After a long time I am writing a post on CrmXpress and I will post my story so far, separately.

As of this post, I have a very important announcement to make. There is yet another release from CrmXpress and this time it is CrmXpress OptionSet Manager For Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. As the name suggests it's a very simple utility to manage OptionSets [Local and Global] within CRM 2011 and helps to automate really boring tasks i.e. to maintain [CRUD] option sets manually.

Here is a screenshot from the documentation :

Click Here to see the documentation in case you need any help with the usage of the app.

Click Here to download the latest stable build. As usual we intend to develop it further and we appreciate your feedback on the same.

PS: Watch out for few more CrmXpress releases in very near future.

I have recently completed a set of exams [CRM 2011 and .Net 4.0] and almost thrice a week I check if new exams are released on CRM 2011, especially Extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 as this one is very important for CRM/xRM developers out there.
And good news is this exam is already out. Surprisingly the release date is 29th December 2011, I mean how many of us would have thought of checking released exams during the holiday season?

Anyways I am glad it is finally here and I intend to give it a shot ASAP. If you are looking for more information about the exam then follow this link.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=MB2-876

It's been a long time since I thought to put this to public. I have used this tool for a quite a long time now. Basically, it allows you to create profiles with username and password. Now being CRM developer many a times you would want to launch CRM Web interface with another user's credentials. Generally, you would do so by using Run As or by creating a shortcut that will ask for credentials when it is clicked OR by disabling automatic logon in intranet zone.

I wanted to come up with a lot easier way to achieve this. That's why I made a simple utility that stores usernames and credentials and set of applications in a profile. You can create as many profiles as you want and add as many applications as you need. Credentials you provided are encrypted and stored with user settings. To add application, all you need to do is drag and drop a shortcut of the application or the application itself on to CrmXpress Run As Gui tool.

You can download it from here : http://www.crmxpress.net/Tools/CrmXpress.Win.RunAsGUI.zip

Your feedback is really important for me to provide feature upgrades/bugfixes.

Kindly note that I have tested this utility on Win7/Server2K8/Server2K8R2 x86/x64 editions with .NET Framework 2.0.

Here are steps to start using this tool.

1. Launch CrmXpress.Win.RunAsGui.exe
2. Click on Add. It will auto fill current user name and domain/workgroup name.
3. Enter password.
4. Click on Save. Your default user profile is now created.
5. Click on Add again. It will auto fill current user name and domain/workgroup name. Change the name with any other domain/workgroup user name of your choice.
6. Enter password for the user name that you have entered.
7. Click on Save.
8. Now you will have two profiles and you can access them via Profiles drop down list.
9. Drag any application shortcut on to the CrmXpress.Win.RunAsGui's User Interface.
10. The application will be added to the applications list for a given profile and it will be launched with credentials of whichever user profile you have selected.

Disclaimer 

• This program is provided as is without any guarantees or warranty.
• Although the author has attempted to find and correct any bugs in the free software programs, the author is not responsible for any damage or losses of any kind caused by the use or misuse of the programs.
• The author is under no obligation to provide support, service, corrections, or upgrades to this free software program.

I do read www.codinghorror.com sometimes and I just stumbled upon this interesting theory... I have not applied it in all of my enagements but during my last job we tried the similar approach and had amazing results.

Check out the original article at : Working with the Chaos Monkey

Today Microsoft announced an increase in for various Microsoft Certifications.

This is what the official announcement has to say:

Effective July 1, 2011, the retail price of Microsoft Certifications will increase worldwide.* This change reflects the significant value that our certifications provide to our customers and our continual investment in new and enhanced Microsoft Certifications and other program improvements.

Microsoft recognizes the increased pressures on students and academic institutions during these challenging economic times. Although some of the prices for Microsoft Certification exams for students and academic institutions will increase, the discount will remain significant. Microsoft is dedicated to helping students become more employable for entry jobs in the IT industry. IT Academy members, high school, college, or university students enrolled in a degree or diploma program will continue to receive a discount off the retail price of select Microsoft Certification exams.

Exam prices can vary by country or region. See the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) information below for more information regarding this change.

Use our pricing tool to determine your current and future Microsoft Certification exam prices. (requires Microsoft Silverlight)[This is pathetic, they are trying so hard to push silverlight :|]

Note Microsoft Learning does not anticipate that this price increase will impact Microsoft Certified Master (MCM), Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA), Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA), and Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Certification exams.

*Price change will be effective in India on August 1, 2011.

The prices in India are going to be USD 80 compared to the old price USD 50, this is 60% increase in the fees. So rush and take advantage of the low prices before 1st August 2011.

You can find the official announcement at : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-pricing-FAQ.aspx

If you have been waiting for CRM 2011 certifications to come out then here is the first one.This certification exam measures your ability to understand and articulate how to customize and configure Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 including configuring a Microsoft Dynamics CRM organizational structure, managing users & teams and security, customizing attributes and entities, customizing relationships and mappings, configuring auditing, managing forms & views and charts, and implementing a Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution.

Exam Topics Covered

• The following list includes the topic areas covered on this exam.
• Configuring a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Organizational Structure
• Managing Users & Teams and Security
• Customizing Attributes and Entities
• Customizing Relationships and Mappings
• Configuring Auditing
• Managing Forms, Views, and Charts
• Implementing a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Solution

For more information visit : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=MB2-866

It's been a while since I bloged about my favorite topic i.e. Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Anyways, I intend to start blogging a lot more regularly than before and what else could be a better start than a Developer Training Kit?

Microsoft has release a Developer Training Kit which will help developers to start learning CRM 2011 quickly and is fully loaded with

 - Presentations
 - Videos
 - Hands On Labs

You can download the kit from here : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/girishr/archive/2011/02/09/dynamics-crm-2011-developer-training-kit.aspx

This book is a gift from the Windows Phone 7 team at Microsoft to the programming community, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Within the pages that follow, I show you the basics of writing applications for Windows Phone 7 using the C# programming language with the Silverlight and XNA 2D frameworks. For more information, check out this page : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_press/archive/2010/10/28/free-ebook-programming-windows-phone-7-by-charles-petzold.aspx

You can download a PDF here (12.5 MB).

You can download an XPS here (26.7 MB).

And you can download the ebook’s sample code here (5.03 MB).

Microsoft Press has been providing free ebooks on regular interval and this very handy book has come out as a gift to the developers who are moving to Visual Studio 2010.

Here are the links for the book and related code download
 

You can download a PDF of the book here.

You can download an XPS of the book here.

And you can download the book’s sample code here.

Ya, this one has been a part of my dev tool kit for many a years and sometimes when I don't have access to regular tools I still use this one.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/b/6/7b6abd84-7841-4978-96f5-bd58df02efa2/winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe

It is a simple Virtual CD ROM driver from Microsoft and I have used it successfully on many WinX systems. It is super easy to use and is no-nonsense stuff. No Installation required, point to the driver and start using that's it.