I did a simple benchmark for the 3 main databases (Oracle 11g, MySQL 5.1, SQL Server 2008) to see how using ODBC compares to using their native providers in .NET for all database access. To keep things on an even playing field, all 3 databases were run on the same machine, with the exact same database name, table name, and schema. Database authenticaton was used by all databases.

I’ve created a tool to help test different connection strings and settings for the various databases. The information out there on certain database connection types is poor at best so this was put together over a week long process of testing and reverse engineering. A lot of forums and blog posts were pieced together to figure all of this out.

I have a Vista workstation at work with 3 monitors. At home I have a laptop running XP. I commonly remote desktop into work and some of my programs will be running and visible in the task bar (e.g. Outlook, MySQL Administrator, etc...) but the actual window of the program will still be on my left or right monitor at work. So at home, it is not visible.

With a program like Outlook, it is an easy fix.
- Right Click the program in the task bar.
- Select Move.
- Use the left or right arrow key to move the running program so that it is visible in the remote desktop session.