Create a Bootable Windows XP CD to DVD

First Steps
Before we can start the process of creating Windows install disc, we first need to gather some software. Below is a list of software that you will need to download and install, as well as CDs that you should have on hand in order to continue.

1. An existing copy of Windows XP home, Professional, or Media Center. Unfortunately, for this step you can not use an OEM CD provided by your computer manufacturer (Dell, HP, etc).
   
2. Nero Burning Rom or nLite if you do not have NERO
   
3. ISOBUSTER
   
4. Network installation copy of Windows XP Service pack 3
   
5. A copy of your SATA drivers from your motherboard Web site if you have a SATA HDD that requires special drivers.
   
6. A blank writable CD or DVD and a CD/DVD burner.

Once you have made sure you have all the software or media listed above, you should create a folder that will be used to store the files that will be written to the installation disc. For this tutorial, we suggest you create a folder on your C: drive labeled XPCD. Once the folder is created, please copy the entire contents of your XP CD to this folder.

Extracting the boot image
After you have completed copying your windows XP CD you will need to create a boot image by extracting it from your existing XP CD. To do this, have your XP CD inserted in your computer and start ISOBuster. When the program starts you will see a screen similar to the following. If you do not, change the selected drive so that it is pointing to the drive that contains your Windows XP CD.

In the left hand pane you should select Bootable Disc. Click once on this Bootable Disc option, so it is selected, and you will now see a file called Microsoft Corporation.img in the right hand panel as shown in the image below.

Now right-click on the MICROSOFT CORPORATION.img file and select the extract MICROSOFT CORPORATION.img option as shown in the image below.

When it prompts you for the location where you would like to extract the file, save it to the folder you copied the contents of your XP CD earlier in the guide. If you are following the guide step-by-step, this folder will be C:\XPCD.

How to slipstream Windows Service Pack 3

Now that we have extracted the boot image we need to slipstream the service pack over the Windows files you previously copied into the C:\XPCD folder. Please make sure you have downloaded the network installation version Windows XP Service Pack 3 before continuing as we will need it during this step. When downloading the service pack, please download the files to the root directory of your C: drive.
Once the service pack is downloaded, you can slipstream the service pack using two methods. The first method is to use the command line and the second is to use the nLite program. The command line method will probably be a bit easier if you are comfortable with the Windows command prompt. Otherwise, use the nLite method described below.
Using the Command Line to slipstream the service pack:
Click on the Start Menu and then select Run. Then type command into the Open: field. Finally, click on the OK button. You will now be at a command prompt where you should type the following bolded lines. After each line, press enter on your keyboard as shown in the figure below.
CD\
C:WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe /integrate:C:\XPCD

If you are using an OEM Windows XP CD you will receive the following error. This error means that you cannot use this type of CD to create a slipstreamed installation and will not be able to continue with this tutorial.

Now that you are done slipstreaming the service pack using the command line. You should now skip to the section detailing how to slipstream your SATA hard drive drivers. If you are not using a SATA drive you can skip ahead to learn how to burn the DVD.

Using nLite to slipstream the service pack:
Download nLite and install the program. When the program starts, click on the Next button, and then at the next screen, select the Browse button to see a screen similar to the one below.

Now select your Windows installation folder that we created at C:\XPCD and then click on the OK button. nLite will scan the directory and identify any previously installed Service Packs. When it has finished, click on the Next button. You will now be on a screen asking if there are any presets that you would like to use. Just click on the Next button again to continue.
You will now be on the Task Selection screen. Simply click once on the Service Pack button so that the circle becomes green as shown in the image below.

Now that it is selected, click on the Next button. You will now be prompted for the location of your service pack installation file that you downloaded earlier as shown in the image below.

Browse to the service pack file and select it. Then click on the Open button. file. Once you click on the open button, nLite will automatically slipstream the service pack into your C:\XPCD folder. When it has finished, click on the Next button, and then at the next screen, click on the Finish button to close the program.
You should now continue to the section detailing how to slipstream your SATA hard drive drivers. If you are not using a SATA drive you can skip ahead to learn how to burn the DVD.

How To slipstream SATA Drivers Using nLite
If you have not already installed nLite, you will need to download and install the program first. Next, you will need to download your SATA drivers from your motherboard or computer manufacture's web site. In our example, I will be using VIA raid drivers from Biostar. Once the SATA drivers have been downloaded, you should extract them to a folder on your hard drive. In our example, we have extracted the drivers into the C:\SATA Driver folder.
Now that everything is prepared you should start the nLite program. When the program starts, click on the Next button, and then at the next screen, select the Browse button to see a screen similar to the one below.

Now select your Windows installation folder that we created at C:\XPCD and then click on the OK button. nLite will scan the directory and identify any previously installed service packs. When it has finished, click on the Next button. You will now be on a screen asking if there are any presets that you would like to use. Just click on the Next button again to continue.
You will now be on the Task Selection screen. Simply click once on the Drivers button so that the circle becomes green as shown in the image below.

After selecting Drivers, you should click on the Next button. You will now be at the Drivers screen. You should now click on the Insert button and then select the Multiple driver folder option so you can include all of the drivers for your specific operating system.

You will now be prompted for the folder where your extracted drivers are. You now want to browse to this folder, and when there, locate the correct folder for your Operating system. In our case it is the x86 directory since I am using 32bit Windows XP Pro.

You should now select the folder, and then press the OK button. nLite will now automatically install the drivers contained in both subdirectories. You will now see a screen showing the available drivers found in these folders. You should click the All button to select all drivers for your system and then press the OK button.
NOTE: If there are drivers for other versions of windows, for example Vista or 64 bit drivers, do not install them as it will cause file load errors. If you do select them, nLite will notify you of the problem.
When done selecting the correct drivers, click on the OK button.
A new screen will appear asking what driver mode you would like to select. At this screen, you should select the Textmode Driver as shown in the image below.

If multiple are listed in the Textmode integration options box, select the appropriate driver for your operating system. The OK button will now become available and you should click on it. Do this same routine for for each and every driver that you are installing.
After selecting Textmode Driver you will be at a page listing all the drivers that will be installed. You should click on the Next button and then click on the OK button when it asks if you want to start the process. Your SATA drivers will now be integrated into your Windows files folder. When the process has finished, click on the Next button and then the Finish button.
You are now ready to burn the Windows files to your a bootable DVD. If you will be using Nero to create this DVD, then you can continue to the next section. Otherwise, you can skip ahead to instructions on how to use the free nLite utility to create your DVD.

Burn a bootable CD or DVD Using Nero
Please note that older versions of NERO may not use the same steps as what are outlined in this guide. These steps were created for use with Nero 7 and above.
If you own Nero, then start the Nero Burning ROM program. Once started, if you do not see an option labeled Make Bootable DVD, as shown in the image below, you will need to enable the advanced user settings.

To start, select the Make Bootable DVD option. On the next screen you will be asked to select a Boot image. You should browse to the folder where you saved the Microsoft Boot image that you extracted using Isobuster in previous steps and select it. Please note, that by default Nero will be looking for a file with a .IMA extension, so you will need to change the file type to All Files (*.*) in order to select the MICROSOFT CORPORATION.img boot image. This is shown in the figure below.

You should now click on the Boot tab and put a checkmark in Enable expert settings. Then change Kind of Emulation to No Emulation. Then change the Number of loaded sectors to 4. When done your screen should look similar to the image below.

Under the ISO tab, you should not have to change any settings. Just click on the tab to make sure it is configured as shown in the image above. If you have an older version of Nero you will not have the option Do not add the ';1' ISO file version extension under the Relax restrictions category.

Now click on the Label tab. We recommend changing the labels on your completed CD or DVD so that they match your Windows CD. To do that Select Manual and then enter the labels into the ISO 9660 and Joilet fields. For Windows XP Pro you should enter WXPCCP_EN. For Windows XP Home you should enter WXHCCP_EN. An example of this is shown in the image below.

Now click on the New button to open the file browser as shown in the image below.

In the right hand pane you will navigate to your slipstreamed location, C:\XPCD, and left-click once on it to select it. Then select all of the files in the right-hand pane and drag them into the left-hand pane. When this is completed, click on the Burn button in the top menu bar. Nero will create the bootable CD for you and you will now have a Slipstreamed Windows XP SP3 CD or DVD!

Burn a bootable CD or DVD using nLite
If you have not already installed nLite, you will need to download and install the program first and then start it.When the program starts, click on the Next button, and then at the next screen, select the Browse button to see a screen similar to the one below.

Now select your Windows installation folder that we created at C:\XPCD and then click on the OK button. nLite will scan the directory and identify any previously installed Service Packs. When it has finished, click on the Next button. You will now be on a screen asking if there are any presets that you would like to use. Just click on the Next button again to continue.
You will now be on the Task Selection screen.

On this screen select the Bootable ISO option as shown in the image above and then click on the Next button.You will now be at the Bootable ISO screen that will look similar to the image below.

If the screen above does not look exactly like what you see on your computer, do not be concerned as we need to make some changes first. First change the Mode option to Direct Burn. Then, for the Label field we recommend using the same label that was on your original Windows CD. For Windows XP Pro you should enter WXPCCP_EN into the Label field. For Windows XP Home you should enter WXHCCP_EN into the label field. Next, make sure your CD/DVD burner is selected in the Device menu. Last, but not least, change the Burn Speed to 8X in order to get a reliable burn.
When you have finished configuring these settings, we need to specify our boot image. To do that, change Boot Sector to custom and a window will open asking you to locate your boot sector. You should browse to the folder where you saved the Microsoft Boot image that you extracted using Isobuster in previous steps and select it. Please note, that by default nLite will be looking for .bin or .dat files, so you will need to change Files of type to All Files. Once you do that you will be able to select the MICROSOFT CORPORATION.img boot image as shown in the image below.

Once you have changed all of your settings and selected your boot image, we are ready to create the Windows installation media. To start this process, click on the Burn button. A confirmation prompt will appear asking if you are sure you want to burn the content to the media. You should click on the Yes button to start the process. nLite will now start preparing the content that will be copied to your media. This may take some time, so please be patient. When it has finished preparing the files, nLite will start writing them to your media as shown in the image below.

Please be patient while the files are written to your media. When it has finished, you will see a message stating the written files were verified successfully. You can then click on the Next button and then click on the Finish button to close nLite.
You now have a Slipstreamed SP3 CD or DVD!

Conclusion
Now that you have learned how to make a bootable Windows installation disc you can make an install or reinstall process much quicker and secure. Using a disk like this you can now install Windows XP and be at a high patch level so that your freshly installed operating system is less vulnerable to malware and hackers. This also enables you to go to locations where there is not a lot of bandwidth and install Windows with all of the latest service packs installed so you do not have to wait for a long time while the service pack downloads. If you have any questions regarding this process, or tutorial, please feel free to ask us in the Windows XP forum.

Making a XP Bootable CD

The following are the instructions for making a bootable XP CD using Nero

To begin, download the Microsoft Corporatiion.img file and remember the location where you download it to your computer

1. Start Nero 2.
Double click on CD-ROM (boot) 3. Check Image File 4. Click on the Browse button, File of Type - All Files, Select the Image file 5. Keep the Nero Boot-Loader 07C0 6. Load Segment - 07C0 7. Number of loaded sectors - 4 8. Make the screen look like the following graphic 8. Click on the ISO tab 9. Configure it to match the following graphic 10. Click on the LABEL tab 11. You don't need to but here are the default labels for the different versions of XP:

• Windows XP Professional: WXPCCP_EN
• Windows XP Home: WXHCCP_EN
• Windows XP Professional OEM: WXPOEM_EN
• Windows XP Home OEM: WXHOEM_EN

12. Click on the New button 13. Select your XP Source files and drag to the window on the left 14. Make your bootable XP CD.

Copying the Source Files

1. If your WindowsXP source files are already on the computer's hard drive you can skip this section. 2. Insert your WindowsXP CD 3. If prompted, do not install WindowsXP 4. Create a directory on the hard drive and copy the entire contents of the CD to that directory 5. For example, use c:\winxp

Performing the SlipStream

1. Given the previous examples, go to the  c:\xp_sp2\i386\update directory 2. Run:
update.exe  -S:c:\winxp 3. When it is finished, you will see the message The Integrated install has completed successfully 4. You can now copy the c:\winxp directory to a CD or other location. 5. If you need to make a bootable CD ROM, there are other locations on the Internet with good detailed instructions.

Create nameless files and folders in windows

 This trick will allow you to create files and folders without any name.
Just follow the following steps:

1. Select any file or folder.
2. Right click on it, press rename or simply press F2.
3. Press and hold the alt key. While holding the Alt key, type numbers 0160 from the numpad.

Note: Type the numbers 0160 from the numpad, that is, the numbers present on the right side of the keyboard. Don't type the numbers which are present on top of the character keys.
         
4. Press Enter and the nameless file or folder will be created.

Reason: The file or folder that seems nameless is actually named with a single space.

But what if you want to create another nameless file or folder in the same directory ?

For this you will have to rename the file with 2 spaces. Just follow these steps below:

1. Select file, press F2.
2. Hold alt key and type 0160 from the numpad.
3. Release the alt key. Now without doing anything else, again hold alt key and press 0160.
4. Press enter and you will have second nameless file in the same directory.
5. Repeat step 3 to create as many nameless files or folders in the same directory.

How to find the IP address of the sender in Gmail, Yahoo! mail or Hotmail

          When you receive an email, you receive more than just the message. The email comes with headers that carry important information that can tell where the email was sent from and possibly who sent it. For that, you would need to find the IP address of the sender. The tutorial below can help you find the IP address of the sender. Note that this will not work if the sender uses anonymous proxy servers.

Finding IP address in Gmail

1. Log into your Gmail account with your username and password.
2. Open the mail.
3. To display the headers,
* Click on More options corresponding to that thread. You should get a bunch of links.
* Click on Show original
4. You should get headers like this:
Gmail headers : name
Look for Received: from followed by a few hostnames and an IP address between square brackets. In this case, it is

65.119.112.245.
That is be the IP address of the sender!
5. Track the IP address of the sender

Finding IP address in Yahoo! Mail

1. Log into your Yahoo! mail with your username and password.
2. Click on Inbox or whichever folder you have stored your mail.
3. Open the mail.
4. If you do not see the headers above the mail message, your headers are not displayed. To display the headers,
* Click on Options on the top-right corner
* In the Mail Options page, click on General Preferences
* Scroll down to Messages where you have the Headers option
* Make sure that Show all headers on incoming messages is selected
* Click on the Save button
* Go back to the mails and open that mail
5. You should see similar headers like this:
Yahoo! headers : name
Look for Received: from followed by the IP address between square brackets [ ]. Here, it is 202.65.138.109.
That is be the IP address of the sender!
6. Track the IP address of the sender

Finding IP address in Hotmail

1. Log into your Hotmail account with your username and password.
2. Click on the Mail tab on the top.
3. Open the mail.
4. If you do not see the headers above the mail message, your headers are not displayed. To display the headers,
* Click on Options on the top-right corner
* In the Mail Options page, click on Mail Display Settings
* In Message Headers, make sure Advanced option is checked
* Click on Ok button
* Go back to the mails and open that mail
5. If you find a header with X-Originating-IP: followed by an IP address, that is the sender's IP address
Hotmail headers : name ,In this case the IP address of the sender is [68.34.60.59]. Jump to step 9.
6. If you find a header with Received: from followed by a Gmail proxy like this
Hotmail headers : name
Look for Received: from followed by IP address within square brackets[].
In this case, the IP address of the sender is [69.140.7.58]. Jump to step 9.
7. Or else if you have headers like this
Hotmail headers : name
Look for Received: from followed by IP address within square brackets[].
In this case, the IP address of the sender is [61.83.145.129] (Spam mail). Jump to step 9.
8. * If you have multiple Received: from headers, eliminate the ones that have proxy.anyknownserver.com.
9. Track the IP address of the sender

Getting a Google Wave invitation – free ways and methods to get google wave account

Lets begin with a small description of what actually a Google wave is.

Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.
A wave is a conversation with multiple participants — participants are people added to a wave to discuss and collaborate on its content. Participants can reply any time and anywhere within a wave, and they can edit content and add more participants as a wave develops. It’s also possible to rewind waves with the playback functionality, to see what happened, and when.
Below is the screenshot of Google wave main page after receiving an invitation and logging in.

So, If you have a gmail account or orkut account, its not enough to get a google wave account. Since google wave is a new product of google, they offer account only to limited members. Its a bit hard to get google wave account membership though it is free. There are various ways and methods to get google wave account and i am going to highlight it here.
Method 1: Sign up for Google Wave Account by filling the request form

Directly signup at google wave by sending a request to Google Wave team to get an open invitation. You need to fill a request form. Visit request form
Method 2: Ask Google wave users to send you an invitation.
Remember when Gmail was introduced, a person need to get an invitation to open a gmail account. That’s the same case with Google Wave. You can ask any google wave user to send you a invitation. In this way you can easily join google wave.
Method 3: Getting Unlimited Google wave accounts
Source : youcanhack


Yes, that’s right. Once you hold a google wave account, you can have unlimited google wave accounts and can invite others to google wave.
To apply this trick you will need at least One Google Wave Account and at least One Google Wave Invitation left to invite others.
First, create your entirely new mail account in Gmail.com. Then log in to your Google Wave account.
Click Invite Others to Google Wave and write your new Gmail address at Enter an Email Address Box.
Login to your new Gmail account that you’ve just created and accept the Invitation. You will be redirected to your New Google Wave Account from where you can send further more invitations.
Now u can see 8 Invitations left in your new Google Wave Account. You can keep inviting 7 people. When you have only one Invitations left follow the whole method again, i.e. create new Gmail account and invite it.

Boot Or Start Computer Faster

         Many computers take a lot of time to boot (or start ).This is due to many reasons.

Some slight changes can do wonders for your system:

1. Press start->run then type msconfig and press enter.

Go to the startup tab. Here you will see a list of startup items. These are all the programs that automatically start when you boot your PC. It is these that slow down the boot up process.
                                 So uncheck all the unwanted items like ms-office, messengers other utilities that u may not need at startup). Don't uncheck your antivirus software.

Restart your Pc to and see for yourself, your pc will now boot faster....  
    
2. A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option is enabled, but on some systems it is not, so below is the information on how to turn it on:

Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in regedit then click ok
Find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction"
Select "Enable" from the list on the right
Right on it and select "Modify"
Change the value to Y .
Reboot your Pc and see the change yourself.
 
3.SPEED UP BOOT BY DISABLING UNUSED PORTS.!!
You may have tried many tweaks like modifying windows XP start-up applications, prefetches, unload DLLs method, etc. And yes those methods do work for me.
                    I have just accidentally found out another way to give you an extra boost in windows XP's boot performance. This is done by disabling your unused devices in Device Manager. for example, if you don't have input devices that are connected to one of your USB's or COM ports, disabling them will give you an extra performance boost in booting. Go to Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> device manager Disable devices that you don't use for your PC and then restart.

ADO.NET and Database Interview questions

1. What is the role of the DataReader class in ADO.NET connections?

It returns a read-only, forward-only rowset from the data source. A DataReader provides fast access when a forward-only sequential read is needed.

2. What are advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft-provided data provider classes in ADO.NET?

SQLServer.NET data provider is high-speed and robust, but requires SQL Server license purchased from Microsoft. OLE-DB.NET is universal for accessing other sources, like Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access and Informix. OLE-DB.NET is a .NET layer on top of the OLE layer, so it’s not as fastest and efficient as SqlServer.NET.

3. What is the wildcard character in SQL?

Let’s say you want to query database with LIKE for all employees whose name starts with La. The wildcard character is %, the proper query with LIKE would involve ‘La%’.

4. Explain ACID rule of thumb for transactions.

A transaction must be:
1. Atomic - it is one unit of work and does not dependent on previous and following transactions.
2. Consistent - data is either committed or roll back, no “in-between” case where something has been updated and something hasn’t.
3. Isolated - no transaction sees the intermediate results of the current transaction).
4. Durable - the values persist if the data had been committed even if the system crashes right after.

5. What connections does Microsoft SQL Server support?

Windows Authentication (via Active Directory) and SQL Server authentication (via Microsoft SQL Server username and password).

6. Between Windows Authentication and SQL Server Authentication, which one is trusted and which one is untrusted?

Windows Authentication is trusted because the username and password are checked with the Active Directory, the SQL Server authentication is untrusted, since SQL Server is the only verifier participating in the transaction.

7. What does the Initial Catalog parameter define in the connection string?

The database name to connect to.

8. What does the Dispose method do with the Connection object?

Clears the unmanaged resources.

In addition to closing the connection, it also clears stateful nature of the SqlConnection instance.

9. What is a pre-requisite for connection pooling?

Multiple processes must agree that they will share the same connection, where every parameter is the same, including the security settings. The connection string must be identical

10. Difference between ADO.NET Dataset and an ADO Recordset?

ADO.NET DataSet: DIsconnected architechure . Maintainace relation schemas. MUtilple table grouping.
RecordSet: Connected one .


11. How can I execute a Transact SQL stored procedure (actually in the database) on a SQL 2000 database from an AS/400 CL program. ?

To execute either a DTS Package or a Stored Procedure, you have to set up a batch file on the server to call and it only has to have one record in it that is explained below.

The AS/400 command stays the same and is as follows:
RUNRMTCMD CMD('c:\TEST_BATCH) RMTLOCNAME('111.111.1.111' *IP) RMTUSER(*NONE)
The c:\TEST_BATCH is the batch file you need to set up.
Change the 111.111.1.111 to the IP address of the server to run it on.

To run a DTS package, the batch file will need to look like the following:
dtsrun /S "TESTSERVER" /U "TESTUSER" /P "TESTPWORD" /N "TEST_DTS"
Change TESTSERVER to the name of your server.
Change TERSUSER to a valid user id.
Change TESTPWORD to the password for the user.
Change TEST_DTS to the name of the DTS Package.
Pay attention to the case on the /S, /U, /P, and /N.
Make sure you save this as a .bat file not a .txt file.

To run a Stored Procedure, the batch file will need to look like the following:
osql -S "TESTSERVER" -d "TESTDB" -U "TESTUSER" -P "TESTPWORD" -q "exec dbo.TEST_STPROC"
Change TESTSERVER to the name of your server.
Change TESTUSER to a valid user id.
Change TESTPWORD to the password for the user.
Change dbo.TEST_STPROC to the name of the Stored Procedure.
Pay attention to the case on the –S, -d, -U, -P, and –q.
Make sure you save this as a .bat file not a .txt file.

12. How do I change the default location for database and log files during a SQL 2005 installation?

When you get to the list of services to install, click the Advanced button. Expand the SQL Server engine menu item, and select database files. Change the folder here. This will set the data file and log files to the same thing. You'll need to change the folder to different folders after the install is finished.

.NET Interview Questions

             








1. What is the difference between ASP.Net and VB.NET?
ASP.Net is an “environment”, and VB.Net is a programming language. You can write ASP.Net pages (called “Web Forms” by Microsoft) using VB.Net (or C#, or J# or Managed C++ or any one of a number of .Net compatible languages).

2. What base class do all Forms inherit from?
System.Windows.Forms.Form

3. What is the difference between Debug.Write and Trace.Write? When should each be used?
The Debug.Write call won’t be compiled when the DEBUG symbol is not defined (when doing a release build). Trace.Write calls will be compiled. Debug.Write is for information you want only in debug builds, Trace.Write is for final realease

4. Can you give an example of when it would be appropriate to use a web service as opposed to non-serviced .NET component?
Web service is one of main component in Service Oriented Architecture. You could use web services when your clients and servers are running on different networks and also different platforms. This provides a loosely coupled architecture.

5. Is it possible to restrict the scope/field method of a class to the classes in the same name space?
There is no way to restrict to a namespace. Namespaces are never units of protection. But if you’re using assemblies, you can use the ‘internal’ access modifier to restrict access to only within the assembly.

6. What is the equivalent of exit () for quitting in .NET application?
You can use System.Environment.Exit(int exitCode) to exit the application or Application.Exit() if it’s a Windows Forms app.

7. Is there regular expression (regex) support available to c# developers?
Yes. The .NET class libraries provide support for regular expressions. Look at the System.Text.RegularExpressions namespace.

8. How many types of validation controls are supported in ASP.NET?
RequiredField Validator Control,Range Validator Control, RegularExpression Validator Control,Custom Validator Control and Validation Summary Control are provided by ASP.NET.

9. What is Tracing in ASP.NET?
ASP.NET introduces new functionality that allows you to write debug statements, directly in your code, without having to remove them from your application when it is deployed to production servers. Called tracing, this feature allows you to write variables or structures in a page, assert whether a condition is met, or simply trace through the code.

10. What exactly happens when aspx page is requested from Browser?
At its core, the ASP.NET execution engine compiles the page into a class, which derives from the code behind class (which in turn derives directly or indirectly from the Page class). Then it injects the newly created class into the execution environment, instantiates it, and executes it.

11. Methods of Deployment:
You can deploy an ASP.NET Web application using any one of the following three deployment options

• 1.XCOPY Deployment
• 2.Using the Copy Project option in VS .NET
• 3.Deployment using VS.NET installer

12. What can be stored in Web.config file?
There are number of important settings that can be stored in the configuration file. Here are some of the most frequently used configurations, stored conveniently inside Web.config file..

• 1. Database connections
• 2. Session States
• 3. Error Handling4. Security

13. Is String a value type of Reference Type?string is actually ref Type but some difference with other ref objectValue type - bool, byte, chat, decimal, double, enum , float, int, long, sbyte, short,strut, uint, ulong, ushortValue types are stored in the StackReference type - class, delegate, interface, object, stringReference types are stored in the Heap

14. What is the purpose of garbage Collection?
The purpose of Garge collection is to identify and discard objects that are no longer needed by a program so that their resources may be reclaimed and reused.

15. What does AspCompat=”true” mean and when should I use it?
AspCompat is an aid in migrating ASP pages to ASPX pages. It defaults to false but should be set to true in any ASPX file that creates apartment-threaded COM objects–that is, COM objects registered ThreadingModel=Apartment. That includes all COM objects written with Visual Basic 6.0.




16. Code to Export DataGrid to Excel in web application
Response.Clear();
Response.Buffer true;
Response.ContentType "application/vnd.ms-excel";
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition" "attachment;filename ReviewDesignation.xls");//This lets you always open the Excel window when exporting whether you click on open or save.
Response.Charset "";
this.EnableViewState false;
System.IO.StringWriter oStringWriter new
System.IO.StringWriter();System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter oHtmlTextWriter
new System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter(oStringWriter);
this.ClearControls(dGrid);
dGrid.RenderControl(oHtmlTextWriter);
Response.Write(oStringWriter.ToString());
Response.End();


17. What debugging tools come with the .NET SDK?
A. CorDBG – command-line debugger. To use CorDbg, you must compile the original C# file using the /debug switch.
B. DbgCLR – graphic debugger. Visual Studio .NET uses the DbgCLR.


18. What does assert() method do?
In debug compilation, assert takes in a Boolean condition as a parameter, and shows the error dialog if the condition is false. The program proceeds without any interruption if the condition is true.


19. What’s the difference between the Debug class and Trace class?
Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug builds, use Trace class for both debug and release builds.

20. What are the different ways a method can be overloaded?
Different parameter data types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters


21. Is XML case-sensitive?
Yes

22. What does the keyword “virtual” declare for a method or property?
The method or property can be overridden.


23. What is a satellite assembly?
When you write a multilingual or multi-cultural application in .NET, and want to distribute the core application separately from the localized modules, the localized assemblies that modify the core application are called satellite assemblies.


24. What is the smallest unit of execution in .NET?
an Assembly

25. How do you convert a value-type to a reference-type?
Use Boxing.


26. What does the term immutable mean?
Immutable means you can't change the currrent data, but if you perform some operation on that data, a new copy is created. The operation doesn't change the data itself. Like let's say you have a string object having "hello" value. Now if you say temp = temp + "new value" a new object is created, and values is saved in that. the temp object is immutable, and can't be changed.


27. Does Array.CopyTo make a deep copy?
No


28. What is the difference between Server.Transfer and Response.Redirect? Why would I choose one over the other?
 Server.Trnasfer will prevent round trip. it will redirect pages which or in the same directory. NO way to pass the query strings . Thru http context we can able to get the previous page control values.

Response.Redirect : There is a round trip to process the request. We can redirect to any page external / internal other than aspx. We can pass the query string thru which we can manage sessions.


29. Explain the differences between Server-side and Client-side code?
 Server side code will execute at server end all the business logic will execute at server end where as client side code will execute at client side at browser end.

30. How does VB.NET/C# achieve polymorphism?
 Function overloading.
Operator overloading




31. Write a simple Windows Forms MessageBox
Statement: System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Hello, Windows Forms");

32. Can you write a class without specifying namespace? Which namespace does it belong to by default??
Yes, you can, then the class belongs to global namespace which has no name. For commercial products, naturally, you wouldn’t want global namespace.

33. You are designing a GUI application with a window and several widgets on it. The user then resizes the app window and sees a lot of grey space, while the widgets stay in place. What’s the problem?
One should use anchoring for correct resizing. Otherwise the default property of a widget on a form is top-left, so it stays at the same location when resized.

34. How can you save the desired properties of Windows Forms application?.
config files in .NET are supported through the API to allow storing and retrieving information. They are nothing more than simple XML files, sort of like what .ini files were before for Win32 apps.

35. So how do you retrieve the customized properties of a .NET application from XML .config file?
Initialize an instance of AppSettingsReader class. Call the GetValue method of AppSettingsReader class, passing in the name of the property and the type expected. Assign the result to the appropriate variable.

36. Can you automate the process in Visual Studio ?Yes, use Dynamic Properties for automatic .config creation, storage and retrieval.

37. My progress bar freezes up and dialog window shows blank, when an intensive background process takes over.
Yes, you should’ve multi-threaded your GUI, with taskbar and main form being one thread, and the background process being the other.

38. What’s the safest way to deploy a Windows Forms app?
Web deployment: the user always downloads the latest version of the code; the program runs within security sandbox, properly written app will not require additional security privileges.

39. Why is it not a good idea to insert code into InitializeComponent method when working with Visual Studio?
The designer will likely throw it away; most of the code inside InitializeComponent is auto-generated.

40. What’s the difference between WindowsDefaultLocation and WindowsDefaultBounds?
WindowsDefaultLocation tells the form to start up at a location selected by OS, but with internally specified size. WindowsDefaultBounds delegates both size and starting position choices to the OS.

41. What’s the difference between Move and LocationChanged? Resize and SizeChanged?
Both methods do the same, Move and Resize are the names adopted from VB to ease migration to C#.

42. How would you create a non-rectangular window, let’s say an ellipse?
Create a rectangular form, set the TransparencyKey property to the same value as BackColor, which will effectively make the background of the form transparent. Then set the FormBorderStyle to FormBorderStyle.None, which will remove the contour and contents of the form.

43. How do you create a separator in the Menu Designer?
A hyphen ‘-’ would do it. Also, an ampersand ‘&\’ would underline the next letter.

44. How’s anchoring different from docking?
Anchoring treats the component as having the absolute size and adjusts its location relative to the parent form. Docking treats the component location as absolute and disregards the component size. So if a status bar must always be at the bottom no matter what, use docking. If a button should be on the top right, but change its position with the form being resized, use anchoring.




45.What’s a Windows process?
It’s an application that’s running and had been allocated memory.

46.What’s typical about a Windows process in regards to memory allocation?
Each process is allocated its own block of available RAM space, no process can access another process’ code or data. If the process crashes, it dies alone without taking the entire OS or a bunch of other applications down.

47.Why do you call it a process? What’s different between process and application in .NET, not common computer usage, terminology?
A process is an instance of a running application. An application is an executable on the hard drive or network. There can be numerous processes launched of the same application (5 copies of Word running), but 1 process can run just 1 application.

48.What distributed process frameworks outside .NET do you know?
Distributed Computing Environment/Remote Procedure Calls (DEC/RPC), Microsoft Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), and Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI).

49.What are possible implementations of distributed applications in .NET?
.NET Remoting and ASP.NET Web Services. If we talk about the Framework Class Library, noteworthy classes are in System.Runtime.Remoting and System.Web.Services.

50.When would you use .NET Remoting and when Web services?
Use remoting for more efficient exchange of information when you control both ends of the application. Use Web services for open-protocol-based information exchange when you are just a client or a server with the other end belonging to someone else.

51.What’s a proxy of the server object in .NET Remoting?
It’s a fake copy of the server object that resides on the client side and behaves as if it was the server. It handles the communication between real server object and the client object. This process is also known as marshaling.

52.What are remotable objects in .NET Remoting?
Remotable objects are the objects that can be marshaled across the application domains. You can marshal by value, where a deep copy of the object is created and then passed to the receiver. You can also marshal by reference, where just a reference to an existing object is passed.

53.What are channels in .NET Remoting?
Channels represent the objects that transfer the other serialized objects from one application domain to another and from one computer to another, as well as one process to another on the same box. A channel must exist before an object can be transferred.

54.What security measures exist for .NET Remoting in System.Runtime.Remoting?
None. Security should be taken care of at the application level. Cryptography and other security techniques can be applied at application or server level.

55.What is a formatter?
A formatter is an object that is responsible for encoding and serializing data into messages on one end, and deserializing and decoding messages into data on the other end.
Choosing between HTTP and TCP for protocols and Binary and SOAP for formatters, what are the trade-offs?
Binary over TCP is the most effiecient, SOAP over HTTP is the most interoperable.

56.What’s SingleCall activation mode used for?
If the server object is instantiated for responding to just one single request, the request should be made in SingleCall mode.

57.What’s Singleton activation mode?
A single object is instantiated regardless of the number of clients accessing it. Lifetime of this object is determined by lifetime lease.

58.How do you define the lease of the object?
By implementing ILease interface when writing the class code.

59.Can you configure a .NET Remoting object via XML file?
Yes, via machine.config and application level .config file (or web.config in ASP.NET). Application-level XML settings take precedence over machine.config.

60.How can you automatically generate interface for the remotable object in .NET with Microsoft tools?
Use the Soapsuds tool.




61. What’s the implicit name of the parameter that gets passed into the class’ set method?
Value, and its datatype depends on whatever variable we’re changing.

62. How do you inherit from a class in C#?
Place a colon and then the name of the base class. Notice that it’s double colon in C++.

63. Does C# support multiple inheritance?
No, use interfaces instead.


64. When you inherit a protected class-level variable, who is it available to?
Classes in the same namespace.


65. Are private class-level variables inherited?
Yes, but they are not accessible, so looking at it you can honestly say that they are not inherited. But they are.


66. Describe the accessibility modifier protected internal.
It’s available to derived classes and classes within the same Assembly (and naturally from the base class it’s declared in).


67. C# provides a default constructor for me.
I write a constructor that takes a string as a parameter, but want to keep the no parameter one. How many constructors should I write? Two. Once you write at least one constructor, C# cancels the freebie constructor, and now you have to write one yourself, even if there’s no implementation in it.


68. What’s the top .NET class that everything is derived from?
System.Object.

69. How’s method overriding different from overloading?
When overriding, you change the method behavior for a derived class. Overloading simply involves having a method with the same name within the class.


70. What does the keyword virtual mean in the method definition?
The method can be over-ridden.


71. Can you declare the override method static while the original method is non-static?
No, you can’t, the signature of the virtual method must remain the same, only the keyword virtual is changed to keyword override.


72. Can you override private virtual methods?
No, moreover, you cannot access private methods in inherited classes, have to be protected in the base class to allow any sort of access.

73. Can you prevent your class from being inherited and becoming a base class for some other classes?
Yes, that’s what keyword sealed in the class definition is for. The developer trying to derive from your class will get a message: cannot inherit from Sealed class WhateverBaseClassName. It’s the same concept as final class in Java.


74. Can you allow class to be inherited, but prevent the method from being over-ridden?
Yes, just leave the class public and make the method sealed.

75. What’s an abstract class?
A class that cannot be instantiated. A concept in C++ known as pure virtual method. A class that must be inherited and have the methods over-ridden. Essentially, it’s a blueprint for a class without any implementation.




76. When do you absolutely have to declare a class as abstract (as opposed to free-willed educated choice or decision based on UML diagram)?
When at least one of the methods in the class is abstract. When the class itself is inherited from an abstract class, but not all base abstract methods have been over-ridden.

77. What’s an interface class?
It’s an abstract class with public abstract methods all of which must be implemented in the inherited classes.


78. Why can’t you specify the accessibility modifier for methods inside the interface?
They all must be public. Therefore, to prevent you from getting the false impression that you have any freedom of choice, you are not allowed to specify any accessibility, it’s public by default.


79. Can you inherit multiple interfaces?
Yes, why not.

80. And if they have conflicting method names?
It’s up to you to implement the method inside your own class, so implementation is left entirely up to you.
This might cause a problem on a higher-level scale if similarly named methods from different interfaces expect different data, but as far as compiler cares you’re okay.

81. What’s the difference between an interface and abstract class?
In the interface all methods must be abstract; in the abstract class some methods can be concrete. In the interface no accessibility modifiers are allowed, which is ok in abstract classes.


82. How can you overload a method?
Different parameter data types, different number of parameters, different order of parameters.


83. If a base class has a bunch of overloaded constructors, and an inherited class has another bunch of overloaded constructors, can you enforce a call from an inherited constructor to an arbitrary base constructor?
Yes, just place a colon, and then keyword base (parameter list to invoke the appropriate constructor) in the overloaded constructor definition inside the inherited class.


84. What’s the difference between System.String and System.StringBuilder classes?
System.String is immutable; System.StringBuilder was designed with the purpose of having a mutable string where a variety of operations can be performed.


85. What’s the advantage of using System.Text.StringBuilder over System.String?
StringBuilder is more efficient in the cases, where a lot of manipulation is done to the text. Strings are immutable, so each time it’s being operated on, a new instance is created.


86. Can you store multiple data types in System.Array?
No.


87. What’s the difference between the System.Array.CopyTo() and System.Array.Clone()?
The first one performs a deep copy of the array, the second one is shallow.


88. How can you sort the elements of the array in descending order?
By calling Sort() and then Reverse() methods.


89. What’s the .NET datatype that allows the retrieval of data by a unique key?
HashTable.

89. What’s class SortedList underneath?
A sorted HashTable.




90. Will finally block get executed if the exception had not occurred?
Yes.

91. What’s the C# equivalent of C++ catch (…), which was a catch-all statement for any possible exception?
A catch block that catches the exception of type System.Exception. You can also omit the parameter data type in this case and just write catch {}.


92. Can multiple catch blocks be executed?
No, once the proper catch code fires off, the control is transferred to the finally block (if there are any), and then whatever follows the finally block.

93. Why is it a bad idea to throw your own exceptions?
Well, if at that point you know that an error has occurred, then why not write the proper code to handle that error instead of passing a new Exception object to the catch block? Throwing your own exceptions signifies some design flaws in the project.


94. What’s a delegate?
A delegate object encapsulates a reference to a method. In C++ they were referred to as function pointers.


95. What’s a multicast delegate?
It’s a delegate that points to and eventually fires off several methods.


96. How’s the DLL Hell problem solved in .NET?
Assembly versioning allows the application to specify not only the library it needs to run (which was available under Win32), but also the version of the assembly.


97. What are the ways to deploy an assembly?
An MSI installer, a CAB archive, and XCOPY command.


98. What’s a satellite assembly?
When you write a multilingual or multi-cultural application in .NET, and want to distribute the core application separately from the localized modules, the localized assemblies that modify the core application are called satellite assemblies.


99. What namespaces are necessary to create a localized application?

1. System.Globalization
2. System.Resources.


100. What’s the difference between // comments, /* */ comments and /// comments?
Single-line, multi-line and XML documentation comments.


101. How do you generate documentation from the C# file commented properly with a command-line compiler?
Compile it with a /doc switch.


102. What’s the difference between <> and <> XML documentation tag?
Single line code example and multiple-line code example.


103. Is XML case-sensitive?
Yes, so <> and <> are different elements.


104. What debugging tools come with the .NET SDK?
CorDBG – command-line debugger, and DbgCLR – graphic debugger. Visual Studio .NET uses the DbgCLR. To use CorDbg, you must compile the original C# file using the /debug switch.


105. What does the This window show in the debugger?
It points to the object that’s pointed to by this reference. Object’s instance data is shown.


106. What does assert() do?
In debug compilation, assert takes in a Boolean condition as a parameter, and shows the error dialog if the condition is false. The program proceeds without any interruption if the condition is true.


107. What’s the difference between the Debug class and Trace class?
Documentation looks the same. Use Debug class for debug builds, use Trace class for both debug and release builds.


108. Why are there five tracing levels in System.Diagnostics.TraceSwitcher?
The tracing dumps can be quite verbose and for some applications that are constantly running you run the risk of overloading the machine and the hard drive there. Five levels range from None to Verbose, allowing to fine-tune the tracing activities.


109. Where is the output of TextWriterTraceListener redirected?
To the Console or a text file depending on the parameter passed to the constructor.





110. How do you debug an ASP.NET Web application?
Attach the aspnet_wp.exe process to the DbgClr debugger.

111. What are three test cases you should go through in unit testing?
Positive test cases (correct data, correct output), negative test cases (broken or missing data, proper handling), exception test cases (exceptions are thrown and caught properly).

112. Can you change the value of a variable while debugging a C# application?
Yes, if you are debugging via Visual Studio.NET, just go to Immediate window.

113. Explain the three services model (three-tier application).
Presentation (UI), business (logic and underlying code) and data (from storage or other sources).

114. What are advantages and disadvantages of Microsoft-provided data provider classes in ADO.NET?
SQLServer.NET data provider is high-speed and robust, but requires SQL Server license purchased from Microsoft. OLE-DB.NET is universal for accessing other sources, like Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access and Informix, but it’s a .NET layer on top of OLE layer, so not the fastest thing in the world. ODBC.NET is a deprecated layer provided for backward compatibility to ODBC engines.


115. What’s the role of the DataReader class in ADO.NET connections?
It returns a read-only dataset from the data source when the command is executed.

116. What is the wildcard character in SQL?
Let’s say you want to query database with LIKE for all employees whose name starts with La. The wildcard character is %, the proper query with LIKE would involve ‘La%’.

117. Explain ACID rule of thumb for transactions.
Transaction must be Atomic (it is one unit of work and does not dependent on previous and following transactions), Consistent (data is either committed or roll back, no “in-between” case where something has been updated and something hasn’t), Isolated (no transaction sees the intermediate results of the current transaction), Durable (the values persist if the data had been committed even if the system crashes right after).


118. What connections does Microsoft SQL Server support?
Windows Authentication (via Active Directory) and SQL Server authentication (via Microsoft SQL Server username and passwords).

119. Which one is trusted and which one is untrusted?
Windows Authentication is trusted because the username and password are checked with the Active Directory, the SQL Server authentication is untrusted, since SQL Server is the only verifier participating in the transaction.


120. Why would you use untrusted verificaion?
Web Services might use it, as well as non-Windows applications.

121. What does the parameter Initial Catalog define inside Connection String?
The database name to connect to.

122. What’s the data provider name to connect to Access database?
Microsoft.Access.

123. What does Dispose method do with the connection object?
Deletes it from the memory.

124. What is a pre-requisite for connection pooling?
Multiple processes must agree that they will share the same connection, where every parameter is the same, including the security settings.

125. Briefly describe the major components of the .NET Framework and describe what each component does?

 The .NET Framework consists of two primary parts: the Common language runtime, which manages application execution, enforces type safety, and manages memory reclamation, and the .NET base class library, which consists of thousands of predeveloped classes that can be used to build applications.

126. Briefly explains what is meant by a reference type and a value type?

A value type holds all of the data represented by the variable within the variable itself. A reference type contains a reference to a memory address that holds the data instead of the actual data itself.

127. How do you enable your application to use .NET base class library members without referencing their fully qualified names?

Use the Imports keyword (VB.NET) or the Using keyword(Visual c#) to make a .NET framework namespace visible to your application.

128. Briefly describe how the garbage collection works?

The garbage collector is a thread that runs in the background of managed .NET applications. It constantly traces the reference tree and attempts to find objects that are no longer referenced. When a non referenced object is found, its memory is reclaimed for later use.

129. Briefly describe what members are, and list the four types of members?

 Members are the part s of a class or a structure that hold data or implement functionality. The primary member types are fields, properties, methods and events.

130. Explain what constructors and destructors are and describe what they are used for?

The constructor is the method that initializes a class or structure and is run when a type is first instantiated. It is used to set default values and perform other tasks required by the class. A destructor is the method that is run as the object is being reclaimed by garbage collection. It contains any code that is required for cleanup of the object.

131. Do you need to instantiate a class before accessing a shared (static) member> Why or Why not?

Because a Shared (static) member belongs to the type rather than to any instance of the type, you can access the member without first creating an instance of the type.

132. Briefly describe how a class is similar to a structure. How are they different?

Both classes and structures can have members such as methods, properties and fields both use a constructor for initialization, and both inherit from System.Object. Both classes and structures can be used to model real-world objects. Classes are reference types, and the memory that holds class instances is allocated on the heap. Structures are value types, and the memory that holds structure instances is allocated on the stack.

133. You are writing an application that needs to display a common set of controls on several different forms. What is the fastest way to approach the problem?

Create a Single form that incorporates the common controls, and use visual inheritance to create derived forms.

134. What is an extender provider, and what does one do?

Extender providers are components that provide additional properties to controls on a form. Examples include the ErrorProvider, HelpProvider and ToolTip components. They can be used to provide additional information about particular controls to the user or the user in the user interface.