Serialization and deserialization of .NET objects made easy using various serializer classes that it provides. But serialization of Dictionary object is not that much easy. For this, you have to create a special Dictionary class which is able to serialize itself. The serialization technique might be different in different business cases.

Today, let’s discuss how to implement the same with a sample. Code is shared in the post, which you can use in your application. Continue reading and let me know if you have any other approaches.

Microsoft has announced availability of Visual Studio 2015 Update 1. There are plenty of new changes in this final build apart from CTP release and RC release. Apart from our favorite IDE, the final release of Team Foundation Server Update 1 is also available. Download and checkout the new features.

In this post, sharing the download link as well as features list and release notes shared by the giant company. Go thru them while the download is in progress.

You might have been heard about the product JIRA. It is a bug tracking product, developed by Atlassian. It can be used as general "issue tracker", “new feature request tracker” and more, rather than solely a bug tracker. It’s more customizable than BugZilla and queries also can be modifiable.

Today in this small blog post, we will learn how to create a query to list down all the issues “Resolved by” a particular user or you. Continue reading to know more about it.

Microsoft brought a new set of enhancements along with Windows 10 November Update. Among them, one is lock screen enhancements which will allow you to set background image of lock screen from the Windows Spotlight and set/remove the login screen background image.

Today in this post, we are going to discuss on the same and will see how to set those various options in Windows 10 November update (aka. Threshold 2).

Microsoft restores the availability of Windows 10 November Update, which was pulled just after release. The giant company also explained why it was pulled. If you have the RTM build 10240, check out Windows Update. You might have got the notification to install version 1511 by that time.

If you have already installed the November Update (version 1511, build 10586), there’s a patch for you. To know more about this, continue reading the post.

If you are building add-ins for Microsoft Word, at the time of add-in installation you might want to check whether user has installed MS Word on his system or not. Based on that, you might want to show a message to the user or take proper action as per your business need.

In this small blog post, we will learn what needs to be done using C# to find out whether the said Microsoft Office product is installed or not. Continue reading to know about this coding tricks.

On various scenarios, especially when you are building and shipping Add-Ins for outlook, at the time of add-in installation you might want to check whether user has installed outlook on his system or not. Based on that, you might want to show a message to the user.

In this small blog post, we will learn what needs to be done using C# to find out whether outlook is installed or not. Continue reading to know about this coding tricks.

Windows Update Delivery Optimization let’s enable you to receive Windows updates from various sources other than Microsoft. This can be systems in your local network or internet, which already download the update files.

In this post sharing with you the process to turn ON/OFF the Windows Update Delivery Optimization in Windows 10. I hope, most of you already upgraded to this new OS.

Along with global launch of Windows 10 build 10240 (RTM), Microsoft opened the path for the developers to build and publish apps for Windows 10. The Software Development Kit (SDK) is available for download. This SDK for Windows 10 contains headers, libraries and tools you can use to build apps.

In this post, sharing/bookmarking the link to download the SDK Tools for Windows 10 along with the known issues currently there in this build.

Microsoft announced the availability of a new open source library to integrate various functions of Facebook in your Windows apps. The new Windows SDK for Facebook will allow developers to enhance socializing in their Universal Windows apps.

This post will cover link to download the SDK, features list currently available and few more interesting links to continue with the integration.

Big announcement just arrived. In a blog post, S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft announced the release date of Visual Studio 2015 RTM, .NET Framework 4.6 and Team Foundation Server 2015.

July 20 is the date when Microsoft is organizing the Visual Studio 2015 final release event online at 3:30 pm UTC (8:30 am PDT). Don’t forget to watch the live event.

Microsoft announced that Windows 10 will be available on 29th July for new laptops, PCs and tablets. Apart from this, it will also be available as a free upgrade for a year for any devices currently running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

If you are currently running Windows 7 or Windows 8.x, it’s time for you to prepare your system to make sure that, you receive it immediately when the new OS is available.

Few days ago in a blog post we learnt “How to create Schedule Task in Universal Windows apps?”. Today in this blog post we will discuss how to update live tile in an universal Windows apps. Though you don’t need to create schedule task to update live tiles but you can surely use it anytime.

Read more to learn how easy it is to configure your app to support live tile updates and integration of it with schedule task.

The Microsoft Band SDK Preview gives developers access to the sensors available on the Band, the ability to create tiles on the Band and send notifications to these tiles for their applications. Microsoft released it’s first SDK preview for developers.

Using the SDK you will now be able to build app for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone integrating Microsoft Band features. To know more about the SDK preview and downloadable links, read more.

It’s Tuesday again and as I mentioned last week, it’s time to share top 5 links on Microsoft platform which includes few big announcements too. Above the fold you will find announcement on Handwriting in OneNote for iPad, followed by various other posts on Azure Machine Learning and BigData.

This blog post has been composed with the help of Microsoft. Share your views/opinions to Microsoft about the links shared below by dropping a line at the comment section.

Microsoft in DevCenter documentation confirms Windows Phone 8.1 GDR 2 (aka. Update 2) with set of new and updated features, while the Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones released last week. So, expecting a new update to Windows Phone 8.1 handsets before Windows 10.

In this blog post, sharing the new/updated features set and some useful links to get further details. Continue reading.

With help of Microsoft, I am sharing top 5 news with you on Microsoft platform. This is the first post on this channel and I hope you will like it over the period. Please share your views on these topics below, which will be shared to the team over time.

Above the fold, Microsoft Research makes touch develop tool as open source. Read more to find out the top 5 posts. Don’t forget to share your views/feedback.

Microsoft released Windows 10 Technical Preview release build: 9926 for the people registered under Windows Insider Program. This January 2015 release adds new features including Cortana support, enhanced UI and a set of other stuffs.

Find the steps mentioned below to download the Windows 10 (build: 9926) to try the new features coming in Windows 10. Also, ISO links are available for offline installation.

Visual Studio 2015 and .NET 4.6 came up with another new feature (more precisely an enhancement) for C# 6.0 named “Dictionary Initializer”. It’s not a new thing but now you will be able to map the key/indexer directly at the time of dictionary object initialization.

Today in this blog post, we will discuss about this with an example. Don’t forget to read the other new features which I posted earlier. Links can be found in this post.

C# 6.0 came with another new feature along with Visual Studio 2015 and .NET 4.6. Now you will be able to write await operations in catch {} and finally {} blocks too. This will help many developers to do certain async operations when they encounter any exceptions or want to do async clean-ups in finally block.

Today in this blog post, we will discuss about this new feature. Don’t forget to read the other new features which I posted earlier. Links can be found in this post.