\microsoft\windows live\services\cache"

IF EXIST ConfigOriginal.xml. (

     echo ConfigOriginal.xml file exists

) ELSE (

     copy Config.xml ConfigOriginal.xml

)

attrib "%localappdata%\microsoft\windows live\services\cache\*.xml" -r

del Config.xml

copy ConfigOriginal.xml Config.xml

echo. >> "Config.xml"

popd

REM Restart sidebar

pushd "%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar"

xcopy /Y Settings3Monitors.ini Settings.ini

popd

start "" sidebar.exe

TFS Http 404 not found error

If you get an HTTP 404 not found error when connecting to TFS

Delete all the files in this folder

%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Team Foundation\4.0\Cache

You also may receive an error message in the VS 2013 output window, reading as follows...

We were unable to automatically populate your Visual Studio Online accounts.

The following error was encountered: One or more errors occurred.TF205020: Could not connect to server ‘tfs.russellreynolds.com\DefaultCollection’. This server was used in your last session, but it might be offline or unreachable. Confirm that the server is available on the network. To attempt to connect again, or to a different server, click ‘Connect To Team Foundation Server’ in Team Explorer or the Team menu.

The server returned the following error: HTTP code 404: Not Found

Hyperlinks not opening immediately from emails

If this happens then follow the steps below to fix it...

To reset Internet Explorer Settings, follow these steps:

1. Close all Internet Explorer windows.
2. Click Start, type inetcpl.cpl in the Search box and then click inetcpl.cpl on the Programs list.
   The Internet Options dialog box appears.

    

   Note for Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type inetcpl.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.

3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Under Reset Internet Explorer Settings, click Reset. Then, click Reset again.
5. When Internet Explorer finishes resetting, click Close in the Reset Internet Explorer Settings dialog box.
6. Start Internet Explorer again.
   Your changes will take effect the next time that you open Internet Explorer.

Restarting Outlook mail search indexer

Kill the SearchIndexer.exe process in task manager, and then follow the steps below to get outlook search working again...

 

Gotcha: Macros not working in VS 2010

In case it happens to you..

I uninstalled both .NET 4.5.1 security updates

KB 2901126 and KB 2898869, restarted and now machine is fixed.

More on this issue here

http://visualstudioextensions.vlasovstudio.com/2014/02/13/visual-studio-2010-macros-stop-working-after-february-2014-windows-update/

How to turn off upper case menus in VS2012

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/zainnab/archive/2012/06/14/turn-off-the-uppercase-menu-in-visual-studio-2012.aspx

Manual Registry Change

Open the registry editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\General\
(For Windows 8 Desktop Express go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\WDExpress\11.0\General) //special thanks to msm8bball for the update
(For Web Express go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VSWDExpress\11.0\General)

1. Create a new DWORD value called SuppressUppercaseConversion set to 1
    
2. Restart Visual Studio and you should see the change

NOTE: Watch your spelling if you are typing this manually.

P.S. This reg hack also works for VS 2013, just change the 11.0 to 12.0 in the registry path

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\12.0\General

 

401 unauthorized from Reporting Services 2008 R2

I used method 2 here to resolve this...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;896861

Method 2: Disable the loopback check (less-recommended method)

The second method is to disable the loopback check by setting the DisableLoopbackCheck registry key.
To set the DisableLoopbackCheck registry key, follow these steps:

1. Set the

   DisableStrictNameChecking

   registry entry to 1. For more information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   281308 Connecting to SMB share on a Windows 2000-based computer or a Windows Server 2003-based computer may not work with an alias name

2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

4. Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
8. Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

GOTCHA: The resurrection of TFS source control folders

Today we found something very interesting with Team Foundation Server (TFS) source control folder workflow. A colleague of mine had deleted a source control folder from TFS source control, but as I hadn't got latest on the parent folder, I was not aware that he had done this.

I was then able to add a script to this deleted folder, check in my change, and this had the implicit effect of undeleting the folder that my colleague wanted removed.

One to watch out for in case you don't always do a full get latest from the route of your source control project.

How to put back AirDroid 2.0.3 on Galaxy S2

1. Force stop
2. Move it to SD Card
3. Uninstall

Then download the .apk from another device that's running the old 2.0.3 version, using airdroid against that device, apps, download button, and then install that on your Galaxy S2 again.

or just use the one here

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2APGSXHNH_bbXVnWmhsOXpIWk0/edit?usp=sharing

All is good in the world again.

Note: The direct browser link to airdroid version 2.0.3 is now

http://web.airdroid.com/history/v2.0.3/1306281148/

WCF DataMember attribute issue

Got caught out by this issue today. Spent ages trying to find out why I was getting a WCF exception after adding the DataContract and DataMember attributes into my class, and it turned out I had a property that didn't have both a getter and a setter declared.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/system.runtime.serialization.datamemberattribute.aspx

The error was simply reported as

System.ServiceModel.CommunicationException: The socket connection was aborted. This could be caused by an error processing your message or a receive timeout being exceeded by the remote host, or an underlying network resource issue

<PRE> tags and white-space: pre style

When you need to preserve tab characters and line breaks within HTML elements other than multiline input fields, you can use the <pre> tag or the style attribute of white-space: pre.

Just noticed that there is a slight difference in using a <pre> tag and a div with the white-space: pre style attribute applied to it. As the default user agent setting for the font-family style attribute for a <pre> tag is mono

Found more of a description on this site... http://www.quirksmode.org/css/whitespace.html#t01

Use Plunkr to test it out if you like....

http://plnkr.co/edit/dqJKnD?p=preview

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

  <head lang="en">
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title>Awesome Game</title>
  <head>
 
  <body>
  <pre>Test this wer awereaw
   
    waerwearaw
    waeraw
    w
   
  </pre>
  <div id='content' style="white-space:pre">Content!
   
    waer
   
    weraweraw
    waera
    waer
  </div>
   
  </body>
 
</html>

How to clear the Windows 7 Print Spooler

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946737 – Method D

Run the following commands in order from a command prompt. I just stick them in a batch file called fixprint.bat under the %windir% windows folder.

net stop spooler
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.shd
del %systemroot%\system32\spool\printers\*.spl
net start spooler

No files were found to look in

If Visual Studio returns the message "No Files Were found to look in" from the find in files results window, then just do a Ctrl+Alt+PauseBreak key press withing the find results window, and search again.