Doc Detective
Articles Authored
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Monday, October 6, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2011 - May/June
The Doc Detective is a help column that guides developers through Microsoft Visual Studio’s vast documentation, promising to find what you need or honestly say if it isn’t there and where else to look. Through reader Q&As on LightSwitch, VB syntax, LINQ, ASP.NET MVC, WCF, and debugging, Doc Detective demystifies new features and presents practical paths to solutions, pointing to concise topics and tutorials. The aim is to empower users to solve problems efficiently by leveraging the right guidance in the documentation.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2011 - March/April
Mar/April 2011 Doc Detective
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Saturday, January 18, 2020
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2011 - January/February
Jan/Feb 2011 Doc Detective
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2010 - November/December
In this Ask the Doc Detective column, Doc Detective helps developers navigate Visual Studio documentation by answering readers’ practical questions—explaining why WebMatrix emphasizes C# (while showing where VB Razor guidance exists), how to perform impersonated actions against Team Foundation Server, where to find or invoke IntelliSense code snippets, why DataAnnotations might be ignored (naked partial classes), and how feedback on Help topics is processed and updated.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2010 - September/October
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2010 - July/August
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2010 - May/June
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2010 - March/April
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2010 - January/February
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2009 - November/December
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2009 - September/October
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, February 21, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2009 - July/August
July/August 09 Doc Detective Column
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Saturday, January 18, 2020
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2009 - May/June
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2009 - March/April
Mar/Apr 09 Doc Detective Column.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Saturday, January 18, 2020
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2009 - January/February
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2008 - November/December
In this Ask the Doc Detective column, Doc Detective answers practical Visual Studio/Windows Forms questions—showing how to enforce single-instance apps, explaining label transparency over PictureBox controls and workarounds, advising on text wrapping when printing DataGridView content, and resolving MDI parent/child z-order issues—while pointing readers to specific MSDN topics and tips for using F1 Help effectively.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2008 - September/October
Finding what you need in the Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 documentation, which has over 200,000 topics, can be a daunting task. The Doc Detective is here to help, utilizing his investigative skills to probe the depths of the documentation.Can’t find what you’re looking for? Just ask-if it’s in there, I’ll find it for you; if it isn’t, I’ll let you know that as well (and tell you where else you might go to find it). Have a question for the Doc? Send your questions for future columns to me at docdetec@microsoft.com.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2008 - July/August
July/August 08 Doc Detective Column.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2008 - May/June
In this Ask the Doc Detective column, Doc Detective answers reader questions about Visual Studio 2008 documentation and features—clarifying that "LINQ to DataSets" queries DataTables not DataSets, explaining why VBA edits are overwritten during VSTO debugging and how to preserve them, pointing to the new DataRepeater in Visual Basic Power Packs for repeating layouts, noting single-instance limits in multi-user Terminal Services, and recommending MSDN's community tagging for discoverability.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2008 - March/April
March/April 08 Doc Detective
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2008 - January/February
Jan/Feb 2008 Doc Detective COlumn.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2007 - November/December
In this Doc Detective column, Doc Detective answers reader questions by guiding them through Visual Studio documentation and practical fixes—showing how to change a Setup project's output file name via the project's Properties page, recommending AppDomain.UnhandledException for console-wide exception logging, pointing novice developers to Visual Basic Express and its Guided Tour, and highlighting Orcas Beta documentation as a preview of upcoming Visual Studio features.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2007 - September/October
In this Doc Detective column, Doc Detective helps developers navigate Visual Studio 2005 documentation by answering readers’ questions: XML documentation files aren’t set on ASP.NET Web site property pages (use the /doc compiler instead); use Browsable and Category attributes (or composite controls/overrides) to expose, categorize, or hide properties on custom user controls; share an application icon via project resources for forms; and be aware F1 help uses cursor context, not highlighted text.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2007 - July/August
July/August 2007 Doc Detective Column.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2007 - May/June
In this Ask the Doc Detective column, Doc Detective helps readers navigate Visual Studio 2005 documentation by answering practical questions: use DSOFile to read/write file Summary properties, DataGridViewButtonCell is painted rather than a real Button so host a Button control in a cell if needed, enable TreeView.PopulateNodesFromClient to avoid postbacks with large trees, and ensure ControlBox is true to show a form icon; he also highlights the new MSDN Community Content wiki for collaborative documentation.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Friday, February 22, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2007 - March/April
Mar/Apr 07 Doc Detective column.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2007 - January/February
Jan/Feb 07 Doc Detective Column
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2006 - November/December
Doc Detective (Doc D) guides readers through finding practical solutions in the large Visual Studio 2005 documentation, answering reader questions about: swapping a DataGridView LinkCell to a TextBoxCell at runtime (by assigning a new DataGridViewCell), setting custom icons for file shortcuts in Setup projects via the shortcut's Icon property, and controlling text wrapping when printing a grid by adjusting StringFormat; he also recommends MSDN forums and reporting missing docs to the VS docs team.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Friday, February 22, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2006 - September/October
Ask the Doc Detective
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2006 - July/August
Doc Detective offers practical, documentation-backed answers to common Visual Studio 2005 developer questions, showing how to probe MSDN for solutions: he explains why Button.DoubleClick doesn't fire and how to enable it via Control.SetStyle, how to restore Toolbox auto-population (AutoToolboxPopulate), recommends using Controls collections instead of VB6 TextBoxArray helpers, and shows using .NET from VB6 via COM wrappers, plus a tip on accessing alternative F1 Help topics.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Saturday, January 18, 2020
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2006 - May/June
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Monday, October 6, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2006 - March/April
In this Doc Detective column, Doc Detective guides Visual Studio 2005 users through common documentation and runtime confusions: how the Copy to Output Directory setting causes local database changes to be overwritten, using BindingSource.Find to efficiently locate and select rows in a DataGridView, using a form’s BackgroundImage (not a PictureBox) to keep MDI child windows visible, and why the Express MSDN library contains broken index links—ending with a tip to integrate online Help for up-to-date content.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2006 - January/February
In this Doc Detective column, Doc Detective answers reader questions about Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Basic—showing how to convert Unix line endings in VB using Replace with vbCr/vbCrLf, explaining that controls can be created in the Express Edition via a Class Library/User Control, demonstrating the built-in single-instance application option and StartupNextInstance event, and offering a tip on using the Document Explorer Help Favorites to save and manage help topics and searches.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2005 - November/December
Doc Detective presents a practical, user-centered guide to navigating Visual Studio 2005 documentation, framing himself as a clever investigator who helps developers locate hard-to-find topics and exposes how to reuse code, customize splash-screen timing, and reconcile VB6 and .NET interactions. Through a Q&A format, the article highlights IntelliSense Code Snippets for reusable code, the My.Application.MinimumSplashScreenDisplayTime setting to control startup delay, and the difficulties of cross-version drag-and-drop, while also promoting online Help and community resources to augment official documentation.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Friday, February 22, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2005 - September/October
Doc Detective Sept/Oct 2005
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2005 - July/August
Doc Detective - July/August 05
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2005 - May/June
Doc Detective - May/June 2005
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2005 - March/April
Doc Detective Column March April/05
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2005 - January/February
Doc Detective Column Jan/Feb 05
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Friday, February 22, 2019
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2004 - November/December
Tips and Tricks from the Doc Detective
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2004 - September/October
Doc Detective offers a practical if witty guide to navigating the sprawling Microsoft Visual Studio .NET documentation. In a Q&A format, Doc Detective públicly dispels misconceptions, redirects readers to modern .NET practices (such as using the Registry class and app.config instead of legacy APIs), points to authoritative topics and whitepapers, and clarifies how intrinsic ASP.NET objects map to underlying Httpxxx classes. By answering real programming questions and steering readers toward the right documentation and resources, the column positions itself as a helpful, dialect-aware searcher for developers overwhelmed by the docs.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2004 - July/August
In this column, Doc Detective guides Visual Studio .NET developers through common documentation and development pitfalls: how to auto-create an MDI Window list using MenuItem.MDIList, how to include the .NET Framework with a Setup project using the Visual Studio .NET Framework Bootstrapper Plug-in (VS 2003), how to change a shortcut's "Start in" path and add external tools like VB6 to the Tools menu, and a Doc Tip to use Help's Sync Contents to find related MSDN topics.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2004 - May/June
Doc Detective presents a persona-driven guide to navigating the sprawling Visual Studio .NET and MSDN documentation, answering real user questions with practical, code-sketch answers and pointers to official topics. Through a series of reader inquiries—how to filter across related DataView tables, how to access Word Field objects in documents, and how to manage MDI child form closing in VB.NET—the column clarifies limits, offers workable approaches, and references relevant MSDN topics. The feature also shares hand-on tips for using the Index and search effectively, underscoring the author’s mission to help readers “find it” or point them to where to look.
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Doc Detective - March/April 2004
Last updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2004 - March/April
In this Doc Detective column, Doc Detective answers reader questions about common Visual Studio .NET pitfalls—how to properly deploy ASP.NET apps (use a Web Setup project and custom actions for IIS settings), how to provide per-row ToolTips in a Windows Forms DataGrid (use hit testing and refer to the MSDN white paper), why the VB6 Upgrade Wizard changes data types (Variant → Object, 16-bit Integer → Short), and a Help troubleshooting tip (clear the IE cache), with links to relevant documentation.
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Doc Detective - Jan/Feb 2004
Last updated: Monday, October 6, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2004 - January/February
In this Doc Detective column, Doc Detective helps developers navigate the vast Visual Studio .NET documentation by answering reader questions—showing how to use the NotifyIcon component for taskbar notification icons (and hide it on close), how to add design‑time property support for custom ASP.NET controls, recommending ListView/ItemDrag for multi‑item drag‑and‑drop in VB.NET, and offering a handy tip to undock or open Help separately for easier reading.
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Doc Detective - Sept/Oct 2003
Last updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2003 - September/October
Doc Detective shares his investigative approach to demystifying Visual Studio .NET documentation by answering readers’ practical how-tos: embedding Windows Media Player in web pages via an ActiveX control, using Web Matrix despite its lack of local docs, and quickly launching a search from a Windows Forms app. He frames solutions with concrete steps, pointers to official resources, and a light, helpful tone, all aimed at helping developers locate information, exploit available tools, and work around documentation gaps with accessible workarounds.
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Doc Detective - July/August 2003
Last updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2003 - July/August
In this July/August 2003 column, Doc Detective answers reader questions and points to MSDN resources: how to catch Outlook's Item_Send event, adding IntelliSense descriptions via C# XML documentation (and a VB tool), guidance and tools for assessing VB6-to-VB.NET upgrades, and recommends MSDN Developer Centers as a starting point for .NET developers, with links to further documentation and tools.
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Doc Detective - May/June 2003
Last updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2003 - May/June
Doc Detective aims to demystify Visual Studio .NET documentation by answering reader questions with practical, code-driven guidance. In this column, the author dispenses quick how-tos—from parsing command line arguments and adapting VB6 alignment constants to VB.NET, to fixing corrupted Help topics and locating relevant code snippets—while highlighting changes in the .NET framework and pointing readers to concise topics for fast results. Through humor and concrete examples, Doc Detective helps developers shortcut its vast documentation to get back to coding.
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Doc Detective - March/April 2003
Last updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2003 - March/April
Doc Detective presents a practical, question‑driven guide to navigating Visual Studio .NET documentation, answering real user queries with concrete steps and references. Through a series of reader questions—ranging from assigning custom icons to EXE files, to building Web and Windows controls, to dynamically creating client-side objects on ASP.NET pages—the column demystifies how to find and apply the documented techniques, highlights relevant topics and tools, and even shares a tip about performing advanced searches in Help. The author’s aim is to empower developers to leverage the documentation effectively.
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Doc Detective - Nov/Dec 2002
Last updated: Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2002 - November/December
In this installment, Doc Detective guides readers through the labyrinth of Visual Studio .NET and .NET documentation, answering real-time questions from developers and offering practical tips to accelerate discovery. Through a Q&A format, the column clarifies equivalents between VB6 and .NET (such as Shell vs ShellExecute), points to deployment and accessibility resources, and demonstrates how to tailor help views with custom filters. By demystifying documentation navigation and linking to targeted topics, Doc Detective helps practitioners deploy, interoperate with COM, and build accessible .NET applications more efficiently.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2002 - September/October
Doc Detective offers a playful, practical guide to navigating the Visual Studio .NET documentation by answering real reader questions and clarifying common confusions, from accessing Access data with ADO.NET to redistributing the .NET Framework and understanding ASP.NET intrinsic objects. Through direct, accessible explanations and pointers to key MSDN topics, the column helps newcomers move beyond seemingly confusing examples (like SQL Server–heavy tutorials) and reveals where to find reliable guidance, while occasionally noting doc inaccuracies with humor.
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Ask the Doc Detective
Last updated: Thursday, October 9, 2025
Published in: CODE Magazine: 2002 - July/August
Doc Detective, the approachable guide to the Visual Studio .NET documentation, helps readers cut through the noise of more than 45,000 topics by offering practical, example-driven advice on where to find information and how to use it. In this column, Doc Detective addresses common questions—from file I/O and cookies to optimizing search results and persisting controls via serialization—pointing to whitepapers, sample applications, and specific topics to consult. The aim is to demystify the docs, reveal relevant resources, and empower developers to locate and apply the right information efficiently.