Silverlight 3 Out of Browser Application feature - silverlight-3.0

I am currently researching new technologies for our company's development road map and saw that Silverlight 3 has the ability to install an application on the client's desktop.
Is this feature a full or partial emulation of a WinForms application and does it provide the ability to access all or limited local resources on the client's computer?

The Silverlight 3 Getting Started page lists some details. Scroll down near the bottom and read the details under "Out of Browser Capabilities". It says that Silverlight 3 applications are sandboxed and, while they have access to persistent storage, this storage is separate from the regular file system.

it's not a winforms application at all, this will even work on linux (via moonlight). it does provide some resource access, but it's sandboxed unless the user allows certain access. Just like adobe air.

It's not an emulation of WinForms at all. The closest comparison to true Desktop technology would be a WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) application.
If you're familiar with Adobe Air, the Silverlight Out of Browser experience will be similar...but different. The main difference being that a Silverlight out of Browser application will run in a "protected" sandbox which means your application will only have limited access to resources on the host PC.

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Is iOS capable of accessing and manipulating files on a Windows network file share?

I'm planning an app for work and venturing into potential features which I've not used before.
Essentially I need to be able to access files on a network share, read, write and delete files as well as amend the file names. As a pretty closed platform I'm not sure whether iOS is capable of such a thing and if it is, what features should I look for to begin researching?
My Google-Fu hasn't come up with anything thus far so hopefully looking for someone to point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
I know this isn't very secure, but I'd personally create an ASP.NET app on your target Windows Server, or a different Server on the domain. Create web services exposed, and make an iOS app with UIWebView. You can do RPC calls from the web service that do WMI/ADSI/File System manipulation. You can prompt for domain credentials, and do remote calls essentially is the gist.
You could expose the web app so that your app can access it from local network, or URL. If you were to access it from outside I'd suggest using some secure credentials in Windows/IIS.
Some years ago I created a "mobile-friendly" web app that allowed me to manage servers, perform RPC, and do basic Active Directory queries. Also allowed file listing and deletion/moving/copying with some creative scripting. It was essentially a ASP.NET/C# web app that loaded in a iPhone app. UIWebView in iOS was a able to load it, used AJAX and some other client side scripting that looked decent. You'd essentially have to make sure that your web app renders properly in Safari/UIWebView (which is bastardized safari).
Here's a link to a demo of what I created:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czXmubijHwQ&t=12s
I ran it in a browser, but it'd run from my PSP, Android test devices, iPod Touch, Blackberry, etc.

Enable 32 bit application on Azure Website

I am surprised but I cannot seem to find much on this on the internet.
I did see something about needing to do it through a Web Role but I don't think that Azure does Web Roles anymore, I do not see the ability to add a Web Role in Azure Management Studio.
For clarity, this an Azure Website, not a VM. I need to Enable 32 Bit Applications in the Azure Website but I do not think I can after reading this:
What is the difference between an Azure Web Site and an Azure Web Role
Do I have to create an Azure VM to Enable 32 bit applications in IIS?
If you need to install/register 32bit application, you have to use Web Role.
If you just want to run your website in 32bit mode, you can use Web Site. It must be in Basic or Standard mode. Then you can switch between 32bit and 64bit in management portal 'configure' tab.

Creating a VoiceXML application

I have a few questions concerning how to create a VoiceXML application.
I found some nice tutorials, but there are still some questions:
-what's a good development environment? I wanted to use VS08, there should be under C#, a project called "speech", but it doesn't appear, do I have to install the speech server local too in order to use this? (I would prefer some kind of visual workflow)
-what's the ending? is it .xml, .aspx, or .speax? I couldn't get that.
-how do I run the voicexml? it's at the speech server as an application, any further steps?
These questions are all over the map on the basics, but I'll try to provide some pointers:
what's a good development enviroment?
You will likely be building a web style application. So a VS08 ASP application is a reasonable starting point.
do i have to install the speech server local too in order to use this?
Yes. There are a variety of platforms that support VoiceXML. Nearly all are designed specifically for telephone calls (VoiceXML's main purpose). There are a few free implementations, but most are commercial. I believe the Opera web browser has some VoiceXML functionality. I've seen settings for it in their configuration, but no direct experience.
what's the ending? is it .xml, .aspx, or .speax ? i couldn't get that.
Endings usually aren't relevant, except maybe to tools. I don't believe VisualStudio provides any direct support for VoiceXML. Some browsers do care what mimetypes are provided.
how do i run the voicexml? it's at the speech server as an application, any furhter steps?
Does this mean you are looking at the OCS/Lync product line ? I believe their IVR in that suite does support VoiceXML as well as a few other APIs. The product should contain basic setup and configuration information. More information on Lync:
Microsoft Lync site
Wikipedia
One of the main goals of VoiceXML was to decouple the rendering of the voice application (on a speech server) from the voice application itself. This allows you to serve VoiceXML pages from any web server, anywhere, using any technology stack you want.
If you just want to learn VoiceXML in general, developer sites like Voxeo's Evolution allow you to render your voice applications on their voice hosting infrastructure. You configure your developer account to point to an initial VoiceXML page served from your external web server. In return, you get a phone number to call. When you call it, the hosting infrastructure fetches your initial VoiceXML page from your web server.
(I don't know offhand if Microsoft Lync hosting services are available yet.)

Hosting Microsoft Access 2010 in WPF or Windows Forms?

Is it possible to host microsoft access 2010 in WPF or Windows Forms as ActiveX or anything? I've seen DsoFramer examples but it's not supported from Microsoft and not to mention buggy. Some articles suggest using webBrowser but it's coupled with registry settings that I would not like to overwrite.
Interobility at that moment isn't that important than just to be able to load the access database in a parent window.
Do I have any options of doing that other than using webBrowser control?
Thank you.
Probably not the answer you want to hear but there are no really good solutions available for embedding Office apps/documents in WPF/Winforms anymore. DSOFramer was about the only real choice, but it's dead and the KB has been removed. A web browser control is also plagued with problems.
Although not confirmed to support Access 2010, the only solution I know of for embedding Office docs these days is http://www.officeocx.com/. It has had its share of problems too - rumor has it that it is based off of DSOFramer.
You can try to use Microsoft Sharepoint, and serve the access functionality remotely through an embedded browser frame. Check this video about it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq-tDuPfgZc
There is a way. Amazon Web Services have a service called WorkSpaces. I've managed to host applications that give clients remote connection to their software that is not traditionally for the web. One of them was an accounting system. The other is an MS Access application.
I would be interested in knowing if Azure have a cheaper better solution, considering they own the product Windows Terminal Server. What I would really like to see on Azure is a windows container for MS Access.

Is it possible to host a asp.net mvc website from a winforms application?

I have a winform application that controls some transmitters and sound cards. There is a requirement to be able to provide a web interface for controlling those devices.
Currently I use WCF to communicate from the controllers in my asp.net MVC site to the winform app. That works well, but there is now a desire to move the hardware to another machine when needed and that means that IIS has to be installed and set-up on that machine.
I know it isn't that hard, but I won't be the one actually doing the moving. It will be the users. If I could host the site from the winform app them it would basically be portable besides the hardware drivers need for a usb to serial converter we use.
Can you use a windows service? The whole winforms app as a service doesn't seem right to me. It assumes that the app is always running. I would create a windows service and expose WCF endpoints from that.
You will need to install IIS or Cassini to host the MVC web site. There's no way around that.
Huh, I would go with Greg's answers.
Also, making your app IIS dependant is not that bad. Or Cassini dependant. You don't want to end up writing your own webserver, which could easily happen when you continue to add features to the app.
I don't know about you but it just feels you are taking all the load on yourself, you are going to spend possibly dozens of hours to implement it to spare an hour or two for someone who doesn't want to install real webserver.
if you want to host MVC under winforms then i would look into the upcoming .netcore 3 version which should allow this combination.
though you'll have to wait until 2019 Q1
https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/master/roadmap.md
otherwise i've mostly hosted simper stuff using nhttp library if i want it in a winform app.
(NHTTP is a library that gives you very simple crude http request functionality so no mvc sadly but it works for simnpler stuff)

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