There's a new version of PowerToys out and this is a big one that includes a major new app and other improvements.

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On March 28 I’m presenting on Fundamentals of AI to the Boston Code Camp. While I will cover what you need to know about the various aspects of using and creating various AI components, the key message is it is time. It is time to start developing and honing your AI skills, or as I say in the title, you will be run over by the AI bus.

After the presentation, I’ll cover a lot of that material here, but to get us started let’s talk about the two ways you’ll care about AI.

1. Using AI to aid you in your coding
2. Creating applications that incorporate AI

By now, you probably are using AI in your coding, although I’m willing to wager that most of us are not using it as well or as extensively as we might. I hope to expand on that as we go.

In a previous post, I talked about creating a copilot-instructions.md file (though you might want a CLAUDE.md file!). You’ll also want to create (at least)

• Memory.md // key facts and decisions you’ve made
• Restart.md // what you were doing when you stopped
• Mistakes.md // mistakes you don’t want copilot to make again

Why? Because Claude and Copilot, etc., have limited short-term memories, and after a while they begin to forget what you’ve already done. You then periodically have copilot read these files (which you assiduously keep updated) and that provides context that helps copilot stay on track (for copilot, read Claude, etc.) I tend to do this every 15 minutes or so, and at the end of each session I’m sure to update all three files so that they are ready for the next session.

For this, and every good idea I have about working well with AI, I’m deeply indebted to a number of smart people, first among them Jeff Blankenburg and his 31 Days of Vibe Coding and Jamie Maguire’s outstanding free course on Microsoft’s Agent Framework. I can also highly recommend the Johns Hopkins 16-week course on Agentics, which I’m enjoying immensely.

If Vibe Coding is what floats your boat, be sure to see my interview with James Montemagno. Start at about 3 minutes in if you’re in a rush.

So much to discuss. In coming posts I’ll cover three main topics:

1. Using AI to enhance and simplify your coding (hey! copilot! what does this mean?)
2. Incorporating AI into your application
3. (really 2a) A working demo. At the moment it is HyperVideo, though I’m stuck on the fact that my video player keeps choking on the audio in my videos making everything freeze up. Any suggestions? Since I have to do some projects for my Agentics course, I may switch over to one or more of those. In any case, I’ll bring you along for the ride.

The next topic, however, is MCP. Stay tuned; I’ll be recording a new, expanded videocast with Lance McCarthy on that very topic. Here’s the first one we did. In the coming one we’ll dive deeper, with real live code and everything!

Much more soon…

This hands-on PoC shows how I got an open-source model running locally in Visual Studio Code, where the setup worked, where it broke down, and what to watch out for if you want to apply a local model to a real workflow.

I was chatting to a friend a few weeks ago when he told me that he couldn’t install .NET on a Windows computer where he doesn’t have admin access. When he tried to run the MSI installation files, he was prompted for an admin password, which he doesn’t have.

Here is a simple guide to installing and running .NET on a Windows computer without administrative privileges.

Get the zip file version of .NET

Go to https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/10.0, choose the version of .NET you want, and the binary that suits your architecture. If you are using Windows, it is probably x64.

Unzip

Choose a directory on your computer where you can create directories. If you don’t have admin rights, you might not be able to create directories directly on C:\Program Files. Try creating a c:\dotnet directory.

If that works, unzip the full contents of the file you downloaded into this new directory.

Try it out

You can now test the dotnet command.

Open a command prompt or PowerShell and navigate to the c:\dotnet dir and run dotnet.

This will work, but once you move to another directory, it won’t.

Setting the environment variables

There are two variables to set. Update the path to include the dotnet.exe file, and add DOTNET_ROOT to point to c:\dotnet.

To set these, go to the start menu, then search for “environment variables”, you will see a match like “Edit the system environment variables”, open this. Then, click “Environment Variables…” in the bottom right corner.

You can make the changes in the user variables or the system variables.

Depending on the restrictions on your computer, you might be able to edit only the user variables. Add the new DOTNET_ROOT and update the Path with c:\dotnet at the front.

Done

Open a new command prompt or PowerShell. You should be able to run dotnet and create, build, and run projects.