Jean-Pierre Paradis's Blog

All post

I’m writing HTML pages in french with Microsoft Expression Web 3.0 (xWeb) and I can’t type certain characters like è, ê, or î. For example to produce an è you have to first hit the dead-key ` and than hit the e letter. This works everywhere except in xWeb.

A search in the Expression Web Forum showed me that I’m not the only one :

I was really disappointed to read :

The good news is that we have fixed the bug. The bad news is that the fix is not in the service pack and will not be available until the next release.

I can’t say that I think this is really professional. Come on guys you could have done better than that. I guess we just have to hope and wait for version 4.0

In the mean time I’ve used the ‘Code snippets’ to help paste the lost characters.

Here’s how to configure and use your codes snippets for french characters :

Close Microsoft Expression Web

Open the the file C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Expression\Web 3\Legacy\Expression\Web 3\Snippets\SnippetsCustom.xml

Copy the following XML, paste it in the SnippetsCustom.xml file and save it.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- Fichier de configuration des extraits de code -->
<snippets><snippet keyword="é">
		<description>é</description>
		<text>é</text>
	</snippet>
	<snippet keyword="à">
		<description>à</description>
		<text>&amp;agrave;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="â">
		<description>â</description>
		<text>&amp;acirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Â">
		<description>Â</description>
		<text>&amp;Acirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="À">
		<description>À</description>
		<text>&amp;Agrave;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="ç">
		<description>ç</description>
		<text>&amp;ccedil;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Ç">
		<description>Ç</description>
		<text>&amp;Ccedil;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="é">
		<description>é</description>
		<text>&amp;Eacute;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="É">
		<description>É</description>
		<text>&amp;Eacute;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="ê">
		<description>ê</description>
		<text>&amp;ecirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Ê">
		<description>Ê</description>
		<text>&amp;Ecirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Ê">
		<description>Ê</description>
		<text>&amp;Ecirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="è">
		<description>è</description>
		<text>&amp;egrave;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="È">
		<description>È</description>
		<text>&amp;Egrave;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="ë">
		<description>ë</description>
		<text>&amp;euml;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Ë">
		<description>Ë</description>
		<text>&amp;Euml;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="î">
		<description>î</description>
		<text>&amp;icirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Î">
		<description>Î</description>
		<text>&amp;Icirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="ô">
		<description>ô</description>
		<text>&amp;ocirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Ô">
		<description>Ô</description>
		<text>&amp;Ocirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="û">
		<description>û</description>
		<text>&amp;ucirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Û">
		<description>Û</description>
		<text>&amp;Ucirc;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="ù">
		<description>ù</description>
		<text>&amp;ugrave;</text>
	</snippet>
<snippet keyword="Ù">
		<description>Ù</description>
		<text>&amp;Ugrave;</text>
	</snippet>
</snippets>

Open Expression Web

In the code view hit CTRL + ENTER and choose one of your new snippets.

xWebCodeSnippets

Here are some tools that can help you to check to security settings (privacy) in Facebook :

Profile Watch

Get your “privacy score” and check what everyone can see on you Facebook profile

Reclaim privacy

Get a detailed scan of your Facebook profile and see what needs you attention.

Openbook

Search Facebook update from peoples that left their privacy settings open for everyone

Check how your friends sees your profile

This one is built in Facebook :

Logon to Facebook
Click on this link

Blackbird auditor express is a free and easy-to-use version of Blackbird auditor. This community version offers real-time change monitoring for organizations with basic Active Directory (AD) auditing needs.

Source : 4sysops

With this web site you can get your “privacy score” and check what everyone can see on your Facebook profile.

Link : http://www.profilewatch.org

This page contains resources to help you with capacity management in your Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 environment—map your solution design to a farm size and set of hardware that supports your business goals.

Additional content is under development. Check back for new and updated content.

Source : SharePoint Server 2010 > Resource Centers

Hi, I’m Alex Payne and I’m a Director in our Online Product Management team. A couple of news articles and blogs landed today where Google is trying to make the case that existing Office customers (and there are over 500 Million of them worldwide) should hold off on upgrading to Office 2010 and instead utilize Google Docs as a complement to older versions of Office.

…

This just isn’t the case.

Source : blogs.technet.com/whymicrosoft

Also interesting : Forrester: Google still a distant Office competitor

If you own a Scientific Atlanta HDTV recorder (Explorer 8300HD), here’s a few tips you might find interesting.

Tips	From	Enter
Enter diagnostic mode	Front of unit	Press and hold SELECT until the Mail LED lights, then press INFO
Enter diagnostic mode	Remote control	Press and hold PAUSE until the Mail LED lights, then press PAGE UP (+)
Reboot	Front of unit	Press and hold VOL+ and VOL-, then press INFO
Reboot	Remote control	Press and hold PAUSE until the Mail LED lights, then press PAGE DOWN (-)
Change diagnostic window transparency	Front of unit	While in diagnostic mode, press SELECT
Change diagnostic window transparency	Remote control	While in diagnostic mode, press B
Format hard drive	Remote control	Press and hold PAUSE until the Mail LED lights, then press LIST three times, the unit will format the drive and reboot

I hope I do not have to tell you not to try the “format hard drive” tips unless you really want to do this and loose all your recordings.

Source : www.digitalhome.ca and Videotron technical support.

Softinventive Lab Total Network Monitor is a sophisticated free monitoring solution that supports numerous probe types based on HTTP, FTP, Event Log, Service State, Registry, log files, and more. The tool has only been released recently as freeware. There is no doubt that Total Network Monitor (TNM) is one of the best free monitoring solutions.

Source : 4sysops.com

Password Assistant is a GUI application that lets you update passwords of user accounts on multiple Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP machines. A good example is updating the Administrator password on all of your workstations.

You can obtain computer names to update from the network neighborhood (with a filter option) or from a text file. The update process can also be logged to a text file.

It’s free as in free beer !

Source : NTToolkit From netikus.net

When I’m writing my e-mail message to my Mom, I go to the Insert tab, click the Screenshot icon, and then click Screen Clipping.

source : Sending screenshots

Well done post about the new Office 2010 64bit edition :

Microsoft has announced the Microsoft Fix it Online Portal. Microsoft Fix it Center makes getting support easier than ever because automatic troubleshooters solve the issues you have now and prevent new ones

As easy as "Click, click, fixed!"

Source : Bink.nu

One of the applications included with the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) is DART, which is made up of tools previously available through the Winternals Administrator's Pak.

Source :	www.windowsitpro.com
	technet.microsoft.com

From time to time people have asked me how to install Virtual Server on Windows 7, and have even pointed me towards attempts made by other people with varying levels of success. But I have not looked into this until today – because it is unsupported.

Source : Virtual PC Guy's WebLog

When we looked into how people used email, we found some interesting patterns. It turns out that there are generally three types of people when it comes to email: pilers, filers, and purgers.

Which are you?

Piler: “I generally don’t put email into a folder or archive. I don’t delete it. I just let it pile up in my inbox."

Filer: “I generally categorize messages by moving them into folders I’ve created or assigning labels to each message.”

Purger: “I generally delete email after I’ve read it.”

Source : Inside Windows Live

Microsoft Security Essentials antimalware definitions are now available via WSUS.

Source : blogs.technet.com/wsus

Expression Web 3 SP2 contains general improvements to the application and to SuperPreview. You can get a more complete description of Expression Web 3 SP2, including a list of issues that were fixed, in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article "Description of Expression Web 3 Service Pack 2."

You can install Expression Web 3 SP2 if you have either Expression Web 3 or Expression Web 3 with Service Pack 1 installed.

Expression Web 3 SP2 includes SuperPreview support for Firefox 3.6 along with improved stability when working with CSS, PHP, and PDF files.

Source : bink.nu, www.microsoft.com/downloads

Windows Server 2008 R2 will be the last version of Windows Server to support the Intel Itanium architecture. SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 are also the last versions to support Itanium.

Source : blogs.technet.com/windowsserver

Read my new blog : Powershell-Everyday-FAQ

A few days ago the search box on my Windows 7 start menu mysteriously stopped working. If I typed anything in the box the search always returns group headers for items (like Programs, Files, Microsoft Outlook, etc ) but not the items themselves.

Took my a while to find the solution on the net, so I thought I shared the solution and give some thanks to a few peoples.

First, a special thanks to Chris DeLashmutt who blogged about this problem and the solution I used.

Also, big thanks to Bobby Mikkelson who wrote a detailed solution.

There is also an Hotfix for that problem at Microsoft (kb977380).

it is a context menu editor, an autoplay editor, and default programs association editor; essentially, the settings in the "Default Programs" Control Panel page. It's a replacement for the "File Types" dialog in Windows XP, and brings some key features of TweakUI to Windows Vista/7.

Really cool and well done tool, a must have.

Source : defaultprogramseditor.com

You can now follow me and my blog on Twitter :

Thanks to twitterfeed.com

I was looking for a function to get the script directory in a PowerShell script and I didn’t found exaclty found what I was looking for.

I found some scripts on the net that works on PowerShell 1.0 or 2.0 and with Powershell host or PrimalScript 2009 Host (yes I’m using PrimalScript everyday).

So I tooked some code form others and added some of my stuff and here what I came up with :

function get-scriptdirectory {

# .SYNOPSIS 
# 	Return the current script directory path, compatible with PrimalScript 2009
# 	Equivalent to VBscript fso.GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName)
# 	Requires PowerShell 2.0
#    
# .DESCRIPTION
#	Author   : Jean-Pierre.Paradis@fsa.ulaval.ca
#	Date     : March 31, 2010
#	Version  : 1.01
#
# .LINK 
# 	http://blog.sapien.com/index.php/2009/09/02/powershell-hosting-and-myinvocation/

    if (Test-Path variable:\hostinvocation) 
    	{$FullPath=$hostinvocation.MyCommand.Path}
    Else {
   		$FullPath=(get-variable myinvocation -scope script).value.Mycommand.Definition }  	
	if (Test-Path $FullPath) {
    	return (Split-Path $FullPath) 
		}
    Else {
		$FullPath=(Get-Location).path
		Write-Warning ("Get-ScriptDirectory: Powershell Host <" + $Host.name + "> may not be compatible with this function, the current directory <" + $FullPath + "> will be used.")
		return $FullPath
		}
}

My function will work on PowerShell command line, PowerShell ISE or PrimalScript 2009. You will, however need PowerShell 2.0.

It is also compatible with a ‘Set-StrictMode -Version 2.0’ (you the thing most best practices guide told you to use).

Update (march 31, 2010) :

Looks like there is currently no way to get the script directory from PowerGUIScriptEditorHost, so I’ve modified my script to return the current directory (and a warning) instead of throwing an error.

Finally got the time to install the fantastic SyntaxHighlighter on my blog so I can post my code more easily.

I just followed the well done Blogger Syntax Highlighting guide from MLA Wire.

So I’ve added the following code in my Blogger site’s template, just before de </head> tag :

<link href='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/styles/shCore.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>
<link href='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/styles/shThemeDefault.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shCore.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<!-- add brushes here --> 
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushCss.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushJScript.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushPhp.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushPlain.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushPowerShell.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushSql.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushVb.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/current/scripts/shBrushXml.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<script type='text/javascript'>
  SyntaxHighlighter.config.bloggerMode = true;
  SyntaxHighlighter.config.clipboardSwf = 'http://alexgorbatchev.com/pub/sh/2.1.364/scripts/clipboard.swf'; 
  SyntaxHighlighter.all();
</script>

A friend of mine sent me this comic.

Do you have a flat screen TV ?

Daniel Oxley has created a debugger for custom scripts in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

You should look at it : MDT Debugger

I’ve installed the “Outlook Social Connector 32 bit (February 2010 Beta)” on my Outlook 2010 Beta following the instructions on the Outlook blog but I keep getting the following error :

If you found how to make it works Contact Me

Microsoft is making a slew of virtualization-related announcements on March 18 -- including one that will be welcome by customers who've been stymied by the chip-level virtualization requirements for running Windows 7 in XP Mode.

Source : All about Microsoft

I recently installed Microsoft Office 2010 Beta, I choosed to keep my Office 2007 applications and to only install Outlook 2010 and Office 2010 Shared Components. I did not installed Access 2010.

After that my Microsoft Access 2007 crashed every time I opened a database that use the CurrentProject.Connection object in the code.

It seems that Office 2010 setup installed the “Microsoft Office 14.0 Access Database Engine Object Library (Beta)” component even if I did not choosed to install Access 2010. Even worst it also removed the reference to the “Microsoft Office 12.0 Access Database Engine Object Library” component witch is require by Access 2007.

How to fix this ?

Do a repair of Microsoft Office 2007 installation and everything will be back to normal. Except if you played with the References in your Project (Database tools > Visual Basic > Tools > References), you may have to un check all references to “Microsoft Office 14.0 Access” objects and recheck all references to “Microsoft Office 12.0 Access”.

Every time I want to share a YouTube video on my facebook page I forgot how to do it, so I though I should post how to do it on my blog :

How to Post a YouTube Video on Facebook

You can also watch this video :

Last month, Microsoft rolled out a controversial anti-piracy update for Windows 7. Everything you've read about KB971033 so far, including my report last week, has been based on what Microsoft said it was going to do. But what does this update really do? I took a close look using my best CSI toolkit. Here are the details Microsoft doesn't tell you about.

Source : Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

I've been hanging out with a bad crowd lately, trying out popular hacking tools and utilities to see if I could install Windows 7 without paying for it. Unfortunately, I succeeded. In this post, I'll share my experiences, including close encounters with some very nasty malware and some analysis on how the latest showdown between Microsoft and the pirates is likely to play out.

Source : Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

Hyper-V customers are running both SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux as guests. We have provided Linux integration components for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, but customers did not have the same level of performance with Red Hat Enterprise Linux as a guest since the IC’s were not supported for RHEL.

We are excited to announce the availability of Linux integration components for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4) which provides synthetic network and storage drivers enabling RHEL to work with the optimized devices provided by Hyper-V. We’ve already submitted these drivers to the upstream Linux kernel in July 2009 (read here for more information) and are looking forward to these being integrated with a future version of RHEL. In the meantime, Microsoft will provide full support for these drivers. Red Hat provides best effort support for these components. Customers interested in understanding how these are supported by Red Hat prior to their inclusion natively into to their distribution can read the details at the Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

To download this new version of the Linux Integration Components, visit this link on the Microsoft Download Center.

Mike Sterling

Hyper-V Program Manager, Microsoft

Source : Windows Virtualization Team Blog

I recently switch to VirtualBox (from VirtualPC), but i was not ready to dump all my VHD files. So i decided to keep working with VHD. The other thing I use a lot is “differencing disk”, VirtualBox also support these, but, as with VHD the documentation is not always very clear on how to use them.

First you have to understand a difference between Virtual PC and Virtual Box about “differencing disk” :

In VirtualPC	In VirtualBox
You create a normal VHD that will become the parent, then you create a child VHD pointing to the parent	You create a normal VHD and flag it as “immutable”, then you create new VMs using this “immutable” VHD. VirtualBox will automatically create the child VHD that will appear like a snapshot ({GUID}.VHD)

Here’s how I do it :

Step 1 : Create a 20Go dynamic disk VHD

vboxmanage createhd --filename "F:\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\WinXP_Parent.vhd" --size 20480 --format VHD --variant standard --remember

Step 2 : Change the new VHD into an immutable disk

vboxmanage "F:\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\WinXP_Parent.vhd" --type immutable

I Also like to force it to read-only as an additionnal precaution :

attrib +R "F:\.VirtualBox\HardDisks\WinXP_Parent.vhd"

Step 3 : Create a new VM using the WinXP_parent.vhd

Yon now have a new virtual machine with a differencing disk in the VHD format.

Nice article By Netanel Ben-Shushan about DHCP.

Abstract

This article will help you to learn everything that you need to know as a systems administrator (or SysAdmin) about this protocol and what can you do with him.

Source : Bink.nu

Google's belated second shot at social networking with the Gmail-based Buzz service was supposed to catapult the company into competition with Twitter and Facebook. But instead, it has created an amazing uproar among Gmail users who feel the service is invasive at best and privacy-adverse at worst.

How this piece of junk escaped internal testing is unclear, given how poorly implemented it was at launch last week, as well as its complete lack of configuration. But with Google now facing a class-action lawsuit over the service, maybe it's time for the online giant to step back and ask itself what the heck just happened.

For all the bad stuff Google has done over the years—working with the Chinese and scanning copyrighted books without asking permission, for starters—it's interesting to see that a silly and pointless service is what brought this clueless and insular high-flyer down to Earth.

The issue here is simple, however, and although I wish I could take credit for this observation, it comes from my friend Fabrice: No one cared when Google was violating IP and copyright laws around the world by scanning books, because that was other people's data. But when Google opens up actual users to privacy invasion, it gets personal. I think Fabrice is right. Google is a smart company full of smart people. But this is one the dumbest things I've ever seen.

Source : WinInfo Dailey by Paul thurrott

« Where is the Powershell 2.0 download ? »

Don’t ask me why, but the official release of PowerShell 2.0 is not available in a standalone download. It is now part of the «Window Management Framework».

The framework includes :

Windows Remote Management (WinRM) 2.0
Windows PowerShell 2.0
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 4.0

It is available for Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista and Windows 2008 (already included with Windows 7 and 2008 R2).

You will find all the download links and infos at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968929/en-us

Note : Don’t forget, PowerShell shortcuts are in Programs/Accessories/Windows PowerShell

This is common knowledge; you should use a combination of alphabets, numerical digits, and special characters (!, @) to create strong passwords. Yet, the most commonly used password on the Internet is 123456 followed by 12345 – see full list.

…

… Microsoft too offers an online tool that will instantly tell if your password is strong or weak.

…

Enter Password Meter – this is an online tool that will not only rate your password’s strength but will offer clues on what you kind of characters can you add or remove to improve the password’s strength.

Source : Digital Inspiration Technology Blog

In the past days I had to troubleshoot a problem with an SSL certificate and Outlook. I didn’t found any useful infos on the net to help me so I thought I could share one little tips that help me solve my problem.

First my problem :

We have a Sharepoint site configure with HTTPS. Everything works fine in Internet Explorer, but when we try to connect a calendar or a document library in Outlook it wouldn’t synch. If a replace my normal SSL certificate (on the web site) with a self signed one it works like a charm, so I suspect it is a certificate problem.

What’s bugging me is that Outlook never showed any error dialog. Nothing in the system event log either and no way to get kind of a trace or log of what’s happening from Outlook.

Here’s my tip :

Outlook is using the Microsoft Cryptography application programming interface (CAPI) or simply put Crypto API.

Starting with Windows Vista the Crypto API has an operational event log, you just have to enable it to see what’s really happening.

Open the Event Viewer

Look For CAPI2 under Applications and Service Logs > Microsoft > Windows

Right click on “Operationnal” and select “Enable Log”

From the log you may be able to spot the problem with your certificate. Worked for me, I was able to see that it was trying to reach an non-existing server to get the certificate revocation list (CRL).

Don’t forget to disable the CAPI2 operational log when you’re done with the debugging.

Hope this could help someone else,

First, a caveat. This is not supported. Most of what I am about to talk about is not supported. Feel free to use this information, but do not call Microsoft if it does not work for you.

With that out of the way – this morning I was asked how to get a Windows Server 2008 core installation working on Windows Virtual PC, with integration components. This is possible, and very handy, but is a little tricky to do.

Windows Server 2008 will install onto Windows Virtual PC in a core configuration with no issues. But when you try to install the Integration Components, the installer will fail.

The problem is that the installer is trying, and failing, to initialize the sound card driver that is part of the integration components. What you need to do is to disable the sound card in the virtual machine.

Source : Virtual PC Guy's WebLog

For the past two years, Adobe has neglected a simple issue with Adobe Reader that broke the default and extremely useful file thumbnail and file preview features in Vista and 7 under 64-bit. The problem also extends onto other applications that use the preview APIs such as Office Outlook, throwing out the window what would have been an elegant and streamlined PDF viewing experience, especially since you can scroll within the PDF without awakening the beast that is Adobe Reader.

After some detective work by Leo, not only did he pinpoint the root cause of both the preview and thumbnail issues, but today released a dead-simple fix in a neat executable package that fixes both problems faster than you can say “what the hell Adobe”.

Source : www.istartedsomething.com

I’d like to start this post with a statement:

Windows Deployment Services (WDS) is a useful role in Windows Server 2008 R2. It’s free (to licensed Windows users), supports multitasking, and is a perfectly good method of pushing Windows images to clients…

Unfortunately that statement has a caveat:

… but it needs to be installed on an Active Directory-member computer.

For some, that’s a non-starter. And sometimes, you just want a quick and dirty solution

Source : markwilson.it

The Windows Server Performance team have done a really interesting post on how to optimize network performance inside of virtual machines by increasing the size of the VMBus buffers used by our network adapters. They also do a very good job of explaining the causes and implications of performance issues around virtual networking – so go check it out:

http://blogs.technet.com/winserverperformance/archive/2010/02/02/increase-vmbus-buffer-sizes-to-increase-network-throughput-to-guest-vms.aspx

Cheers,
Ben

Source : Virtual PC Guy's WebLog

The Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle web site shows two interesting documents :

Quick Security References: Cross-site Scripting

Quick Security References: SQL Injection

You can download those at www.microsoft.com/downloads

Source : geek and poke

Wrote this tool when I was setting up my laptop to run Hyper-V. I didn't want to have to open the Hyper-V manager and have a window running all the time, and was planning on using Remote Desktop Client to connect to the VM's so I could map drives and copy/paste in teh VMs. The idea was to have something that sits in the System Tray that allows you to Start, Stop, Save State, and Pause the VMs running on the box.

Source : Jerry Orman

This week Microsoft released an update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with a utility for restoring backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers that are running Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2.

This utility has been available for Windows Vista and Server 2008, but did not work on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Source : Bink.nu
Download : Microsoft Download Center

Farm Commander looks a lot like Norton Commander and ‘Total Commander, but the functionality is very different. With Total Commander both the left and right panel are file systems. With Farm Commander the left panel displays file system, where you can select files and directories. In the right panel are the Windows 2000/XP/Citrix/Terminal/Domain workstations/servers listed. First you have to select the files in the left panel, and then the servers in the right panel. Next you have to choose an action, such as copy, move or delete. Farm Commander then copies/deletes/moves the selected files to or from the selected server. In particular in Citrix/Terminal Server environments you often have to copy files at once. Farm Commander also features detailed reports. As administrator you should know whether some of the actions failed.

Source : 4sysops.com

Firefox users, if you're running the most recent release on Windows 7 you need to make a tiny tweak to your browser's configuration. It defeats the purpose of Aero's cool taskbar thumbnails feature if you have to open a window before you can scan which browser tabs you have open. IE8 shows all open tabs in thumbnail previews when you point to its icon. So how do you add the same feature to Firefox 3.6? I explain.

Source : Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

Excellent post on CNET News that answer a few questions about the attacks and Google’s responses :

What happened?
What companies were targeted?
Who was behind the attacks?
How were the companies targeted?
Were insiders involved?
What was stolen from the companies?
Does this follow the pattern of other attacks?
Was Google particularly vulnerable to these attacks?
Is there a way consumers can protect themselves from this?

Extra cool, did you know Ferrari official web site is build on SharePoint ?

They won the #1 SharePoint Site for 2009 from www.topsharepoint.com

Device Remover can do much more than its name indicates. It has all the features of the built-in Windows Manager plus a few additional functions that can be helpful if you have to troubleshoot device driver problems. Here is a list of the most important features of Device Remover:

In-depth information about devices and drivers

Print device tree

Displays hidden, non-present, and problem devices

Searches device drivers

Bulk removal of device drivers

Backup device drivers

Open and export device driver registry entry

Start/stop, enable/disable device

Update driver

Save detailed driver information

Apart from troubleshooting device driver problems, you can use the tool to get rid of unused drivers, for example, if you need more disk space on the system drive. Sometimes old drivers also interfere with the system.

Device Remover

Source : 4sysops

HWiNFO32 is a freeware hardware information and diagnostic tool. The information it provides goes far beyond the built-in Windows tools. ….

HWiNFO32 has a useful summary view, which gives you a quick overview of a PC’s hardware capabilities. Since the tool is also available as a standalone version, you can fire it up easily on a new machine, just to know with what you are actually dealing with.

HWiNFO32

Source : 4sysops

According to Nielsen, Apple's iPhone was the most popular mobile device in 2009. But that's only true if you ignore the entire planet outside of the United States and don't count different Blackberry devices as being part of the same product line. In other words, it wasn't really the most popular smartphone of 2009, but since everyone loves Apple we're going to say it was, and eventually the sales will catch and meet our expectations.

As the number one smartphone of 2009, the iPhone was responsible for just 4 percent of all mobile device users in that year, well ahead of number two player RIM Blackberry, which accounted for just 6.3 percent of the installed base. Yes, that's seriously what Neilsen reported.

In other news, the iMac is the number one PC (if you don't count PCs that aren't all-in-ones), and Yahoo! is the top website (if you're on drugs).

Source : Paul Thurrott's WinInfo blog

Double Check your Facebook Privacy Settings

Now that you have updated your Facebook privacy settings, you should try looking at your own profile from the eyes of your friends, strangers and search engines to make sure that none of the information you want to keep private on Facebook is visible to other people.

A must read, step-by-step procedure, to be sure you have correctly set you privacy settings in Facebook.

Source : Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog

Looking for a good puzzle game for the whole family? Tinker is a simple yet challenging game where you have to help a robot find his way out of a maze. The levels get progressively more challenging, and the in-game animations are always delightful.

Microsoft Tinker, which was previously available only on Vista Ultimate, is now available as a free download for all versions of Windows including XP, Vista (all editions) and Windows 7. The game is also integrated with Windows Live so you can chat with friends from the game itself.

Source : Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog

It literally implements Apache configuration model (like .htaccess and httpd.conf files) and all most demanded Apache modules in a single IIS add-on, not only making IIS compatible with Apache, but also extending it’s functionality by a number of highly essential features.

Source : www.helicontech.com/ape/

I know what’s your gone say: “it’s easy just add the Windows group in the Farm Administrator’s group from Central Admin”. You’re almost right.

Here’s the thing :

One of our developers created a custom “Self-Service Site Creation” application. Has you know, to be able to create a new site collection you must be a member of the “Farm Administrator’s group”, so his application has to do an impersonate with an account that is a member of that group.

We always prefer to use Windows Groups (when possible), so we have created a new windows group “SharePoint Farm Admins”, added the impersonated user in that group and added that group to the SharePoint Administrator’s group.

Here’s the problem :

When the Self-Service Site Creation application try to create a new site collection an error is generated :

Insufficient SQL database permissions for user ‘***** ’in database 'SharePoint_AdminContent_******’ on SQL Server instance ‘****’. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below. The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object …

Here’s the solution :

Just logon once in Central Admin with your impersonated account and recyle the application pool in IIS.

Here’s the explanation :

I’m not a SharePoint engineer (so I could be wrong), but as I understand it any account that logon to SharePoint must have a profile stored in the database (tables UserInfo and AllUserData in SharePoint_AdminCoutent DB ). When you logon for the first time through a SharePoint page a new profile is created by SharePoint. When you use system’s API to do an impersonate the new profile doesn’t get created at your first logon, so you get an error.

That’s why you simply have to logon once to Central Admin, your new profile gets created and everything starts to work after that.

Note :

This type of profile is not visible in any Central Admin’s UI pages. You have to dig in SharePoint DB to see it.

It was a little more than a year ago when Volkswagen, because of Porsche's stock market finagling, briefly became the most valuable company in the world. This was just after it passed Ford for the number three slot in global sales. Now the big company that could -- powered by the little car that could -- has passed Toyota to take the number one slot as the world's largest automaker.

Source : Autoblog

This is small tool that adds Attach and Detach option to contextual (aka right-click) menu of Virtual disk (vhd) files. That enables those operations to be done without trip to Disk Management console. Detach option is available on hard drive contextual menu also.

Additionally program can be used as classic utility in order to see various information about virtual disk, even without attaching it.

Do notice that this program only works with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Older operating systems are not supported.

Download

Source : Bink.nu

I have been wanting to come up with a workable solution for mounting virtual hard disks by double clicking on them in Windows 7 for a while now. The problem is that:

There is no easily scriptable API for VHD mounting

You need to be elevated (running “As Administrator”) in order to mount a virtual hard disk

The best idea I could think of for a simple solution was to try scripting the DISKPART tool. Unfortunately – once I got going I got a bit carried away. The result is this batch file …

Source : Virtual PC Guy's WebLog

Like most .NET developers I had looked as Access as more of a file format than an application, something from the past.

So enters Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Access Services, for me this changes the game. For those who don’t know this technology, you can create an Access database locally on your PC then publish it to SharePoint. Tables become SharePoint lists, macros become workflows and forms well become forms. Access becomes a RAD tool to create data driven SharePoint sites.

Source : Richard Fennell

As you probably know, Visual Studio 2010 was announced last week and it contains a lot of great features and project templates for SharePoint developers. Below is a short overview for some of the SharePoint development related features and project templates.

Configurable deployment

Sandboxed and farm solutions

Extending SharePoint Tools

Feature and Package Designer

SharePoint Explorer

SharePoint Project and Project Item Templates

Project Templates

Project Item Templates

Source : Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog

The introduction of PowerShell was a major improvement for all administrators who are not afraid of the CLI. However, it also has some drawbacks. For instance, it is not included in the OS and it lacks many features. Microsoft wanted to correct those shortcomings. PowerShell Version 2 is now a part of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 RC2 and offers many new Cmdlets. One area that was improved is the management of the Active Directory (AD).

If you want to use these new features, you have to add the Cmdlets first. PowerShell v2 is now modularized.

Source : 4sysops

Go and get it:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Cheers,
Ben

Source : Virtual PC Guy's WebLog

As the official Windows 7 launch is set in motion, a bunch of new content is being released online to support the wider public availability. To kick things off, a handful of new first-party theme pack have been released on Windows.com.

Source : Bink.nu

This article describes how you can secure your Wireless Network from hackers and you’ll also learn about free tools that people generally use to intercept your Wi-Fi signals.

A “must read” for anyone who has a wireless home network.

Source : Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog

If you are curious to know more about HTML 5, here are links to some presentations, video recordings and web article that you may find useful.

Source : Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog

At the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft unveiled SharePoint 2010 with an impressive display of functionality and confidence.

Today, you will experience a tsunami of information about SharePoint 2010. There is no lack of surprises and announcements.
The list is so long that all I can do is list right now--hopefully this will help you spot the features and value propositions that are meaningful to your enterprise.

Great post by Dan Holme, a must read.

Watch out developpers, you can now develop on a Windows 7 or Vista client running SharePoint (yes!).

Source : windowsitpro.com

A couple of weeks ago some very interesting Windows news flew by under the radars that I think deserves much more credit than it received, considering how much we rely on the web and the impact this has on making it safer.

In the September 2009 update to the Windows Root Certificate Program, Microsoft has added to the list of trusted root certificate authorities StartCom Ltd, notably its first member who issues amongst others free Class 1 digital certificates.

Source : istartedsomething

Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online. Disk2vhd uses Windows’ Volume Snapshot capability, introduced in Windows XP, to create consistent point-in-time snapshots of the volumes you want to include in a conversion.

Source : Bink.nu

Our MPIO Guide for Windows Server 2008 R2 is now available in our Storage area on TechNet for Windows Server 2008 R2 at the link below:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee619778(WS.10).aspx

Source : Storage Area Networking

Whether you’re upgrading from Vista or skipping it altogether and moving up from Windows XP, you’ll need to know how to make the most of Windows 7 in your environment. Here are 77 tips and tricks to get you there.

Source : TechNet Magazine

We teamed up with Aptimize Software to optimize SharePoint.Microsoft.com for high performance.

Today’s guest post is by Ed Robinson, Chief Executive Officer of Aptimize Software. This post will review how we did it and the underlying performance techniques that improved the page loading speed of the SharePoint marketing website. We hope you can leverage the same process to optimize performance for other websites.

Tony Tai

SharePoint Senior Product Manager

Source : Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog

While there are plenty of web polling services around where can you create online polls and surveys for free, there are couple of reasons why the form builder in Google Docs rules them all.

Source : Digital Inspiration - Technology Blog

Microsoft anti-virus and anti-malware new bundle is now out of beta et available for download.

Learn more and download at www.microsoft.com/security_essentials

Interesting series of article by the Directory Services Team about slow logon.

Source : Ask the Directory Services Team

One of the great features of PowerShell V2 is the remote session support. But in the default configuration only local administrators can create a remote session.

Read the complete instructions: Using a PS Session without having Administrative Permissions

Apple has a long and checkered history of using its Apple Software Update program to push unrelated programs to Windows users. But I was floored today when I was offered an iPhone configuration utility as an important "update" on a system that has never had iPhone or even an iPod plugged into it.

Source : Ed Bott's Microsoft Report

Way back in May 2008, I noted an annoying, longstanding bug that surfaces when you install Adobe Reader on Windows Vista x64. The preview function, both in Windows Explorer and in Outlook 2007, is broken. The only fix I could find at the time was to replace the broken previewer with a third-party alternative such as FoxIt PDF Preview Handler.

Now, 16 months later, there’s a new 64-bit operating system, Windows 7, and a new version of Acrobat Reader (9.1). And the bug is still there.

That’s really a good way to support your customers, way to go Adobe !

As mention in Ed Boot’s post, here’s the direct link to a manual fix : www.pretentiousname.com/adobe_pdf_x64_fix

Source : www.edbott.com/weblog

Have you ever noticed that the find function in Active Directory Users and computers (ADUC) console cannot search within a group (or user) name ? You can only search fields that “Starts with” or “ends with” a string. What if I want ton find all groups that contain “web” in their name ?

Here’s how to do it :

Select Custom Search from the find dialog
Click on the Advanced tab
Paste (&(objectCategory=group)(name=*WEB*))
Hit then Find Now button

Oh and don’t forget to replace the “WEB” string by the value you are looking for.

You could also do the same thing from the command line :

dsquery group -name *WEB*

Great tools for any SharePoint Admin :

SharePoint Diagnostics Tool (SPDiag)
Broken Inheritance Report Jobs
Check Effective Permissions
Compare Permission Sets
Quota Management

and more…

ref :

Announcing the Fourth Release of the Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit
SharePoint Administration Toolkit (TechNet)
Download (x86)
Download (x64)

Nintendo has unlocked the Wii Internet channel to enable free web browsing for anyone with a Wii hooked up to their broadband connection

Source : www.electricpig.co.u

Chris here again. For those Security Architects and PKI implementers, you may have known that since Windows Server 2008 we have an Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) responder, and since Windows Vista we have an OCSP client that is integrated with the operating system. I wanted to cover the in and outs of the OCSP responder, and walk through the installation.

Source : blogs.technet.com/askds

OutlookAttachView scans all messages stored in your Outlook, and displays the list of all attached files that it finds. You can easily select one or more attachments and save all of them into the desired folder, as well as you can delete unwanted large attachments that take too much disk space in your mailbox.

It’s free and it’s portable !

Sources :

Lots of people aren't aware of this little "trick" and it is very handy when debugging a temperamental RPC over HTTP connection. Normally, the "Connection Status" dialog box only shows up if you launch Outlook with "/rpcdiag".

If you hold down [Ctrl], and then right click on the Outlook tray icon, with Outlook 2007, "Connection Status" and "Test E-mail AutoConfiguration" appear. E-mail AutoConfiguration testing is handy for Exchange 2007 setups.

Just passing this along as an FYI because whenever I show it to people, 9 times out of 10, they have never seen those options before.

Source : Aaron Tiensivu's Blog

One of the benefits of being a college student is that you get discounts on lot of stuff especially computer software.

Almost every software vendor offers educational discounts but Microsoft took that idea to the extreme when they introduced the DreamSpark program that allows students worldwide to download certain Microsoft tools for free :

Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition
Expression Studio 3
SQL Server 2008 Developer
Robotics Developer Studio 2008 R2
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008 Standard
Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition

Source :	A Student’s Guide to Microsoft DreamSpark - Published at Digital Inspiration
Link :	www.dreamspark.com

For those of you who manage your organization’s desktops using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Internet Explorer 8 will be made available via this technology starting August 25, 2009. Internet Explorer 8 will be made available as an “Update rollup” and will be applicable to all supported languages.

Source : blogs.msdn.com/ie

There has been a lot of great discussion out there recently about the importance of end user engagement and change management to a successful SharePoint deployment. Your SharePoint solution may be technically brilliant, but if nobody uses it, it won’t be a success. And getting people to use SharePoint often involves getting them to change how they work…or how they think they need to work.

If you are involved with deploying SharePoint in your organization, these links might help you think about how you can integrate a bit of change management into your end user training.

Read the article : Get the 'Point

…

Starting tomorrow August 7^th, our Software Assurance/Volume License customers will be able to download the Windows 7 Enterprise Edition as well.

…

As of September 1^st you will be able to purchase product Volume License upgrades to Windows 7 Pro and be able to order the media for Windows 7 Enterprise available to Software Assurance customers.

Source : The Windows Blog

Did you ever want to see witch USB drivers are installed on your computer, but you don’t have the device at hand to connect it ?

I know it’s not a new solution, but i keep forgetting about it, so I decided to make a post about it.

Here’s what to do :

Start > Run > Execute
cmd
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc
View > Show hidden devices

You could be surprise to see how many hidden drivers you have installed under disk drives and mobile devices.

Source : support.microsoft.com

NewsGator’s Online Reader will no longer be available for consumer use as of August 31, 2009.

I was using NewsGator service to sync my feeds on my two computers with RSS bandit. I guess I will have to move to Google Reader. I’m not really happy to do that because Google Reader doesn’t support 2 levels folders (sub folders) like NewsGator and guess what, all my feeds are organized in a 2 levels folders structure.

Source :

Ed Bott's Windows Expertise
NewsGator Consumer RSS Reader Product Changes & Google Sync

8 new apps were added to the Windows Web App Gallery :

Amplifeeder: ASP.NET lifestream platform aggregating online activity in one place, published by Amplifeeder.

AtomSite: ASP.NET CMS built on MVC, published by AtomSite.

KenticoCMS for ASP.NET: ASP.NET CMS, brought to you by Kentico.

mojoPortal: ASP.NET content management system, published by Source Tree Solutions, LLC

nopCommerce: ASP.NET shopping cart, published by nopCommerce.

nService: ASP.NET help desk system, published by Avensoft.

ResourceBlender.NET: ASP.NET app that helps you translate an application into multiple languages, published by ResourceBlender.NET.

SugarCRM CE: PHP customer relationship management (CRM) system, published by SugarCRM.

Did you notice the big new comer : SugarCRM ?

Source : The Official Microsoft IIS Site

Looking for an alternative to using Hotmail to get connected with Messenger from the browser ? check out BuddyFuse.

It’s a preview version, but it’s really cool.

Source : liveside.net

Since you don’t want kids to accidentally see any of sites that contain adult content, an easy option for blocking such sites is OpenDNS.

You don’t have to download or install any software - just go to opendns.com/start in any Internet browser, choose the "Computer" option (let’s keep it simple) and follow the instructions on the screen. Once your computer is configured with OpenDNS, go to Dashboard -> Settings and set the Filtering level to either Moderate or High.

Now whenever your kid mistakenly types a URL of some adult site in the browser (e.g. whitehouse.com instead of whitehouse.gov) or clicks a link that may be pointing to an inappropriate site, the OpenDNS filters will match the address of that site against their own database of adults sites and if there’s a match, the underlying web page won’t be displayed on the child’s computer.

Source : Digital Inspiration

Overview Rogue DHCP servers are those DHCP servers that are misconfigured or unauthorized unknowingly or those that are configured with a malicious intent for network attacks. Either be the case the impact on clients that are serviced by the rogue DHCP...(read more)

Source : Microsoft Windows DHCP Team Blog

"Mastering PowerShell" by Dr. Tobias Weltner, Windows PowerShell MVP, is now available as a free PDF eBook. You can download it here or read the online version.

Source : Shay Levy

Jean-Pierre Paradis's Blog

Here’s how to configure and use your codes snippets for french characters :

Profile Watch

Reclaim privacy

Openbook

Check how your friends sees your profile

Device Remover

Double Check your Facebook Privacy Settings

About

Techno Bla Bla

Popular Posts

Label Cloud

Blog Archive