Category: Visual Studio

Sep192019September 19, 2019September 19, 20192 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

New Microsoft Code and Terminal Font Cascadia Code

Posted in Microsoft, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Windows, Windows 10

Cascadia Code is the latest monospaced font shipped from Microsoft focusing on delivering an excellent font for command-line experiences and code editors like Visual Studio Code. The Cascadia Code font was first announced at the Microsoft Build conference in May 2019. And yesterday, Microsoft just released Cascadia Code version 1909.16 and it is available publicly on GitHub. Cascadia Code makes an excellent font for the Windows Terminal, and you can download it today.

It is the latest monospaced font shipped from Microsoft and provides a fresh experience for command line experiences and code editors. Cascadia Code was developed hand-in-hand with the new Windows Terminal application. This font is most recommended to be used with terminal applications and text editors such as Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code.

I took some time to install Cascadia Code font on my Surface Book 2 and it works great with application like Visual Studio Code and the Windows Terminal running PowerShell. To start using it, simply download the font, install it, and configure the application to use is. In the Windows Terminal app, open the settings.json file and change the font in the specific terminal profile.

VS Code Cascadia Code setting for Windows Terminal

  "profiles" : 
    [
        {
            "acrylicOpacity" : 0.5,
            "closeOnExit" : true,
            "colorScheme" : "VibrantInk",
            "commandline" : "C:\\Program Files\\PowerShell\\6\\pwsh.exe",
            "cursorColor" : "#FFFFFF",
            "cursorShape" : "bar",
            "fontFace" : "Cascadia Code",
            "fontSize" : 12,
            "guid" : "{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}",
            "historySize" : 9001,
            "icon" : "ms-appx:///ProfileIcons/{574e775e-4f2a-5b96-ac1e-a2962a402336}.png",
            "name" : "PowerShell Core",
            "padding" : "0, 0, 0, 0",
            "snapOnInput" : true,
            "startingDirectory" : "%USERPROFILE%",
            "useAcrylic" : true,
            "backgroundImage": "C:/Users/thoma/OneDrive/Pictures/Me/Thomas Maurer Logos 2016/WindowsTerminal/Black Cloud Robot.png",
            "tabTitle": "PowerShell Core "
        },

If you want to know more about customizing the Windows Terminal, check out my blog post. If you are optimizing and customizing your code editor experience, you should also have a look at my favorite themes for Visual Studio Code.

The font is open source and licensed under the SIL Open Font license on GitHub, so it is easy to contribute. Have you tried the Cascadia Code font, and what do you think about the new coding font? Do you like it? And if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

If you are looking for some other cool Microsoft coding projects, have a look at Azure Cloud Shell and PowerShell 7.

Jul222019July 22, 2019July 22, 20190 Commentby Thomas Maurer

SSH Remote Edit File with Visual Studio Code

Remote Edit Files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Virtualization, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Windows, Windows 10

There are a lot of different ways to remote manage your Azure virtual machines using various tools and technics. In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can remotely edit files on Azure Linux virtual machines using Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code has a new Remote Development Extention which allows you to open any folder in a container, on a remote computer, or in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and take advantage of the VS Code feature set. With the Remote – SSH extensions, you can easily browse and edit files on an Azure VM or any other system where you can connect using SSH.

Installation

As mentioned to edit the files on the Azure Linux virtual machine remotely, we are using the light-weight, cross-platform, opensource editor Visual Studio Code. You can download and install VS Code from the official website.

In addition to Visual Studio code, we need to install the Remote – SSH extension, which comes with Remote Development Extension Pack. This also includes remote extensions for containers or the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

If you are running on a Windows 10 machine, you will also need to install the OpenSSH client on your machine. You can do that going through this blog post, or by running this command.

# Install the OpenSSH Client
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0

Azure VM connection using SSH

The Remote – SSH extensions currently only supports connecting to x86_64 Linux-based SSH servers using key-based authentication.

Optional: Create Azure Linux VM with key-based SSH authentication using the Azure CLI

If you want to try it out, and you haven’t set up a Linux VM SSH and key-based authentication. This Azure CLI command here helps you to create a new Azure virtual machine and sets up ssh keys as well as an optional unique Azure DNS name.

az vm create --resource-group demosshvm --name tomsVM --image UbuntuLTS --admin-username thomas --generate-ssh-keys --public-ip-address-dns-name tomsazurelinuxvm

In this example, you can use the public IP address or the Azure FQDN to connect to the Azure VM. If you have a VPN or Express Route set up, you can also use private IP addresses and DNS names. If you are using public IP addresses in production, make sure you are using a service like Azure Just in Time VM access.

Connect Visual Studio Code to Azure VM using SSH

After you have installed Visual Studio Code, the Remote – SSH extension, the SSH client and have a VM with key-based authentication, you can now easily connect. Open Visual Studio Code, on the bottom left, you see the Remote connection button. If you press it, you will find the remoting options. Select “Remote-SSH: Connect to Host…”

This will ask you for the username and IP address or DNS name of the virtual machine. In my case, I am going to use the DNS name.

After pressing enter, this will connect your Visual Studio Code environment to the Azure virtual machine.

Remote edit files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

You can start opening folders and files on the remote Azure Linux VM and begin browsing the file system. On the bottom left, you see the name or IP address of the machine you are connected with.

You can also open files and start remote edit files on your Azure Linux VM. If you save the changes you made to the file, this is directly saved on the remote Azure virtual machine.

You get all the advanced VS Code features you know from your local Visual Studio Code like syntax-highlighting and more.

I hope this shows you an easy way to remotely edit files on your Azure Linux virtual machines using Visual Studio Code and SSH. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments.

Jan082019January 8, 2019August 4, 20198 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Mastering Azure with Cloud Shell

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Work

There are multiple ways to interact and manage resources in Microsoft Azure. You can use the Azure Portal or command line tools like the Azure PowerShell module or the Azure CLI, which you can install on your local machine. However, to set up a cloud management workstation for administrators and developers can be quite a lot of work. Especially if you have multiple computers, keeping consistency between these machines can be challenging. Another challenge is keeping the environment secure and all the tools up to date. The Azure Cloud Shell addresses this any many more things.

Cloud Shell is not brand new, Microsoft announced Cloud Shell at Build 2017. This blog post is about how you can master Azure with Cloud Shell and give you an overview of the possibilities of Cloud Shell.

What is Cloud Shell

Cloud Shell offers a browser-accessible, pre-configured shell experience for managing Azure resources without the overhead of installing, versioning, and maintaining a machine yourself. Azure Cloud Shell is assigned per unique user account and automatically authenticated with each session. This makes it a private and secure environment.

You get a modern web-based command line experience which can be accessed from several endpoints like the Azure Portal, shell.azure.com and the Azure mobile app, Visual Studio Code or directly in the Azure docs.

In the backend, Azure uses containers and automatically attaches an Azure File Share to the container. You can store the data on it, so your data is persistent. This persists your data across different Cloud Shell sessions.

You can choose your preferred shell experience. Cloud Shell supports Bash and PowerShell and included your favorite third-party tools and standard tools and languages. If something like a module is missing, you can add it.

Nov122018November 12, 2018June 17, 20194 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

WLinux – The best WSL for Windows 10

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Virtualization, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Windows, Windows 10, Work

A couple of Windows 10 releases back, Microsoft delivered the Windows Subsystem for Linux. The Windows Subsystem for Linux allows you to run Linux distros, like Ubuntu, Debian, Suse, and others, on Windows 10. Around the Microsoft Ignite 2018 timeframe, another distro was released to the Windows Store called WLinux. WLinux is a Linux environment for Windows 10 built on work by Microsoft Research and the Debian project. WLinux is a custom Linux distro built from Debian specifically for use on the WSL. While other distros are available for WSL, WLinux is the first optimized for use by users of WSL for WSL. It helps developer run Linux tooling on Windows and integrates into perfectly into Windows.

With the latest Windows 10 Insider builds, you can also run the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2).

WLinux Setup

WLinux comes with a custom setup to prepare your environment in a straightforward and easy wizard. It lets you set up some predefined software and settings and configure integration into Windows.

WLinux WSL Docker Bridge to Windows

If you want to run Docker in the Windows Subsystem for Linux, you can bring the Docker Client to the Windows Docker Engine. This allows you to run Docker directly from WSL and PowerShell at the same time.

Microsoft Tooling

Of course, WLinux brings the usual Linux development tools and easy setup for Ruby, NodeJS, Go, Java, Python, editors like emacs and even different shells. You can also easily add Microsoft tooling by adding Azure CLI, PowerShell Core, and even Visual Studio Code.

Windows Explorer Integration and WSL Utilities (wslu)

It easily lets you set up Windows Explorer integration and brings wslu, a collection of utilities for WSL, preinstalled. Wslu brings the following features to the WSL

wslusc This is a WSL shortcut creator to create a shortcut on your Windows 10 Desktop.
wslsys This is a WSL system information printer to print out some basic system information.
wslfetch This is a WSL Screenshot Information Tool to print information elegantly.
wslupath This is a WSL Windows path Converter that can convert Windows path to other styles of path.
wslview This is a fake WSL browser that can help you open link in default Windows browser.

If you want to know more about WLinux, check out the website Whitewater Foundry.

Or download WLinux from the Microsoft Store.

You can also contribute to the project on GitHub.

Jul172018July 17, 2018January 8, 20190 Commentby Thomas Maurer

You can now run a Visual Studio Code based editor in Azure Cloud Shell

Posted in Cloud, Containers, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Work

Azure Cloud Shell, a browser-accessible shell for managing Azure resources, just got even more powerful. Today Microsoft added a new Visual Studio Code editor to Azure Cloud Shell. Okay, it is not the real Visual Studio Code, it is an editor based on the Visual Studio Code open-source project Monaco. Monaco is the same web-standards based editor that powers Visual Studio Code, and the editor is now integrated directly into Cloud Shell.

Now you not only have editors like vim, emacs or nano, you also able to run code, directly with in the Azure Cloud Shell. This is pretty handy when it comes to quickly edit some files like scripts or ARM templates.

This is not the first time the Azure Cloud Shell team and the Visual Studio Code team collaborated: Azure Cloud Shell in Visual Studio Code

Apr202018April 20, 2018September 17, 20192 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

Connect to Azure Stack from Azure Cloud Shell

Posted in Cloud, Microsoft, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Azure Stack, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code

A little while ago, Microsoft announced the Azure Cloud Shell. The Azure Cloud Shell is a perfect tool to manage your Azure resources using the Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell. Wouldn’t it be great also to manage your resources running on Azure Stack? Thanks to the consistency between Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Azure Stack, you can use the same tools to manage your hybrid cloud. In this blog, I am going to show you how you can connect to Azure Stack from Azure Cloud Shell.

First of all, login to your Azure Cloud Shell on shell.azure.com or in the Azure Portal.

After the login you have to register Azure Stack as a new cloud by running the following command:

az cloud register \
-n AzureStack \
--endpoint-resource-manager "https://management.region.url.com" \
--suffix-storage-endpoint "region.url.com" \
--suffix-keyvault-dns ".vault.region.url.com"

Now you can list the new Azure Stack cloud by using:

az cloud list -o table

To switch to the Azure Stack Cloud, use the following command:

az cloud set -n AzureStack

If you are doing this the first time and you use another account, you can use az login to login.

az login

One thing you should do is to switch the profile version to an Azure Stack compatible version

az cloud update --profile 2017-03-09-profile

Now you can start using the Azure CLI in the Azure Cloud Shell to manage your Azure Stack. First of all, yes this works also if you use the Azure CLI. In that case, Azure Stack needs to be accessible from the internet. If your Azure Stack is not accessible from the internet, you can use the Azure CLI directly from your management machine.

Azure Cloud Shell is very powerful; you can run Azure CLI as well as Azure PowerShell. Fun Fact, since you can also run the Azure Cloud Shell directly in Visual Studio Code, you can also open up the shell session and start working from Visual Studio Code.

You can learn more in my blog post: Mastering Azure with Cloud Shell.

Feb252018February 25, 2018January 8, 20193 Commentsby Thomas Maurer

My Favorite Visual Studio Code Themes

Posted in Fun, Microsoft, PowerShell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Windows, Windows 10

While I am doing presentations, I often do demos, and since a lot of my demos are PowerShell based, I use a lot of Visual Studio Code. With that I often get the question which is the Visual Studio Code Theme I use. Even I change my Visual Studio Code Themes pretty often, I have a couple of favorites I want to share.

Azure Contrast (rainglow)

Rainglow has a huge amount for different themes, my favorite one is their Azure, Azure Contrast theme.

Cobalt2

My current favorite Visual Studio Code Theme is Cobalt2. Cobalt2 is a dark but colorful theme for Visual Studio. I like it because it is a dark theme, but it not uses the classic dark grey background, instead I like the mix of dark blue and yellow.

Atom One Dark

Atom One Dark is another Dark theme I started to like very much. I like the popping colors on the dark background.

Ayu Mirage – Visual Studio Code Theme

The Ayu Themes for Visual Studio are simple, bright and elegant themes. I prefer the Ayu Mirage theme which as I said looks very elegant. The Ayu themes also have other options like the Ayu light which is also one of my favorites.

Dracula

Dracula is one of the famous Visual Studio Code themes, which is also available on other platforms. When I am not using the Cobalt2 theme, I most often switch to Dracula.

Ayu Light

I mentioned the Ayu Themes before, and this is the light version of it. I am mostly using dark themes, but when I switch to a light theme, I mostly use Ayu Light.

PowerShell ISE

If you are coming form PowerShell scripting, you are already familiar with the PowerShell ISE. The PowerShell ISE theme bring you back in to the old school world and even gives you the PowerShell blue background terminal.

There are a lot of other great Visual Studio Code Themes out there. What is your favorite? Let me know in the comments!

Category: Visual Studio

New Microsoft Code and Terminal Font Cascadia Code

Remote Edit Files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

Installation

Azure VM connection using SSH

Optional: Create Azure Linux VM with key-based SSH authentication using the Azure CLI

Connect Visual Studio Code to Azure VM using SSH

Remote edit files on Azure Linux VMs using VS Code

WLinux – The best WSL for Windows 10

WLinux Setup

WLinux WSL Docker Bridge to Windows

Microsoft Tooling

Windows Explorer Integration and WSL Utilities (wslu)

My Favorite Visual Studio Code Themes

Azure Contrast (rainglow)

Cobalt2

Atom One Dark

Ayu Mirage – Visual Studio Code Theme

Dracula

Ayu Light

PowerShell ISE

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