Microsoft provides some useful nice stuff for download:

"Keyboard shortcuts can help increase productivity when performing certain tasks within the Visual Studio 2005 IDE (Integrated Development Environment). This wall poster provides the shortcut and associated description for the default key bindings setup in the Visual Basic 2005 profile. The poster is provided here in both color and grayscale for you to print locally as a PDF file."

Download, print, place it near your keyboard and save time:

Visual Basic 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Visual C# 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Visual C++ 2005 Keyboard Shortcut Reference Poster

Microsoft, what about providing that for the Business Intelligence Developer Studio and the SQL Server Management Studion also??

Today at the BI Conference in Seattle Jeff Raikes from Microsoft has given a first official impact - just slides - on the next SQL Server version.

I have seen a new feature called Change Data Capture (also mentioned in the datasheet) in the session "PL208 Data Warehousing with Microsoft SQL Server 2005" presented by Gopal Ashok, Program Manager with the SQL Server Product team, which was quite impressive.

Ever dealt with the problem of having mass data in a table and no "real" marker to identify the specific rows for incremental data operations like inserts, updates and deletes?
The Change Data Capture should ease your pain by creating a kind of audit table to watch data modification without the need of programming stored procedures, triggers and so on.
I am extremely curious how this feature proves in real life scenarios. And I am also a little bit surprised if the SSIS team will not bring up some new tasks to enable the use of the audit table of the Change Data Capture - or do we still need to develop the handling concerning load cycles, deleting of successfully loaded records, etc by our own? A kind of automatic delta queue mechanism and handling like in SAP systems would be great!

Tomorrow Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the Data and Storage Platform Division at Microsoft will have a keynote at the morning - I hope that he will show some more live impressions.

You will find the official press release here.

And there also is a information website online.

Regarding to the press release, "SQL Server “Katmai” is scheduled to be delivered in 2008" - but there is no information about CTP´s available on the website yet.

With the conference beginning on Tuesday with the Welcome Reception, I tried to build my schedule online today.
But as expected I have had a problem while choosing my schedule because there are some slots with many interesting session - I will have to choose spontaneously which session I attend...

Tuesday, May 8

Wednesday, May 9

Thursday, May 10

Friday, May 11

Vera Noest provides a really great link collection of ressources which will be very usefull while doing troubleshoting.

Vera also provides troubleshooting tips for Terminal Server and Citrix.

Worth reading - check it out!

I used the free time after Christmas to install Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 - instead of doing an upgrade of my current Windows XP system I choosed to do complete new installation...

I succeeded in a short time, but afterwards I had some trouble and therefore I had to solve some issues...

1. Join your domain as soon as possible - but pay attention!

The first step you should do after installation is to join your domain - if you have one.

But please pay attention if you use Small Business Server mechanisms - or any other - to deploy software to your clients. I had a configuration which tried to install IE6 and other tools from the server to the client after joining the network. There just pops up a question if you really want to execute the setup and being a "creature of habit" I just clicked "Yes".

This seems to have wrecked my installation, because afterwards Vista decided to start without a taskbar, explorer and elements on the desktop...
So I installed it a second time...

2. systemvendor-specific software

I am using an IBM R50 laptop, which brings up some vendor-specific software like powermanagement utilities, Network access and so on.

Do yourself a favor and keep a cable for Internet access ready after installation and do not panic if you have got a kind of incomplete system after a successful installation.

Therefor the second step you should do afterwards is to start the windows update and download all vendor-specific software the system will offer you. That brought back power management and WLAN also, but some other tools are still missing (like the display control to switch to a beamer) and are not allowed to install on Vista.

3. Security and UAC (User account control)

I bet, that the new feature UAC (User Account Control) will be a pain in your neck - especially during the first hours doing all installations you need. Everytime you start a setup you will be faced with "Do you really want to?", everytime you will be alerted "a program tries to..."...

As described in the article above it really gets annoying and also brings up some risks like clicking every OK you will face without reading carefully, but if you want to be secure you can not have everything. That UAC could give you a hint for investigating for Trojans and others is proofed with this blog-entry

If you are interested in digging deeper into Windows security, read Windows Vista Security blog or UAC blog.

4. Installation of SQL 2005

I you want to install SQL 2005 on your Vista client you will have to fulfil some prerequisites, especially enabling the IIS and doing some configuration, as described in KB article 920201. But even if you do this it is not guaranteed that Reporting Services will run as described in the comments of James Kovacs' posting.
Further tips and known issues are described in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on "Microsoft Windows Server Longhorn" or Microsoft Windows Vista.

We will have to wait for the official version of SP2 and see what it brings - I hope it will work!

5. OWA with IE7 and Vista

I am using OWA to access my exchange server and I did do this also using IE7 and Windows XP.
Windows Vista seems to have a slightly other IE7, which handles ActiveX-controls - even the one form Microsoft - a little bit stricter. Using OWA I was able to read messages, but I could not answer to a message´, because the input frame just displayed a red X...

There are two KB articles - 911829 and 924334- and also two downloads which will solve this problem.

6. 3G data card for PCMCIA-Slot

I am using a Novatel Merlin™ U740 Wireless PC Card to connect via 3G to the Internet and my German provider is Vodafone.

In Germany it is very common that providers will deliver a specific software with there own branding to assure that you will have an easy installation and access, the Vodafone software is called "Dashboard" and the current downloadable version is 7.04.

Due to the Vista restrictions you will not be able to install the software and there you neither get the drivers nor the software to communicate with your data card.

So I allowed myself to call the business hotline to ask for a new version of the dashboard to enable the data card using Vista.
The answer was that there is no specific time schedule which is public but that there will be a good chance that the software will be presented at the CeBit and available afterwards...
Presented? This software is just a little tool to enable and control the connection and not the ultimate version of a hype-whatever software suite!
And CeBit? This fair will be in the mid of March! Should I wait about three months to enable my data card?
Common, I understand that the software has to be tested and certified also and that this could be time consuming but to be honest... Is Windows Vista really such an unexpected and uncommon OS??

So I called not only one time but twice, because the first answer was not very satisfying...
The second answer was that there will be a version around end of January....
Ah, there is light at the end of the dark! But having to wait till end of this months would be also annoying...

So I choosed another solution, why not to use the data card as a kind of normal dial-up connection??

First you will have to disable the PIN on your SIM-Card, because the dial-up connection will not be able to ask for the PIN like the dashboard does.
You can use your mobile phone or the dashboard software for that.

After disabling the PIN insert the data card to your PCMCIA-Slot and wait for the drivers to be installed.

Then you will have to do some manual steps:

• Open the Control Panel - Network and Sharing Center
• Click "Setup a connection or network" in the tasks at the left side.
• Mark "Connect to the Internet" and click Next
• "Create a new connection"
• Choose "Dial-up"
• Choose the Novatel Wireless Merlin HSDPA Modem
• enter *99# as Dial-up phone number
• leave User name and Password blank
• enter a describing description into Connection name
• decide whether to allow other people to use this connection
• click Connect

To make it a little bit more secure you should turn of all options in "Sharing and Discovery" and as a little comfort hint: you should put a Shortcut on the Desktop or into the Quick Launch to be able to activate the connection very easily.

This will work, but without the Vodafone dashboard you will not be able to diagnose you connection speed and control your download rates (a pity if you pay for volume or time and do not have a flat rate) so be careful! But I think that will be a proper workaround till the software will be available...

Microsoft provides a whitepaper for Virtual PC 2004 called Virtual PC Development and Debugging, which is worth reading.

Charlie Maidland provides some infos about Virtual PC 2007 in his post Vista Backup PC to VPC.

If you are interested in betatesting Virtual PC 2007 you should apply for the Virtual PC 2007 Beta Program.

As posted here from the technology team in Microsoft's Global Alliance for SAP IE7 will be supported by SAP, but you probably need to install a Support Package, which will be Support Package 19 for SAP NetWeaver 2004 and Support Package 10 for SAP NetWeaver 2004s and are not available yet.

Sorrowly it is not mentioned if older versions before Netweaver will also support IE7 or if there are some known issues.

Further reading is provided in SAP note 981710.

There is an interesting hint in the comments, that WebAS 6.20 could use the Kernel of WebAS 6.40 - which is described in SAP note 803429 - to force compatibility...

Microsoft has acquired Winternals led by Mark Russinovich und Bryce Cogswell.

You should know this company because of Systernals Freeware - I hope that the tools will be also for free in the future...

If you are interested in Mark Russinovich thoughts of this deal have a look in his blog.

Bill Graziano has developed a tool called Scriptio which is available for download as ClickOnce-Application and as source code (version 0.5.1.0).

Here is the current history of development / posts:

• http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2005/11/22/8414.aspx
• http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2005/12/24/8613.aspx
• http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2006/02/12/9019.aspx
• http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2006/02/17/9063.aspx

As posted nearly a month ago, Microsoft announced some usefull tools for Lotus Notes and Domino Migration.

The Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino is now available for download - there is a seperate whitepaper, which explains the usage of the tool.

Extract from the website:
"The Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino is a tool that helps organizations to analyze their Lotus Notes/Domino application environment. It generates reports based on a number of application properties such as last accessed/modified dates, template types and the presence of workflow. Based upon the reports generated by this tool, customers can quickly identify applications that should not be migrated (such as administration applications or unused applications), applications that can easily be migrated to Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) templates and applications that require additional analysis."

Extract from the website:
"For its next-generation Xbox360 video game system, Microsoft faced more complex manufacturing requirements than it saw with the original Xbox console. It also faced a need to speed production and reduce inventory costs compared to the performance of its earlier, EDI-based supply-chain solution. To provide full, real-time visibility into the supply chain for the product’s graphics chips, Microsoft created an integrated business process automation solution based on Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software components, including BizTalk Server and the BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet. As a result, the company expects to speed on-time deliveries by 20 percent and reduce inventories by 10 percent. Those gains, plus increased productivity of manufacturing and IT staffs, will help deliver a first-year ROI of 126 percent. Developing the solution was 50 percent faster and more cost-effective than using EDI, saving six months off the development schedule."

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=99D83AD0-1132-4CC4-A083-7558DEBDCE29&displaylang=en

This video highlights two mission-critical applications within Microsoft that take advantage of SQL Server 2005: MS Sales, a worldwide revenue reporting system, and SAP R/3, an enterprise resource planning system.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2ef438a4-4ae3-4d7b-bfe5-037c954f72c0&DisplayLang=en

Discussion on how Microsoft IT used SQL Server 2005 to deliver Microsoft Report Analytics, a robust, ad hoc reporting application and MS Sales Business Intelligence, a comprehensive business intelligence solution.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=92fbac74-0ca3-4b47-98ca-85014ec5df26&DisplayLang=en

Detailed discussion describing how the EAS group in Microsoft IT used the new features in SQL Server 2005 to dramatically increase the availability of SAP R/3 at Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b6cf6af2-7df6-4dec-abf6-2469f864c962&DisplayLang=en

There is an interesting artice available called "Installation of the Microsoft BI Suite (SSRS, SSAS, SSIS, BSM, SPS, WSS)" published by "the_jim_and_dan_show"

The article Applying the Principle of Least Privilege to User Accounts on Windows XP brings up some interesting thoughts about limited user rights

Extract from the website:
"The Least-Privileged User Account Approach
A defense-in-depth strategy, with overlapping layers of security, is the best way to counter these threats, and the least-privileged user account (LUA) approach is an important part of that defensive strategy. The LUA approach ensures that users follow the principle of least privilege and always log on with limited user accounts. This strategy also aims to limit the use of administrative credentials to administrators, and then only for administrative tasks.

The LUA approach can significantly mitigate the risks from malicious software and accidental incorrect configuration. However, because the LUA approach requires organizations to plan, test, and support limited access configurations, this approach can generate significant costs and challenges. These costs can include redevelopment of custom programs, changes to operational procedures, and deployment of additional tools.

Important   It is difficult to find utilities and guidance on using limited user accounts, so this white paper refers to third-party tools and guidance from Web logs and other unofficial sources. Microsoft makes no warranty about the suitability of the tools or guidance for your environment. You should test any of these instructions or programs before you deploy them. As with all security issues, there is no perfect answer, and this software and guidance is no exception."

The whole article is also avalaible for download as a Word-file.

Are you a Microsoft Action Pack Subscriber?

Then you should use this link to order your personal copy of Microsoft MapPoint for free:
http://www.microsoft-mappoint.com/

Microsoft Action Pack Subscription - global link

Microsoft Action Pack Subscription - german link

You shurely know, that Microsoft provides a control to display reports in your own applications without just linking to the SQL Server Reporting Services by http or SOAP. It is a little bit difficult to understand how this control works and especially the difference between the remote mode and the local mode needs to be clarified, I think...

It´s a pity that the the ReportViewer control cannot be extended by adding custom renderers or custom report items - that is the only disadvantage.

Here are some links, that should bring up light into the dark:

Microsoft Report Viewer Redistributable 2005
[As a german developer you will need the Microsoft Report Viewer 2005 Language Pack Deutsch to bring up the right screen messages]

http://www.gotreportviewer.com/, which provides informations and sample codes to give a quick start. Especially the difference between local mode and remote mode is described clearly.

MSDN article about ReportViewer Controls (Visual Studio)

MSDN Forum: Visual Studio Report Controls

Teo Lachev, Building Report-enabled Applications with the New ReportViewer Controls (Part 1 of 2)

Teo Lachev, Building Report-enabled Applications with the New ReportViewer Controls (Part 2 of 2)

Some links to be able to understand the Smart Client Concept from Microsoft:

• Smart Client Definition
• We Rock 247 .NET
• TaskVision
• MSDN Library: Smart Client Architecture and Design Guide

If you use Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 (I bet you will!) you will be glad about this highly sophisticated How-To by Andre Connel called "Use Virtual PC's Differencing Disks to your Advantage".

roudybob has posted an interesting article about Networking Settings in Virtual PC which summarizes some other postings and if you have problems with the Microsoft Loopback Adapter than Aaron Stebner provides an article which should help.

Sorry, German only...

Die Slides der MS Office Solutions Conference 2005 stehen zum Download zur Verfügung.

The article "What Are the FrontPage Server Extensions?" brings up more clearness regarding the unloved FPSE

If you want to know more details about SQL Server Authentication mechanisms and how to interact with IIS I would suggest reading the following articles:

• SQL Server 2000 Security - Part 2 (Authentication) by Marcin Policht
• How to set up IIS and SQL Server on separate machines with a trusted connection

Sorry, German only...

Aus der Reihe "Steffen (unser deutscher SQL Evangelist) erklärt die Welt":

Ist BizTalk ein Workflow-System?

Und wer mehr darüber erfahren will, wann er welches MS Produkt für Daten- und Systemintegration einsetzen sollte, dem sei Steffens TechNet Webcast "Welches Microsoft-Integrationsprodukt wofür? - Teil 1 (Level 100)" ans Herz gelegt.

Zusätzlich dazu gibt es ein englisches Whitepaper unter diesem Link Understanding Microsoft Integration Technologies - A Guide to Choosing a Solution.

Using this link - which I do periodically - I discovered a new Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Sample Pack available for download.

It is for the Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 and all you have to do is to enable the logging of the ISA Server Reports using the SQL Server instead of text files or other data storage.

Microsoft has published the documentation about MARS - there internal financial reporting solution - as an "Microsoft IT Showcase".

Extract from the website:
"Overview of how Microsoft implemented a more robust and flexible financial reporting solution by using SQL Server 2005 technologies. By using SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services and SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services, the standard reporting of the financial results was upgraded to provide end users with an effective business intelligence platform that was more flexible and more secure."

Sorry, German only...

IIS 6 für den Web Entwickler

"Dieser Webcast zeigt, wie man die IIS Dienste wie Web, Mail und FTP konfiguriert und zeigt mögliche Stolpersteine auf. Anhand einer üblichen ASP.NET Web Anwendung werden die notwendigen Schritte von der Installation bis zur Wartung gezeigt."

Dirk´s blog contains a real interesting entry to get started with Indigo

Here are the links:

• Introducing Indigo: An Early Look
• Programming Indigo: Contracts
• Programming Indigo: The Programming Model

Microsoft has announced the realease of some new tools targeting Lotus Notes and Domino Customers, this is the english press-release and this is the german one.

I think there is a very interesting description of the following two tools:

• Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino.
  This tool, available in the first quarter of 2006, will significantly improve the process of analyzing a Notes/Domino application environment and provide a framework for making recommendations to transition those applications to the Microsoft platform.
  
• Microsoft Data Migrator 2006 for Lotus Domino.
  This new tool, available in the second quarter of 2006, will allow organizations to migrate data from Lotus Domino template-based applications to Windows SharePoint Services Application Templates.

The Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 7 is available now.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx

And the IE Product Team is blogging too:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/

Today I tested it and now Reporting Services is not working anymore!
Calling a report just brings up this error message:
"The report server cannot decrypt the symmetric key used to access sensitive or encrypted data in a report server database. You must either restore a backup key or delete all encrypted content and then restart the service. Check the documentation for more information. (rsReportServerDisabled)"

I am really curious why the installation of the IE7 has to touch the Reporting Services repository?

And be assured - before installing IE7 B2 Reporting Services worked fine...

Microsoft provides some interesting links about the co-existence of Microsoft .NET and J2EE technologies.

You should also have a look at the white papers and case studies.

Blake Handler has posted a list of sources for free Microsoft support which he is keeping up-to-date continuously.

He also provides a list called 2-Clicks to Microsoft's FREE Support, Training, & Software Downloads! which really is worth a click.

Simon Guest (blogname smguest) tries to give a 10-point definition about a "real" webservice in this article

The Care Management reference implementation for MS Office 2003 contains sample code, templates, and guidance that demonstrate the possibilities in using the Microsoft Office System to address critical business issues.

Extract from the website:
"Intended for developers and IT implementers, this download of sample code, templates, and guidance demonstrates one possibility for implementing a solution to extend care management programs to more members using the Microsoft Office System. The content provided with the reference implementation illustrates how to use Microsoft Office InfoPath® 2003 XML-forms to streamline task management and to utilize Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 to implement a unified process and documentation approach."

This download is related to the MS Healthcare initiative, which can be found here.

Visual Studio .NET Web Control for Business Intelligence

This OLAP Web Control, developed by GrapeCity, Inc. brings the OLAP cubes right into your business applications allowing you to view, explore, and summarize data through your browser.
Following are some of the features provided by the control:

• Drilldown, drillup, slicing, and drillthrough
  
• Run-time layout designer
  
• Multi-language support

The MSDN Webcast Leveraging Application Blocks in Your Application Development by Aaron Suzuki will be a good intrduction to this topic

The Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 1.1 will also be a usefull resource, especially the Data Access Application Block will be worth a click...

Extract from the website:
"Application blocks help to address the common problems that developers face from one project to the next. They are designed to encapsulate the Microsoft recommended best practices for .NET applications. They can be plugged into .NET applications quickly and easily. For example, the Data Access Application Block provides access to the most frequently used features of ADO.NET, exposing them through easily-used classes. The application block also adds related functionality not directly supported by the underlying class libraries."

You bought a Small Business Server (SBS) and try to get it started?

This sources should help:

• smallbizserver.net
  the site is run by Mariette Knap & Marina Roos, called "The Magical M&M's" and both are Microsoft SBS MVP´s
  
• mssbsfaq.de
  run by Oliver Sommer (MVP-SBS), Tobias Redelberger (MVP-SBS) and Markus Klein

MS did it!

A real MCP for Business Intelligence, called Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Business Intelligence Developer (MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer) will be available soon in English. We will have to wait and see when the German one is ready...

Seems, that they have put very useful stuff together for these exams.

Extract from the website:
"Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Business Intelligence Developer (MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer) is the premier certification for business intelligence system designers and developers. This certification demonstrates that you can design solutions, data transformations, and reports.

Business intelligence developers design and implement multi-dimensional database models (logical and physical), data marts, data warehousing, data transforms, data analytics, and reporting solutions. This includes programming and customizing servers that use MDX, customer transforms, and custom reporting solutions. Business intelligence developers are typically employed by mid-size to large organizations."

Sorry, German only...

Im Rahmen der IT Showcase-Reihe stellt Microsoft im Artikel "Verwalten der Leistung von SharePoint-Produkten und -Technologien bei Microsoft" Informationen über den MS-internen Einsatz der SharePoint-Technologien bereit.

MS offers Solution Guides regarding several important topics in the medium-sized business.

Extract from the website:
"The Medium IT Solution Series is designed for growing businesses that are progressively increasing the use of IT to empower employees and connect with customers. The solution series provides greater flexibility in terms of IT design and the number of supported users. The solution series is intended for medium-sized businesses with 50 to 250 users."

The link above includes all solutions and guides.

I personally just needed the Medium Business Solution for Collaboration Services v 1.0 at the moment and it provided good tipps.

Extract from the website:
"This solution provides guidance that can be used to plan, build, deploy, and operate collaboration services in the medium IT environment. It provides guidance on deploying Windows® SharePoint™ Services-based intranet and extranet Web sites and publishing the Web sites to the Internet. This enables users to remotely access these Web sites over the Internet using a Web browser."

Microsoft has its own BI-Site up and running!

Look at http://www.microsoftbusinessintelligence.com/

Not many pages up there, but you will be able to register for a Microsoft® Business Intelligence Solutions Kit DVD here.