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September 2007 - David Overton's Blog
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  • What to do when you get the error "This modification is not allowed because the selection is locked" in Word 2007

    I was contacted by Gerald who had this problem and after a bit of research I found the answer. The text explaining how to do this can be found at http://www.word07.com/locking.htm , however to explain a bit more, here are a few pictures and words. The problem arises when you "group" some text in the developer tab, so the answer is to ungroup it. 1st off, ensure the developer tab is showing by going to the file (round pearl menu button in the top left corner) and selecting the button on the bottom of the menu called "Word Options". This will bring you up a screen as below Now ensure the developer toolbar is enabled with a tick as in the picture Go to the document and find the text that you can't modify Ensure the developer toolbar is displayed and click in the document where the text is and then press the Group button in the toolbar and press the Ungroup option as below That is it - you should now be able to modify the text without any problems. If this does not solve your problem, please...

  • An amazing deal for UK Students to get Office 2007 ULTIMATE for £39 to own or £13 per year to "rent it" - tell them all about it!

    This offer is called "The Ultimate Steal" and I have to say I can see why. Microsoft is now offering Office 2007 to university students for the sort of price that would normally suggest this was a con or stolen software, although as Steve Clayton has already verified, it is real . The Offer is simple "Get Microsoft® Office Ultimate 2007 for just £38.95 to own or £12.95 to use for one year" As I said this is only open for people in education, but if you go to The Ultimate Steal presented by Microsoft you can get lots more info. A summary, but not complete, eligibility requirements are: You must hold a valid email address at a U.K. educational institution ending in .ac.uk (for example, [email protected]) Be actively enrolled with at least 0.5 course load. You must be able to provide proof of enrollment status (ie, student card) upon request by Microsoft. If you are unable to provide proof of enrollment, you will be required to pay the full retail price of Office Ultimate 2007 (approximate...

  • Windows Home Server is coming ... What can it do?

    Unless you have been living under a stone it is probable that you know that Windows Home Server is coming to a shop near you very soon. Home Server is priced very keenly and offers a number of great facilities, but also has some restrictions on it. So, what does Home Server do: Centralised Unlimited Storage Sharing via folders, a web site that can be accesses from any internet connection, with PCs, game consoles and more Protection against failure of your connect PCs, your precious data (photos etc) any disk including the system disk in the home server and against unpatched PCs A platform for add-ins That is it - it is a great file and media home server that has amazing remote access and backup capability. It is still a Windows Server, built by the same team that deliver SBS, but it has some restrictions: It is not designed to be a Domain Controller It is often sold by OEMs as a headless (no monitor or keyboard to set it up) device with no requirement to ever use a keyboard or mouse Some server software might...
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  • Replying to Vijay's "Who understands Microsoft Licensing?" blog - why I think he is right and wrong

    Nothing like a blog entry on licensing to stir the people into action. Vijay posted a "small" post - Who understands Microsoft Licensing? . I'm now going to respond to both the main blog post and also some of the comments. I highly recommend you read the entry, the comments (some are included below, also for comment) and the linked blogs, especially the entry by Adam at Sorting out the complexity of Microsoft Volume Licensing as well as the others My conclusion to this question is that hardly anyone understands Microsoft Licensing. I’ve been to quite a few Microsoft Partner events and when the above question above is asked there is usually a very low number of businesses who say they understand it. This feedback is given time and time again but nothing really changes. The solution isn’t explaining it over and over again or writing Licensing Reseller Handbooks. If you can't explain something to a customer in a very succint way, then it’s just a waste of time and if as an organisation you have...

  • The Open XML Vote (OOXML) and why I hate politics

    This is a rant and it is my opinion and does not reflect that of Microsoft or others - It is my Opinion! From 1992 to 1995 I had to write document converters - I had to pick apart binary file formats and translate them to another format. It was hard work and I JUST WISHED people would create a largely encompassing standard for documents that was documented so I did not have to do all the work myself. Role forward to today, Office is still the prominent document format (which is now documented on http://msdn.microsoft.com ), but there is a new kid in town that encompass everything that an Office document is and more. This is the Open XML document format. People have cried for years that they wanted the Office Document standard to become more than a defacto standard, they wanted it to become a format an open standard. It was always going to be large, but to cover all the features and functions available in Office, it would have to be. There is no point in the standard being something different to that used in Office...

  • Finding out where something is in Office 2007 and where it was in Office 2003 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access)

    I saw this recently and thought I had to blog it - if you know something was there in Office 2003 and now can't find it in Office 2007 then look at these spreadsheets to get some advice. The 1st set of links (ms-help:) will work on a machine with Office 2007 installed and the 2nd set pull the data from the Microsoft Office web site. From the installed help files Outlook ms-help://MS.RIBBON.12.1033/RIBBON/outlookmap.xls Word ms-help://MS.RIBBON.12.1033/RIBBON/wordmap.xls Excel ms-help://MS.RIBBON.12.1033/RIBBON/excelmap.xls PowerPoint ms-help://MS.RIBBON.12.1033/RIBBON/powerpointmap.xls Access ms-help://MS.RIBBON.12.1033/RIBBON/accessmap.xls From the Internet Outlook http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101954661033&CTT=5&Origin=HA101934281033 Word http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101938681033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100625841033 Excel http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=AM101864291033&CTT=5&Origin=HA100860481033 PowerPoint http://office...

  • New Windows Live suite live - and this is how to install on Windows x64

    I am sure many of you have seen that we launched a new wave of the Live suite (Windows Live Writer - which I am using right now, Messenger, Sign-in Assistant, Family Safety, Mail, Toolbar and Photo Gallery - which also uploaded videos to MSN Soapbox). If you want to more about these cool product, go to http://get.live.com/wl/all where it tells you that this is what you get: Connect Hotmail: Next-generation e-mail on the Web Mail: Multiple e-mail accounts on your desktop Messenger: Connect, share, and make every conversation count Find Search: Say hello to the next generation of search Toolbar: Think outside the search box Gallery: Personalize your Windows Live experience Share Spaces: Your blog, your photos, your social network SkyDrive: Password-protected online storage and sharing Photo Gallery: Edit and share photos and videos Writer: Easily publish pictures, videos, and other rich content to your blog Protect OneCare Family Safety: Help keep your kids safe online Get it together Windows Live Home: Start here...

  • More on Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)

    Having been on holiday, I did not look too far before posting my blog post on Vista SP1. Then while reading other peoples blog I discovered that there was some more excellent information out there. As always Susanne has published her communication which I am sure will be updated as more relevant information for small business partners becomes apparent. Kevin has a link to the TechNet site for SP1 on his blog . Finally a HUGE amount of information is shared on the Vista Blog and this Vista Blog entry . Some are a little upset that the GPMC is disappearing, but I've never used it on Vista, so let me know if you care one way or the other. Finally, I got my invite on Connect to sign-up for SP1, so I will let you know more as I load it and am able to share. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Vista , SP1 , Service Pack 1

  • Adding Exchange 2007 to an SBS 2003 / Exchange 2003 network

    This question has come up lots of times and the general statement is that it is not trivial. In fact the normal question is can Exchange 2007 be run on an SBS 2003 box. The answer to this is a resounding NO. Exchange 2007 is 64-bit and SBS 2003 is 32-bit and never the twain shall meet. The closest you can get is installing a Windows Server 2003 64-bit system and putting Exchange on it. You will have to buy a Windows Server license, Exchange 2007 license and CALs for each client that uses it. (note if you want Outlook Voice Access then you need Enterprise CALs even if you are only installing Exchange 2007 Standard edition). Once this is done you need to decide if you are going to keep your Exchange 2003 box or forward ports to the new system. If you are keeping both then you also need to be aware of (note this comes from an e-mail from Karan in our support team and should not be considered complete, but a pointer in the right direction): Please note that Exchange 2007 would appear in a different administrative...

  • If you want to deploy Exchange 2007 with SBS 2003, how do you remove the Exchange component?

    I posted the other day on adding Exchange 2007 to an SBS 2003 environment , but for some, there is also the desire on how to remove the Exchange component on SBS 2003. Obviously there are the install / uninstall options from the SBS setup screens that can be accessed through add/remove programs, however because SBS has the 1st Exchange server in a group you need to go a bit further. More information can be found on how to remove the first server via http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;822931 which discusses "How to remove the first Exchange Server 2003 computer from the administrative group". In this KB article it tells you how to: Replicate all public folders to another server Rehome the Offline Address Book folder Change the server that is responsible for generating the Offline Address List Rehome the Schedule+ Free Busy folder Rehome the Organization Forms folder Rehome the Recipient Update Service (RUS) Designate another server to be the routing group master Create another Site...

  • Bad anniversary - 25 years of viruses and malware

    According to the article at MSNBC, 25 years ago a 9th grader let loose a virus on his friends because they didn't like his practical jokes. It was the 1st wild boot sector virus and started a whole industry of security watching. The whole article is worth reading as it discusses the whole business and how it has moved from people wanting to be discovered as the malware was originally designed for notoriety, while now it is more for stealing cash or launching attacks and the writers would rather remain unknown. School prank starts 25 years of security woes First person to ever let loose a personal computer virus was a ninth grader Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Rich Skrenta poses for a portrait in front of his first personal computer, the Apple II Plus, at home in San Carlos, Calif. Skrenta set loose the first computer virus in 1982 — when he was in ninth grade. NEW YORK - What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta...
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  • MSDN free events for September 2007 (.Net 3.0 & 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008)

    I just saw these in my inbox (post holiday processing) and thought I would pass them on. 19 September, Edinburgh : MSDN - Introduction to .NET Framework V3.0 (& sneak preview of v3.5 changes) 20 Sept 07, Bradford : Introduction to .Net Framework V3.0 (& sneak preview of v3.5 changes) 25 Sept 07, Reading : Building Dynamic Web Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 26 Sept 07, Birmingham : OVERVIEW OF VISUAL STUDIO 2008 AND .NET FRAMEWORK 3.5 27 Sept 07, Bristol : OVERVIEW OF VISUAL STUDIO 2008 AND .NET FRAMEWORK 3.5 ttfn David Technorati Tags: MSDN Events , .Net 3.0 , .Net 3.5 , Visual Studio 2008 , Developers
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  • VoIP and Unified Communications may be the future, but it has plenty of pitfalls for networks, phone systems and vendors alike

    In many ways I am a traditionalist. I wasn't the 1st to embrace the UC/VoIP and I have to admit that my personal commercial foray into this has so far left me turning off this technology as the sound quality was not there. Apparently my 20mb/768kb line is not good enough with my website on the same line :-( So that is me, but what about others. Information Week showed that network congestion is a growing problem - most of us don't carefully budget network traffic and while we are aware of "slow" internet connections etc, the impact on internal and external network connection is sometime something left to experimentation rather than science. A survey of 576 unified communications users found that 75% said one-quarter of their network traffic in the last three months consisted of UC applications like VoIP, unified messaging, and instant messaging. The survey was conducted by Network General Corp., which polled its worldwide customers. "The ramp-up in unified communications is already taking...

  • Updating to Windows Media Connector V2 and Windows Media Player 11 on Windows Home Server (not supported)

    I've seen a few people asking how to do things like add MP4 support, WM Connector V2 support or even just the media management features of Windows Media V11 to Home Server. Some 3rd party devices only support WM Connector V2 and some people want to do things like stream MP4 files to their Xbox 360. From two articles on the connect forum come the details: I've done some fiddling today and managed to get this working, albeit in a completely unsupported and at-your-own-risk way. Ready for some tinkering? After reading up on various workarounds online, here's what I did: To install Media Player 11: Download wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe Open this file in an extraction program such as WinZip or 7-Zip (I used 7-Zip ) Extract the wmfdist11.exe and wmp11.exe and place them in separate folders on the C: drive of your WHS (not on a share). (this step was adapted from instructions I was following elsewhere - I'm not certain of the separate folders requirement, but I did it anyway) From the WHS admin desktop...
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  • SQL Security and SQL on Vista / Windows Server 2008

    Security Tip of the Month: User Account Control and SQL Server http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7243604 By Devendra Tiwari, Microsoft SQL Server Product Team User Account Control (UAC), a new feature in Windows Vista that helps administrators manage their use of elevated privileges, affects Microsoft SQL Server in terms of connectivity (SQL Server login) and in limiting access to resources on the administrators' access control list (ACL). This article discusses the impact of UAC on SQL Server and presents tips on how to run SQL Server applications securely in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. SQL Server 2005 Security Overview for Database Administrators http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7243606 This paper covers some of the most important new security features in SQL Server 2005. It tells you how, as an administrator, you can install SQL Server securely and keep it that way even as applications and users make use of the data stored within. Security Considerations for SQL Server http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid...

  • SBSC members now able to sell Educational licenses once changes come in on 1st November

    Grumblings about this started on the Yahoo groups and a few people e-mailed me saying that they did not like the proposed changes coming in under the Authorised Education Reseller programme which required them to be a certified partner or above. After much time, but before the changes come in, we are delighted to be able to announce that being a SBSC partner will also qualify you. Below is the announcement that Jen has asked me to forward. Microsoft Authorised Education Reseller Announcement of UK Programme Changes Overview From November 1 2007 the renewal process for Authorised Education Resellers (AERs) will change. The main requirement, in order to sell academic FPP, Open and School Agreement licensing programmes, will be either ‘Certified’ or ‘Gold Certified’ status. However I have some great news, we have managed to ensure that SBSC partners will not be affected by this change and you do not have to be ‘Certified’ or ‘Gold Certified’ so the SBSC registered partner base can still benefit. Renewal Process From...

  • Will Halo 3 take over the world.... someone thinks so...

    http://www.loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/228 Made me smile :-) ttfn David Technorati Tags: Halo 3 , fun
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  • Licensing with Microsoft could be easier, but the need for everyone to make money and provide options is also key

    I saw Vijay's posting on MS licensing and I have to admit I was quite amazed. 1st off it was a huge rant, it seemed to fail to understand the basics of how businesses make money and finally there was not a good suggestion on how to make it better, except to remove the ways to pay. I will do a reply to the blog later, but first I thought I would offer some insight on licensing. Why does Microsoft sell licenses Microsoft uses licensing to get paid for our products. Customers buy the license if they see the value in the products. If the customer does not see the value, they would not buy. People who say Microsoft should give it away or reduce the price seem to not understand the basic economics of supply and demand - every business, while it may have many goals, ultimately has a responsibility to the investors and this is nearly always to make money. Even when I was treasurer for a charity we needed to make money - it was probably the biggest problem we had, followed by how we deliver the services the charity...

  • IIS7 Web casts

    Developing IIS7 web server features with the .NET framework This article, the first in the IIS7 .NET Developer series, focuses on getting started with developing IIS7 web server features based on the .NET Framework. Learn about the options you have for your development environment, how to set up your Visual S ... http://blogs.iis.net/mvolo/archive/2007/08/16/developing-iis7-web-server-features-with-the-net-framework.aspx IISSCHEMA.EXE - A tool to register IIS7 configuration sections IIS7 configuration extensibility allows you to create custom configuration sections that can be used side by side the IIS configuration sections. However, setting this up requires a few steps that may be difficult to accomplish, especially in a ... http://blogs.iis.net/mvolo/archive/2007/08/04/iisschema-exe-a-tool-to-register-iis7-configuration-sections.aspx ttfn David Technorati Tags: IIS7 , Webcasts , Windows Server 2008 , Longhorn

  • Securing ASP.Net applications

    Building Secure ASP.NET Applications: Data Access Security http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=7243611 This MSDN article presents recommendations and guidance that will help you develop a secure data access strategy. Topics covered include using Windows authentication from ASP.NET to the database, securing connection strings, storing credentials securely in a database, protecting against SQL injection attacks, and using database roles. just a short one :-) David
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  • Office Communicator 2007 - What's new, trial downloads, speech server

    Office Communicator 2007 What's New Guide This document covers the new features introduced in Office Communicator 2007 since the Office Communicator 2005 release. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=22&p=5&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=&u=%2fdownloads%2fdetails.aspx%3fFamilyID%3d39b9a6d4-5862-4a01-a2a6-ac193e77aed7%26DisplayLang%3den Momentum Webcast: A Sneak Peek at Microsoft Unified Communications (Level 100) Organizations today have multiple communications systems like e-mail, telephony, and instant messaging (IM). However, these communication systems often exist in silos and are rarely integrated into business processes and applications. As a result, these communication systems are ineffective and costly to deploy and manage. Microsoft Unified Communications (UC) technologies use the power of software to help streamline communications between people and organizations, regardless of the medium, platform, device, or location. Join us for this webcast and see...

  • SharePoint Webcasts and info for developers and implementers

    Announcing the Microsoft Business Data Catalog Definition Editor for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Summary The Business Data Catalog Definition Editor tool (or "BDC tool") is now available in the latest (August 2007) version of the downloadable MOSS 2007 SDK, which was just posted at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6d94e307-67d9-41ac-b2d6-0074d6286fa9&displaylang=en http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/08/22/announcing-the-microsoft-business-data-catalog-definition-editor-for-microsoft-office-sharepoint-server-2007.aspx Just Published: Major Update to the MOSS and WSS Downloadable SDKs [Cross-posted from Randall Isenhour's blog ] Hello SharePoint Developers! We are very proud to announce a major update to the MOSS and WSS Software Development Kit (SDK) downloads. http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/08/22/just-published-major-update-to-the-moss-and-wss-downloadable-sdks-8-22-2007.aspx Creating a Custom User Site Provisioning Solution with Microsoft...

  • Comically bad 24 hours in the Overton household ... how you know Monday was a bad day

    I just had to share with you the back end of my weekend and why it made Monday such a disaster. All was well on Sunday, I went sailing, then about 4pm my back decided to jump back into the land of extreme pain. OK, so 1 member of the household down. About 8pm Lizzy, my 1 year old, started throwing up... not good... and it carried on through the night. One rug in the bin, 5+ changes of night clothes for her and more. All with me unable to do much due to back pain and my wife phobic about people being sick. Two members of the household down. Next morning, we get some quality sleep from about 6am until about 7:30am when Molly, my eldest, tells us she is not feeling well and she has an upset tummy and a temperature. We decide that she is not faking it, so off from school for her and now food for a while. Three members down and one left standing. About 7pm Mel, my wife, goes to put something in the bin, trips over the rug and slips. "Ouch" she said (and a few more colourful words too), took off her rings...
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  • Do you want to write code for Windows Home Server? Do you want intellisense to make it easier?

    I came across this and thought I would share it. Microsoft have released the SDK for Windows Home Server, but you don't get intellisense with it. The SDK can be found at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa496121.aspx . HomeServerControls Documentation for Developers If intellisense, public classes and methods mean absolutely anything to you, then Brendan Grant is your man. Due to the lack of intellisense documentation, he has compiled an XML file and an accompanying help file explaining what some of the public classes and methods exposed by HomeServerControls do. More information and the downloads are on Brendan’s blog and also on the accompanying thread on the Windows Home Server forums. HomeServerControls Documentation for Developers « MS Windows Home Server ttfn David Technorati Tags: Developer , Windows Home Server , Intellisense

  • deFrag That Windows Home Server! « Ramblings of a Home Server User

    Data on disks needs defragging. This is an age old wise saying associated with PCs. Windows Home Server is no different, however traditional defrag tools will struggle with the disk layout of Windows Home Server. To this end, WHS specific tools are beginning to ship and Tom has provided some details on his blog. deFrag That Windows Home Server! Posted on September 21, 2007 by Tom Two new defragmentation products are hitting the market for Windows Home Server. 1. Raxco PerfectDisk 8.0 for Windows Home Server The Power of PerfectDisk PerfectDisk 8 for Windows Home Server brings the power of PerfectDisk 8 to the Windows Home Server environment. Complete single-pass disk defragmentation and optimization, along with PerfectDisk’s exclusive Space Restoration Technology’s free space consolidation are easily available to the Windows Home Server drives. Download Evaluation Edition | Purchase Diskeeper for Windows Home Server 2. Diskeeper 2008 for Windows Home Server Diskeeper 2007 for Windows Home Server will not be available...
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(c)David Overton 2006-23