January 2014 - Posts

• SQL Server 2012 Windowing Functions: LAG

  SQL Server 2012 introduces new windowing functions beyond the basic ranking functions of RANK, DENSE_RANK, NTILE, and ROW_NUMBER. The LAG function is particularly useful when comparing data in the current time period to the previous period. Period to Read More... Posted Thursday, January 23, 2014 7:22 PM by John Paul Cook | 2 Comments

• Customizing Windows 8.1 Menus and Creating Shortcuts for Modern Apps

  It’s not possible to directly make a shortcut for a modern UI app like you do for a conventional application, but there is a workaround. You can add the shortcut to the desktop, the taskbar, or a custom toolbar menu. After my previous post on adding a Read More... Posted Sunday, January 12, 2014 4:53 PM by John Paul Cook | 1 Comments

• Windows 8.1 Installation Notes Part 3

  Windows 8.1 has a very capable modern UI mail program simply called Mail. Installing Outlook 2013 does not fully replace it because one default remains with Mail, the mailto association. To change the association to Outlook, go to Control Panel , select Read More... Posted Monday, January 06, 2014 10:41 PM by John Paul Cook | 0 Comments

• Add SQL Server Menus to Windows 8.1 Desktop

  If you do most of your work with SQL Server, you’re going to be working primarily in the desktop experience. You can easily take the modern UI menu and expose it on the desktop as a series of Windows 7 style cascading menus. Figure 1. Modern UI menu for Read More... Posted Sunday, January 05, 2014 2:54 PM by John Paul Cook | 3 Comments

• Windows 8.1 Installation Notes Part 2

  After installing Windows 8.1, there are several tricks and customizations worth considering if you develop software or want a user experience more like Windows 7. One neat feature is the popup menu shown below that appears after pressing the X key while Read More... Posted Wednesday, January 01, 2014 2:41 PM by John Paul Cook | 0 Comments