Technical Weblog of Eric Charran

Windows Live Messenger Error 81000490

Eric Charran — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:56:43 GMT

Here is a great post on how to resolve an error in Windows Live Messenger when it suddenly stops signing in.

http://ee61re.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/unable-to-sign-in-to-windows-live-messengererror-81000490/

Delete the C:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\Contacts\<Windows Live ID> folder and then try signing in again.

HOWTO: Windows 7 SP1 Error during installation: “Service Pack Installation failed with error code 0x800f081f”

Eric Charran — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:40:00 GMT

When I attempt to install Windows 7 SP1 on multiple machines, I began the installation process as shown below. with the standalone and windows update version of the SP.

It soon returns with this error:

The troubleshooting page walks users through updating their anti-virus programs to update the mpfilter file. This wasn’t my issue.

I didn’t have Microsoft Security Essentials installed and I searched the registry to verify that I’ve never had it installed. I had the latest Forefront client installed.

I’ve visited the path mentioned in the troubleshooting page and found that my version of mpfilter is above the minimum that the SP checks for.

In addition, the event log had a message indicating that the service pack installation failed. This is happening on multliple machines for me.

“Service Pack Installation failed with error code 0x800f081f”

The problem turned out to be that the RSAT tools (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7d2f6ad7-656b-4313-a005-4e344e43997d&displaylang=en) were an older version for Windows 7. This was preventing the installation of the service pack. I uninstalled the RSAT tool by going to Control Panel>Programs and Features>Installed Updates and uninstalled the updated relating to KB958830.

I was able to successfully install the service pack after this.

HOWTO: Resolve “Cannot find the physical computer that runs the virtual machine.”

Eric Charran — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:07:58 GMT

I recently ran into this problem when I had to set up Direct Access with a Hyper-V machine. See here for the cause and resolution (Thanks thompal)!

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/thompal/archive/2009/11/06/hyper-v-virtual-machine-connection-and-direct-access.aspx

From Thomas:

The solution:
-go into the Registry and delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\DNSClient\DnsPolicyConfig"
-in an elevated command prompt, enter: sc control dnscache paramchange

After that the “Virtual Machine Connection” was working fine.

-thomas

INFO: SharePoint 2010 Editions and Features

Eric Charran — Wed, 26 May 2010 15:00:15 GMT

Here is a quick page that details the different editions and features for SharePoint 2010.

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/buy/Pages/Editions-Comparison.aspx

INFO: Planning for Virtualization for SharePoint 2010

Eric Charran — Tue, 11 May 2010 12:25:03 GMT

Great article on virtualization for SharePoint 2010.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607811(office.14).aspx

INFO: SharePoint Databases and Availability Models

Eric Charran — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:59:31 GMT

Here is some great information via MitchP on the number and characteristics of SharePoint including their availability supported models (mirroring, etc.)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc678868(office.14).aspx

Example of content for the config db:

Configuration

The configuration database contains data about SharePoint databases, Internet Information Services (IIS) Web sites, Web applications, trusted solutions, Web Part packages, site templates, and Web application and farm settings specific to SharePoint 2010 Products, such as default quota settings and blocked file types.

Default database name prefix when installed by using the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard

SharePoint_Config

Location requirements

None

General size information and growth factors

Small.

However, transaction log files are likely to become large. For more information, see Additional notes, below.

Read/write characteristics

Read-intensive

Recommended scaling method

Must scale up; that is, the database must grow larger, because only one configuration database is supported per farm. (Significant growth is unlikely.)

Associated health rules

None

Supported backup mechanisms

SharePoint Server 2010 backup and recovery, SQL Server, and System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010. The configuration database is a special case for backup and recovery. For more information, see Additional notes below.

Default recovery model

Full. We recommend that you switch the configuration database to the simple recovery model to restrict growth of the log file.

Supports mirroring within a farm for availability

Yes

Supports asynchronous mirroring or log-shipping to another farm for disaster recovery

SharePoint Solution Designer Class: WCM Notes

Eric Charran — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:12:29 GMT

Here are some “Show Notes” for the SharePoint Solution Designer course for WCM that Mark Arend and I taught on 4/26/2010.

Also note that I’ll update this post with information on when you can get access to the Visio diagrams we discussed today as well as obtain information on future deliveries of the course(s).

Here are a list of the questions that we are tracking for the course:

Questions

When to use content publication

There should be upcoming documentation that describes when to use content publication and when to consider alternatives. The best guidance I’ve found exists at the following URL in the form of a Visio diagram for content deployment

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263199(office.14).aspx (All diagrams)
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=179391&clcid=0x409 (Content deployment diagram with text indicating when to use content deployment)

OWA & IPFS for WCM scenarios?
IPFS for anonymous users?
Layouts pages skinnable? (other than farm-wide?)
Meta tags for SEO?
- SEO Optimization in SharePoint 2007: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721591.aspx
- Meta Tag Generator on Codeplex: http://spwcmutils.codeplex.com/
What is JSOM (JavaScript Object Model for Excel Services) ?
- For Excel Services customization
- http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/11/30/introducing-the-javascript-object-model-for-excel-services-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx
- Client side object model for Excel Web Access
What happens to taxonomy hierarchy/inheritance as you make changes? Such as deleting a level?
- http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee519604(office.14).aspx
- You can nest terms to a maximum of seven levels deep. Because you can declare a term to be “unavailable for tagging” (that is, a term that the user cannot select), you have flexibility in how you organize the hierarchy, as illustrated in the examples that are provided in the worksheets.
Mobile experience for OWA vs. Office Mobile 2010
- http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/mobile/default.aspx
- http://www.sharepointjoel.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=0cd1a63d%2D183c%2D4fc2%2D8320%2Dba5369008acb&ID=305
Improvements in HA/DR? What about failover of a datacenter?

We now support database mirroring and the WFEs are aware of the “mirror” connection string.

INFO: Great Article on IE6 to IE 7/8 with SharePoint 2010

Eric Charran — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:25:10 GMT

Here is a great post from Maxime on the behavior differences between IE6 and IE 7/8 when browsing or interacting with SharePoint 2010. The great thing about this post is that it has a visual comparison of several use cases.

http://blogs.msdn.com/maximeb/archive/2010/04/01/what-sharepoint-2010-looks-like-with-internet-explorer-6.aspx

HOWTO: Building SharePoint Projects with TFS Team Build 2010

Eric Charran — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:16:02 GMT

Here is a great resource on how to build team projects for SharePoint in TFS 2010 (also lists steps for TFS 2008).

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ff622991.aspx

Quick reference excerpt from the article below:

Steps

TFS2010

TFS2008

Install Team Build software

Same as TFS2010

Skip this step - TFS2010 already installs .NET Framework 4.

Install .NET Framework 4.0 and update build path of TFS

Install Windows SDK to get GACUtil if you don’t already have one on the build system

Same as TFS2010

Skip this step - TFS2010 already installs the DSL assembly.

Install DSL Assembly Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Sdk.10.0.dll

Install the SharePoint assemblies:

Microsoft.SharePoint.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.Security.dll
Microsoft.SharePoint.WorkflowActions.dll

If your project refers to other SharePoint assemblies, copy them to the build system too.

Same as TFS2010

Install the SharePoint tools targets and tasks

Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.targets.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.Tasks.dll

Same as TFS2010

Install the SharePoint tool assemblies:

Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.
Designers.Models.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.
Designers.Models.
Features.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.
Designers.Models.
Packages.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.dll

Same as TFS2010

Build and package the SharePoint projects.

In TFS2010, this can be customized through the UI of the Build Definition. Under the Compilation category, in the MSBuildArguments field, add the following script:

/p:IsPackaging=True

For TFS2008, when you queue or start a build, you can add the script to activate the package task in the MSBuild command-line arguments text box:

/p:IsPackaging=True

If you want the package be created every time the build definition is used, add the script to the generated build file.

HOWTO: Configure SharePoint 2010 for Kerberos

Eric Charran — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:01:30 GMT

Here is a great reference for configuring SharePoint 2010 for Kerberos authentication.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee806870(office.14).aspx#section1

Core concepts include:

Ensuring SQL Server and the WFE/App servers in the farm can communicate with the SQL Server in the farm via Kerberos.

Create a SPN for the SQL Server and map to the SQL Server service account (i.e., MSSQLSvc/mosssql:1433 and MSSQLSvc/mosssql.mydomain.com:1433)
Test the connection to SQL Server prior to install of SharePoint 2010 by installing the SQL Server client tools on a WFE/App server and testing the connection

Verify connection settings in the event log on the SQL Server

Create SPNs for each web application (i.e., HTTP/kerbportal, and HTTP/kerbportal.mydomain.net) and map to the AD account for the app pool for the web application.

Ensure the SPNs have the port number in them so IE can construct the SPN for authentication

Install and set up the farm (Authentication method to the SQL Server = negotiate)
Visit central administration and view the event log on the central admin machine to ensure that Kerberos was used successfully.

Note that crawlers can only access standard ports (80, 443) via Kerberos.

HOWTO: Bulk Load Data Into SharePoint Lists via Access 2007

Eric Charran — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:22:22 GMT

Hi all,

Before writing something that would take some time to do in terms of loading data, I was able to successfully conduct a bulk load of data into SharePoint with MSAccess. Here is my mock up test that I did.

I created a SharePoint list in a sample site with the following schema:

Sample List

Title Single Line of Text

Sample Column Single Line of Text

Sample Lookup Column Lookup to a Contacts List

I chose these columns because they represent some non-standard column types of mapping in order to do bulk loads with. I then created a new Access 2007 database and linked to the [Sample List] in SharePoint.

I then created a mirror data load table in the access database with the following schema

Sample List Local Source

ID AutoNumber

Title Text

SampleColumn Text

SampleLookupValue Number

Note that the source data for inserting into a SharePoint list lookup column via Access is a number (the actual ID of the specified target value of the Lookup list).

I then populated the local list with 100 rows of sample data.

I then created a Append Query that would take the rows from the [Sample List Local Source] and put it into the linked table to the target SharePoint list. The query for the [Sample List Load] is below:

Upon running the query, and refreshing in the browser, you can see all 100 rows in the list. The query took about 10 seconds to run. I would suggest you bulk load in batches to avoid a really long running operation.

Here are the results:

I would also suggest that we make a default view on the list that limits the data to rendering a max of 2000 items so you don’t’ incur big perf hits when viewing the data.

This list will help in creating the source table and its data types to map to the target SharePoint list.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HP010477131033.aspx

Can’t See Some Computers on Network Map

Eric Charran — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:41:02 GMT

When browsing the network map in Windows 7 or Vista, you may be able to see some computers, but not all of them. This is because network mapping is not enabled on domain networks by default. You may see this screen on a client machine:

“Network mapping is disabled by default on domain networks”

To enable, go to a domain controller and enable the policies in the image below through the domain default policy editor:

HOWTO: Convert a String to a Byte Array (byte[])

Eric Charran — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:49:12 GMT

Just so I don’t forget, here is how to convert a string to a byte array:

System.Text.ASCIIEncoding encoding = new System.Text.ASCIIEncoding();

encoding.GetBytes(yourStringHere)

“Create Unit Tests” Screen Shows No Types in Visual Studio 2008 SP1

Eric Charran — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:13:14 GMT

When trying to create a unit test in a test project, the “Create Unit Tests” screen shows no types, thus the wizard cannot continue. The [OK] button is disabled, and the only thing the user can do is cancel the unit test wizard. This happens on Visual Studio 2008 SP1 on x64 (for me).

Not sure why this is, but if you have a database project type [SQL Server 2005/2008], remove that project from the solution and the type window for the unit test wizard will now work and let you browse types in your project for test method creation.

INFO: Recent Technical Articles

Eric Charran — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:33:14 GMT

Here are some of my most recent technical articles that I wrote (and helped write) as part of the VSTS Ranger program as well as the SharePoint Ranger program. As you may know, the ranger programs are essentially field extensions of the product team that provide customers with expert guidance and prescriptive guidance while sending valuable feedback that improves our products to the product groups. In this instance, we worked with Bijan Javidi, Paul Andrew, Chris Keyser and the PnP team to crystallize our ALM guidance for SharePoint custom application development. In many instances, we consumed the PnP SharePoint guidance and attempted to model “good development behavior :)”

Here are the resources:

Solution and Authored Artifact Development Models for SharePoint
Learn to reconcile differences between artifact development and assembly development by combining components into a single version control repository, such as Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server.

Using Team Foundation Server to Develop Custom SharePoint Products and Technologies Applications
Use Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Team Foundation Server to support SharePoint application development, and provide an integrated development environment and single source code repository for process activities, integrated progress reporting, and team roles.

SharePoint Server Custom Application Development: Document Workflow Management Project
Read about the real-world design, construction, and deployment of a custom SharePoint Server 2007 application to a mid-market enterprise customer using Team Foundation Server as an ALM platform.

This is from the VSTS Ranger section of the SharePoint ALM Page found here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/cc990283.aspx

INFO: SharePoint 2007 VM’s NLTM Authentication Failure

Eric Charran — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:05:47 GMT

I usually build a Virtual Machine that consists of the following for SharePoint development:

Windows Server 2008
SQL Server 2008 SP1
Visual Studio 2008 SP1 with Team Explorer (and VSeWSS 1.3)
Office 2007 SP2
Domain Controller and DNS Services

I use host headers to allow the web applications I create on the VM to run on port 80. However, recently, the ability for me to visit a web application suddenly stopped inexplicably. What happened was that any web application seemed to prompt me for NTLM credentials three consecutive times, but then deny me each time with a blank page. SharePoint’s access denied page was not even rendered. Furthermore, any HTML files (images, txt, html) could not be served from the virtual directory of the web application. I found that I could visit http://localhost:portnumber sites, but no sites that used host headers.

It turns out that a recent security patch delivered through Windows Update caused the issue. There is a security update that causes any “excessive” traffic on the loopback adapter to be shut down. This means that unless you either turn off the loopback adapter security check, or place all DNS names you want to use for web application host headers under a specific registry key, host headers won’t work and you will be denied access. See the KB here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

And the recommended steps below:

Method 1: Specify host names

Note We recommend that you use this method.
To specify the host names that are mapped to the loopback address and can connect to Web sites on your computer, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
Right-click MSV1_0, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.
Type BackConnectionHostNames, and then press ENTER.
Right-click BackConnectionHostNames, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type the host name or the host names for the sites that are on the local computer, and then click OK.
Quit Registry Editor, and then restart the IISAdmin service.

Method 2: Disable the loopback check

Follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
Right-click Lsa, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type DisableLoopbackCheck, and then press ENTER.
Right-click DisableLoopbackCheck, and then click Modify.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
Quit Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

Migrate SharePoint Workflows and Content Types

Eric Charran — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:25:03 GMT

Here is a great utility to migrate SPD workflows and content types across site collections.

http://spwflmigrator.codeplex.com/

Never used it myself, but it appears quite useful.

List Lookup Columns in Content Types

Eric Charran — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:23:06 GMT

This codeplex project allows developers to package list lookup columns as a feature and as part of a content type. This gets us around a challenge where developers try to deploy a content type that has a list lookup column which is dependent on a list instance.

http://fieldlookupbuilder.codeplex.com/

It extends the work done by Chris O’Brien that made list lookup columns as a feature.

SharePoint 2007 - create lookup fields as a feature

HOWTO: Resolve “Cannot connect to the virtual machine because the authentication certificate is expired or invalid”

Eric Charran — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:35:08 GMT

Great forum post on how to resolve the error “cannot connect to the virtual machine because the authentication certificate is expired or invalid”. It all has to do with a certificate on the Hyper-V server that is only good for one year. Al you have to do is to stop they Hyper-V Management Service, delete the old cert and restart. Any VM’s you couldn’t connect to, save their state and restart.

Thanks to Mark at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/1a3e8f1b-379b-4569-9b39-bb568d2a7e3f/ for the answer below:

Here is what you need to do, there is a certificate for the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service that has expired. By default the certificate is a self signed certificate and is only good for one year. Here is how to resolve it:
1) Open Services.msc and go to the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service and stop the service.
2) Next go to Start - Run and enter MMC - Ok
3) In the MMC go to File - Add/Remove Snap-in, in the list of Available snap-ins select Certificates then Add.
4) In the next window select Service Account and Next. In the Select Computer select the default of Local Computer then Next.
5) Now under the Service Account drill down to the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management and select it then Finish and OK.
6) Now in the left hand pane expand Certificates, vmms\Personal and highlight Certificates. In the right hand pane double click on the certificate, should show the Issued To as the host machine name.
7) On the General tab of the certificate at the bottom it should show Valid from and a starting and ending date. The problem is that the certificate has expired.
8) Now close the window for the certificate and then in the right hand pane right click and select delete.
9) Go back to the Services.msc and restart the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service.
10) Back to the MMC console and refresh the Personal\Certificates and you should see a new one there. Double click on it and verify the new valid dates.
11) To be able to access the VM's now you will either have to restart the VM or simply use the save state then start the VM back up.

Hope this helps.
Mark

What’s your Social Networking IQ?

Eric Charran — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:51:55 GMT

What is the best way to judge social networking IQ? In my mind its not necessarily your knowledge of social networking from an academic perspective, nor is it your knowledge of the technical implementation and networks of social networking that are out there. However, I define social networking IQ has a person’s ability to effectively participate, benefit from and manage their social networking footprint amongst a variety of social networking networks and implementations. Whether it be technical networks like such as Facebook, Live Spaces, My Space, etc. or simply an email distribution list within your organization, an individual’s membership should be symbiotic. This means that members should give to the network like a community as well as receive. Today, most social networks are facilitated by software, so we’ll focus on those. Also, the term IQ isn’t entirely accurate as it is a measure of your social networking footprint rather than some numerical scheme that judges your worthiness in terms of your memberships. Thus, to get things started, here is my social networking footprint at work and at home:

Work
- SharePoint My Site
  - Actively use the colleague tracker and monitor as well as presence to see who relates to who and what changes are happening to people on my team or close to me.
  - I also post various documents and presentations to share and other types of information that are valuable to others (like a corporate Live Sky Drive)
- Internal Microsoft Blog
  - I maintain an internal Microsoft blog as a result of selecting to create one from my My Site
  - I also post to the internal SharePoint Rangers blog and some other regional knowledge sharing blogs
- MSDN Blog
  - I also maintain an external facing MSDN blog on blogs.msdn.com which serves as a knowledge and “gotcha” repository for challenges I face in the field and in the office.
- Email Distribution Lists
  - I am a member of over 30 (and that’s trimmed down) internal email distribution lists
    - These lists provide a place for individuals to post general or esoteric technical questions and receive answers right in Outlook
    - These lists are tracked by the colleague tracker and published to others when they look at my profile in SharePoint
- Office Communicator
  - The SharePoint colleague tracker also mines my IM conversations and contact lists to see who I relate to most frequently as well as my email.
  - The colleague tracker forms recommendations based on these and other elements (like AD reporting relationships)
Non-Work
- Facebook
  - I have a Facebook account which I am quite active on and have integrated with other social networking and IM tools
    - Messenger, Twitter, etc.
- Twitter
  - I also have a twitter account and use a utility (Witty Twitter) to both create my tweets and have the tweet set automatically as my Facebook status
- Windows Live Profile
  - I have an active Windows Live profile and have it linked to my Facebook status.
  - This means that when I update Witty Twitter, my tweet is sent to Twitter, and it also is reflected in Facebook and in Windows Live.
- Windows Live Space
  - I also maintain a Windows Live Space that was and still is my personal interest blog.
- Flickr
  - Flickr houses my family’s entire photo library (I am a paying member so I have no upload limits). I tag photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery and use them to upload to Flickr.
  - This means that my photo stream is tagged with the same metadata as my local photos and I can browse the tag cloud using Flickr.

There are some essential tools that I use to make my life a little easier. These tools are mostly thick client tools that don’t force me to open a browser every time I want to do something.

Groove
- I use Groove to sync my My Site at work so I have offline access on multiple computers to the content on my My Site.
- I also use it to sync files between firewalls so clients and customers can easily get large binaries without worrying about ftp, etc.
Windows Live Photo Gallery
- With the latest beta, I upload to Flickr and Facebook right after tagging.
- I apply tags as well as facial tags which nicely integrates into Facebook.
- This allows me to go from camera to Windows Home Server for storage, to Facebook in a few seconds.
Witty Twitter

A smart client WPF utility that allows me to create, monitor and update Tweets from myself and others
I also configured Facebook to monitor my tweets and make them my status updates on Facebook and Windows Live.

Windows Live Writer

A great utility for thick-client publishing, editing and re-publishing of blog posts.
Allows posting and cross posting between SharePoint, Community Server, Windows Live Spaces and a ton of other blog-ware.

INFO: What I’m Running

Eric Charran — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:10:19 GMT

Every now and then I like to update folks on what I’m running on my hardware. Below you’ll find information on what my hardware is and what I choose to run on it.

Here is my newest rig info:

Hardware

Lenovo T61P
4 GB of RAM
SATA Optical Bay Adapter with 160 GB laptop hard drive

Software

Windows Server 2008 x64 Enterprise Edition with Hyper-V
Office 2007 SP1

Including Visio 2007, Project 2007 and SharePoint Designer 2007

Windows Live Essentials

Now installs on Windows Server 2008 x64 from http://download.live.com

Live Mesh

Forced install by downloading mesh.exe and running it from a command prompt with /force

Paint.NET
Office Communication Server Communicator with full VOIP and Unified Messaging

My computer is my phone and instant conference bridge

Visual Studio 2008 SP1

I thought long and hard about putting this on since I do everything in a virtual (now Hyper-V) machine

SQL Server 2008 (client install only)

I thought long and hard about putting this on since I do everything in a virtual (now Hyper-V) machine

Daemon Tools

Careful installing this now as there is a bunch of bloatware in the installer, but a rock solid virtual optical drive emulator

The biggest change is obviously making the jump to running Windows Server 2008 x64. The great thing is that it runs like a dream. Visit http://www.win2008workstation.com/wordpress/ for more in formation, screen shots and tutorials for information on how to do this. Prepare for an afternoon of researching and installing drivers for your machine. In my experience on having done this on a Toshiba M700 and the Lenovo T61P, all Vista drivers worked on Windows Server 2008. Also, you will have to download some tools mentioned on the site above to find out exactly what type of hardware you have so you can get their drivers. If the manufacturer has their act together, the drivers will be a breeze to find (Lenovo). Otherwise, you’ll be pulling them off of download sites from around the net (Toshiba).

I have the desktop experience on and it looks and smells like Vista. Hyper-V turns off power management (it was designed as a server product feature after all). This means that the power button is just a power button (on/off) and standby/hibernate is gone. For me that was OK as I wasn’t a standby/hibernate guy anyway.

Hyper-V ROCKS. It is so superior to VPC. On 4 GB of RAM I can now run 3 VM’s (Allocated with 1024 MB of RAM) simultaneously while running Outlook. It does get a bit dicey when I try to make a phone call with communicator, but the VM’s stay responsive and Communicator struggles (which would by my preference). All in all, a positive experience. Once last note, Tablet PC users will miss most tablet PC functionality (TIP) as I don’t think anyone has gotten it to work on Windows Server 2008 yet.

HOWTO: Grant users Logon as Terminal Service Right

Eric Charran — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:22:49 GMT

Because I am running Windows Server Enterprise 2008 on my Laptop with Hyper-V enabled, I continuously Remote Desktop to my Virtual Machine. Even for a domain admin in the guest, you have to have group policy configured to allow the Remote Desktop Users group to allow logon through terminal services. Here is where you do it:

Click Start, point to Run, type mmc, and then click OK.

On the File menu, click Add/Remove Snap-in.

In Add/Remove Snap-in, click Add, and then, in Add Standalone Snap-in, double-click Group Policy Object Editor.

In Select Group Policy Object, click Browse, browse to the Group Policy object (GPO) that you want to modify, click OK, and then click Finish.

Click Close, and then click OK.

In the console tree, click User Rights Assignment.

Where?

GroupPolicyObject [ComputerName] Policy
Computer Configuration
Windows Settings
Security Settings
Local Policies
User Rights Assignment

HOWTO: Enable Visual Studio 2008 Remote Debugging

Eric Charran — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 04:33:22 GMT

See this link for methods to enable Remote Debugging:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bt727f1t.aspx

HOWTO: How Document Collaboration Works at Microsoft

Eric Charran — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:11:31 GMT

While the title of this post might indicate that there is a sweeping document collaboration strategy that all teams and people use, that’s not the case necessarily. We are big at dogfooding which is a made up verb indicating that we love to try out our own software and tools in our everyday jobs just the way our customers do.

To that end, this post will describe a successful multi-national document collaboration effort surrounding the recent publication of the Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Team Foundation Server 2008 guidance that was recently published on MSDN.

The guidance for this heavily anticipated documentation will be released in phases over the next few weeks and appear in a developer center located under the SharePoint developer center.

Here is the portal link which describes the focus of the guidance as well as links/placeholders to all the content as it gets published:

Team Foundation Server Resource Center

And here is the link to the first published article:

Using Team Foundation Server to Develop Custom SharePoint Products and Technologies Applications

Based on the guidance, and the descriptions in the above resource center, we have a total of five white paper documents that were collaborated on by over 50 people in several countries, including India, Germany, Ireland, Turkey and the Netherlands. This also included domestic resources such as product group folks and rangers around the country and in Redmond, WA. Here are some stats about the effort:

Collaboration Platform: Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Groove 2007 with Word 2007, Visio 2007 and OneNote 2007 (all latest Service Packs and hotfixes)

Team Size: Over 50 contributors and tester/reviewers actively marking up and editing the same set of documents over a 4 month period including Microsoft Services Consultants, Product Group team members (SharePoint and Visual Studio Team System) and external MVP’s

Deliverables: 5 white papers consisting of procedural and contextual guidance including screen shots, artwork, Visio diagrams for developers writing custom MOSS applications and using Team Foundation Server

How we did it:

I was fortunate enough to be at the hub of this activity and led the effort to work with all the talented authors, contributors and reviewers. What we did is to establish a SharePoint team site in on a our internally hosted Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Server collaboration farm. Using the Shared Documents library, I then created a Groove 2007 workspace and added the SharePoint Files tool.

SharePoint and Groove in Sync Together:

The SharePoint Files tool will connect to a designated SharePoint site at a level in its folder hierarchy specified by the user. In my case, I linked the tool to the Shared Documents folder. I then in Groove, created a folder hierarchy which the rest of the team would use to store documents and resource files related to those documents. The folder hierarchy synchronized back to SharePoint, thereby mirroring the workspace and the files therein.

From a collaboration standpoint, this was critical as a most of our authors and reviewers were at one point or another not connected to our internal-only corporate SharePoint collaboration environment. Thus, by making Groove the primary collaboration point, Groove workspace members could interact with the virtual team and the shared documents while at an airport, on the train, or anywhere with internet access.

How We Managed Changes to Documents:

Whenever anyone updated a document, the changes came streaming back from their workspace to everyone else’s copy. For me, I was the designated SharePoint synchronizer. My workspace was the first workspace that I invited everyone to, so it was the only workspace that synchronized back to the SharePoint team site. When my workspace received updates and reported unsynchronized changes in the tool, I simply synchronized back to the SharePoint site and all the changes went into the SharePoint “cloud”. This gave me, and everyone else a comfort level that our documents were preserved not only in each other’s workspace, but versioned in SharePoint as well which was backed up by Microsoft’s enterprise backup.

Collaboration Stipulations:

While the this arrangement gave us the flexibility to support collaborators accessing a document both in Groove and in SharePoint, I did not want to get into a situation where a single document had conflicting changes coming from both environments. Thus each paper’s collaboration team was required to choose their collaboration environment (SharePoint or Groove). Because of the benefits of Groove (only an internet connection required to collaborate) all of our team chose this approach. This left it to me to manually (if I chose) check out and in documents before synchronizing.

In addition, to avoid collisions of people editing documents at the same time in the workspace, what we did was to copy our standard MSDN template Word 2007 xml file for each contributor. This assured that they would be able to contribute freely without worrying about who else was in the document when they were. Once completed, I was responsible for editing and merging the documents back into a master composite copy (using Word 2007’s merge document feature).

For editing and commenting from our tech reviewers, we did the same thing. We made copies of the composite document which they could freely edit and mark up which I merged in and applied their edits to the master copy. All the while, I was synchronizing with the SharePoint site. We also had .one files in the folders for each white paper so we could share hand drawn or text notes on the topic.

Great Collaboration Experience:

It was really one of those great collaboration experiences where the technology worked like it was supposed to. Quietly, reliably and without issue. No document collisions, or burned documents or uh-oh moments. One great benefit is that I saved the workspace invitation within the workspace itself. Thus, any member of the the workspace or visitor to the SharePoint site could join the workspace themselves or forward it on to others. The popularity of this project inside Microsoft reached fever pitch when at one point we had over 75 active workspace members.

HOWTO: Complete a WF Workflow if a Task Replicator Activity’s Tasks Haven’t Been Completed Yet

Eric Charran — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:09:48 GMT

Scenario:

A Visual Studio Workflow Foundation Workflow needs to terminate with approval given the following circumstances:

1. At least one task has been completed out of the many tasks that were assigned via the workflow to approvers

2. A field on the current item the workflow is executing on has been edited/updated/changed

Thus the behavior would be that the users could modify the workflow by adding approvers, completing tasks, etc. and if the monitored field on the current list item hadn’t been updated, the workflow would remain open. As soon as the workflow received notification that the current item’s field had been updated and that it matched an internal comparison value, the workflow would evaluate if at least one task had been approved and conclude the workflow (including closing/completing all outstanding tasks).

Implementation:

Instead of using a Parallel Activity, a Condition Activity Group (CAG) was used. It included the 2 event handling scopes. The first contained the an activity that handled the update to the current item. The second contained a task replicator. The task replicator was responsible for creating the tasks as/per the add approver workflow modification data. The CAG was then given a declarative rule condition to monitor 2 Booleans (isAtleastOneTaskComplete and isItemUpdated) which are public Booleans set by each activity when a task completes or the item was updated. If those evaluate to true, the CAG terminates the task replicator and closes the workflow successfully.

Adding Approvers:

Once the CAG was implemented, the ability to modify the task replicator and add approvers was lost. This is because the replicator in the workflow (this.taskReplicator1) is not actually executing. The CAG creates a child instance of the task replicator and runs that one. Thus, when the first child is created, we capture that activities parent from its event args which resolves to the active (cloned) task replicator (not its template). When adding approvers, we add to that replicator’s children and not the template (non-executing one).

Clean Up:

However, while the CAG terminated the replicator, it still leaves the tasks. Using the MOSS API with a code activity, we got the task list from the workflow properties and found all tasks relating to the workflow instance running and closed them using the MOSS API. This allowed the tasks to be complete and the workflow to finish.