Targeting .NET Platforms

You can build apps for many platforms and services by downloading .NET Framework targeting packs and SDKs and using them with Visual Studio.

Check this link for relevant platforms

What’s new in Visual Studio 2015 Update 3?

Microsoft released Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2015 Update 3 along with .NET Core 1.0

If you want to know what has been changed, improved in the latest version of Visual Studio 2015 (i.e. in the Update 3), check out the following Microsoft pages which also includes the list of other changes like performance improvements, responsiveness, bug fixes and the known issues currently available:

• Tools for Apache Cordova
• Developer Analytics Tools
• Debugging and Diagnostics
• Visual Studio IDE
• Tools for Universal Windows apps
• Architecture Tools
• Visual C++
• Node.js Tools for Visual Studio
• Web Developer Tools
• TypeScript
• C# and Visual Basic
• Team Explorer
• Xamarin

Before installing this build of Visual Studio 2015 Update 3, I would recommend to checkout the Known Issues currently available in this build. Also checkout the complete Release Notes.

Point to note that, Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 now includes Xamarin 4.1. In addition to a number of bug fixes, this release adds support for tvOS, improves the iOS Assets Catalog support, improves the XML editing experience and adds selectors for SSL/TLS and HttpClient implementations when creating iOS apps.

How to: Uninstall vs2013 or vs2015 completely

When you uninstall from control panel there will be some packages do get left behind. Some are packages that do not participate in package ref-counting – often those that we do not build. Some package may be left behind because uninstalling packages in Visual Studio. If a package fails, uninstall will move on to uninstall the next package. Some are just too essential for other products to uninstall like the .NET Framework and Visual C runtimes: of the vast number of installers that chain them, too few ref-count them to rely on that feature.

Whatever the cause, having components left behind will consume disk space and may cause troubles upgrading to Visual Studio RTM.

This is how we can completely removing Visual Studio components left behind after an uninstall.

Forcibly uninstall using original installer

You do not need to have a bundle installed to forcibly uninstall packages by default. If you have the original installer – say, a previous download – you can run it directly like so:

vs_enterprise.exe /uninstall /force

Outlook: Copy email signatures to another computer

Recently i have switched my computers i could able to get outlook backup files abut not signatures. But i found a way to get all previous signatures to new computer.

Here is how you can do it, If you have created email signatures that you add to outgoing messages, these signatures can be copied to another computer. You can then use the signatures with Outlook on another computer.

Step 1: Copy email signatures from the original computer

1. Exit Outlook.

2. Open the folder where signatures are saved.

Because the Signatures folder is a hidden folder, the easiest way to open the folder is to use the command %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures on the Start menu.

• On Windows 7/8.1/10,  Click Start. Next to the Shut down button, in the Search programs and files box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures and then press Enter.

  

• Windows Vista    Click Start. Next to the Shut Down button, in the Search box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures and then press Enter.

  

• Windows XP    Click Start, click Run, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures and then press Enter.

  

• Copy the signature files.

  There are three files for each email signature — an HTML Document (.htm), Rich Text File (.rtf), and Text Document (.txt).

Step 2: Copy signatures to the destination computer

1. Exit Outlook.

2. On the destination computer, open the folder %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures.

Because the Signatures folder is a hidden folder, the easiest way to open the folder is to use the command %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures on the Start menu.

• Windows 7    Click Start. Next to the Shut down button, in the Search programs and files box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures and then press Enter.

  

• Windows Vista    Click Start. Next to the Shut Down button, in the Search box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures and then press Enter.

  

• Windows XP    Click Start, click Run, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures and then press Enter.

  

• Start Outlook.

  Your stationery is now available in Outlook on the destination computer.

Step 3: Update older signatures

For signatures created in older versions of Outlook, you should update the signature files so that they use revised HTML code that uses cascading style sheets (CSS). This helps prevent potential problems when switching or deleting signatures in a message.

1. Click the File tab.

2. Click Options.

3. Click Mail.

4. Under Compose messages, click Signatures.

5. In the Signatures and Stationery dialog box, in the Select signature to edit list, click a signature.

6. Click in the Edit signature box, and then click Save.

Hope this helps!!!

How to add/concatenate string in Excel

The CONCATENATE function in Excel is designed to join different pieces of text together or combine values from several cells into one cell.

The syntax of Excel CONCATENATE is as follows:
CONCATENATE(text1, [text2], …)

Concatenating the values of several cells
The simplest CONCATENATE formula to combine the values of cells A1 and B1 is as follows:
=CONCATENATE(A1, B1)

Concatenating a text string/formulas and cell value
There is no reason for the Excel CONCATENATE function to be limited to only joining cells' values. You can also use it to concatenate various text strings and formulas to make the result more meaningful.
For example:
=CONCATENATE("Last Updated: ",TEXT(TODAY(), "mm/dd/yyyy"))