some thoughts... - Tools

Migrating to Windows Vista Ultimate - post-installation tips...

Markus Fischer — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:19:56 GMT

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...

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Windows Live Writer Enhancement: Insert Code

Markus Fischer — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:10:35 GMT

There are only two reasons why I have avoided Windows Live Writer so far it is still beta... it does not have a kind of "Insert Code" like my online form Today I discovered that Omar Shahine has build a "Insert Code for Windows Live Writer" - and kindly also hast posted it on Windows Live Gallery. Thanks Omar!

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MS Virtual PC - some infos and news

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:34:13 GMT

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.

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Ms. Dewey - Just another search engine or the future form of presenting search results?

Markus Fischer — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:45:04 GMT

I just came across Ms. Dewey, which in my personal opinion is a very interesting effort to make a search engine more "personal" and could also help to dear down barriers for target groups with low affinity for the Internet... The search engine technology used behind the scenes is Windows Live like mentioned here in the Windows Live Blog. As a suggestion: the result set could be arranged in a larger area to enhance the lucidity.... But this is a nice try I think... Microsoft, listen! With Lena Gerke being the "german face" for Windows Live I would expect - and also highly recommend.. :-) - a localized version...

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Soapbox (beta) on MSN Video

Markus Fischer — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:26:44 GMT

Kay Giza points to the Soapbox beta and also gives a link to join the beta. But not only that, Kay also gives an example how to view a soapbox video in your website or your weblog like this one...:

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SMO - a little introduction

Markus Fischer — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:55:09 GMT

Definition from the SQL Server 2005 Product Guide: "SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) is the management object model for SQL Server 2005. SMO represents significant design and architectural improvements for the SQL Server management object model. It is a simple to use but rich object model that is based on .NET Framework managed code. SMO is the primary tool for developing database management applications using the .NET Framework. SMO is used extensively by SQL Server Management Studio. Every administrative action that you can perform in SQL Server Management Studio, you can also accomplish by using SMO. The new SMO object model and the WMI APIs replace SQL-DMO. Where possible, SMO incorporates similar objects as those in SQL-DMO for ease of use. You can still use SQL Server 2005 with SQL-DMO, but SQL-DMO will not be updated to manage features that are specific to SQL Server 2005.

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Blackberry 8707 - new toy in town

Markus Fischer — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 21:08:58 GMT

After ruining my SDA I had to decide which toy to buy next...

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screencasts done with Wink

Markus Fischer — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:30:11 GMT

These days I came across a post by Jens Süßmeyer announcing that he has done some screencasts to visualize some common sql problems. Jens has done it with wink and I think I will also give this tool a try to document some bugs rather by screens than with words...

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MS Virtual PC 2004 for free

Markus Fischer — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:04:14 GMT

After giving away the Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 for free since April this year MS now announced, that MS Virtual PC 2004 will also be available for free now. Now the nonsense getting the server for free while having to pay for the desktop solution is over... :-) And if you are searching for tips & tricks regarding the virtual solutions of MS you should look at http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy.

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Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard

Markus Fischer — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:53:08 GMT

If you are into football (or should I say - political correct - soccer) - you may know that the FIFA World Cup 2006 starts this friday...

Than you also should be interested in this download, because it keeps you up-to-date:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=df6a6e6e-21af-4786-ad1d-a38e8bfda82f

The programm also gets you in touch with new GUI- and design-thoughts - using it you will know "Vista is near"... ;-)

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Scriptio - Scripting Objects in SQL Server 2005

Markus Fischer — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:35:41 GMT

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).

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Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino

Markus Fischer — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:08:43 GMT

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."

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Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Loopback Adapter

Markus Fischer — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 17:32:10 GMT

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.

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FrontPage Server Extensions

Markus Fischer — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:53:20 GMT

What Are the FrontPage Server Extensions?

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Messaging Migration Tools for Lotus Notes/Domino

Markus Fischer — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:23:37 GMT

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.

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IE 7 beta

Markus Fischer — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 01:36:06 GMT

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...

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BIRT Project

Markus Fischer — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:08:08 GMT

BIRT was started in September 2004 as Toplevel-Projectof the Eclipse-Organisation. It is an open source, Eclipse-based reporting system that integrates with your application to produce compelling reports for both web and PDF and provides core reporting features such as report layout, data access and scripting.

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LGX Report

Markus Fischer — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 16:45:12 GMT

LGX Report is a free reporting tool by LogiXML. There is a new version available, called "LGX Report Liberator+ Edition", which uses Excel as front end for designing. The website and the reporting gallery gives a good impression about the value of this tool - LogiXML provides also enhanced versions, which are not free. Anyone tried this tool? Comments appreciated.

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CodeSmith

Markus Fischer — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:12:29 GMT

CodeSmith is a template-based code generator that allows you to generate code for any text language. You will not believe how easy developing could be - even try this tool with stored procedures!

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SNARF

Markus Fischer — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:40:53 GMT

SNARF, the Social Network and Relationship Finder, from Microsoft Research was built around the notion that social network information that is already available to the computer system can be usefully reflected to the user: a message from a manager might be seen differently than a message from a stranger, for example. SNARF applies this idea to email triage: handling the flow of messages when time is short and mail is long. SNARF requires Microsoft Outlook (2003, 2002) as a MAPI source. It has been tested with Exchange and MAPI servers, Hotmail, POP, IMAP, and the OL Connector for Lotus Notes. SNARF does not work with Outlook Express.

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VB.Net 2005 Downloads

Markus Fischer — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:37:19 GMT

Starter Kits, Codes, Snippets, Tools - all available in this Download section.

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Convert MySQL into MS SQL

Markus Fischer — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 04:02:00 GMT

MySQL-to-MSSQL

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Selfmade Backup-Application for Sharepoint

Markus Fischer — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 03:16:52 GMT

Michael Washam posted an article on MSDN named "How to Write a Back Up and Restore Application for SharePoint Portal Server 2003" to provide a GUI for the backup and discovery tools.

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Search through Stored Procedures and other objects?

Markus Fischer — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 01:52:10 GMT

Eric Bracke provides a cool tool named SQL Digger which enables searching in Stored Procedures, UDF´s, Views and Triggers.

He also provides guides to add it into SQL Enterprise Manager or in the .NET IDE.

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dummy text generator

Markus Fischer — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:21:38 GMT

dummy text generator

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Windows 2003 Server Administration Package

Markus Fischer — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 13:15:17 GMT

Windows 2003 Server Administration Package

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