What I learned today

Problem: Application signed with SHA 256 is not opening in Windows 2008 R2 nodes. Earlier the application was signed with SHA 128. Analysis: SHA 128 is going to be depreciated soon. Therefore applications signing needs to be moved to SHA 256. But the problem is for classic applications that still supports Windows 2007 and 2008 operating systems. The application might not work on these nodes. On debugging it was found that SHA 256 requires .NET 4.5 and above. SHA 128 signing required .NET 3.5 framework which came by default in Windows 2008 R2 operating system. Solution:  a) Dual signing of the application modules.We tried Microsoft patches for supporting dual signing without installing .NET 4.5 framework.  c) Or else, install 4.6 or above .NET framework on the nodes for supporting SHA 256. Net framework 4.5 will no longer be supported by Microsoft.

Problem: I was not able to activate Windows 2016 server standard using product key from settings --> Activate Windows now option. Every time I launch the window for providing the correct key, it will try to activate the windows and change product key would grey out. Solution: The easiest way to provide the key for activating windows is to use the software licensing user interface tool. It is a command line utility tool that can be launched from run command. Type slui.exe in the run command and provide the correct key in the text box available from the user interface of the tool.

Problem: In some customer node the application does not start after installation. It crashes at the startup. What are the possible common reasons to investigate in such cases? Analysis: As per my experience, most probable causes are as follows: Pre-requisites software of the application are missing.- It is not always possible to package all the pre-requisites of an application in installation package. Hence it is documented in the installation and configuration manual.Check in the add and remove programs if all the software are installed. One of the pre-requisite software may be missing on the node. Use the dependency viewer or dependency tool to find the missing dependent binaries on the node. Or use Windbg tool and start the application, it may give some idea on the pre-requisite software. Compare the loaded binaries of the application process with the list that it is supposed to load. For example, compare it with the list of binaries loaded by the application on a working no...

Problem:  Sometimes the application window opens outside the screen of the computer in Windows Operating System. What is the easiest way to view the hidden window on the screen? Solution:  It is very irritating if the window of the application is not visible on the screen. The easiest way of making the window visible is to to press <SHIFT> key followed by context menu on the application icon in the task bar. From the context menu select the "Maximize" option.

Problem: In real time systems, normally application will be running for all the time, 365 days and 24/7. Some dashboards will be displaying the mission critical parameters like trends, alarms events etc. How do we make sure that the dashboard windows of the application are showing correct real time data and it is not hung? Analysis: The application or the window may hang due to various reasons like OS going to hibernate mode or due to some exception the window thread may not be showing the live real time data. To make sure that the windows are not freeze, we need some mechanism for alerting the user in such cases. Solution: The solution is to have a watchdog process, that keeps on monitoring all the threads of the running application. A mechanism to send alive time out message and receive the acknowledgement from the threads of the main application. In case the application hangs there should be a way to let the user know that the main application has hang and needs to be restar...

Association vs Aggregation vs Composition   Association  Defines relation between two objects All entities are different from each other For example, if Ram is friend of Shayam, Shayam is friend of Hari. All three are different individuals.  Aggregation Aggregation is subset of association, where the relation between the objects is more compared to association. Ripened fruits and seeds, fruit use seed for next generation It can be thought as one entity using the other  Composition Composition is also subset of association where bonding or relation is maximum One entity cannot exist if the host is not available For example, one room cannot become part of another house, room doesn’t exist if the house is demolished. It’s also called death relationship. Another metaphor can be, child in mother’s womb is composition, dependent child or infant is aggregation, adult child and mother is association. The dependency of the c...

Problem :   The application sometimes hangs during normal operation. The hang is more prominent in case of more overlap window usage. . Analysis : The problem occurred rarely and in some operating systems. There were no clear steps on how and why the hang happens. On debugging the hang dumps from customers site, it pointed to fact that the hang happens while releasing a com object of the process. The application used smart class auto pointers like CComPtr and CComQIPtr for creating and deleting the com objects. On more digging the dump files we could notice that the com object thread where it was created is not available in the dump files. Com objects are created on the thread where we call co-create instance. In case of overlaps opened from the application, each overlap is a different thread. And it is possible to open another overlap from the already opened overlap via context menu. Hence the parent of the new overlap is the first overlap that was opened from the main thre...

Problem: A feature of a product was working in one of the previous releases, but it is not working now. We might have come across this problem statement many times in software development. Due to some correction of issue or enhancement of the product might lead to this kind of issue. And sometimes this broken functionality issue gets missed from the organization and it comes back as a customer reported issue. Analysis: This kind of issue is not uncommon. Some products have a life cycle of more than 10 years like Windows. In such cases, the code would have been written long back by some developer and fix would be done by some one else. So the impact of changes on the existing functionality may not be fully known by the new developer who is working on that code. With busy schedule and manual testing, even the testers some time miss to test all the scenarios or features of the product. Solution: Impact analysis of both major and minor changes should be conducted thoroughly. Code...

Problem:  Add in process takes a long time to load in the host process. Hence the host process seems to be hung till the add in process is completely loaded. This issue becomes more prominent if the add in process is responsible for displaying graphics in the host process. Analysis:  On analysis we found that the add in process was taking a lot of time to load during initializing itself. The add in process was loading both managed and un-managed code. We tried to make the loading of the process faster by using dependency injections and late binding mechanism. This improved the loading time significantly but still it was not enough. Solution:  Then we came up with the peer process idea. That is by default one add in process will always be available as standby for the host process to load. Host process would fork another add in process and use the current running add-in process for its usage. If the add-in process crashes due to some reason, another process would b...

Odia     Numbers Kannada     Numbers Words in Kannada   Kannada Pronunciation 0 0 ಸೊನ್ನೆ ଶୂନ୍ୟ   ୧ ೧ ಒಂದು ଊନ୍ଦୁ  ୨ ೨ ಎರಡು ଏରଡ଼ୁ ୩ ೩ ಮೂರು ମୁରୁ ୪ ೪ ನಾಲ್ಕು ନାଲକୁ ୫ ೫ ಐದು ଆଇଦୁ ୬ ೬ ಆರು ଆରୁ ୭ ೭ ಏಳು ଏଲୁ ୮ ೮ ಎಂಟು ଏଣ୍ଟୁ ୯ ೯ ಒಂಬತ್ತು ଊଂବତୁ ୧୦ ೧೦ ಹತ್ತು ହତୁ ୧୧ ೧೧ ಹನ್ನೊಂದು ହନୋଊନ୍ଦୁ  ୧୨ ೧೨ ಹನ್ನೆರಡು ହନଏରଡ଼ୁ ୧୩ ೧೩ ಹದಿಮೂರು ହାଦିମୂରୁ   ୧୪ ೧೪ ಹದಿನಾಲ್ಕು ହାଦିନାଲକୁ  ୧୫ ೧೫ ಹದಿನೈದು ହାଡ଼ିଆଇଦୁ ୧୬ ೧೬ ಹದಿನಾರು ହାଦିଆରୁ ୧୭ ೧೭ ಹದಿನೇಳು ହାଦିଏଲୁ ୧୮ ೧೮ ಹದಿನೆಂಟು  ହାଦିନେଣ୍ଟୁ  ୧୯ ೧೯ ಹತ್ತೊಂಬತ್ತು ହାତଊଂବତୁ ୨୦ ೨೦ ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ଈପତୁ  ୨୧ ೨೧ ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತ್’ಒಂದು ଇପତଊନ୍ଦୁ ୨୨ ೨೨ ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತ್’...