Tip - Solution name is invisible in solution explorer!!!!

Ever wondered why you are not able to see the solution name in order to add more projects after adding first project to the solution ?? Show All files also doesnt get the Solution back..Here is a tip to get it back...


Go to Tools->Options ->Projects and Solutions ->General and select Always show solution checkbox ..thats it!! any guess, why would this not be a default setting for VisualStudio??


Anyways, go ahead and explore all the Visual Studio menu items once to get to know more of such environment settings.

HTH

Installed BizTalk Server 2006 or BizTalk Server 2006 R2?

It is very easy to differentiate between most of the Biztalk Server versions by just looking at the Start Menu Program list or Administration Console etc. But things are not very straightforward when it comes to differentiate between Biztalk Server 2006 and 2006 R2. As BizTalk Server name on Start menu and Help->About <> on Administration Console do not clearly show whether current Biztalk Server installation is 2006 or 2006 R2 descriptively(rather Product version is mentioned which is not very intuitive). So I just thought of listing some quick ways to easily find it here,

• While loading Visual Studio, Biztalk Server 2006 or Biztalk Server 2006 R2 is shown as one of the installed project templates in splash popup like window
• WCF Adapters stack are shown under Platform Settings->Adapters in Admin Console only for Biztalk Server 2006 R2
• Respective Product Version(3.5.1602.0 for BizTalk Server 2006 and 3.6.1404.0 for R2) is shown at following places,
• Help->About<> in any BizTalk Server's MMC
• Value of ProductVersion Key at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\BizTalk Server\3.0 in the registry
• Biztalkdbversion table in BizTalkMsgBoxDb

I am sure, there may be some more ways to find the same. Here is another informative blog about easily finding Biztalk Server versions.

HTH