Building New Dev Box(es) for Dynamics 365

As we are building new workstations (preferably laptops) for a new team of developers, here are my recommendations+observations.

What would you add/remove?

Hardware

Dual 23″ monitors for Windows 10 workstation with i7 processor, 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD with Local Admin Role and Full Internet Access. I believe more cores is generally better for Visual Studio when it comes to building projects. Faster the machines (overall dev environment) we give to Devs, lesser time they take while “Building” projects and build time remains within Distraction Threshold. Think investment – imagine a power drill vs manual hand drill.

Software

1. Visual Studio (Prefer Entreprise 2017) https://www.visualstudio.com/
2. Reporting Services Tools SSDT https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssdt/download-sql-server-data-tools-ssdt?view=sql-server-2017
3. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Report Authoring Extension https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=50375
4. SQL Server Management Studio (for any data integration projects) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssms/download-sql-server-management-studio-ssms?view=sql-server-2017
5. Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Developer Guide (SDK) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/customer-engagement/developer/developer-guide
6. O365 User license to download and install Word, Excel, PowerPoint 2016 https://products.office.com/en-au/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=1
7. Visio Professional https://products.office.com/en-au/visio/visio-professional-business-and-diagram-software
8. LinqPad Latest https://www.linqpad.net/
9. ReSharper Latest http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/
10. TechSmith Screen Capture https://www.techsmith.com/store/bundle

Freeware

1. XrmToolKit Latest https://xrmtoolkit.com/
2. Notepad ++ Latest https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/
3. 7Zip Latest https://www.7-zip.org/download.html
4. XrmToolBox Latest https://www.xrmtoolbox.com/ 
5. Chrome Latest https://www.google.com/chrome/
6. Firefox Latest https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
7. Opera Latest https://www.opera.com/
8. RoyalTS RDP manager https://www.royalapplications.com/ts/

Subscriptions

1. O365 https://products.office.com/en-au/compare-all-microsoft-office-products?tab=1
2. SharePoint collaborative documentation https://products.office.com/en-AU/sharepoint
3. Atlassian+Jira for live documentation and Agile works https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Please add your suggestions in comments below.

#OneLifeToGive

Opening URLs that are not hyperlinked

For Firefox lovers only, Internet Explorer guys, please wait until IE 100 or something! L

I often encounter the hateful links put as text and not as a hyperlink. I was trying to create a bookmarklet as I was tired of using the right click > Search Google For … (requires Google Toolbar).

But today I found the easiest way to do it. In Firefox if your selection is a URL and if you drop it on a tab then as text and drag and drop it onto the free tab space besides the open tabs where the new tab will be shown.

Case 1: No tabs. FF is showing only one page. No tabs visible: Press Ctrl+T to open a new tab first. And then go back to the page. Select the URL and drag and drop it onto the newly opened tab to open it there.

Case 2: at least two tabs open.

    Case 2a: Reuse a tab: Just drag and drop the URL on an existing tab to reuse that tab.

    Case 2b: New Tab: Just drag and drop the URL onto the new tab are to create a new tab.

Try this one with http://www.google.com

Cheers!