Let’s say I have long running transactions on machine. To increase transactions timeout to 1 hour, needs to add or update following configuration in machine.config:

<system.transactions>
   <machineSettings maxTimeout="01:00:00" />
</system.transactions>

Depending on application platform (32 or 64 bits) and which .NET framework version is used needs to determine which machine config needs to be modified. You also can use .NET RuntimeEnvironment.SystemConfigurationFile property to get machine config location.

$path = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.RuntimeEnvironment]::SystemConfigurationFile;
$path32 = "";
$path64 = "";

if ($path.Contains("Framework64"))
{
#64
$path32 = $path.Replace("Framework64", "Framework");
$path64 = $path;
}
else
{
#32
$path32 = $path;
$path64 = $path.Replace("Framework", "Framework64");
}

Now lets write a function which updates the config file

function UpdateMachineConfig
{
param ([System.String]$path)
Write-Host "Machine.config update started ($path)."
$timeOut = "01:00:00";
$element = "system.transactions";

$xml = 1(get-content($path))
#always backup
$xml.Save($path+ ".backup")

$conf = $xml.configuration

if($conf[$element] -eq $null)
{
#Config doesn't contain system.transactions. Let's create it.
$gc = $xml.CreateElement($element)
$conf.AppendChild($gc)
}

if($conf[$element].machineSettings -eq $null)
{
#Config contains system.transactions, but it has no children element machineSettings.
$gc = $xml.CreateElement("machineSettings")
$gc.SetAttribute("maxTimeout", $timeOut)
$conf[$element].AppendChild($gc)
}

#Just set\update timeout if all configuration exists.
$conf[$element].machineSettings.maxTimeout = $timeOut;
$xml.Save($path)

Write-Host "Machine.config update completed ($path)."
}

So that’s all. Here is the working script file. Machine config transformation

“Specified argument was out of the range of valid values. Parameter name: column.”

If looking at the build log you could get an indirect hint what is going wrong:

Associate Changesets and Work Items
Analyzing labels Client_2013.05.26.3 and Client_2013.05.26.4.

The hint: if checked-in code is associated with work item – build will fail.

But I didn’t notice the hint at first and tried several unsuccessful fixes. After failing I looked at the internet and found the description of the same issue: Upgrading your build definitions from TFS2010 to TFS2012

The suggested quick fix in the article is:

The only workaround in the mean time is to turn off the UpdateWorkItems flag on the AssociateChangesetsAndWorkItems activity. This will cause workitems not to be associated with the build.

So to do that, you don’t necessary need to modify your build template, which maybe would fix with multiple builds using the same process template. Rather you can go to individual build definition – process tab and set “Associate Changesets and Work Items” to false as shown below:

So far, after two days builds are doing fine. Hopefully this quick fix will help you while waiting for the real fix from TFS team.

Updated 2013-05-30

Bug will be fixed in Team Foundation Server 2012.3 (Update 3). More details about the bug:

In an environment that uses TFS 2012 and TFS Build Controller 2010, you check in a TFS 2010 build process template. When you queue a build that has associated work item and the work item has an associated changeset, the build fails with the following error message:

What I find useful in ManageWP:

1) It is very easy to setup and integrate to your blogs.

2) All sites in one dashboard.

3) Important notifications emailed about your sites (including waiting updates). So you event don’t need to check them every day.

4) One click upgrades for plugins,themes and maintenance\optimization tasks for all sites at once.

These 4 things I find the most useful in the free version. Of course, there is a huge bunch of extra features in paid versions, which maybe I will try in near future.

So, if you haven’t looked yet at ManageWP, I highly recommend to give it a try.

Via royal.pingdom.com

I saw, that half of photos in computer are corrupted and can’t be displayed. But somehow I didn’t copy them, but moved. So I had no backup copy left in SD card.

Firstly I looked on internet for an advice. I tried several recovery tools. The most successfully was Pandora Recovery, because other tools didn’t find deleted files on SD card or were not able to restore deleted photos.

So I highly recommend to try Pandore Recovery if your problem is similar to mine. I hope you will be lucky, because to lose your memories saved in photos for me is a tragedy

Also sometimes I use simpler tool called Simple Unrecover Deleted Files, which didn’t help in this case.

I started getting “Installation incomplete” error without extra details.

But there is a way to enable logging for msi installation process. You just need run this command: “msiexec /i MySetyp.msi /l*v mylog.txt”.

You will get big error log with information like that (full log ):

Full log is attached:

MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:407]: Machine policy value ‘DisableUserInstalls’ is 0
MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:526]: SOFTWARE RESTRICTION POLICY: Verifying package –> ‘C:\MySetup.msi’ against software restriction policy
MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:526]: Note: 1: 2262 2: DigitalSignature 3: -2147287038
MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:526]: SOFTWARE RESTRICTION POLICY: C:\MySetup.msi.msi is not digitally signed
MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:528]: SOFTWARE RESTRICTION POLICY: C:\MySetup.msi.msi is permitted to run at the ‘unrestricted’ authorization level.
MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:538]: Cloaking enabled.
MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:538]: Attempting to enable all disabled privileges before calling Install on Server
MSI (c) (B8:04) [08:34:24:544]: End dialog not enabled
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:710] [CheckFX                                 ]: Custom Action is starting…
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:710] [CheckFX                                 ]: CoInitializeEx – COM initialization Apartment Threaded…
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:712] [CheckFX                                 ]: MsiGetPropertyW – Determine size of property ‘VSDFrameworkVersion’
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:712] [CheckFX                                 ]: Allocating space…
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:713] [CheckFX                                 ]: MsiGetPropertyW – Getting Property ‘VSDFrameworkVersion’…
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:713] [CheckFX                                 ]: Property ‘VSDFrameworkVersion’  retrieved with value ‘v4.0′.
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:713] [CheckFX                                 ]: MsiGetPropertyW – Determine size of property ‘VSDFrameworkProfile’
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:714] [CheckFX                                 ]: Property ‘VSDFrameworkProfile’  retrieved with value ”.
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:714] [CheckFX                                 ]: Set VSDNETMSG with the FrameworkVersion.
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:714] [CheckFX                                 ]: MsiGetPropertyW – Determine size of property ‘VSDNETMSG’
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:714] [CheckFX                                 ]: Allocating space…
INFO   : [03/21/2012 08:34:24:715] [CheckFX                                 ]: MsiGetPropertyW – Getting Property ‘VSDNETMSG’…

Fix: enable “IIS metabase and IIS6 configuration compatibility” as shown in print screen below:

Simple as that.

Older version can be found here.

p.s. Is it already too late (The EU signs up to Acta)? No.