Friday, April 1, 2022

Great New Resource for Books Online Information

The SQL User Edutcation Team has been working hard with our teams here to get better/more/good information out to our users. We've created a new a customized Windows Live search, that limits results to Books Online. Check this out, and make sure you let your contacts know to visit it and provide feedback:

http://search.live.com/macros/sql_server_user_education/booksonline

We want to generate as much traffic as possible here so that we can see if this is useful to our users. We'd love to hear back from everyone we can!

Reply:

Thanks! There's lots more innovations listed here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/archive/2007/06/14/books-online-innovations.aspx

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Reply:

Hi,

looks like a great job you have done.

tosc

InsideSQL.de

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Reply:

Thanks! There's lots more innovations listed here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/archive/2007/06/14/books-online-innovations.aspx

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SQL Server Books Online: A Primer for New Users

I have written an article on the usage of SQL Server Books Online aka BOL:

http://www.sql-server-performance.com/sj_bol_april_2006.asp

Have a look at it for the SQL beginners and even experienced users do have bit problems in finding the information.

Your feedback is highly appreciated.

Thanks.

Reply:

Good post - and for an insight into how Books Online is written, check here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/buckwoody/archive/2007/02/14/sql-server-books-online.aspx

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Configuring incoming email for an SMTP server NOT using SharePoint Directory Management Service or Exchange Server

Most of the instructions I found on blogs for troubleshooting email apply to using Directory Management Service and Exchange Servers. I am in an environment with 10,000 people in Active Directory, and I don't have rights to write to Active Directory. I am running SharePoint on a single server and I configured a virtual SMTP server on the same server. I wasn't able to get email working using the non-advanced settings in SharePoint. After much struggling with this, I discovered that the reason was because I had POP3 configured on the same server.

When I initially set up my email and it was not working, I figured the logical thing to do to troubleshoot was to install Outlook Express to see if general email was working. I needed to do that to discover that in my environment, one reason email was not working was, I had to get my email and firewall administrators to allow me to use a smart host and connect on port 25. Once that was done, I was able to confirm that incoming and outgoing emails were working from Outlook Express, and outgoing email was working fine in SharePoint, but incoming email was not working.

I didn't understand how SharePoint picked up incoming email and whether I was supposed to create mailboxes or accounts for my SharePoint email addresses. I knew SharePoint was supposed to take the emails from the drop folder, but when I monitored my drop folder, I never saw any emails in it. When I configured Outlook Express, I also configured POP3. POP3 was checking the drop folder for emails and delivering them to their respective mailboxes or rejecting them if they didn't have a valid address. I had to uninstall POP3 so that SharePoint emails went into the drop folder. Without POP3, the incoming emails sit in the drop folder until SharePoint picks them up and delivers them within SharePoint. There is no need for any email account administration outside of specifying email addresses in SharePoint.

My incoming and outgoing emails are working fine now.

sp_ListFiles works differently based on the O/S level.

Be sure to test "sp_ListFiles" carefully if you use it. It will fail on some versions of Windows because "DIR" returns different time formats. For example, Windows NT 5.2 (3790) does not return the required time format. "usp_Clean_Backup_Files" uses "sp_ListFiles" and that is how I came across this.

OpenLDAP XMA on SourceForge: Files Available for Download

The OpenLDAP XMA project went live a little while ago on SourceForge, and the files are now available for download. Please feel free to download, take apart, file bugs, file feature requests, and of course make use of it!

The project was announced during Bob Muglia's keynote speech at the Interop conference in Vegas back in May. It was picked up by several online publications, including the following:

Wait a sec, isn't there already an OpenLDAP MA on SourceForge? Yes, but this project is the new and improved MA that runs entirely managed code thanks to System.DirectoryServices.Protocols. We have also started filing bugs on the project, all of which should be visible to everybody in hopes of making this more of a collaboration.

There are updates planned already for this summer, including directory trawling and some performance testing. In the meantime, enjoy the current release and feel free to file feedback!

OpenLDAP XMA project

No programs appear on the desktop or program files. Thay are not blocked.

No programs appear on the desktop when I set up a child user. They are not blocked in the user set up. Should all programs be available unless you block them?

Any help please?

Bob

Reply:

Hi Bob,

program fail to appear on desktop

------------------------

When we create a new user account, the user account is created from the default user folder(C:\Documents and Settings\Default User). So if there is no application links under : C:\Documents and Settings\Default User\Desktop, there will be no application links under C:\Documents and Settings\NewUserName\Desktop, thus no program shortcut appear on desktop for the new created user.

To test if the program links can successfully appear on desktop, you can put a program link in the folder: C:\Documents and Settings\Default User, create a new user account, logon as the new created user to see if the program link appear on desktop.

Should all programs be available unless you block them?

----------------------

When we create a restricted user in SteadyState, by default, the windows restrictions and feature restrictions for the new user is set to high restrictions, which means some settings may caused some allowed program fail to run for the restricted users. For example,

The [Windows Restriction>General Restrictions>Allow only programs in the Program Files and Windows folders to run] option can prevent programs installed under other folders from running. You can uncheck this option to remove this restriction.

Also many programs may need admin right to run and a restricted user certainly fail to meet that requirement. To run those programs, you may refer to this thread: http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsToolsandUtilities/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1776924&SiteID=69

To sum up, that even we do not block any application do not means all programs will be available to restricted users.

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Management Shell - WHY???

I've been racking my brains behind the reasoning of the Management Shell interface. Why spend 25 years developing a wonderful GUI interface, then all of a sudden revert to a command line prompt?

There seems to be a mentality that because its a command line, it must be more powerful. This is of course absolute tosh. It does give 3rd parties the ability to write their own GUI interface I guess, but I've never been very keen on using these.

All it does mean is that we have a lot of complex syntaxes to learn, and that if something urgent needs doing, it'll probably be a while before the correct line can be typed out.

Absolute crud. Which is a shame as I really like most of Ex2007

Reply:

I am not defending the EMS by any means, as I am pretty much in agreement with you. The GUI has to be there for most administrators. However, I have warmed up to the EMS and have found some very useful things I can do with it. I figure if *I* can learn the shell, most anyone else can.

Hopefully, in SP1 most of the GUI will be restored and the typical admin won't have to worry about the shell at all. However, you will find, if you play with it, that there is very cool things you can do.

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Reply:

Thanks for the reply Jim and really glad to hear SP1 will restore some common sense.

I'm sure if I had enough time (and inclination) to spend investigating the shell I'd find some wonderful stuff, but sadly not an option for me

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BDD vs WDS. That is the question.

I think that Microsoft has released two powerful tools in both BDD and WDS. They are interrelated in ways, and yet separate. I think that MS hasn't done a good enough job delineating and explaining the types of environments where one might favor one tool for deploying Vista over the other. It would seem to me that BDD is more suited to a larger enterprise with real desktop lifecycle issues. Whereas WDS is going to turn out to be a decent, and free, desktop imaging system (if you can master it) that can allow you to build a solid image for deploying desktops.

The break point probably has to do with whether you are large enough to run SMS and the total number of desktops, number of new desktops, and number of upgrades you are attempting. That being said, I am finding ways to use BDD to help organize drivers, os's and Office 2007, even though I may not actually use it to its full extent. So, even if you can't USE IT, you CAN still use it. If that makes sense.

Then there's the whole WinPE thing. Works great on my HP Desktops. Has a problem on my Dell Laptops. This means I probably have to modify my WinPE and add some network drivers. Will this be easy? Probably not.

But I definitely see more than an evolutionary change in these products, and I expect that they will only improve.

- Adam in DC

Reply:

BDD in the litetouch scenario is also free and does not require you run an SMS server in your environment. I have found it to be a great way to manage all of the above mentioned items. Not only that, but it also provides a bit of an easier interface that makes it more difficult for your lower level techs to mess up when they are deploying an image to a system.

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Reply:

The reason WinPE has a problem on Dell laptops is the new laptops have a small Fat32 partition on the harddrive. WinPE cannot read this and so for some reason starts partition the dell HDD at Hardisk 0 Partition 2 instead of partition 1 and so the restart does not boot from the imaged partition. I use a Windows XP install cd to delete the Fat32 partition and then cancel the setup process then rerun WDS and it works flawlessly.

We have not yet had a chance to use WDS to its full potential. We do numerous images and upgrades a day; since you have been using BDD would you recommend we look into that?

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Reply:

For details on the Dell Utility partition, a great site is here:

http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/index.htm

And since that partition (or any other similar OEM utility partition) may no longer be useful or desirable after you have installed a custom image to the disk; you would likely want to repartition the disk under WinPE (from WDS using a WDSClientUnattend.xml) or in the ZTIDiskpart.txt file that ZTIDiskpart.wsf uses.

- glenn fincher

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Reply:

I havne't used BDD to deploy a desktop at this time. However, there are aspects of it that are still usable even though I haven't used it to image a pc. I think in a small desktop environment (say, under 500 pcs ?) I'd stick to WDS for imaging. Especially if you have good desktop standards without huge variations of models.

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Excel Services Compatiblity Checker Downloadable

I published a new Addin for Excel that lets you check Excel workbooks for compatibility with Excel Services.

You can find information and screenshots here.

It states that it wasn't installed properly...

...even though no errors were encountered when installing it.

Reply:

Hi,

Please let me know when did you encountered the message stating that the steadystate wasn't installed properly.

Has the installation process finished successfully?

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Reply:

Well, I tried opening it after installing it and that's when it gave me that error message. Yes, the installation process did finish successfully.

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Reply:

Hi,

Thanks for the clarification. Considering the current status, we can do so:

action plan

-----------

1.If the steadystate was upgraded from sct1.1 (We should give the full name when you use it for the first time), please uninstsall the steadystate (Do you mean SCT?) first and reinstall the tool. Per steadystate handbook, it is recommed we do a fresh (Here it seems that there are some extra spaces.)

installation of the tool to avoid unknow issues.

2.If it is not upgraded from sct1.1, please uninstall the steadystate, you can clean boot to the system to reinstall steadystate. For how to do a clean boot, please refer to:

How to configure Windows XP to start in a "clean boot" (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us )

3. If the same problem still exists after previous steps, please gather me the MPS report(setup version) and the installation log file (%SystemRoot%\SCT.log) for further research.

the setup version MPS tool can be downloaded from:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CEBF3C7C-7CA5-408F-88B7-F9C79B7306C0&displaylang=en

The MPS report is written to a cab file under: %systemroot%\MPSReports\Setup\Reports\cab

Please send those log files to me for further research, my email: v-samyu@online.microsoft.com (no online included)

Please keep me updated. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Sammy Yu.

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vista calculating time remaining fix

The Following makes the Copying faster..............................

I have done it and it works....................

Control Panel\Programs and Features

On left side panel Click on

Turn windows feature on or off

un tick

ActiveX installer Service
Games
Indexing Service
Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) Server
remote Differential Compression
RIP Listener
Services for NFS
SNMP feature
Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications
Tablet PC Optional Components
Telnet Server
TFTP Client
Windows DFS replication Service
windows Fax and Scan
Windows Meeting Space
Windows Ultimate Extras

I only use

Microsoft .NET framework 3.0
Removable Sotrage management
Simple TCPIP service
Telnet client
Windows Process Activation Service

Desktop changes

I just tried SteadyState on a PC upgraded from the MSCT. I locked the "Public" profile from my "Admin" account. I logged into Public and dragged a bunch of files from my USB drive to the desktop.

After logging out of Public, and logging back into Public, the extra unwanted files remain on the desktop.

How do I prevent this?

Thanks!

Reply:

Hi,

Action Plan:

1.you can create a new user profile, lock it, and perform the same action to see if the problem is still there.

2.If the same issue exists for the newly created user, please uninstall and reinstalled the steadystate to test out. Please understand it it recommend to uninstall Shared Toolkit before install SteadyState per the steadystate handbook.

3. If the same issue exist after step2, the problem can be related to the fact the public profile is not successfully locked. For this situation, you can refer to this thread: Locking User Account .

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Gateway using SigmaTel High Def Audio Volumn Control Not Working

I went to Belarc Advisor (PC Audit of my system) and it gave me SigmaTel High Definition Audo CODEC as the Multimedia.

I have had NO VOLUMN after installing a VISTA upgrade sent to me. Speeking of that, only took 6 MONTHS to get it! What a bargain from BestBuy. They even charged me an outragious Decrapafy price to take the factory junk off.

After installing, it has taken me a few days and many calls to finally figure this out. So, if you got this problem, here is the easiest way to solve.

Go to Remove Programs, Go to your multimedia program, mine is SigmaTel, and remove. Turn the computer off if you must, let it reboot, in this case Vista, did a complete update. Now it works. Fixed conflict with programs automatic.

WHY CAN"T MICROSOFT PUT THIS OUT AND SAVE EVERYONE TIME ON THIS? I have almost NO computer experience and they hire hundreds! Where do I apply? I even got a trained monkey that can work too maybe in product development.

UPDATE statement differences between 2000 and 2005

I just wanted to post a difference I found between SQL 2000 and SQL 2005 regarding UDPATE statements that are done on a join. I understand that if tables are designed correctly this won't be a problem. But, when you inherit a bad design, you are unfortunately stuck with it. Hopefully this will help ease data differences in your migration from SQL 2000 to SQL 2005.

Run this code on a SQL 2000 connection, then run on SQL 2005. My guess on the behavior difference is strictly performance based since 2005 pulls the top result. Either way it can cause a lot of head scratching if you're not aware of it.

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#UpdateTestA') IS NOT NULL

DROP TABLE #UpdateTestA

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#UpdateTestB') IS NOT NULL

DROP TABLE #UpdateTestB

CREATE TABLE #UpdateTestA(

UpdateTestA int identity(1, 1),

FullName varchar(20),

UpdateData varchar(10))

CREATE TABLE #UpdateTestB(

UpdateTestB int identity(1, 1),

FullName varchar(20),

UpdateData varchar(10))

INSERT INTO #UpdateTestA(

FullName)

VALUES ('Barney Rubble')

INSERT INTO #UpdateTestB(

FullName,

UpdateData)

VALUES ('Barney Rubble', 'First')

INSERT INTO #UpdateTestB(

FullName,

UpdateData)

VALUES ('Barney Rubble', 'Second')

SELECT * FROM #UpdateTestA

UPDATE a

SET a.UpdateData = b.UpdateData

FROM #UpdateTestA a

INNER JOIN #UpdateTestB b on b.FullName = a.FullName

SELECT * FROM #UpdateTestA

DROP TABLE #UpdateTestA

DROP TABLE #UpdateTestB

Hope this solves a problem that you were having too.

Reply:

This is 'known' behavior. If the JOIN will produce multiple rows meeting the JOIN criteria, there is no certainity which row will be used in the UPDATE.

SQL 2005 has changed the Query Optimizer and, in this situation, chooses a different row to use for UPDATE.

It is ALWAYS advisable to 'tune' the JOIN criteria to obtain exactly the row of data you desire. For example:

Code Snippet

UPDATE a
   SET a.UpdateData = b.UpdateData
   FROM #UpdateTestA a
   JOIN #UpdateTestB b
      ON (   b.FullName = a.FullName
         AND b.UpdateData = 'Second'
         )

will update as 'requested' in both SQL 2000 and SQL 2005.

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Reply:

I also have similar problem, but my case is instead of UpdateData field, I have a LastUpdated datetime field where I want to update the latest datetime in that field.

Any clue?

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Reply:

You've probably since solved this, but if not please show a more detailed example of what you're trying to accomplish.

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InfoWha?Continuing the dialog about InfoPath v Web Forms, and how InfoPath will survive ne thrive!

InfoPath - Continuing the dialog about InfoPath v Web Forms, and how InfoPath will survive.

Firstly
I've been building, deploying and supporting a few IP based apps. The idea of a self-contained document centric workfolw enabled rich UI client with good Web and FULL Rich Client UI* is a siren song for programmers. The tools are immature compared to VS.Net and even Access. Still, I love the document centric, Office Server integration (see #3).

Second:
I agree with the $ arguments. Forms Server goes a long way to heighten awareness, but you should be giving it away with WSS. Perhaps we are just confused by MS Licensing (ie, I should get a free Web CAL if I own the full IP client!). And for the $$, support is medeocre (see #3).

Thirdly:
Build a community through GREAT support. The IPTeam needs to be on top of the NGs and blogs answering questions; demonstrating best practices; and building good will.

What do you think?

Frequently Posted Questions and Answers

Question List:

Supported platforms
How can I create auditing rules in Essentials?
How do I set up a remote console in a different domain or using local policy?
How can I discover network devices to manage?
Can I run both SCE and WSUS in the same domain?
Can I monitor a machine that is in a workgroup?
My clients are reporting an error in the RedirectWSUS.vbs script. What does this error mean and how can I fix it?
My install has an error when trying to run a software or inventory report saying it cannot connect to the SUSDB. How can I fix this problem?
My install failed during the reporting setup. What should I look for?
I get an error when creating software packages saying verification failed. How do I resolve the issue?
SCE prereqs are failing on ASP.NET 2.0. What should I try to register ASP.NET correctly?
How can I create a dynamic deployment group?
My managed computers installed successfully, but still report a status of "unknown" in the computer space. How can I get them to contact?
Why do I not see any charts when I run reports?
I need a hotfix mentioned in the forums. How can I receive the updates?
Can I use Essentials 2007 and Forefront Client Security to manage the same computers?
Failure while attempting to upgrade SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services to Service Pack 2
How to upgrade the Eval bits to Volume licensing

Question 1:

Setup

Base requirements:

· Essentials 2007 must be installed on x86 hardware.

· Forefront Client Security must be installed in the 2 machine (or more) supported configuration from their guide, where the SCE server is the distribution server component. No other FCS workload is supported on the Essentials server.

· All FCS managed machines must be SCE managed machines

Configuration notes:

· If the FCS distribution server is installed on to Essentials 2007, it will alter the subscription and approval settings already configured. The administrator will need to re-run the Update Management Wizard again to apply custom settings. It is important that the "Definitions" classification and the "Forefront" product remain subscribed and declared in the auto-approval settings.

· If Essentials is installed on to the Distribution server running FCS, the same classification and product settings need to be applied.

· The Essentials 2007 default client and server scan times fall 1-2 hours after the FCS scan, which may leave managed machines up to 22 hours stale. We recommend using Group Policy to set the client scan time to 4:00 AM, and the Server Sync time to 1:00AM.

Question 2: How can I create auditing rules in Essentials?

Answer: (credit - John Joyner) In Essentials, you can create custom rules that collect events from the security log.

Go to Authoring space, select Rules -> Create a new rule -> Alert Generating Rules/Event Based/NT Event Log.
Select the Essentials group you want to collect events from. To collect from all computers, select the Agent group.
Select the Security Log to collect events from. Next you build the Filter Expression.
The Source will be Security and the Event ID will be the security event you are interested in, for example event 612 is Audit Policy Changed.
Finally, configure the alert with title and description to match the event, such as "Audit Policy was Changed".

You need to make sure that auditing for the type of event you want to capture is turned on at the domain group policy or local security policy level, otherwise the security events won't be written to the log for Essentials to see them.

Question 3: How do I set up a remote console in a different domain or using local policy?

Answer: When in the same domain, the certificates used to connect to SCE are generally available from the group policy, but for a different domain or local policy, the certificates require manual import on the UI machine.

The two certificates are available on the SCE server in the install directory folder titled Certificates. The WSUSSSLCert.cer should be imported into the local computer's trusted root authority store. The WSUSCodeSigningCert.cer should be imported into the local computer's trusted root authority, third party publishers and third party root certification authority stores.

Question 4: How can I discover network devices to manage?

Answer: To discover network devices, launch the same wizard used to discover computers and chose the advanced option (it appears in the administration space on the right hand side of the splash page with the name "Configure computers and devices to manage"). In the drop down menu for computers and device types, chose network devices.

Question 5: Can I run both SCE and WSUS in the same domain?

Answer: Individual machines can only report to one WSUS server. Those machines managed by SCE should only report to the SCE server for updates, although users are not prohibited from contacting Microsoft update directly by default. If not all machines in the domain report to the SCE server, a second WSUS server can be used to managed just those machines not included in SCE.

If the current environment is running a WSUS 2.0 or WSUS 3.0 server, you can upgrade the current server to be a SCE server and retain the settings and data currently stored.

Question 6: Can I monitor a machine that is in a workgroup?

Answer: Essentials requires that all managed computers are a member of a domain.

Question 7: My clients are reporting an error in the RedirectWSUS.vbs script. What does this error mean and how can I fix it?

Answer (credit - Dustin Jones):

We are working on fixing this MP for Essentials SP1. Until then, you can disable the Discover XP SP2 clients discovery rule.

Question 8: My install has an error when trying to run a software or inventory report saying it cannot connect to the SUSDB. How can I fix this problem?

Answer:

If your WSUS was a 2.0 upgrade from MSDE, or a WSUS 3.0 install existed previously on the install provided database option, there are two available options to fix the issues - one for SQL Express users (the database provided with SCE) and one for full SQL server reporting services users.

*If you chose to use SQL Express for the database - try the following

Due to SQL Express limitations in Reporting Services, the WSUS database must be moved to SQL Express.

Close any open consoles connecting to SCE or WSUS.
Launch the local SQL Server Management Studio express version and log into the np:\\.\PIPE\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\SQL\QUERY instance.
Backup the SUSDB before continuing.
Stop the Update Services service, then chose to detach the SUSDB (selecting to stop active connections).
Log into the SQL Express instance in SQL Server Management Studio. The SQL Express instance installed with SCE will be %COMPUTERNAME%\SCE. A default SQL Express install will be %COMPUTERNAME%\SQLEXPRESS.
Chose to attach the SUSDB to this SQL instance. This database will be in the WSUS content directory in a folder called UpdateServicesDbFiles. By default this location will be %SYSTEMDRIVE%\WSUS\UpdateServicesDbFiles.
Using regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup . Change the SqlServerName key to be the new SQL instance, including the machine name.
You will need to change the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup\WmsdeInstalled value from 1 to 0
Restart the Update Services service.
Try running the report that failed previously.

*If you chose not to use SQL Express for the database - try the following

Close the SCE UI
Launch IE and navigate to http://localhost/reports[$instancename]
Chose the "Show Details" button on the resulting page's bar on the right hand side
Select the "WSUS Database" data source option
In the connection string, replace 'data source=[SCESERVER\INSTANCENAME]' with 'data source=np:\\.\PIPE\MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE\SQL\QUERY'. Do not modify the remainder of the connection string.
Apply the changes
Launch the SCE UI
In the SCE UI, try running the report that failed previously.

Question 9: My install failed during the reporting setup. What should I look for?

Answer:

If your domain FQDN does not have the format NETBIOS.[Ending] (example domain NETBIOS: CONTOSO FQDN: TEST.CONTOSO.NET), a QFE is needed to complete your install.

[Credit Justin Incarnato] To obtain the update, you will need to contact Microsoft Customer Support Services. For information on how to contact CSS, click the following link located on the System Center Essentials Self-help Resources page.

http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?Gprid=12684

The update is Knowledge Base article number 937831 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937831

You may also request this fix from the web:

https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix

Other common problems in reporting can be a failure to access SQL Reporting Services. Check that you are able to connect to http://localhost/reports[$instancename] and correct any errors using the Reporting Services Configuration utility available from SQL and adding any required exceptions that may be required by your proxy server. Note that having SSL enabled on the website containing SRS is not supported for the RTM release of SCE.

Question 10: I get an error when creating software packages saying verification failed. How do I resolve the issue?

Answer: The product configuration wizard must be run before using any of the software packaging features of the product. If this is a remote UI, ensure that the WSUSSigningCert.cer is imported onto the local UI machines Trusted Root Authorities, Third Party Publishers and Trusted Publishers certificates store. You can find this certificate on the SCE server installation directory in a folder called Certificates.

Question 11: SCE prereqs are failing on ASP.NET 2.0. What should I try to register ASP?

Answer: Often installing .NET versions before IIS can cause ASP not to be registered correctly. Try running the following command to correct the issue:

X86:

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i -enable

X64:

%WINDIR%\Microsoft.Net\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i -enable

Question 12: How can I create a dynamic deployment group?

Answer: Many dynamic groups are available in SCE that are not initially update/software deployment groups. For example, groups already exist for the monitored sql, active directory, or exchange servers. To make these deployment groups, chose to create a group from an already exiting group in the computers space grouping wizard. If the group you would like to create does not exist by default, the authoring space (denoted by the paper and pencil icon in the right hand corner of the wunderbar) contains a more complex grouping wizard that can create a dynamic computer group based on computer properties. Once the group has been created from the wizard, it will be available to become a update/software deployment group in the computers space using the create new groups wizard.

Question 13: My managed computers installed successfully, but still report a status of "unknown" in the computer space. How can I get them to contact?

Answer: The configure product features wizard must have been run before computers will report status in this section. If using group policy, the settings may take some time to update before the clients will contact. If using local policy, the configure product features wizard must be run before agent deployment.

If these steps have been completed successfully, check one of the machines that is reporting the "unknown" inventory by running the rsop.msc. Computer Configuration\Administrative Settings\Windows Components\Windows Update\Specify intranet Microsoft updates location should point to https://sceserver.fqdn:8531. If this is not the case, check that the computer is a member of the AD security group SCE Managed Computers (SCESERVER_MG) and if so, try relogging into the machine or rebooting to pick up the group membership.

If the correct server is reported, check the %WINDIR%\WindowsUpdate.log to see if any errors are occurring with contacting the SCE server. As always, if the answer is not clear, these forums are here to help! Including the log file information in your post will aid in quick answer.

Question 14: Why do I not see any charts when I run reports?

Answer:

If you are running with SQL Express Advanced or the SQL install that is available as part of SCE setup, charts that use external charting controls will fail to display the graph due to limitations of the SQL Express product. Also, if you have upgrade SQL from one version to another, the graphs which were previously displaying may fail to display due to losing the registration of the external charting controls.

Question 15: I need a hotfix mentioned in the forums. How can I receive the update?

If the fix is not a Microsoft Update for System Center Essentials, you can request the update for CSS using the following website:

https://support.microsoft.com/contactus2/emailcontact.aspx?scid=sw;en;1410&WS=hotfix

Question 16: Can I use Essentials 2007 and Forefront Client Security to manage the same computers?

Yes. Please read through these configuration steps to understand how to use both products in the same environment.

Setup

Base requirements:

· Essentials 2007 must be installed on x86 hardware.

· All FCS managed machines must be SCE managed machines

Configuration notes:

· If Essentials is installed on to the Distribution server running FCS, the same classification and product settings need to be applied.

Operation

It is important to note that the purchased limits of the FCS solution must remain within the purchased limits of the Essentials solution.

Question 17: Failure while attempting to upgrade SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services to Service Pack 2

If you are attempting to upgrade the SQL Server 2005 Express instance that Essentials setup installed to Service Pack 2 and receive the following error message:

SQL Server Setup failed to execute a command for server configuration. The error was [Microsoft][SQL Native Client][SQL Server]CREATE DATABASE failed. Some file names listed could not be created. Check related errors.. Refer to the server error logs and Setup logs for detailed error information.

Please see this Knowledge Base article.

Error message when you install SQL Server 2005 SP2, SQL Server Express SP2, or SQL Server Express with Advanced Services SP2: "SQL Server Setup failed to execute a command for server configuration. CREATE DATABASE failed"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935371

Question 18:

How to upgrade from Eval bits to Volume License

Using the VL fulfillment media CD, follow these steps:

1. On the root folder of the installation files (CD) you will find a file named productkey.txt

2. On the server running Essentials, click Start-> All programs -> System Center Essentials 2007 -> System Center Essentials Licensing Wizard

3. Complete the wizard entering the key from productkey.txt, that should unlock the timebomb and the server/client limit.

Deploying XP using the WIM format on native WDS server 2

Hey Hez23

In your sysprep.inf file assign a unsupported character as your computer name and hopefully the installation service will stop and say the following name is not supported or something.

If you assing the computer name to be "space" (just hit space bar once and choose that as computer name) I am sure you will force installation service to stop and ask you to choose a computer name unless it is clever enough to carry on with a random chosen name and finish installation.

It maybe worth a try.

Reply:

Hi Khan,

I am giving this a try now. One question in the server properties for my WDS server on the Directory Services Tab what Format should I put under "New Client Naming Policy"? Thank you.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hey Hez23

I do not think Directory Services in WDS Server properties affect Win XP Images. You can assign it however you like, e.g. %MAC - This will rename computers to their MAC address, %MAC-%# - This will rename computers to their MAC address with an increment number something like 000e0f0e01fd-2. There is a little example on Directory Services Page, which you may find helpful.

------------------------------------

Please select an Answer.

If your question has been answered please select the solution in the forum thread and click, Yes this is the answer.

Vista's SystemRestore set to delete after...136 years !!!

In Vista, SystemRestore is set to delete restore points after roughly 136 years ... yeah, let that sink...

Normally Windows uses up to 15 percent of a drive's available space to save restore points. In XP, the option to change this figure was configurable from the System Restore tab of the System Properties dialog box. But sadly this option is no longer offered in Vista.

But you can do so as follows :

Open regedit and go to
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\
SystemRestore\Cfg Double-click the DiskPercent.

The default is f (in hexadecimal) which is 15 in decimal. For making it say 10% type 'a'

Now again, how frequently you'd like to have your SystemRestore points auto-created can also b configured as follows :

Open regedit and go to
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion
\SystemRestore
You can change the value RPGlobalInterval from its default setting of 86,400 seconds (24 hours) to, say, 43200 (a8c0) if u want it created every 12 hrs.

As and how your new restore points get created, the older ones get deleted due to the availble space contstraint.

Otherwise by default, in Vista, SystemRestore is set to delete restore points after roughly 4,294,967,295 seconds or 136 years, which was a mere 90 days in XP ! The idea apparantly, is to delete them only when absolutely necessary due to space constraint!!! But err...136 years !!!

But if you'd like to, you can also change this interval too. Change the value of RPLifeInterval in the same key; a setting of 7,776,000 seconds (or 76a700 in hexadecimal) is equivalent to 90 days.

source : http://www.winvistaclub.com/tips.html

The Run Command!

Just an FYI alot of people are asking about the Run Command not being their, When you open the start button. The search bar at the bottom is equivilant to the Run Command, so instead of Windows Logo + R, just hit Windows Logo > msconfig or etc.

Anoter Alternative

There is another alternative ... if you are using MSCRM 3.0

follow this steps

1. Navigate to your report manager --> //<<Server Name>>/reports

2. Navigate to your datasource --> HOME > <<Datasource>>

3. At the top tab select Properties

4. Make sure that there is a user role call "NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE" thus apply the appropiate roles for it

Vula....!!!!!

Reply:

Another alternative to what?

------------------------------------

What is the best MIIS Skillset to start with?

I posted a question on my blog regarding the basic skills an MIIS Engineer should have in the attempt to find out what sort of skills may be indicative of a potential MIIS Admin or Engineer and how one may acquire such knowledge. I would like to hear everyones feedback and opinions. You can find the post here:

http://idchaos.blogspot.com/2006/07/chaos-chat-what-is-best-miis-skillset.html

Feel free to comment here or there, thanks!

Reply:

A MIIS Engineer needs a strong foundation in 3 basic skill sets:

1. Directory and Identity Management - This skillset includes understand the LDAP protocol, hierarchy, security model, and object manipulation. It also includes a conceptual understanding of digital identity and how it is utilized in an enterprise environment.

2. Database - This skillset includes understanding the SQL language across multiple database vendors ( including MS, Oracle, DB2, etc ). They should know how to create, delete and update tables. How to write T-SQL Queries and simple performance modifications.

3. Programming - They should understand scripting and programming aspects to customize solutions built around directories and databases.

How do you acquire such knowledge?

For Directories I always feel its best to understand the history before you dive into products, so i would say start with the RFCs for LDAPv3. You dont have to read it from cover to cover - but you do need to understand what LDAP can do, how it does it, and how different vendors extend it. Without this you could have someone good in AD but be lost in SunOne. If they know LDAP they can do both. Have them set up each directory from scratch and manage it through a gui or raw format. For example, you dont really learn AD through Active Directory Users and Computers - you really learn AD through LDP and ADSIEdit. This way you get knowledge of the actual attributes and how they are used. Learn how to use CSVDE and LDIFDE for bulk imports and changes. Understand how security affects what can be done and seen in the directory.

For Database I have found the SQL Bible to very useful - http://sqlbible.tar.hu/ This will give the basics of a database so you understand it structure and examples of how it can be used. They should learn how to create a database, understand normalization and primary / foriegn keys. They should learn how to perform somewhat complex queries to the database in an efficient manner. Its all about the data and what it tells you.

For Programming I have found the O'Reilly books to be great. I started with Learning VB.NET and VB.NET in a Nutshell. The former educated me about structures and programming principles although it was very light, with my experience it was all I need to dive in. The latter educated me about the syntax, I basically used it as a reference when I wanted to use different functions. They need to learn the principles so they understand how to apply them to perform some business logic. From experience I have found this aspect to be the most threatening to up and coming Identity Architects but it is one of the most critical skills. They can start with writing simple scripts in VBScript or other language. The important thing here is to be comfortable with the programming model, how to manipulate objects, so they can customize solutions.

Overall, I would say test, test, test. When I first started out I invested in a small home lab ( basically 3-4 PCs and a small hub ) This allowed me to not only read up on the products and the theories but also to install them and get pratical knowledge. You also have other benefits such as coming up with creative ways to destroy application and then testing them out to see if they work. This aids in troubleshooting skills where something doesnt work the way it is supposed to. They have to be able to look at the solution, then break it down to its base components to find the issue.

Hope that helps

------------------------------------

Keeping Group items in a table together within a page

I am using table and inserted groups. As the rows belonging to same group are breaking at page end, I want to show them together. Can any one help me in this regard? Placing Rectangle, as MSDN advising is not good in my case.

I know that there is a check box saying 'Keep Group together' in Crystal Reports for the same situation. I don't find any such option in SSRS.

Appreciate anyones help.

Regards.

Uninstalling Vista

My husband acquired a Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 from Microsoft - the disc says it is a 32-bit English - I believe this is a beta program - he installed it onto his HP Pavilion laptop - he tried it, he didn't care for it, and now he can't remove it - can anyone provide me step-by-step instruction so I might remove it for him?

Please Advise

Respectfully
MrsDD

Moved by Sheng Jiang 蒋晟 Sunday, June 15, 2014 1:15 AM Not dev related. Windows user forum is at answers.microsoft.com.

Reply:

Good luck. No respose since April. My wife purchased a computer that has Vista and I am not able to remove it and install XP.

------------------------------------

Beware installing SQL Server 2005 BOL (May 2007)

Beware installing this update, it can seriously damage your health. I clicked 'install' on my Vista 64 machine and let it trundle off to itself while I was doing some Visual Studio work. It runs for a while and then ... RESTARTs my PC. Without asking and withoug allowing me to save my work. Fresh, new work, gone. Thanks a bunch guys, installing some new docs really merits a restart.

This event is in the system log:

The process msiexec.exe has initiated the restart of computer BLUE on behalf of user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM for the following reason: No title for this reason could be found

Reason Code: 0x80030002

Shutdown Type: restart

Comment: The Windows Installer initiated a system restart to complete or continue the configuration of 'Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Books Online (English) (May 2007)'.

Reply:

Thanks very much for bringing this issue to our attention. It is sometimes necessary to reboot after a Books Online update - because Books Online, Visual Studio, and SQL Server Management Studio share components - but the expected behavior is a prompt for reboot rather than an automatic reboot. We are actively investigating the issue, and will re-release the update after we identify a solution, so that other customers will not have a similar experience.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Bryan

Thank you far replying to my post -- I am a bit calmer now I have had about four reboots (on various machines) in the last week because of SQL Server patches and I was a bit fractious.

------------------------------------

Locale problems

Hello,

I have sucessfully installed SCE 2007 and applied hotfixes KB937831 and KB936339 to resolve some installation problems and some repeating Script or Executable Failed to run alerts.

One type of those alerts remains - I certainly know that it is connected with locale settings in our environment (we use Czech locale). For example:

1) error in CPUUtilization.vbs Type mismatch: 'CDbl' on line where the script tries to convert SCE supplied string value 4.5629463335 to double (Czech locale has comma as decimal separator).

2) error in DiscoverWindowsExplorer.vbs on line where the script tries to compare Windows's CurrentVersion obtained from the registry with numerical value 6.0 (implicit conversion should probably happen).

We use standard configuration with dedicated AD account with administrative privileges on managed computers (used I think for agent installation) and managed computers' local system account as default action account (user I think to run mentioned scripts). Dedicated AD account is added to local Administrators group on managed computers using Startup script provided by group policy.

I cannot find anything about locales in the help system (only a few lines about Administrative Account) and in this forum.

I hope that it can be solved by running the scripts under account with English locale in it's profile. For it I can probably use roaming profile for mentioned dedicated AD account with such setting and change default action account from local system to this dedicated AD account. Can I do it in this way? I guess that there is some simple solution ...

Thanks for help.

Reply:

Hi Jakub,

For your issue, I have performed tests in several lab environments. However, I cannot reproduce the problems after changing the locale to Czech. I would like to confirm some information as follows:

1. After installing SCE 2007, what changes have you made on the default monitor settings? I am interested in the issue and would like to perform further test according your reproduce steps. Therefore, the more detailed steps you can provide, the better.

2. Could you please post the detailed symptoms (regarding these *.vbs file such as alerts descriptions under monitor and the error number)? Please record the verbatim message and post it here. This is important information for us to perform further investigation.

3. Which is the OS version of the monitored client computers (please check the related alerts)?

Thanks!

----------------------

Sincerely

Jie-Feng Ren

Microsoft Online Community Support

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi Jakub,

We have not received your response recently and I am not sure how thing are going there. Although we cannot reproduce the problem here and cannot perform a specific analysis on the requested information, I performed further research here in the past day. I think we may try the following changes to see if the issue can be resolved.

1. Create a new user account and make it a member of the Administrators and the "Domain Admins" groups.

2. Open SCE 2007 console, and navigate to "Administration" -> "Security"

3. Right click "Run As Account", choose "Create Run As Account " and finish the wizard.

On the Create Run As Account wizard, click next. In the next screen, choose "Action Account" in the drop down list under Run As Account Type. In the next screen, type the user name and password which is created in AD and then click create to finish.

4. Click the "Run As Profiles" and then right click Default Action Account in right pane.

5. Click Run As Accounts tab in popup window and choose the problematic managed computer. Click "Edit" tab and change "Run As Account" to the user account which we previously create in AD (Step #1).

6. Log on the problematic managed computer with this newly created user account. Change the locale to English-US.

7. Log off to ensure the locale changes are saved in that user's profile.

Then, please check if the script issue disappears.

I look forward to hearing from you and hope it helps.

---------------------

Sincerely,

Jie-Feng Ren

Microsoft Online Community Support

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hello,

sorry for the delay, I have a lot of things to do and this has currently lower priority. I'm collecting material about various script errors and I will post it here when completed.

Regards,

Jakub Marsik

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi Jakub,

Thank you for your reply. I will stand by for your update.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi,

As this thread has been quiet for a while we will be changing the issue type to 'Comment'.

If you wish to return to this question you can go ahead and change the type back to 'Question'. Then you can edit your initial post and change the radio button at the top of the post editor window.

If the issue has been resolved, we'd love to hear your solution. By sharing your experience you can help other community members facing similar problems.

Thanks!

---------------------

Regards,

Jie-Feng Ren

Microsoft Online Community Support

------------------------------------
Reply:

Yes, this is locale problem.

For example, if i change locale from Latvian to English US script works fine.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Ok I'm happy that someone also confirmed this problem. Is there any other solution than changing default system locale on the target computer? For example have you tried running scripts under different action account and set locale for this action account to english? How?

Thanks, Jakub.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi,

Thanks for your update and bring the experience to us which can help the community in this forum.

---------------------

Regards,

Jie-Feng Ren

Microsoft Online Community Support

------------------------------------
Reply:

One of solutions to change decimal separator from "," to "."

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi,

I do expérience the same problem. I tried both suggestion (change location or change decimal separator) without success.

I have a Windows 2000 EN. I tried English US, Canada French for location and didn't change a thing.

Any update on that situation?

I really don't want to change regional setting because of the way users use Excel and other finance applications.

Will it be fixed with SP1?

thanks

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi,

This is a known issue. Personally, I think it will be fixed in the SCE SP1.

Thanks for your understanding.

------------------------------------

Validating XML before processing in SSIS - a good workaround

Hi all,

Like many, I was a bit surprised and frustrated by the apparent 'issue' with the XML Task when using it inside a ForEach container. Unless I've missed an update to this, it seems that if you have multiple XML files that you wish toprocess with the validate functionality of the XML Task, if you put this task inside a ForEach container the XML Task will return the result of the first file's validation for the rest of the files in the folder. Not good!

After a bit of digging I found the sample code kindly posted by someone that also ran into this problem. (See post: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1001433&SiteID=1).

The key to that workaround was the use in code of the XMLReader and XMLReaderSettings classes - a reasonable approach, although it seems like a lot of code for what should be a simple task.

As an alternative, I thought I'd post the workaround that I've successfully implemented. It's very easy to implement:

Firstly, add your XSD schema into SQL Server's schema collections using the CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION statement, for example:

Code Snippet

CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION MyXMLSchema AS '<xs:schema...'

Insert your XSD schema between the quotes, and you'll then have a copy of your schema loaded into SQL Server that can be referenced as dbo.MyXMLSchema.
Next, I wrote a stored proc that takes the XML to be validated as an input paramter and returns either 'OK' or the validation error message as an output parameter:

Code Snippet

CREATEPROC [dbo].[pValidateXML]

(@SourceXML XML,

@ValidationResult VARCHAR(1000) OUTPUT)
AS

   -- This proc validates the passed XML against thedbo.MyXMLSchema
     -- schema. If the XML is valid then 'OK' is returned in
     -- @ValidationResult. If theXML is not valid then the XML
     -- validation error is returned.

SET @ValidationResult = 'OK'

BEGIN TRY

DECLARE @Validator TABLE (XMLToValidate XML (dbo.MyXMLSchema))
INSERT INTO @Validator VALUES (@SourceXML)

RETURN 0

END TRY

BEGIN CATCH

SET @ValidationResult = ERROR_MESSAGE()
RETURN ERROR_NUMBER()

END CATCH

The key to this is the use of a SQL variable of type TABLE that specifies a single column of type XML which is a typed xml column that's bound to the schema dbo.MyXMLSchema which we created earlier.

The proc then attempts to insert the passed XML into our table variable. At this point SQL Serverwill do the XML validation for you as it will not allow invalid XML to be inserted into our typed XML column.

Using the brilliant TRY...CATCH error handling that's new to SQL Server 2005, you can trap any errors that occur and return a handy message to the calling process bypicking up the ERROR_MESSAGE() variable in our CATCH block and assigning it to our output parameter.

The next step is to call the proc from SSIS using an EXECUTE SQL task:

- Set up your database connection

- Specify the database connection in the EXECUTE SQL task

- Set the command to: EXEC pValidateXML @SourceXML, @ValidationResult OUTPUT
(Note that it's vital that you include the OUTPUT modifier next to the @ValidationResult parameter. If you don't then SSIS will complain that you're trying to change the type of a variable at runtime)

- You'll need two variables as parameters to the stored proc - one to hold the XML to validate, and another to receive the validation message (this will either be the string 'OK' if validation was successful, or a validation error message if the XML was not valid).

For info on reading XML from a file into a variable, see this post: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1448465&SiteID=1

When the storec proc is executed you can use conditional branching in your SSIS package based on the value of the SSIS variable that received the @ValidationResult output parameter. Typically you'll want to handle invalid XML with one path through your package, and valid XML with another. To achieve this, create two precedence constraints on your EXECUTE SQL task. The successful route should have an evaluation operation of type 'Expression AND Constraint'. The constraint value selected from the dropdown should be 'SUCCESS' and the expression should be '@varMyValidationResult == "OK"'. Substitute in the name of the SSIS variable that you used to receive the output parameter above. For validation failures we'll create a second precedence constraint, this time with an evaluation operation of type 'Expression OR Constraint'. The constraint value selected this time is 'FAILURE' and the expression should be '@varMyValidationResult != "OK"'. Be careful when selecting the evaluation operation - make sure you get your AND and OR the right way round!

I implemented this today and it works really well. I hope you have the same experience. Feel free to ask questions if you have any problems with this.

</xs:schema...'

wmp.dll self-registration

I have the same problem running on vista and VS 2005.I am Starting to get a bit frustrated. I have used the wmp.dll component in the past running on xp and VS 2003 with no problems. I tried to import a wmp.dll v. 10.??? that I had found on the net and placed in another root. That version went right in to my toolbox, but I just got some 2 instances in memory error instead. I suspect that the problem lies in the wmp.dll version 11 and not in Visual studio.

Moved by The March Hare Wednesday, October 7, 2009 6:28 PM not about Media Foundation SDK (From:Media Foundation Development)

Reply:

Two things, you reference another problem...this post is standing alone...could you provide more info..

Secondly did you try installing the VS2005 SP1 Vista patch? It came after the SP1 patch and is separate?

------------------------------------
Reply:

Sorry I was referring to: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1331969&SiteID=1

I am having problems importing the windows media player core component into my toolbox in VS 2005 running on vista home premium. It looks like there is quite a few with the same problem out there but i have not seen any solutions though. I have successfully implementing this component in my applications in the past running on xp pro with WMP v.11 installed using VS 2003.

I have tried to Installed Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista with no luck.

Thank you very much for spending time helping

------------------------------------
Reply:

I'm having this same problem too.

Also developing on a Vista Home Premium running VB 2005 Express.

WMP object cannot be imported in VS 2005

Tried installing Windows SDK 6.0 and run the multimedia sample successfully with WMP object.

Has anyone solved this stupid bug of VS 2005 and WMP.dll???

*****

I found out that by NOT running VS as administrator, the COM components are available and works well!!

Give it a try!

Thks to AshleyR's post at http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showpost.aspx?postid=1795109&siteid=1&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=0

The mystery been solved!

------------------------------------

How to Setup VS Studio 2005 for Import and Export to SQL Server 2005 Express as performed in SQL Server 2000

Greetings all,

I have just been getting used to the new VS.NET 2005 IDE environment, IT ROCKS!. And this integrated help is pretty useful when we can all collaborate on the many technical topics we all share.

After reading many post blasting Microsoft for NOT including the DTS Import/Export functionality to SQL Server 2005 Express, and many people just threatening to go back to only use SQL Server 2000. I decided to look into this.

And found an actually simple way to do this.

The new Microsoft IDE in VS.NET 2005 includes the ability to define custom tools to be accessible in the Main Tools Menu.

Follow these steps:

1. Click Tools Menu (in VS.NET 2005 IDE)
2. Click External Tools
3. Define name for menu item in the Title text box
4. Define full path and name of executable in the Command text box
5. Define parameters to pass in the Arguments text box

You can launch any external application here, and a Menu Item is created. You can also pass parameters to this, and this is how we can do some DTS stuff if you do have SQL Server 2000 installed on either your local system, or a system you can access from your computer.

There is a program that ships with SQL Server 2000 call DTSWIZ.EXE. This
is used from the SQL Server Enterprise Manager. (Note: Make sure you have sufficient access to this location)

To use this, first check out the parameters is expects.

1. Shell out to DOS
Click Start, Run, then type in cmd and hit [ENTER]

2. Navigate to location of SQL Server
\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn\dtswiz.exe

This program supports several parameters, you can launch this wizard in several ways.

example:

To start up DTS Import
dtswiz.exe /n /i

To start up DTS Export
dtswiz.exe /n /x

Once you have this in place, then you want to Import Data. Simply choose
Import from the Tools menu (the External Tool item you created above)

1. In the Data Source drop down, select SQL Native Client.
2. Click Properties Button (lower left corner)
3. In the Data Source of this screen, put full path to SQL 2005 Express Database
4. Choose authentication
5. Choose Exit

Follow the remaining steps of the wizard for selecting which tables you wanted to import.

This has been thoroughly tested on the following:

Pentium 3 Two-Gigerhz Dual Processer
1 Gig Memory
Running Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 Express
and SQL Server 2000 located on a different Server computer.

I've simply created a Mapped Network drive to the
\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn
to have access to the tools.

Hopefully others can use this activating IMPORT and EXPORT functionality
so you can port some of your smaller SQL Server 2000 databases to a different data tier model.

I am starting to contribute here, hopefully others will get themself a Windows Password account if you don't have one already, and start sharing more material between ourselves.

«/"/"[ Dreams pull reality closer to use all ]"\"\"»
   Dim Mind as New Mind
   If Mind.Thinking then
      Mind.GetThought("VS.NET")
      If Mind.Feelings = Feel.FreakingROCKS then
         Call KeepThingsRockin
      End If
   End If
CodeDoctor

Reply:

I can't get this to work on Vista. I get an error that DTS couldn't create an instance.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Am new to this. I have access to the DTS WIZ but cannot edit the saved package in SSE.

Going Mad!!!

Sudip

------------------------------------

SCE Cost

While I'm extremely impressed with the SCE product, I'm very concerned that this is just going to cost too much for the market its in. There are other tools that can do the same things for free or much cheaper than SCE.

SCE licensing info - http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/sce/howtobuy/default.mspx

As a the manageability practice manager at a consulting company, I don't think we can sell this. I'm also disapointed in the current limiting of the product. The 30 server and 500 client limits are just too small especially with the price point. I could sell it to customers at the current price with 75 servers and 1000 clients. Please don't reply with TOC/ROI buzz words because customers in this market don't care about that.

Thoughts?

Tim

Reply:

Hi Tim,

I wouldn't mind if the price was a bit lower but I still think it is ok. I'm not sure what other tools you compair with, but if you compair what you are paying ro a antivirussystem, I think SCE has an ok price!

As regards to the limits, I think it would be better if I have a total number of agents intead of x numbers of server and x number of clients. Some of my costumers have 100 servers but only 200 clients and but some have 12 servers and 700 clients!

Ot's not an answer, just some thoughts!

Björn Axéll - Advisec AB

http://blog.advisec.com

------------------------------------
Reply:

Tim,

Good feedback Tim. I guess this is a matter of perception. We were really excited when we saw the pricing. If you compare to MOM 2005, for example.

MOM Workgroup as about $500 and could monitor 10 servers, and had no reporting
MOM 2005 Std Required purchasing MLs (OMLs they were called) for agent-managed machines at $350 or more after discounts.

And by comparison with SCE 2007, for $2,000, you get the console +
10 Servers MLs - That's a $1,000 in licensing
50 - workstation MLs - Thats another $1,000 in licensing
So it's like getting the console for FREE?

And on top of that you're getting monitoring, patch mgmt (okay, this was free, but tricked out in SCE), software deployment, inventory, reporting (reporting!), And if you check the Authoring space, you'll see the enterprise level monitoring functionality you have in OpsMgr 2007.

And do remember this product is targeted at the mid-market enterprise. At 1000 seats, you'd be looking at a large enterprise, where MS would point you to OM 2007 / SCCM 2007 / WSUS, as you're going to likely require some of the advanced features the enterprise level products anyway.

Definitely interested in any detail you can add to your conclusions on the pricing. Do you see a competitive offering that can deliver all these features more effectively for that price tag?

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hey Pete,

I have been discussing this with some licensing folks and where I think they missed the boat with licensing was creating the new MLP license. Why not just use the same OML that is used for MOM? As you mentioned the new licensing is cheaper, so if I have purchased the more expense license why not let me use it with either server solution? It really comes down to Microsoft selling EAs to companies with over 250 users, but including licenses with the EA for products that they now say should only be used by companies with over 500 users (OMLs). They've kind of chucked those of us between 250 and 500 into licensing purgatory. Actually, they are forcing anyone with an EA (even someone with 250 licenses) to use SMS, MOM and WSUS even though SCE is a better fit. Otherwise we have to buy a whole new set of licenses for SCE and throw away all of our very expensive OML licenses that we already own. They need to come up with a tradeup or tradein program for companies with between 250 and 500 CALs.

Just my .02,

Tim

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi Tim,

I understand your concerns, but rest assured the pricing is based on quantitative data from exactly this segment as to what value they put on the feature set we're delivering with Essentials. I'm pretty confident that pricing will not be a problem for a majority in this segment and have received very positive feedback on pricing from the customers we've presented to.

The scale of Essentials is also based on quantitative research that shows us the 5-30 server/50-500 PC scale is exactly where we find the majority of IT generalists (system admins who are not specialized and perform a broad range of tasks), for which this product is designed.

As for the free tools/cheaper tools, in general they do not provide the integration, robust feature set or expert knowledge that comes with Essenials.

I hope this helps.

David

------------------------------------
Reply:

Thanks David.

Hello Tim, David Mills is from our SCE marketing team and will be happy to follow-up on any questions you may have.

Regards,

Justin Incarnato

Community PM

------------------------------------
Reply:

Thanks for the posts ... I understand the data you worked out for this but I'm explaining that we as a consulting company in the Washington DC area will have a hard time selling this. We have a basic product that we have installed at many different clients and we provide tiered monitoring services for these clients. At this point the SW cost for our clients is almost free and they just pay for our monitoring services. We also do MOM 2005 and now SCOM '07 which we sell to customer that want to have most monitoring done within there organization or have specific monitoring requirements that OM provides. The amount of monitoring is limited to what OM/SCE can provide but most customers in this segment only care about the basics.

As an x-MS employee that worked a great deal with OM, I want to convert our monitoring SW to SCE with a SCOM site for monitoring. I just can't tell customers that here is a 5-10k software cost and another 2-5k installation costs, that replaces something that only costs them monthly and the installation costs of SCE represent 4-6 months of monitoring cost to them. The customers in this segement tend to have support contract with consulting companies already and are looking for cost effect solutions for the smaller IT requirements but ROI calculations don't add up as the upfront costs are as much 12-18 months worth of normal support contacts which they'd have to pay.

The limits I kind of understand but I do believe you are on the low side for the DC area. Which might be because the smaller politicall organizations around DC tend to grow and shrink drasticly depending on who is in government(dem/rep) and overall funding. These organization tend to be at the SCE limits so they need something that can scale as the political winds blow. Just some information for you.

Thanks

Tim

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Reply:

I think it depends on the size of the clients you're dealing with...The mid-market client with 10-25 servers (which are multi-million dollar companies in my experience) with 1-2 man IT staffs are going to be the sweet spot for this product from a cost perspective- not a good fit small companies clearly....and cheaper than MOM 2005 Standard in that respect for many of these environments.

And if you sell folks on the systems mgmt features of the SCE platform, I just cannot see how that could be too expensive considering the mult-product alternatives customers would otherwise have to choose from.

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Reply:

I would have to disagree with you on this point. Small companies that fall within the base SCE product purchase licenses at $2000 get a pretty darned good deal. It's the mid-sized companies that are being unintentionally over priced with the current license scheme. To make my point, let's look at a real world example: a company with 12 servers and 400 clientsand a 2 person IT group. Because they have over 250 clients, Microsoft is definitely going to want them to purchase an EA, and the EA is going to include licensing for SMS (SCCM), they always do. Now let's assume that they need more than just basic functionality from their products, Microsoft is going to want them to purchase an Enterprise CAL to go along with the Core CAL they already have. This now includes the licenses needed for MOM (SCOM). You now have a company that is fully licensed for CALS for both SCCM and SCOM, but due to the fact that they are only at 400 clients with 2 support people those 2 products are quite honestly overkill, SCE would be the better solution. So can this company just use SCE since it is a better fit and they have already spent 10s of thousands of dollars on Microsoft branded management software??? NO!!!! Because there is a whole new version of CAL to connect to SCE instead of MOM. Apparently at this point Microsoft wants this company to toss out those MOM and SMS CALs that they already own and go spend another $10,000-15,000 or so on SCE licenses instead. This is where they will lose this entire mid-market group of companies due to poor licensing practices. They need to come up with some way for companies to trade down their CALs from the big products to SCE, and even better yet give us a way to trade up to the "big boy" product CALs from SCE when, hopefully, a company grows in the future.

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Reply:

Let me just end by saying that while I am terribly impressed with the licensing model vs MOM 2005, no licensing scenario will please everyone.

I don't disagree with the requirement to repurchase licenses (which I have to do as well) as SCE clearly brings a great deal of additional functionality I am willing to pay for. So if it means no trade in on MOM 2005 licenses, then that's a decision we each have to make.

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Reply:

I also wanted to add that customers that bought MOM Workgroup Edition with Software Assurance, will get the rights to Essentials 2007. Additionally keep in mind that prices on our page our ERP, customers that purchase volume license will get a significative discount on this price.

Rene Garcia

Product Manager

Microsoft

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Reply:

I feel that this product is a great one and has an absolute ton of potential especialy for managed service providers. I had plans pushing this software to my clients until the pricing was released. I understand that this was for mid-market businesses which i will still try to push it to but i also see the huge benefits for this in SBS enviornments and small businesses with only 1 or a few servers as well. I am a smaller sized partner that provides managed services and I have clients that range from small to mid-market businesses that outsource their entire workload to us. Some clients have only an SBS server w/ 10 workstations and obviously this product would not be in their price range and maybe that is what was intended but i would think after watching how this product is paired w/ OM 2007 to make an MSPs management dream come true that Microsoft could come up w/ some sort of licensing model for MSPs to purchase the SCE for their clients or smaller versions for our clients that need to monitor only 1 or 2 servers and dozen workstations. It appears that you have a very excellent product so lets not waste its potential and price it to where it is out of reach for most smaller businesses that could utlilize this software just as well as mid-market client. You would actually be doing alot of partners a big favor by revising the licensing because its our job you will be making easier and im sure most of us wouldn't mind absorbing some of the costs to do that. As i stated above i believe you could make a SKU for MSPs to purchase a multi-pack so they could split up as they need for their various clients. Another way would be to put it under the hosted services licensing model. Another way is to sell in smaller packs (dont include 10 servers and 100 client licenses in the package, make it 1 server 10 clients and then purchase what you need). Or even another way would be to make a small business version (sbs premium includes SQL already). I just think that the potential of this product will never be realized due to this alone. I would also be willing to bet that the majority of people that are interested the most in these products are other partners and MSPs because of the huge reporting and monitoring features that we can offer our clients (Lets be honest, the sbs reports certainly aren't show-stoppers!). Please take this into consideration and help some partners out especially some of your smaller partners which i do believe i read this product was also geared towards, oh wait, SEEN in the webcast done w/ clearpoint showing how to use OM2007/SCE to provide managed services.

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Reply:

You make an excellent point here in regards to the gap for the small biz.

You can work around this limitation as a service provider scenario by simply deploying an agent from the NOC mgmt group (with cert auth) and if the customer wants visibility, providing a targeted role with Web Console access. Not perfect for sure from a mgmt or licensing perspective, but better than nothing.

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Reply:

This scenario get better as Essentials becomes part of the next version of Cougar and the new Centro product, this will lower the cost for service provider & customers.

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Reply:

Thanks for the thoughts Tim and I will look into what you suggested, but as a manged service provider i have to be assured everything is licensed properly and im not sure if what your suggesting would be "legal" as far as licensing is concerned. I Really appreciate your response and effort to help! I spoke w/ a few other area service providers at our weekly conference this morning and they expressed the exact same frustration which is really sad because most that we are in contact with were fully planning on putting a big push for this product at release time and now most have decided to not even implement at all. I really think this product would revolutionize the MSP industry and become the industry standard for MSPs if we could fix a few minor issues w/ licensing. Please if anyone else feels strongly about this please voice your opinion. I'm not asking to give the software away for free or even change the pricing on it because i realize that a lot of hard work went into the development of the product. Just a little adjustment to the packaging / licensing so im not forced to purchase licenses for 50 workstains that i dont have, or 5 extra server licenses that i dont need. As stated by previous posts, no network is the same, some clients 10 servers and 30 workstations, some clients 2 servers and 200 workstations, so it looks like a lot of people will be forced to take extra licesnses that may not be needed.

One Disappointed Partner

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Reply:

I work for a consulting company that does both full service consulting as well as managed services for the mid-market, so SCOM/SCE is seemingly what we've been waiting for. I do think that the 30 server license is going to be a little tight for some of our customers, but we might be able to get around that if you could answer me one question:

With WSUS getting rolled into SCE, can I have "non-SCE" clients get their updates from the SCE server? For example - If they have a dev/test environment, and don't really care about inventory, monitoring, notifications, etc. but do want the machines to get updated through WSUS, would that be possible without having to buy an SCE license? We are seeing more and more mid-market companies setup DR sites with hot/warm standby servers, along with full dev/test environments which can easily bring the server count up over 30. In most cases, we only need to monitor 30 servers or less, but we definitely need to manage patches for more.

As for the price, I think it seems ok. I'm pretty sure our current managed services package is much less expensive, but it's also filled with a lot of bugs and inadequecies. If the Microsoft combo can increase our level of service and delivery, I think our customers will be happy to take on the additional cost.

One last question - With the SCOM/SCE/MSP target, does the MSP have to add SCOM CALs when new customers are brought on with SCE?

Thanks.

Mike

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Reply:

Rene,

I'm very glad to hear that regarding the licensing transition from MOM WE. Do you know if there is any plan to make it possible to upgrade from SCE licensing to SCCM/SCOM/WSUS licenses going forward as a company grows? I think that SCE is an awesome product and I really hope that Microsoft makes the licensing model flexible enough to allow a company to grow (or shrink) without having to "throw out" one set of licenses and purchase all new ones.

Thanks again,

Tim

------------------------------------
Reply:

Good feeback Tim, we are looking into this as well as we've heard the same concerns from other customers/partners. I'll make sure to post something when I have news on it.

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here had an e-mail address for Tim Mcgilvery? I have a few questions with regards to what we are doing here and would like to get in touch with him.

Thank you, have a good.

Todd

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Reply:

Todd,

Tim hasn't been active since early May. If you have questions regarding the Remote Management area of SCE you might check the Remote Operations Manager forum at: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=1738&SiteID=17 .

HTH,

Tim

------------------------------------

Editing an Existing Custom Field Type

A previous post detailed instructions on how to create custom fields in SharePoint, specifically with a custom field editor.

In all samples that I currently have seen (including the RegEx and USAddress examples on CodePlex), when editing an existing custom field type, the field properties are not set with their original values, but instead are prepopulated with the name of the field plus "Field value.".

As in the previous post, many of these problems can be attributed to the Field being recreated. When the field is first created, the SPField(SPFieldCollection, string, string) constructor is called, followed by the IFieldControl.OnSaveChange method. This works well, except for when the field is actually used. At that point, the SPField(SPFieldCollection, string) constructor is called, seeming to undo all the changes that were just made.

Built-in fields utilize the internal SPField.GetFieldAttributeValue(string) and SPField.SetFieldAttributeValue(string, string) methods to store and retrieve custom properties. Custom fields seem to have to resort to the CustomProperties getters and setters which, in the previous post, don't save their properties too well.

I'm posting this as a comment in this forum; if anyone has any information to shed in this matter, please post.

Reply:

Hi Brian.

Have you found a solution to this problem?

Thanks for sharing.

/Jakob

------------------------------------
Reply:

Hi Brian,

Did you tried this applying this fix?? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932055

Hope it helps,

C. Marius

------------------------------------

Vista Hard Freeze

My hard freeze seems to be resolved. I called tech support and they ran a program called ccleaner and then disabled almost all of the startup *** that HP had loaded on the computer. I am slowly adding back a few startup items that may be useful to see if I can identify what triggered the problem.

WDS on Windows Server 2003

I've been working on deploying images at the University of Kansas and thought I would share my experience here. I created a HOWTO on my spaces account, here is the URL to it:

http://jeffpatton.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B91550D5AEF34388!426.entry

If the link doesn't work, then you can click on the HOWTO category on the main page.

http://jeffpatton.spaces.live.com

Please leave me comments if I have missed or forgotten something, I'll be working on another file on using WDS, this one was more or less configuring the server under Windows 2003 and how to create a boot and capture image, as some of the stuff I've found seemed to be buried fairly deep in the documentation.

SMO & DMO FAQ

I have posted common questions on my blog. Take a look at the FAQ before posting questions in this forum. I will continue to add on answers for common questions as I go. I hope this helps finding answers faster!

http://blogs.msdn.com/mwories/articles/smoindex.aspx

Comments, let me know!

Thanks,

Michiel

Reply:

I am trying to maintain some backward compatibility with SQL DMO 80. I've installed SQL 2005, but cannot find the DMO libraries and include files I can link to to recompile the c++ program....any ideas...

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Reply:

You can download the backward feature back here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/7/4/f74cbdb1-87e2-4794-9186-e3ad6bd54b41/SQLServer2005_BC.msi

HTH, jens Suessmeyer.

---
http://www.sqlserver2005.de
---

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Reply:

the link is broken

...

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Reply:

Which link ? THe link with the components works for me.

Jens K. Suessmeyer

---
http://www.sqlserver2005.de
---

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Reply:

I'm having the same issue - the only thing I can find says to install SQLServer 2000 and copy the headers over.

MS, anything yet?

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Reply:

Please install the backward compatibility redist from the link that Jens mentioned already. It is working fine for me:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/7/4/f74cbdb1-87e2-4794-9186-e3ad6bd54b41/SQLServer2005_BC.msi

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Reply:

The project that I'm trying to compile is using the DTSPKG.H file, included in the devtools directory in SQLServer2000.

I have just confirmed that the SQLServer 2005 BC pack does NOT install this header file (or a few others).

Again, I had to deploy SQLServer 2000 to get the header file.

Thank you.

------------------------------------

Hands-on workshop ILM 2007

4all networks is pleased to announce a new series of hands-on workshops about MS Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007.

These workshops take a full day and the following subjects will be covered:

Introduction to Microsoft IDA (Identity and Access) Solutions
Context: Typical project approach and how provisioning fits in a enterprise Identity and Access Management solution
Microsoft context: AD, ADFS, RMS, ISA, IAG, ILM2007, Server 2008
Typical project approach
Requirements
Installation (+ exercises)
Configuring connectors (+ exercises)
Advanced setup scenarios
Adding workflow, RBAC and password reset self service with Omada

The new series of hands-on workshops is launched because of the huge success of the previous Microsoft Identity Integration Server (MIIS) Roadshow that 4all networks organised during 2005-2006.

The content of the training has also been updated as MIIS has now been replaced by ILM 2007. Additional content has also been added with regards to workflow, self service password reset, role based access control.

Currently the training dates are:

Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
Thursday, November 29th, 2007

More dates can be added later.

For more information, availability and registration, please consult the 'Local Events' page on our website http://www.identitymanagement.be.

Reply:

Thanks Peter.

I'll be visiting one of those dates.

------------------------------------

Error processing Cube - The syntax for ',' is incorrect.

Hi guys! Could you help me with the next problem:

Failed to build the OLAP cubes. Error: Analysis Services session failed with the following error: Query (1, 10) Parser: The syntax for ',' is incorrect.

I have installed sql2005 sp2, but didn't get much

Pls. help

Reply:

If you have a new issue, please create a new thread rather than just replying to an old one. You are more likely to get an answer.

It sounds like there might possibly be an extra comma in your MDX script. It looks like it is at character 10 on the first line (that's what the 1,10 means)

------------------------------------

Top Ten - Most Common BDD 2007 issues - All should read :)

Hey I ran across this BLOG and I think its great

Top Ten - Most Common BDD 2007 issues

http://blogs.technet.com/benhunter/archive/2007/04/18/top-ten-most-common-bdd-2007-issues.aspx

Everyone should read this because - well most of the threads started here can be answered with these 10 issues

Reply:

*BUMP*

I am bumping this thread - because from the looks of it - Know one has been reading up on BDD before using it and asking questions.

Please read the docs and play with it before using it in a production environment...

I have still not used the DB portion yet, and just using the LTI interface to image in my environment - until I am 100% comfortible with the DB implimentation...

READ the DOCS and the FAQ, and the TOP TEN

-Dan

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FEATURE REQUEST: Ability to Disable Clickthrough Reports (Live Links) at the Report and Export Function Level

Please consider enhancing SQL 2005 Reporting Services to provide the ability to disable Clickthrough Reports (Live Links) at the Report and Export Function level. Today you can only enable or disable Clickthrough Reports at the View/Model Level for all Report Builder reports.

Reply:

Are you talking about the fact that when you export to an excel spreadsheet, the bad boy still tries to clickthrough to another report?

I agree, that has to go.

------------------------------------

me too :-(

Hidden Prompt Dialogs

Sharing and Discovery prompt dialogs, from sharing changes, tend to open behind the Network and Sharing Manager window, but have focus, giving the initial impression that the Network and Sharing Manager has locked up.

Clicking on the taskbar entry brings them to the foreground but they should already be in the foreground if they have focus.

Friday, April 1, 2022

Great New Resource for Books Online Information

Great New Resource for Books Online Information

SQL Server Books Online: A Primer for New Users

Configuring incoming email for an SMTP server NOT using SharePoint Directory Management Service or Exchange Server

sp_ListFiles works differently based on the O/S level.

OpenLDAP XMA on SourceForge: Files Available for Download

No programs appear on the desktop or program files. Thay are not blocked.

Management Shell - WHY???

BDD vs WDS. That is the question.

Excel Services Compatiblity Checker Downloadable

It states that it wasn't installed properly...

vista calculating time remaining fix

Desktop changes

Gateway using SigmaTel High Def Audio Volumn Control Not Working

UPDATE statement differences between 2000 and 2005

InfoWha?Continuing the dialog about InfoPath v Web Forms, and how InfoPath will survive ne thrive!

Frequently Posted Questions and Answers

Setup

Operation

Deploying XP using the WIM format on native WDS server 2

Please select an Answer.

Vista's SystemRestore set to delete after...136 years !!!

The Run Command!

Anoter Alternative

Anoter Alternative

What is the best MIIS Skillset to start with?

Keeping Group items in a table together within a page

Uninstalling Vista

Beware installing SQL Server 2005 BOL (May 2007)

Locale problems

Validating XML before processing in SSIS - a good workaround

wmp.dll self-registration

How to Setup VS Studio 2005 for Import and Export to SQL Server 2005 Express as performed in SQL Server 2000

SCE Cost

Editing an Existing Custom Field Type

Vista Hard Freeze

WDS on Windows Server 2003

SMO & DMO FAQ

Hands-on workshop ILM 2007

Error processing Cube - The syntax for ',' is incorrect.

Top Ten - Most Common BDD 2007 issues - All should read :)

Top Ten - Most Common BDD 2007 issues

FEATURE REQUEST: Ability to Disable Clickthrough Reports (Live Links) at the Report and Export Function Level

me too :-(

Hidden Prompt Dialogs

Setup is Split Across Multiple CDs