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  • And another great thing about Windows Home Server - Vista gives instant searches on all files on the home server shares

    Someone asked today why Windows Home Server has the Windows Desktop Search tool on the box and the reply that came back I thought was worth of a blog entry. When you connect to a share on Windows Home Server (eg \\homeserver\music ) and do a search in the top right corner, then your Vista PC will search the WDS index and not the actual files, meaning that I can search by 400 albums for anything related to Disney in about 1/4 of a second :-) Nice! ttfn David Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server , Vista , Windows Desktop Search

  • Installing WSS v3 on a Member Server in an SBS Network

    I have spoken before about how to install WSS on the SBS box, so it was quite nice to see the article on how to install on a member server - much simpler to do many less problems. Installing WSS v3 on a Member Server in an SBS Network If you’ve got a member server in your SBS network (especially if that server is a beefy SQL box) it may make sense from a performance standpoint to install Windows SharePoint Services version 3 on the member server instead of directly on the SBS box. This is actually a pretty straight-forward process, but in case you’re not totally comfortable with WSS v3 yet, the procedure is documented below using a combination of a Microsoft e-book and the WSS on SBS instructions Chad came up with for SBS. Installing WSS v3 on a Member Server in an SBS Network | NoGeekLeftBehind.com ttfn David Technorati Tags: WSS v3 , SharePoint , SBS 2003

  • The Official SBS Blog : New Best Practices for SP2 KB - From June, but worth getting out there

    I should have mentioned this before, but I appear to have been a bit bad at reading others blog and forwarding on :-) Anyway, since the release notes for SP2 can't be updated, here are the latest best practice KB articles. This is just a quick note about the availability of a new KB published today to help consolidate some of the information that we've posted on this blog. Best practices and known issues when you install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 on a Windows Small Business Server 2003-based computer http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=939421 The Official SBS Blog : New Best Practices for SP2 KB ttfn David Technorati Tags: Windows Server 2003 SP2 , Best Practices

  • Where to go to study for SBSC exam 70-282

    I have been asked a couple of times if there has been any updated info on the 70-282 exam and information on it. While looking through old blog entries I found this: A free webcast series hosted throughout the month of May by David Fabritius is being offered at MSReadiness.com. More information is available here - http://msreadiness.com/study70-282r2 . The Official SBS Blog : Studying for 70-282? This takes you to the MS Web site, where I found out that all the webcasts happened in the past, but the recording and blog are still there for you: To access the Study Group blog, visit us at http://blogs.technet.com/BackRoom . Using Self Test Software's great data bank of approved practice exam questions, we will review the material for the week on Fridays and help you check your preparedness for the actual exam. We will not only be looking at why an answer is correct, but also exploring why answers are wrong. Syllabus for 70-282 Study Group All of the sessions outlined below will be presented at 10 AM PDT on their...

  • How to enable / disable / change the Task Manager on Windows Vista

    This question was asked in the forum, but after a bit of research I thought I would share this more broadly. Here is what I discovered: There is a group policy object to enable / disable task manager You can also replace the file that gets run when Task Manager is requested, but this is done using the debug options Group Policy to enable / disable For the Group Policy options, a quick search on Live Search takes me to http://www.infopackets.com/channels/en/windows/gazette/2003/20030821_enable_taskmanager_for_windows_2000_and_xp.htm which basically points to: Open Regedit Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System. Look for: DisableTaskMgr. Click on REG_DWORD. Value: 1=Enable this key (disables TaskManager) Value: 0=Disable (actually enables TaskManager) Replace Task Manager with another program Then for the how to replace the program you basically need to set the options for taskmgr.exe to replace it with another program using the debug options. This means...

  • Transition Pack Pointers for SBS 2003 peeps

    Just to recap on these links since I still get questions about the Transition Pack. These are some good starting points for understanding Transition Pack (pay special attention to the registry key portion if they have Backup Exec installed): http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/01/12/417350.aspx and http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2006/02/24/420521.aspx ttfn David Technorati Tags: SBS 2003 , Translation Pack

  • 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...

  • Windows Server Virtualization Calculators - what is the best way to license Windows Server when using Virtualised environments

    I saw this and thought I would pass it on since I was talking to one of my customers about this yesterday. To get to the two calculators go to Windows Server Virtualization Calculators Windows Server Virtualization Calculators The Windows Server Virtualization Calculators provide two ways to estimate the number and cost of Windows Server Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition and Datacenter Edition licenses needed for your virtualization scenarios to help you determine the most cost-effective edition of Windows Server. Calculator 1 is designed to estimate the licenses and cost of Windows Server by editions and numerous Microsoft server products on a single, physical server. Calculator 2 is designed to estimate the licenses and cost of only Windows Server by edition for one or multiple physical servers. The calculators are pre-populated with the US dollar Open agreement Estimated Retail Prices that you can update with your organization's prices for more accurate estimates. Calculator 1 lets you interactively...

  • How to change the welcome mail sent to new users on SBS 2003

    This is just a small tip that I recently saw. If you wish to change the e-mail that is sent to new users when they are set up on SBS 2003 then you need to edit the html file found in this location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Windows Small Business Server\Administration\samplemail.htm that is it :-) ttfn David Technorati Tags: SBS 2003 R2 , Tips , New User , e-mail

  • 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...

  • 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...

  • SharePoint User Group Meetings in UK (Newcastle and Reading) in September

    I got this e-mail today from the UK SharePoint User Group. They have two meetings coming up, one in Reading and one in Newcastle. Since SBS includes WSS and you can easily load WSS v3 onto it too, here are the details: Newcastle - 10th September MOSS MVP and general all round nice guy Spencer Harbar will be presenting an evening of goodness for all that attend. Arrive 6:30 for a 7pm start 1st Presentation: MOSS Server Farm Architecture & Design. This session introduces the fundamentals of MOSS Farm design including server roles, topology constraints and design goals which are paramount for delivery of a secure, available and scalable MOSS hosting platform. Each server roles’ unique characteristics will be covered with their associated trade-offs. In addition, three common models will be presented with a discussion of their strengths and weaknesses. 20 minute food and drinks break 2nd Presentatoin: Top 10 Tips for your SharePoint Development Environment. This session will present 10 essential tips, tricks,...

  • How to improve Array Performance in .Net programming

    I have been known to write the odd program, often using a large number of arrays for some of the manipulation I do. Multi-dimensional arrays is something I have done a lot of, so seeing this little tip from CodeGuru to speed them up and reduce memory footprint is a great benefit for me. Below are a few snippets, but read the whole article to know more. Jag It Up What is a jagged array, and why does it have such an alarming name? I can't answer the second question, but I'll give the first one a shot. A jagged array is essentially just a one-dimensional array where each element contains its own one-dimension array. It's an array of arrays! (For those who just must jump ahead—you know who you are—yes, you can indeed have arrays of arrays of arrays through infinity or until your memory runs out. But, let's not go there now....) How is an array of arrays different from a two-dimensional array? I'm glad you asked. This is where the jaggy bit comes in. In a two-dimensional array, you have a fixed...
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  • Tool to modify UAC behaviour in Vista using Group Policy - BeyondTrust Privilege Manager

    I am one of those people who always leaves UAC enabled - I like to see when something (*cough* - Adobe Update - *cough*) wants to execute with admin privilege on my system and then get the choice as to whether to allow it or not. However, not everyone likes the choices that are presented by default with the GPOs ( Group Policy Objects ). Coming to the rescue are tools to help enhance these offerings, such as the Privilege Manager from BeyondTrust. Sometimes people forget that Microsoft is a platform for others to build on and this is no different. Their product enables pre-defining the responses to UAC based on a number of variables. While I have NOT tried the product, it is getting good reviews. You can however download an eval copy for free if you so desire. One thing to bear in mind is that when a tool like this is used, you weaken security - why, well, even if you use a SHA1 hash to work out if an application is safe or not, a clever hacker will use plugins, dll's etc to attack that product - it does not...

  • How do I take a public folder offline

    I seem to have been asked this a number of times recently, so here is the answer. To take a public folder offline, simply add it to your favourites and then enable synching of public folders. Mark the public folder as a favourite (right click on the folder and select make favourite Go into your account settings and ensure that public folders are enabled for caching Tools / Account / Properties for the Exchange Account / More Settings / Advanced - then tick the box Now, when you sync the favourite public folders will be copied too. That is it ttfn David Technorati Tags: Offline , Public Folders

  • Windows Live Hotmail will soon bring you more of your requests, better performance, huge amounts of storage, de-dupe of contacts, message forwarding, Out of Office and much more

    You can tell from the title the favourite things I have found testing the latest version of Hotmail - well it is now public - we start rolling these features and more out over the Hotmail clusters. For more information look at the Ellie Powers-Boyle blog post Your mail is here, come and get it!: August: Hotmail will soon bring you more of your requests, better.performance . Obviously if you are a Office Live customer then you will also see these changes coming to you. For the international of us, I have called "Vacation Replies" Out of Office - you know what I mean then :-) 13 August August: Hotmail will soon bring you more of your requests, better performance We went out of beta in May, and we’re already releasing something new. Today, these new features will begin to roll our gradually to all our customers over the next few weeks, so if you don’t immediately see them, be patient, they’re coming! It’s a fun time to be working on Hotmail. We already did a ton of work to get the basics ready to get out...

  • Explore Web Development with ASP.NET 2.0 webcasts and virtual labs

    In my new role I find I need to get up to speed on the MS Dev technologies. I found the page Explore Web Development with ASP.NET 2.0 which seems to have lots of education for me in the ASP.Net 2.0 world. Microsoft ASP.NET is a set of Web application development technologies that enables programmers to build dynamic Web sites, web applications, and XML Web services. Whether you already use ASP.NET 2.0 or want to start, watch our webcasts and participate in our virtual labs to see what it can do for you. This series will help you learn about the improvements in ASP.NET 2.0 and better understand how you can utilize ASP.NET 2.0 to create faster, more secure Web applications. Webcasts During this series, learn how you can use membership and personalization to build rich Web sites, use the new provider model to customize ASP.NET for your enterprise, and more. Virtual Labs Take part in these virtual labs to learn about the major improvements introduced with ASP.NET 2.0 and see how you can create richer Web applications...

  • SBS Technet Chat Transcript published

    Hi folks, this is a really simple one - I had the pleasure of answering some questions at a TechNet chat a few weeks back - that chat has now had a polished transcript published on the web at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/chats/trans/sbs/07_0713_tn_sbs.mspx . thanks David Technorati Tags: SBS , SBS 2003 , SBS 2003 R2 , Technet , Chat

  • SBS 2003 Configuration Webcast - presentation and key links

    Part 2 or 3 for the Webcast series was how to configure SBS and discussed things like disk, memory, dual NICs, firewalls and the Pop3 connector. The presentation can be found here . Useful links from the presentation: WSUS upgrade documentation http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/05/02/installing-wsus-3-0-on-sbs-white-paper-released-including-when-you-already-got-wsus-on-there-or-need-to-upgrade.aspx Transition pack http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2006/09/18/Transition-Pack-for-Windows-SBS-2003-R2.aspx The questions from the event: Is there anything different we need to do on the server with Win Mobile 6 devices? No, it works, but you still need to be aware of the need for a certificate by a trusted root authority on the SBS box for Smartphones (just the same as all previous versions) On the install it showed Active sync 3.8 available to install, why not the latest version? I have not updated the box, but you can load a later version of ActiveSync onto SBS What is the URL to access outlook...

  • How to enable cached mode for Outlook when used inside Terminal Server (which means that BCM can work too)

    OK, this is in response to the people who have posted on this subject. Someone was kind enough to give me the exact details, but I shall protect my sources except to say they know the insides of MS tools well. The warning here is that this is unsupported and could completely destroy your users profiles, so only do this is you are comfortable editing the registry The short description: Open up Regedit navigate to [HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\<ProfileName>\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a] Find the key 00036601 (REG_BINARY) - note the number in it now so you can undo the changes if needed Change the value to one of the following enabled value; 84 01 00 00 - note that on my desktop system the enabled value is 84 19 00 00, so play around with this a little enabled with Public Folders/Favorites: 84 05 00 00 disabled value; 04 00 00 00 FYI - you will need to search for "00036601" and adjust ALL of them since each key is for a different user on...

  • Malware Removal Kit from Microsoft, including a boot from CD solution

    Malware Removal Kit The Malware Removal Kit is a download from TechNet that provides you with excellent guidance and tools to help you restore PCs infected with malware. The newest Solution Accelerator from Microsoft, it provides free, tested guidance to help you combat malware attacks and restore infected systems - so users can safely get back to work. The kit shows you how to use the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) to discover malware by performing a thorough offline scan of your computers, uncovering malware that may be hiding in the operating system. And once malware is located and identified, it can be quickly removed from infected PCs with a number of free anti-malware tools, like the Malicious Software Removal Tool from Microsoft. ttfn David Technorati Tags: Malware Removal , WinPE , Security

  • Exchange 2007 updates - Blogs for Exchange and Outlook, Virtual Machines, Webcasts, Service Pack 1 (SP1) and more

    This information is from the last 2 Technet Newsletters ( http://www.microsoft.com/technet ). Webcasts that have occurred in the past are available for download by clicking on the URLs. Blogs Exchange Team Blog http://msexchangeteam.com/default.aspx Outlook Team Blog http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/default.aspx Awards Exchange Server wins CRN award The 2007 CRN Channel Champions Awards have been recently announced! http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/05/11/438675.aspx Evaluation Quickly Evaluate Microsoft and Partner Solutions Through a Series of Pre-Configured Virtual Hard Disks Microsoft Exchange on virtual hard disk (VHD) lets you try out the key features of Exchange Server 2007. With the VHD Test Drive program, you can download VHDs and evaluate them for free in your own environment, without the need for dedicated servers or complex installations. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=692a6e3c-81c9-4d8a-93fa-266d651735dc&DisplayLang=en Educating Information Workers About Exchange Server...

  • Want to know what is happening on your network, packet for packet - get Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1

    I saw this had been published and thought I would share - it is an amazing tool that I use for diagnosis all the time. Reading http://www.ditii.com/2007/07/03/network-monitor-31-released/ it also reminded me that this includes traces on wireless networks!! Microsoft Network Monitor 3.1 Network Monitor 3.1 is a protocol analyzer. It allows you to capture network traffic, view and analyze it. Version 3.1 is an update and replaces Network Monitor 3.0. Network Monitor 3.x is a complete overhaul of the previous Network Monitor 2.x version. Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2003 x64 editions; Windows Vista; Windows XP; Windows XP 64-bit It is suggested that you have a CPU of 1GHz or greater, 1G or greater of Memory and 25 Megs of available Hard Disk space, plus room for capture files. Supports Vista 64 bit as well as 32 bit. Instructions Network Monitor 3.1 can co-exist with Netmon2.x. NM3.1 installs in %program files%\Microsoft Network Monitor 3, so there is no conflict. But it will require...

  • How to get the Office Assistant in Office 2003 (clippy) to work in Windows Vista, i.e. remove the "Not enough memory" error messages

    [updated 24th January 2009 with new download location for x64 systems] [updated 31st December 2009 with Windows 7 information] I have been asked this question several times and finally dug into the system to make it work. N.B. while this will work with Windows 7 the "agent" will have a pink background. Given the age of this technology it is unlikely to be fixed. The solution The Office Assistant relies on some "agent" technologies. To fix this we need to install the agent technologies and then copy a DLL across. Since I was playing around it is possible that there is an extra step or two that is not actually needed, but since this is a small process and simple to do I don't think it will do any harm. What is more, I was not about to rebuild a system, load Vista and Office 2003 just to see if I could remove a 10 second step :-) Download the MSAgent technology from http://www.microsoft.com/msagent - select the CORE files, so for me that was this item - Download the Microsoft Agent core components...

  • How to get rid of the installer / configuration dialog when running Office 2007 and Office 2003 on the same system - for Vista and other versions of Windows

    I have been asked this many times following up on the blog entry Installing Office 2003 and Office 2007 on the same system where once people have removed the problem with the End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) appearing every time they start Office they then get the dialogs below every time they switch between Word 2007 and Word 2003. when starting Word 2003 when starting Word 2007 The fix to the problem is very simple as it turns out - simply run the following commands (by pressing the Windows Key+R or typing it into the Start/Run command box. Use the line with Office\11.0 if you have Office 2003 installed and Office\12.0 if you have Office 2007 installed. You can use both if you have both installed : reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1 reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1 That is it. Office 2007 might want to have one more spin round the block with it's configuration dialog box, but that should be it. ttfn...
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