I blogged about NArrange a while back, but there's a new version out that makes it even better.  It adds support for organizing code without adding #region directives, which I'm beginning to agree are evil.  The end result is a code file organized by member type and access level (ie fields, properties, private, public, etc), and then alphabetically.  It includes a configuration tool which lets you set up a configuration file with all of the rules you want it to follow.  To turn off #region directives open a configuration file in narrange-config, and change Formatting -> Regions -> Region Style to 'NoDirective'.

I'm a visual person.  I've tried to join the keyboard-shortcut-cult.  I've tried Enso, Live Desktop, Google Desktop, and just about any productivity-promising app Hanselman recommends.  I love the idea, but somehow never end up using them.  I never can remember the shortcuts, or even that they are there.  But then again, it is Visual Studio, right?  We do have Graphical User Interfaces for a reason.  I'd just about given up on trying, until I learned one humble little keyboard shortcut that all by itself has saved me tons of time in VS:

CTRL + .

Any time you see the VS smart tag on some code, press that.  Don't think, just do it.  It will do your bidding, before you even know you bid it.  Need to implement an interface?  : <interface> Ctrl + . <enter>. Add a using namespace? <class name> Ctrl + . <enter>.  Rename a variable?  <rename> Ctrl + . <enter>.

If you need pictures, here's more: http://haacked.com/archive/2008/06/23/visual-studio-smart-tag-expansion-tip.aspx

I was all about CleanSweep and DiskDoubler way back when I was 15 and they promised to double my disk to a whopping 40MB.  Nowadays I usually shy away from these 3rd party clean up utilities.  Partly because they tend to be spammy and questionable themselves, and partly out of principal - shouldn't the OS handle keeping itself tidy?  But recently, with less than a GB left on my disk, and my system crawling, I decided to try out a few.  Here are some winners I found:

• JkDefrag - a free, faster, smarter defrag utility.  It still uses the windows defrag API, but can be scheduled, run as a screensaver, etc.  It also does some additional optimizations.
• SpaceMonger - a disk usage analyzer with a brilliant UI.  Not free, but worth it.
• CCleaner - a free clean-up-everything utility.  Temp folders, cache, registry, and all of that stuff the OS _should_ do, but doesn't (or at least doesn't do it all in one convenient UI).  Unlike similar apps, this one is adware free (if you uncheck the 'yahoo toolbar' on setup) and has a clean, simple UI.

Between those, I managed to free up 10+ GB!

Configuring Virtual PCs' network adapters can be confusing.  If you think about it, you're taking a network card, which typically has one IP address and one MAC address, and making it work for two computers.  Add to that security issues - you may not always want a virtual pc getting out over your network- and things get complex quickly.   Recently, though, I wanted to set up a SharePoint demo on a virtual machine, and wanted a setup that:

• Allowed my host pc to connect to the web server on the virtual pc.
• Allowed the virtual pc to connect to the internet.
• Allowed the virtual pc to connect to my host pc

After a little digging, I came across this post on Ben Armstrong's blog that spelled out how to install the 'Microsoft Loopback Adapter' and wire it up to a host network adapter.  It worked as advertised, but I had to reboot and forgot to set the loopback adapter in the virtual machine network settings.   In retrospect, both pretty obvious steps, but, for posterity, here are full instructions for the above scenario (Most of these are straight from his post - be sure to check his blog out for much more Virtual PC info):

Install Microsoft Loopback Adapter:

• On the host operating system go to 'Control Panel'
• Go to 'Add Hardware'
• In the 'Add Hardware' wizard, click 'Next'
• When the 'Is the hardware connected?' page appears, select 'Yes, I have already connected the hardware', and then click 'Next'
• In the 'Installed hardware' list, select 'Add a new hardware device' and then click 'Next'
• In the 'What do you want the wizard to do?' list, select 'Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)', and then click 'Next'
• In the 'Common hardware types' list, click 'Network adapters', and then click 'Next'
• In 'Manufacturer' list, select 'Microsoft'
• In the 'Network Adapter' list, select 'Microsoft Loopback Adapter', and then click 'Next' twice
• In the 'Completing the Add Hardware Wizard' page, click 'Finish'

Turn Internet Connection Sharing on, on the adapter that you want to share, NOT on the loopback adapter.  Typically this is your Wifi or LAN adapter.

• On the host operating system go to 'Control Panel'
• Go to 'Network Connections'
• Right click on the network connection that you use for Internet connectivity and select 'Properties' 
• Click on the 'Advanced' tab
• Check the option to 'Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection'
• If you have multiple network adapters you will need to also specify that you are sharing the Internet connection with the Microsoft Loopback Adapter.
• Click 'OK'

At this point, I had to reboot.  Your mileage may vary.

Finally, in the virtual machine's settings, change the network adapter to use the loopback adapter:

• In Virtual PC, go to Settings -> Networking for the machine
• Set Adapter 1 to 'Microsoft Loopback Adapter'
• Click 'OK'

I got my beta invite today and tried out Windows Live Mesh.   There a are a couple similar services out there, not the least of which is Microsoft's own FolderShare.  But what makes Mesh interesting is the promise of true, seamless synchronization between PCs, mobile devices, and the web.  Your data just appears everywhere you want it to.  In theory, there's no need to use ActiveSync or any other tool to sync up.  Add to that a sharp, clean UI and this is an interesting new product (Excuse me, Technology Preview).

By sheer coincidence, I also played with Peer-to-Peer binding in Windows Communication Framework.  This lets you very easily expose your services in a P2P manner, and also uses the term "mesh" to describe the "cloud" into which your application is connecting.  I haven't quite figured out when I could use it in a typical line-of-business app, but there's something fun about being able to dress up your services in P2P, Message Queuing, or any of the other suits WCF offers, just by adjusting configuration.

Did you know there was a "hidden" code-generation feature in VS2008?  Text Templating Transformation Toolkit  (aka T4) actually debuted in VS2005 Guidance Automation Toolkit, but shipped baked into VS2008.  This gives you CodeSmith-style code-generation templates that can be used in your projects to generate code from any source.  Simply add a text file with the extension ".tt", and VS will add a "Transform Templates" button to the solution explorer window. 

Here's a video that shows some of the basics:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2008/cc308634.aspx

There are all sorts of jokes that could be made about this, but this is a really cool extension of the Surface concept to things like medical charts, wallets, and prescriptions.  I just hope they can bring these ideas to market soon!

VS 2008 has what I think is a very annoying bug and Redmond thinks is a useful feature.  If you create multiple web applications within a single solution, then when you run the solution, by default VS will launch a "Cassini" WebServer for each web application project.  The rational Microsoft gives for this being a "by design" feature is that you may want this behavior when, say, debugging a web app that connects to a separate web-hosted WCF service.  Sounds reasonable, except there already exists functionality just for this purpose: Solution -> Properties -> Multiple Startup Projects!  If I check "Single startup project" here, then under no circumstances should multiple projects start up!  This is especially annoying when developing solutions with several web projects - each spins up a little web server icon in the task tray, with an annoying "pop" and balloon telling you where it's running.  In addition, each takes up memory and slows down the build-and-run.

I scoured Google and the forums and got nothing on this, but this afternoon I happened on the simple workaround.  With a solution explorer and properties window open, select each web application project.  In the properties tab, set "Always Start When Debugging" to false.  Next time you run, only the projects specified in Startup Projects will be run!  Note that this "properties window" is NOT the same as the "Project Properties" that you get to from Project -> Properties.