I'd been running Windows 7 beta 1 on our "home" pc since it came out.  I didn't want to touch my dev machine until Win 7 was more complete and ready to roll.  Now that Windows 7 RC is out, I thought I'd give it a shot on my main development machine.  After making a backup using Acronis 2009 Home, I booted from my newly downloaded Windows 7 RC DVD, the 64 bit version, formatted the drive, and installed the Ultimate edition.  Vista had a nice install, but this one is even better, and faster too.  One of my favorite things is that it recognizes you have a wireless connection and asks you to connect *during* the installation.  Not after!  So it was able to download the latest bits and apply then right away.

It only took a few minutes and then was there was a lot of praying to make sure all my critical apps would 1) a version that works with Win 7 x64, 2) install and 3) actually work.  The main thing I was concerned about was my SonicWall VPN client.  After a little searching, I found a 64 bit beta client that installed and worked flawlessly.  Joy!  Next, my dev stack -  VS2008/SQL2008/Blend 2/Resharper 4.5/VisualSVN.  I knew from attending DevConnections and seeing Scott Guthrie and some of the other Microsofties that VS2008/SQL2008 would run fine on Win 7.  After a lengthy install, including service packs, those were up and running.  Next was Subversion/TortoiseSVN.  Flawless!  Joy again.  

Now, I occasionally need to maintain a .NET 1.1 web site, so I have been using Sun's excellent VirtualBox to run a Windows XP virtual machine from which I use VS2003.  Flawless install on Windows 7 RC and it runs great.

All my bread and butter apps were working just fine but them I remembered Microsoft Office.  I had no fear there, why would Office 2007 not work...well I've seen strange things before, but luckily that was a flawless install.  So now I have my email working.  Good to go.  Antivirus - how could I forget.  I downloaded Eset Nod32, the 64 bit version, and that went off without a hitch.

Lastly, I need to make money, so Quickbooks was on tap.  I have the latest 2009 version, and that was uneventful. 

So, now after a day of downtime, I am back in action.  I must say that my experience so far is very pleasant.  Windows 7 is a much improved, less intrusive, gorgeous OS.  Dual monitor support is better, the taskbar is nicer and less cluttered, and I just love the "shake" where you grab and window, shake it quickly, and it minimizes all others.   And drag a window to the left, right, and top of the screen.  Docking!  Love it.  More to report as I start using it more and more.  If there are any problems, I'll post here.

Here is a list of Subversion and TortoiseSVN tips that I found and want to keep for future reference

• Think hard if you need ASP.NET hack. If anyone in your company uses NET1.1 ASP.NET project, you do need it.
• Instead of a checkout you can copy _svn/.svn folder to another folder and do an "update".
  • create a secondary work folder by copying the root _svn/.svn folder and do an "update".
• You can "disconnect" from Subversion folder by deleting all _svn/.svn folders in several ways:
  • using Windows Search to find all folders and deleting them in result list
  • using DOS "for" loop or PowerShell
  • by using Jon Galloway's Remove SVN Folders Shell Command
  • or by doing "export" which will give you similar results
• Don't rename/move files in Windows Explorer (or in Visual Studio or any other IDE), use TortoiseSVN's "rename" command or drag file/folder with right mouse button to get move/rename commands.
  • If you move a folder you move _svn/.svn folder with it. Doing that you are messing with working folder structure and are definitely going to get in trouble!
  • Another way of moving/renaming items is directly in Repository Browser. Use with care, though, since you are working without a safety net!
  • Intelligent IDE add-ins like VisualSVN also know how to rename/move.
• There is no "destroy" command in SVN. Once in repository, always in repository.
• If you want to undo a commit, you are probably looking for "Revert changes from this revision" or "Update item to this revision" command for more commits. Be sure to learn more before use.
• If you really mess things up with your commit but you have correct code in unknown svn state, you should:
  • backup your working copy,
  • get another fresh, unchanged working copy,
  • delete _svn/.svn folder from your working copy,
  • copy all files over clean working copy.
  • Result is a working base with latest revision number but correct/old code. You can do "diff" or "commit", depends of what did you mess up in the first place.
• "Clean Up" command is safe and  will not delete your changes. When TortoiseSVN says you should do a cleanup, do it.
• You can create and apply patch files. Very useful for working copies that are far away.
• You can issue a commit on any folder, not just root.
• By default, you cannot change a commit comment. But your Subversion admin can. Don't turn this on, instead assign minimum comment length property (tsvn:logminsize) on every project root.
• You can show some Subversion info about files in Windows Explorer in Detail View. I recommend turning on status and revision number columns. Unfortunately, this is broken in Vista.
  • you can sort files by status or revision number (or any other property/column) by clicking on oh header. Supper useful in folder with lots of files
• Learn how to use svn.exe command line client. Sometimes it's easier/faster to do "svn update" than clicking.
  • "svn.exe" is in /bin folder of your subversion server install. Copy whole folder to development machine and put it in path.
  • svn status is also very handy and fast. It will show you add/modified/deleted/missing files and folders.
  • svn commit is not very handy, but it's incredibly geeky. You specify commit message using -m parameter or you need to set SVN_EDITOR environment variable that specify notepad or other editor that 
  • svn update is usually faster than right clicking if you are already in command prompt executing build scripts, for example.
    

source: http://vidmar.net/weblog/archive/2007/12/11/subversion-and-tortoisesvn-tips-and-tricks.aspx

 

I saw the light and switched from SourceSafe in 2006 to Subversion.  Since it's so cheap and to benefit for off-site storage, I have paid for SVN hosting.  I recently changed hosts to ProjectLocker and couldn't believe how smooth the transition was.  At my prior host, in addition to hosting my subversion repository, I had a trac project.  Trac is really cool!  I downloaded dumps of my svn and trac databases and uploaded them to my new host.  Bingo-bango I'm online at a new URL but everything is the same!  ProjectLocker appears to be pretty solid and so far support has been good.   I've used Team Foundation Server for about a year and wasn't happy with that.  I'm thrilled with subversion and look forward to filling up my repo with some great code.

Some tools I recommend are VisualSVN if you like integration with visual studio.  It's cheap and gives you VSS/TFS like support.  I also use TortoiseSVN to manage my repository.  If you're interested in using Subversion, check out this link or this link.

I haven't done anything with this blog really yet.  Now that I'm a full time e-commerce developer, I need to be more active.  Like any programmer knows, google is your best friend.  Anytime you need a trick or a hint, dial him up and get the goods.  So I intend on giving back and sharing my experiences as I develop a brand new e-commerce site from scratch.