Rookie call… BAD call!!!

I can’t believe that coach Jim Caldwell pulled Peyton Manning and the other Colts starters from the game in the THIRD quarter of today’s game against the Jets.  What the hell coach???!!! 

Has nobody learned ANYTHING from all the years the Colts would rest players and then proceed to LOSE in the Divisional Round of the playoffs?!

In the fierce rivalry that is the Colts-Patriots, the only thing BB&P (Belichick, Brady & Patriots) could not do was to run the table and go undefeated.  So why then, when it’s so close within their grasp, would the Colts NOT go for it?  Because you’re afraid Manning will get hurt?!   Oh please!  He’s Mr. Invincible who’s NEVER missed a single game in his career.  No, what I think it is, is a rookie call.  Don’t risk the players because IF they do get injured then you’d never be forgiven.

This is reminiscent of the Prevent Defense.  Like I always say, when you please not to lose the game, you’ll end up not winning the game… At least BB&P had the guts to go for glory…

I could forgive a coach for going for it and getting a player injured.  That’s the risk you run.  If the Colts end up NOT winning the Super Bowl this year, it would be hard to forgive the coach for giving up such a golden, once in a lifetime opportunity…  

Cheers
C

How do I? – Ensure IIS 6 has Integrated Security turned on for Anonymous access to my SharePoint site

1. Start IIS Manager.
2. Expand “Web Sites” until the web app of your site is visible.
3. Right click the web app and select “Properties” on the dropdown menu.
4. Select the “Directory Security” tab.
5. Under the “Authentication and access control” section, click the “Edit” button.
6. Check the “Enable anonymous access” check box is checked.
7. Check the “Integrated Windows authentication” check box.
8. Ensure all other check boxes are unchecked.
9. Click “OK” twice.

That should be it.  You may need to restart IIS if caching is delivering the same results as before the change.

Cheers
C

How ‘bout dem Cowboys?!

OK Tony Dungee, I have a world of respect for you, but when you said on Sunday “The Cowboys don’t have ANY hope of beating the Saints.”, you should have known you were making a dangerous statement.  That’s the same thing they said about the Patriots against the Rams in the 2001 Super Bowl.  Nothing fires up a team like being discarded.  So dear Mr. Dungee, with love and respect… EAT YOUR WORDS!!! 

Cheers
C

SharePoint Saturday Indianapolis

Mark your calendars!  We’ve finally managed to pull this one together for the local Indianapolis SharePoint community.

When:  Saturday Jan 30th, 2010  (08h30-18h00)

Where:  7435 North Keystone Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46240 @ Gene B. Glick Junior Achievement Center What:  SharePoint 2007 & 2010 More:  http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/indy/default.aspx

Be there or be square!  (Boy I just showed my age! LOL    )

Cheers
C

Dream car

Oh my goodness!  Have you seen the new e-Wolf e-2 electric sports car?!  Holy moly!  This thing is SUPER impressive.  It’s 4 wheel drive, kicks out 200 kW power and over 1,000 Nm torque and it’s light sub 1,980 lbs weight means that it gets from 0-60 mph in under 3 seconds! 

It sustains a similar pace as it blasts up to 125 mph in less than 7 seconds!  It tops out around 155 mph, but I think that’s because of a governed top speed more than anything.  Now if I had one, I’d surely hack that governor… just to see how fast it would actually go! 

Of course all electric cars have to be charged every so often, but this one charges up in under 1/2 hour and runs for 250 miles.  Not bad for an electric.

Cheers
C

My Monster VI laptop

With the coming of SharePoint 2010, I’ve had to consider my options on my old laptop.  I had an IBM Thinkpad T-60which had served me very well.  The only problem is that its 32 bit CPU won’t run SharePoint 2010 which is coming in all 64 bit format next year.  So in order to be able to deal with my VMs, I would have to upgrade.

I looked at all my options and wanted to get a new laptop that had enough iron to run all my VMs and more.  Since the latest Paradox Interactive release, Hearts of Iron III, was coming (I love that game!) and it had a hefty hardware, especially graphics, requirement, I decided to get a total monster laptop that would could handle everything I threw at it.  A desktop replacement or luggable to be sure.  I didn’t care.  I wanted the power.

I investigated all the options and even considered buying an Apple Macbook Pro for the job.  In the end there were three options I had to decide between.  A Dell XPS, an Apple Macbook Pro and an Alienware machine.  OK, I admit, the Alienware laptop wasn’t really realistic, but while you’re looking, you may as well dream, right? 

Of course price always plays into the equation so the Alienware laptop was eliminated right off the bat.  I wasn’t really ready to make a switch to Apple hardware because of the premium they put on their name.  The same hardware as the Dell, would end up being almost $1,000.00 more expensive!   I never quite understood that.  Still don’t.  Nevertheless, as I was getting ready to order the Dell, it occurred to me to check one more thing.  Back in 2002, I ordered a powerful off brand laptop (Sager) from a little company called Powernotebooks.com.  Even today it was a decent machine and back then it was top of the line.  It had a 2.4 GHz CPU with 1 GB of RAM and 128 MB of dedicated video.  It served me very well, only recently dying on me in the form of the power supply finally giving out.  I wasn’t sure if Donald Stratton (CEO) and his crew was still in business, but I decided to give it a try.  Imagine my delight when I found they were still booming along.  I customized a Sager with Intel i7 quad core processor and 6 GB of RAM (capable of holding 12, but again, cost of the top memory was just not justifiable) as well as 1 GB of dedicated video.  This monster would do it all!  The cost came in almost $1,000.00 cheaper than the XPS from Dell so I took the plunge and bought the monster Sager laptop. 

I’ve had it for a couple of months now and I absolutely LOVE this machine!  It was expensive for sure, but it’ll serve me well for many years to come… and the power supply even doubles up as a personal foot heater in winter!  

I’ve been so happy and so impressed with the guys at powernotebooks.com, that I happily recommend them to anyone in the market for some powerful portable hardware.

Cheers
C

Why passing SPBasePermissions.FullMask to SPContext.Current.Web.DoesUserHavePermissions() instead of SPBasePermissions.ManageWeb when you’re trying to determine if a user is a SPWeb administrator, is a bad idea…

OK, so the title of this post could also have been “Best Practices for Determining if a User is a SPWeb Administrator”, but then the search engines wouldn’t catch the post for all those unfortunate enough to be searching for FullMask or DoesUserHavePermissions() in the future.  The Problem OK, OK, in all seriousness though.  There are a lot of content out there that recommend that people simply useSPContext.Current.Web.DoesUserHavePermissions(SPBasePermissions.FullMask) when trying to determine if the current user has Administrator rights to the current web site (SPWeb).  This is all good and well, but it assumed that you have NEVER customized your web application available permissions list i.e. your effective base permissions.  So what’s the problem, you may be wondering… The problem is in the way SharePoint behaves when you do indeed customize your permissions for the web app.  If you dive into SharePoint Central Administration under Central Administration > Application Management > Permissions for Web Application you will find all the SharePoint base permissions and the ability to turn any one of these permissions off by simply unchecking it’s checkbox and then clicking the OK button… all except for one… FullMask.  If you were to uncheck say UseClientIntegration (in order to disable desktop apps such as Office or SPD from editing content directly on the server) and then save that state, SharePoint will do two things.

1. It will remove the UseClientIntegration bit flag from the permissions bit mask and
2. because total full control is no longer possible for the web app, it will also remove the FullMask bit flag from the mask.

That’s all fine and dandy until you go and add the permissions back again.  If you now recheck the UseClientIntegration checkbox and clicked OK, you’d expect SharePoint to add the bit flag back to the permissions mask again and it does do that, but for the UseClientIntegration flag only.  If you’re expecting it to also reset the FullMask flag, you’ll be disappointed.   This appears, at least in my mind, to be a bug in the SharePoint core code.  Yes, yes, I know it’s most probably “working as designed” or “behaving as intended”   , but in my mind the absence of any UI way to reset the FullMask flag, as well as the sparse documentation surrounding it, this just feels like a bug and not an intended feature.  So to be clear… SharePoint does not reset the FullMask security bit once permissions on the web app was customized! Now as far as SharePoint UI and everything else an end user sees is concerned, everything is working perfectly as per usual with no ill effects.  It’s only when you drop into the world of the SharePoint developer that things can become hairy.  In case you were wondering, here’s the base permissions bit mask as returned when the FullMask bit is set:7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF And once customized, even with all permissions enabled again, the bit mask returns rather as a union of all aggregated permissions and looks like this: 400001F07FFF1BFF If a SharePoint developer used the DoesUserHavePermissions() method and passed the FullMask flag to it in hopes of identifying an admin user, the method will always return False because the FullMask bit is never reset again.  So using SPContext.Current.Web.DoesUserHavePermissions(SPBasePermissions.FullMask)simply isn’t reliable for admin checking in code.  Fortunately, the failure occurs on the safe side i.e. it is reporting an Admin to simply not be an Admin rather than reporting a User to be an Admin so most probably your app doesn’t break, but is simply not quite working as expected. The Solution So then, you ask, what exactly would be the best practice for determining if the current user is an admin? You may be tempted to use code like this((ISecurableObject)SPContext.Current.Web).DoesUserHavePermissions((SPBasePermissions)Microsoft.SharePoint.SPPermissionGroup.WebDesigner))and then use SPPermissionGroup.Administrator as the target, but since the value of Administrator in this case is –1 and the DoesUserHavePermissions() method is looking for aulong value, it will epically fail on you, even if you were to “duck punch” it with up/down casts like (SPBasePermissions)(Object)… Rather, the proper way to check if a user has admin rights to the current SPWeb, regardless of source (web, site collection or CA policy), is as follows:((ISecurableObject)SPContext.Current.Web).DoesUserHavePermissions(SPBasePermissions.ManageWeb)By checking if the user has the ManageWeb security bit set, you will always get the proper result back.  Using FullMask is akin to trying to remove a wart with a canon.  ManageWeb is more like a scalpel. OK, I broke it.  Now what? If you’re in the boat where you’ve already “broken” the FullMask bit, don’t despair.  There is indeed hope.  Luckily some smart people like MOSS MVP Gary LaPointe, have struggled with this problem before and have created clever workarounds for this. To reset the FullMask security bit, you can use the following code courtesy of Gary:

SPWebApplication wa = SPWebApplication.Lookup(new Uri(url)); 
wa.RightsMask = wa.RightsMask | SPBasePermissions.FullMask;
wa.Update()

If you’re adventurous, you can go ahead and write an app or even your own STSADM extension for that, but if you’re like me, you’ll be happy to know that Gary already did that!  Simply go and get his MOSS or WSS extension methods for STSADM package from his Download Page.  It comes all nicely packaged in a .wsp ready for deployment into your SharePoint environment.  The STSADM operation you need is: gl-enableuserpermissionforwebapp and the proper syntax for it is as follows: stsadm -o gl-enableuserpermissionforwebapp -fullmask -url http://YourWebAppURL So there you go.  The best practice for determining if a user is an administrator for a site and a way to fix it if your code is using FullMask and broke because someone played with permissions. Enjoy…

Cheers
C

Faith in humanity

Over the past week I’ve had two things happen to me that could have been catastrophic, but as it turned out, our humanity is still strong even though we’re so rushed that we don’t always take time to show it.

First I left Boston last week on Thursday and I was so rushed that I forgot to pack my two external hard drives.  Instead, I left them on the desk in my room at the Marriott Courtyard.  I did not realize what had happened until Saturday night and when I called the hotel, they told me that I had to call the “Lost and Found” department the next morning at 9 AM.  At 9:00 AM I made the call and was overjoyed when I was told that they had found my drives and I could pick them up that Sunday when I check back in.

Then yesterday, I left my iPhone on the counter in the restroom when I was washing my hands.  I was distraught over the loss, but was very happy this morning when it turned out someone had found it and had turned it into the gym trainer yesterday.

Both cases could have been a disaster, but humanity prevailed!  THANK YOU!!!

Cheers
C

Step-by-Step-Installing-SharePoint-Server-2010-Enterprise-Beta-1-on-Windows-Server-2008-R2-Enterprise

As you know, the SharePoint 2010 Beta bits dropped today.  So now the question is… what’s next?  If you’re a SharePoint Cowboy you’ve probably already downloaded the bits and fired them up in a TEST environment.  You DID do it in TEST, right? 

Anyway, so if you’re a cowboy, this post is probably not for you.  If on the other hand, you want some guidance, then read on!

---

1. NOTE:  This installation assumes another SQL Server installation on the current server or another server, to be used for the installation.  After downloading the Beta bits, locate the install file.  On my VM it was named “en_office_sharepoint_server_2010_beta_x64_x16-19249.exe”.  Double click the EXE to start the installation.
2.  
3. SharePoint will begin the extraction of files.
4. 
5. Once the files are extracted, SharePoint will present you with the install screen.
6. 
7. Once you’ve done some reading in the “Prepare” section, proceed and click the “Install software prerequisites” link in the “Install” section and SharePoint will present you with the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2010 Preparation Tool.
8. 
9. When you click “Next”, SharePoint will present you with the standard EULA.  Read the EULA and then check the “I accept the terms of the License Agreement(s)” checkbox to enable the Next button.
10. 
11. Once you click the “Next” button, SharePoint will proceed with installing the prerequisites.
12. 
13. Once the prerequisites have been installed, you should see the “Installation Complete” window.
14. 
15. Click the “Finish” button and then click the “Install SharePoint Server” link in the Install section.  SharePoint will present you with the Product Key screen.
16. 
17. Enter the product key that you got from MSDN and then click “Continue”.  SharePoint will present you with the Software License screen.
18. 
19. Once you agree with the license terms, click the “I accept the terms of this agreement” checkbox and then click “Continue”.  SharePoint will present you with the Installation Type Choice screen.
20. 
21. Click “Server Farm”.  SharePoint will present you with the Server Type screen.
22. On the Server Type tab, Select “Complete”.
23. 
24. On the File Location tab, you can select alternative installation locations before clicking “Install Now”.
25. 
26. After clicking “Install Now”, SharePoint will proceed to conduct the installation.
27.  
28. Once complete, you’ll be presented with the Run Configuration Wizard screen.  If you wish to run the Config Wizard right away, leave the checkbox checked.  If not, simply uncheck the checkbox.  Finally, click “Close”.  The configuration steps will be the topic of my next post.
29. 

Cheers
C

WOW! What a game!

There are no words to describe the excitement of last night’s Colts/Patriots game other than SPECTACULAR and THRILLING!  WOW!

35 34

Though he’s being criticized for going for it on 4th & 2 @ the Patriots 30 yard line, I would put Belichick’s decision in the same league as coaches in years past scoring the TD at the end of the game and then going for 2 to get the win rather than risk overtime on a coin toss.
When it works, you’re a genius… when it doesn’t, you’re a dog… 
If it had worked, the talking heads would have been hailing Belichick as a genius!  I think the timeout management was more of a problem.  That doesn’t take any guts… just organization… and the lack of timeouts resulted in the 4th down play not being reviewable.

Anyway, a fantastic come from behind win by the Colts… again!

As always, the Colts-Patriots game was the game of the year!

Cheers
C

Come and get it! SharePoint 2010 Beta bits available now!

OK, if you’ve been patiently waiting since SPC09 for the SharePoint 2010 beta bits to drop, then happiness abounds because it’s available right now from TechNet and MSDN.https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/securedownloads/default.aspx?pv=42:393https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/securedownloads/default.aspx?pv=42:393 Enjoy!

Cheers
C

FAST Search docs for SharePoint 2010 beta released

As we’re all holding our breath in anticipation of the SharePoint 2010 Beta release, Microsoft is releasing fringe documentation in preparation for the big moment. The latest is the FAST Search documentation that was released yesterday. As we know, Microsoft bought FAST Search and the future of FAST and SharePoint is intertwined. There’s even docs on Powershell. So here we go…FAST Search Server deployment and configuration (Beta) FAST Search Server Cmdlets Overview (Beta) Planning and Architecture for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta) FAST Search Server for SharePoint PowerShell Cmdlet Help (Beta) Monitoring for FAST Search Server As a bonus, there’s also the latest version of the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocol Documentation. Happy reading everyone!

Cheers
C

Coming soon… my REAL WORLD Migration Guide for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Migrations!

In the 2007 cycle of SharePoint, I released a comprehensive guide to upgrading from 2003 to 2007 because all the upgrade guides I could find were simply using default installs for upgrades. That never reflects the real world scenario and complexities, so I created my upgrade guide. It was very popular and I received many appreciative comments on the post. Well, fear not, for I will be doing the same thing again for the 2010 cycle. I’m currently working on the post and will publish it soon. Initially it will be for migration to Beta 2, but I’ll update it as needed for RC and RTM, so stay tuned!

Cheers
C

An avalanche of SharePoint 2010 content dropped today…

Well, rather than posting each one separately, I’ll just post this rollup post.  Come and get it!

SP2010 Developer Platform White Paper

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=5184cb27-98d9-4cc0-bb0b-4b24d5b62db6

SP2010 Developer Platform Wall Poster

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=04ba41fd-f088-4d7c-a86e-3855c16e23a2

SP2010 Getting Started with Development – Hands On Labs

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c010fc68-b47f-4db6-b8a8-ad4ba33a35c5

SP2010 Developer & ITPro Learning Guide

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ac9a3851-c298-4f4f-b7f0-63d756d2bde9

SP2010 Developer Walkthroughs

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=cffb14e8-88a9-43bd-87aa-4792ab60d320

Cheers
C

Topologies for SharePoint Server 2010

Get your topologies poster in Visio, PDF and XPS format here:

• http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=fd686cbb-8401-4f25-b65e-3ce7aa7dbeab

Cheers
C

How do I turn on Content Approval for a SharePoint list

I received a question about this in the Support Forums today, so I decided to jot down the steps quickly for future seekers of knowledge…

To turn on Content Approval, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the list for which Content Approval is to be turned on.
2. Click “Settings” next to the “Actions” menu.  If you do NOT see “Settings”, it means you are not an Administrator of that list.  You must have Administrative rights over the list to be able to do this.
3. On the dropdown menu for “Settings”, click “List Settings”.
4. On the List Settings page, under General Settings, click the “Version Settings” link.
5. On the Version Settings page, set the “Require content approval for submitted items” option to “Yes” and click the “OK” button.

That’s it!  Enjoy…

Cheers
C

Can’t wait for SPC09!

Well, we’re in the final week countdown to SPC09 and I can’t wait! It’s going to be THE biggest SharePoint event in history and we’ll be able to openly talk about SharePoint 2010 after that. Thank goodness!

Some cool stuff coming so stay tuned…



Cheers
C

Just got spammed again…

This message is for the person out there that loves to spam my blog with links for cheap medications… Thank you so much for your spam attempt… my readers won’t ever see it because content approval is turned on for my blog, so you might as well give up. Oh yes, it used to be a major pain to manage the comments list after you would spam me, but I solved that by writing my own little tool too so… just give it up already!

Cheers
C

Tired of clicking on Zynga’s Farmville on Facebook?

Well, this should solve your problem then.  I got roped into Farmville by my fiance and didn’t want to spend the time doing mundane things like clicking on farm tiles over and over and over again to harvest, plough and plant each time.  What to do, what to do?

 

I looked around for an auto player script, but since the game is Flash based, no script could identify any elements to click on.

Sure there were a couple of macro players out there, but they all require that you install the macro software and more importantly, they required that your farm be setup in a specific way which made it hard to use.

 

As an old C developer, I knew it wasn’t that hard to simulate simple mouse click, so I cracked open Visual Studio 2008 and wrote a quick C# app to do just what I needed.

 

The app is pretty simple.  You train it where to click.  This takes the longest time, but only needs to be done once.  From then on, you just load your farm and fire off the Auto Clicker. 

 

Here’s my Youtube video showing how it works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0Prpv45G50

 

Download the App here:

http://www.cjvandyk.com/blog/Downloads/CsFarmvilleAutoPlayer.exe.REMOVETHIS

 

Once you’ve downloaded it, remove the .REMOVETHIS extension from the file name so that the app would be an .exe app.

No, there’s no virusses or trojans or anything in there.  Scan it with anything you wish to be sure.

Anyway, enjoy!

 

Cheers
C

Can’t wait to stretch the legs on my new NetAdvantage controls!

OK, so the MVP 3rd Party Offers program has been very good to me over the years and I’ve committed to doing some reviews of the products that I use.  The latest in my long list of products that I’m excited about trying is the NetAdvantage controls from Infragistics.

These guys have a great video library over on their community site that shows many how to’s and features of the products.  Go take a peek for yourself here:

 

• http://community.infragistics.com/aspnet/media/default.aspx

 

I want to thank Jason Beres and the crew over at Infragistics for participating in the MVP 3rd Party Offers program.  Look for my review of the NetAdvantage controls in the near future.

 

Cheers
C

SPC2009 is coming! I’ll be there… how about you?

Yes indeed my friends, the SharePoint Conference 2009 is coming quickly!  Hosted in Las Vegas, NV from 19-22 Oct 2009, it’s going to awesome!

I will be there…l how about you?

Check out the session sneak peak…

• http://www.mssharepointconference.com/pages/SessionSneakPeak.aspx

Cheers
C

Column limits for SharePoint lists

<<<WSS 2.0 / SPS 2003 ONLY>>>

FYI, there are limits to the number of columns you can create in a SharePoint list.  See http://support.microsoft.com/?id=823555

Cheers
C

I’m super Xcited about Xceed Datagrid for WPF 3.5

OK, so the title of this post is a bit of a pun on the Xceed component, but nevertheless, I’m really excited about the possibilities of this component for some of the tools I’m building.  Just look at this silent demo to see for yourself:

 

 

I want to thank the crew over at Xceed for participating in the MVP 3rd Party Offers program.  Look for my review of the Xceed component in the near future.

 

Cheers
C

SharePoint Event Receivers ListTemplateId Values

If, like me, you write custom event receivers against SharePoint lists on a regular basis, then you no doubt have had a run in with trying to locate the proper ListTemplateId value to use in your Elements.xml in order to properly register your new event receiver.

Anyway, if you dig deep enough through the WSS 3.0 SDK, you’ll find it in the “General Reference/Features and Templates/Working with Features/Feature Schemas/Event Registrations/Receivers Element” section… or you could just click here: 

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms431081.aspx

Anyway, I’m always digging for this one, so I thought’s I’d just put it out on my blog for quick future reference for anyone (including myself) looking for it!

Cheers
C

Apple’s betrayal

Boy, I can’t wait for the SharePoint Conference so I can start talking about SharePoint 2010!  Until then we’re all under very strict NDA.  In the mean time, I feel like a complainer, blogging about stuff that gets me irate.

Thankfully, I did NOT upgrade my iPhone to OS 3.1 today.  I was a little shocked after reading this article.  Even the mighty Apple can stumble.

I wonder how the Mac/PC commercial would look that tries to explain that one! 

Cheers
C

Gmail on Google Apps down… again…

Well, maybe it’s just me, but my Google Apps email is down for all of my domains. Standard Gmail still appears to work, but Apps Gmail went down around 4 PM EST and hasn’t been seen since. Sigh…

Cheers
C

Spelling anyone?

fi yuo cna
raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe
out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht
I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod
are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Windows 7 on MSDN!!!

Well, I thought I got a drop on everyone when I started downloading Windows 7 RTM from MSDN and got 200 KB/sec download rate, but I should have known that wasn’t going to last.  Right now the estimates are that my download will finish in about 10 hours.  LOL

Cheers
C

Phew! What a struggle THAT was…

Well, if you’re a regular subscriber to this blog, you would have noticed the blog went dark for about a week.  My appologies for that.  There are still parts of the blog, like SPCAP, that I’m working on restoring to full functionality, but I had to make a shift of my blog site last week.  As you know, my blog is hosted by SharePoint, well, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to be exact. 

 

As part of the pre-Beta program, MVPs got access to the SharePoint 2010 bits last week.  DON’T ASK!  You know I can’t tell you!  I’m under NDA remember.  All will be revealed at the SharePoint Conference 2009 in Vegas, October 19-22.

 

In order get knee deep in 2010, I had to stand up a server on my local private network.  I wanted to go 64 bit all the way, but my 64 bit server was the one hosting my blog.  That left me the task of virtualizing my blog onto VM hosted on the 64 bit server.  In addition, I wanted to stretch the legs on the new Windows Server 2008 R2 X64 RC before the final RTM bits are available next week and didn’t want to have to redo the blog server again so virtualization was the best option.

 

Since my server is older, it didn’t support Hyper-V in R2 so I had to choose a different option.  I went with Virtual PC 2007 which, though it wasn’t officially supported on R2, worked very smoothly… once the VM Additions were installed!

 

That’s when the problems started.  I first built the VM and waited patiently as all the security updates were done.  That takes forever!  Then I installed WSS 3.0 with SP2 choosing to simply use the Windows Internal Database.  I know, I know.  I should use SQL Server instead, but my blog backup being only 350 MB and lightweight, I figured it would be OK.  Murphey’s Law… it wasn’t… 

When restoring my blog STSADM backup, I ran into some cryptic security issues which pointed to database permissions for the current account.  Since I was logged on as Admin, it was a problem.  If the Admin don’t have access, there’s a problem.  So I messed with that for a while and of course since I decided against using Undo Disks, I had to rebuild the VM from scratch again… waiting for the security updates etc. again…  Long story…

So then I rebuilt the VM.  This time, after fully updating the VM and just before installing anything else, I shut down the VM and switched on Undo Disks.  I then installed a 180 day trial version of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise which should get me past the SharePoint Conference at which point I can upgrade the blog to 2010 code.  Anyway, installedWSS 3.0 with SP2 and restored my blog backup with STSADM… held my breath as I pointed my browser to my blog URL from my laptop… TADA!  We’re back in business!  Now I can continue to submerge myself in SharePoint 2010 while my blog is hosted by the VM on 2007 code.  

 

Now I can’t wait for Windows 7 RTM on MSDN!!!  Wanna really give the Windows 7 / Office 2010 front end with Windows Server 2008 R2 / SharePoint 2010 back end a good shake out!  I’m lining up several posts about 2010 which will go live after the SharePoint conference.  Most importantly, I’ll be providing another upgrade/migrate Step-by-Step guide again.  Last version’s guide was a smashing success and I’ve had hundreds of people email me and thank me for the guide.  Thanks to everyone who did that.  It’s always good to know that the time spent putting such guides together is beneficial to the SharePoint Community at large!

 

Anyway, stay tuned for some MAJOR upcoming news related to 2010… NO… I won’t be breaking my NDA, but you’re going to LOVE what I have in the pipeline… 

 

Cheers
C

Using Workflow in SharePoint?

If you’re using Windows Workflow Foundation in SharePoint today, you may wish to stay up to date with what’s coming in the .NET Framework 4.0 and WF4. Latest docs available for download here:https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=bd94c260-b5e0-4d12-93ec-53567505e685

Cheers
C

Exciting new downloads

The Windows Server 2008 R2 Developer Resource Kit is now available for download here:https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c48b3eb4-ad4b-461c-9d5a-25f45d949b92

Also available now is the Expression Studio 3 Trial. I have to think that since the trial download is available, it should (have not yet) RTM on MSDN Downloads any day now.

Anyway, it’s available for download here: https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=7e2f033b-c6b5-4565-93a5-a6048246ce28 

Cheers
C

SharePoint 2010 developer docs now available!

Today, on the first day of Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC09) in New Orleans, LA, some exciting things are happening.

1. SharePoint 2010 Products and Technologies developer documentation dropped and is available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=94afe886-3b20-4bc9-9a0d-acd8cd232c24
2. SharePoint 2010 sneak peaks are now available here:http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx
3. Some info coming out of WPC09: http://officesharepointpro.com/Articles/tabid/149/nodeid/1982/The-Curtain-Rises-(Just-a-Bit)-on-SharePoint-2010.aspx
4. It is rumored that Microsoft will be announcing Windows 7 RTM tomorrow at the WPC09.  Let’s hope that’s the case! http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Windows_7_Build_7600_Rumored_as_RTM/551-104291-580.html

Cheers
C