Over the past couple of days at work I've been installing the application templates. Not before time you might think - and you'd be right.

The first twenty were easy of course as they were stp files but for the second 20 I had a WSS FAQ item with a full batch file (http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/EditForm.aspx?ID=976) so I couldn't go wrong, could I? (and in any case that item also had a link to Dustin Miller's blog item on the same thing).

Well it's a good job that I "ate my own dogfood" because that batch file was flawed. Firstly my system (at least) refused to accept that c:\program (followed of course by files\common files\ etc.) was a valid executable file, so I had to use stsadm either from within BIN or set my path to include BIN. But worse than that was the fact that that batch file had two lines each for each of the application templates, but *didn't* have the two lines for the Core template which is needed for any of the application templates to work.

That's now fixed at least. In fact both of them are, but I'm wondering whether or not the later blog item from Syed Adnan Ahmed here http://www.sharepointblogs.com/adnan/archive/2007/03/05/20426.aspx isn't a better article to refer to than Dustin's which I found a bit confusing. For one you don't need to install the Core stuff first at all as he says - you can first install all the application templates as I did by mistake; then try to create a site using one; fail; find you haven't got the core template installed and only then install the core template. Even in that order you can later create sites using an application template.

However I don't think I will refer to that article because it's main feature is a batch file very much (but not the same and of course one batch file looks much like another batch file) like the one I have so if I added a link to that blog item we'd be in a sort of having a tratoria called La Tratoria (Film: Mickey Blue Eyes).

I've installed WSS 3.0 so many times that you'd think I'd know how to do it by now.

Well in fact I do. Take a clean system; install Windows Server 2003 Std.; Run the wizard to create the Applications Server specifying ASP.NET; run the .NET Framework 3.0 install; run the WSs 3.0 install.

It works every time.

Of course having done it so many times means you no longer think as shown by the following example.

I was given a company Virtual Machine that already had the OS (Windows Server 2003 Std) installed. It also already had Applications Server installed. I'd been given a user with administrator rights so I was able to amend the settings of that Applications Server to try to get it as close as possible to what I was used to after doing the Applications Server bit myself. The key part was of course getting rid of FPSE but I also removed FTP support and a few more things. I also made sure that .NET Framework 2.0 wasn't there (or maybe I removed it, I can't remember) and then ran the .NET Framework 3.0 install followed by the WSS 3.0 install which didn't work!

It didn't take long to realise why. Because I hadn't installed the OS myself as usual, I hadn't been doing the WSS install with the server Administrator and password but only with a name that had Administrator rights on that server. Oops.

Anyway I went and persuaded the very reluctant VM guy to give me the Administrator name and password they used when creating their images; checked that it worked and then thought about what to do next.

What I decided to do was to go down to the metal or at least as far as I could. I'd remove everything (including the Applications Server role and thus IIS and ASP.NET) apart from the OS and then *using the server's Administrator*, I'd do my standard installation.

Removing stuff went OK although to remove the Applications Server role I had to remove IIS by hand as the wizard wouldn't remove it when IIS was specified. Then a re-boot (I did lots of re-boots) and install Applications Server which couldn't find about 11 files - even on the D: drive which was "the installation CD" as no doubt an .iso file. That wasn't good.

Another re-think. I've got it. Their image is flawed. They have on the D: drive an .iso of Windows Server 2003 Standard with no SPs and yet they have before the image was taken installed SP1. The two don't match and therefore the SP1 wizard for creating the Applications Server role is looking for files that aren't on that CD. So I hunt for a DVD with 'Win Serv 2003 Std incl SP1' in my new MSDN pack and don't find one. I do however find a Win Servr 2003 R2 Std which will have to do. (and it did).

Then things went smoothly and my regular techniques worked fine.

The moral of the story ? Even if you've done something many many times, always much sure that there's nothing different in your environment this time before following your usual pattern. (Oh, yes, and don't trust images done by other people to contain everything you need).

P.S. I've got another VM (for MOSS 2007) coming up. I asked for an image that was of Windows Server 2003 R2 and which didn't have anything extra installed. It didn't surprise me too much to find out that this would cause massive delays to the availability of my VM and that if I didn't want to wait several extra weeks I'd be getting that same flawed (and incredibly old when you think how long R2 has been out) image.

Sudden flash of inspiration. I have VM Workstation why can't I create an R2 image over the weekend and give them that - it'll just take a few hours [Of course it would also only take them a few hours rather than the weeks they are threatening me with]. Good idea except for one thing. That image would be using my personal (nothing to do with the company) MSDN code. They're not getting that; that's for sure and anyway how much of a test installation is it going to be ?

Microsoft announced Dynamics Client for Office and SharePoint at Microsoft Convergence this week.

Here's the press pass item on it:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/mar07/03-12Day1DynamicsOfficePR.mspx

However in the real world the people supporting Dynamics don't talk to the SharePoint people (at least in my real world they don't) so I suspect that we are likely to see one of two scenarios for this.

a) The Dynamics people just reject it out of hand. (SharePoint - what the *** is that?)

b) The Dynamics people install it but haven't much of a clue about how to best use it.


It would be nice to think that in the case of b) they would then ask a SharePoint person for advice, but I very much doubt it. In your (or Microsoft's) dreams perhaps. Not in the real world.

P.S. A couple of days later and the Redmond Channel Partners magazine (http://RCPmag.com - March 15th 2007) had an article on how "Soon, SharePoint expertise will be a requirement, not an advantage, if you sell Dynamics".

I'm cynical enough to think that where there are Partners who are large enough to have existing Dynamics and SharePoint teams all this will mean is that the Dynamics team will tell one of their own guys to become a SharePoint expert rather than them (shock, horror) actually talking to the guys who already have SharePoint knowledge.

One of the regretably common practices is to use the fact that you are blogging in another language than English to disguise the fact that you are actually simply re-using someone else's material.

Todd Baginski had an article here

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/tbaginski/archive/2006/11/14/16053.aspx

called "HOW TO: Prevent creation of sub sites within MOSS 2007 My Sites"

Somebody called Marcel Jeanneau  had a blog here

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/jeanmarc/archive/2007/03/09/prevenir-la-creaci-n-de-sub-sitios-en-my-site.aspx

in which he first says that Todd Baginski (link to Todd Baginski's main blog address - not to this item) has written "a little about ..."; then he throws in the odd bit of news that seems irrelevant in this context that VS SP1 for Vista is out before it seems quoting Todd's entire article (identical *English language* [and since when did Spaniards run English language server software?] screen print and all) except that he's translated the text parts into Spanish.

My Spanish isn't great but certainly that's what it seems to me. The intention is clearly to create an impression that this is his own work based on Todd's initial "small" efforts, when in fact there doesn't seem to be any own effort at all apart from a minor translation effort.

Would any person fluent in both Spanish and English care to check this viewpoint (quickly before the blog item is changed - but I have a copy just in case) ?

P.S. A day later and the "duplicate" (Spanish) URL no longer works (at least for me) ...

Note: All of the addresses of the KB / Articles - 2007 Products / MS / Non-MS Articles below were valid at the time I added them to the WSS FAQ site and to this file. I can't guarantee that they still are.

(This is also posted to the WSS newsgroup at microsoft.public.sharepoint.windowsservices - web access via http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/server/sharepoint.mspx)

(Items are added to the WSS FAQ throughout the week so you will find new items more quickly by checking at wss.collutions.com or www.wssfaq.com daily.)

From 5th - 11th March 2007

I 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;933560

The Windows Server 2003 /3GB switch is not supported in Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 or in later versions or in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 SP2 or in later versions

8th March 2007

II. Articles - 2007 Products  (no longer with all links to articles for other Office 2007 and other 2007 Products)

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2751d5cd-8690-44b5-ae5c-d2769b227929&displaylang=en&tm

SharePoint Server 2007 Presentations: Enterprise Search Deep Dives

9th March 2007

http://weblog.vb-tech.com/nick/archive/2007/03/09/2251.aspx

Multiple SharePoint 2007 sites running of Forms Authentication (Blog - Nick Swan)

9th March 2007

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/helloitsliam/archive/2007/03/07/moss2007-reporting-services-add-in-again.aspx

MOSS2007 – Reporting Services Add-in (Part 4) (="Again") (Blog - Liam Cleary)

7th March 2007

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/akalli/archive/2007/03/07/incorporating-podcasts-into-your-sharepoint-site.aspx

Incorporating Podcasts into your SharePoint Site (Blog - Andrea Kalli)

7th March 2007

http://www.codeplex.com/features/Project/FileDownload.aspx?DownloadId=7243

SharePoint 2007 Features: Theme Changer

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.codeplex.com/features/Project/FileDownload.aspx?DownloadId=7242

SharePoint 2007 Features: Print List

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.codeplex.com/features/Project/FileDownload.aspx?DownloadId=7241

SharePoint 2007 Features: Presence Contact List

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.codeplex.com/features/Project/FileDownload.aspx?DownloadId=7240

SharePoint 2007 Features: Placeholder Master

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.codeplex.com/features/Project/FileDownload.aspx?DownloadId=7238

SharePoint 2007 Features: Log Viewer

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.codeplex.com/features/Project/FileDownload.aspx?DownloadId=7237

SharePoint 2007 Features: Content Type Hierarchy

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.codeplex.com/features

SharePoint 2007 Features (Starter Page for downloadable features)

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/HA102199841033.aspx

Demos: A six-part series on getting the most out of SharePoint Designer 2007 (Note: actually six demos on one page from the SPD 2007 team)

7th March 2007 (date added)

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/06/how-to-upgrade-an-area-based-on-a-custom-site-definition.aspx

How to Upgrade an Area based on a Custom Site Definition (Note: "upgrade" means when upgrading from SPS 2003 to MOSS 2007) (MS Blog - Boxin Lee)

6th March 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/06/what-every-sharepoint-administrator-needs-to-know-about-alternate-access-mappings-part-1.aspx

What every SharePoint administrator needs to know about Alternate Access Mappings (Part 1 of 3) (MS Blog - Troy Starr)

6th March 2007

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/700c3d60-f394-4ca9-a6d8-ab597fc3c31b1033.mspx?mfr=true

Plan for security roles (Windows SharePoint Services)

6th March 2007 (date added) (paper dated March 2007)

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83725&clcid=0x409

Using SQL Server Database Mirroring with Office SharePoint Server and Windows SharePoint Services

6th March 2007 (date added) (paper dated March 2007)

http://www.sharepointhosting.com/video_tutorials.html

SharePoint tutorials from LearnVu (available to all - need to manually start the videos with the ">" button)

6th March 2007 (date added)

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/ms441339.aspx

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK (Japanese Version)

6th March 2007 (date added)

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/ja-jp/library/ms550992.aspx

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SDK (Japanese Version)

6th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.wssdemo.com/Pages/flash/SimpleDVWP.htm

SharePoint Data View Screen Cast (using SPD 2007) (Ian Morrish, www.wssdemo.com)

6th March 2007

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb149147.aspx

SharePoint Designer 2007 Developer Reference (Starter Page)

6th March 2007 (date added)

http://weblog.vb-tech.com/nick/archive/2007/03/05/2241.aspx

Deploying our SharePoint 2007 Workflow with Visual Studio 2005 + InfoPath 2007 (RTM VERSION!) (Blog - Nick Swan)

5th March 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/brianwilson/archive/2007/03/05/part-1-event-handlers-everything-you-need-to-know-about-microsoft-office-sharepoint-portal-server-moss-event-handlers.aspx

Event Handlers - Part 1: Everything you need to know about Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server (MOSS) Event Handlers (Blog - Brian Wilson)

5th March 2007

http://sharepoint-screencasts.com/default.aspx

SharePoint Task Oriented (How-To) Screencasts (Asif Rehmani)

5th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.sharepointplatform.com/teamblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=31

SharePoint Blogs Part I: Blog Access Control, Built-In Groups & Anonymous Users (Blog - Mark Parsons)

5th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.sharepointplatform.com/teamblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=40

SharePoint Blogs Part II: UI Customization (Blog - Mark Parsons)

5th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.sharepointplatform.com/teamblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=41

SharePoint Blogs Part III: Blogging from Word (Blog - Mark Parsons)

5th March 2007 (date added)

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms473633.aspx

Server and Site Architecture: Object Model Overview

5th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.sharepointplatform.com/teamblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=427bfca2%2Db731%2D4c19%2D87c6%2D83c90460e02c&ID=29

Configuring Anonymous Access for Web Applications & Sites (Blog - Mark Parsons)

5th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.sharepointplatform.com/teamblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=427bfca2%2Db731%2D4c19%2D87c6%2D83c90460e02c&ID=42

DataFormWebPart, ListViewWebPart & DataViewWebPart Clarification (Blog - Mark Parsons)

5th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/helloitsliam/archive/2007/03/04/20416.aspx

MOSS2007 – Reporting Services Add-in (Part 3) (Blog - Liam Cleary)

4th March 2007

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/helloitsliam/archive/2007/03/04/20410.aspx

MOSS2007 – Reporting Services Add-in (Part 2) (Blog - Liam Cleary)

4th March 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2007/03/04/customize-the-page-editing-toolbar-in-moss-2007.aspx

Customize the Page Editing Toolbar in MOSS 2007 (MS Team Blog - Sterling Crockett, Kai Lee)

4th March 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/edhild/archive/2007/03/03/how-to-create-a-site-collection-in-a-workflow.aspx

How To: Create a site collection in a workflow (Blog - edhild)

3rd March 2007

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/helloitsliam/archive/2007/02/21/19801.aspx

MOSS2007 – Reporting Services Add-in (Part 1) (Blog - Liam Cleary)

21st February 2007

B. Other Office 2007 products (selected few only since 1.1.2007)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3d6c8fb7-ec08-4c79-9764-cb7a7aeb03b2&displaylang=en&tm

Project Portfolio Server 2007 Document: Builder User Manual

8th March 2007

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb244260.aspx

Microsoft Office Project 2007 Developer Reference (Starter Page)

6th March 2007 (date added)

C. Other New 2006/2007 Products  (selected few only since 1.1.2007)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1d3a4a0d-7e0c-4730-8204-e419218c1efc&displaylang=en&tm

SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports

7th March 2007

http://www.microsoft.com/belux/msdn/nl/community/columns/sergeluca/wfkiller.mspx

Dynamically start and kill a workflow with Windows Workflow Foundation (U2U - Serge Luca)

6th March 2007 (date added)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/03/Foundations/

Tracking Services in Windows Workflow Foundation (MSDN Magazine, March 2007 - Matt Milner)

6th March 2007 (date added)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/03/ServiceStation/

BizTalk Server 2006 Web Services (MSDN Magazine, March 2007 - Aaron Skonnard)

6th March 2007 (date added)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=06111a3a-a651-4745-88ef-3d48091a390b&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Mobile 6 Software Development Kits (Standard and Professional)

1st March 2007

 

Modified

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=692a6e3c-81c9-4d8a-93fa-266d651735dc&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 VHD - 32-bit version

8th March 2007

Deleted

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 VHD - 32-bit version  (from February 2007 - for some reason the November 2006 version is still there)

III WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=991

III.77.04 Application Templates: What do you need for the Application Templates to work in a non-English version of WSS 3.0?

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=993

III.86 Do you have code for deleting document versions earlier than a particular date?

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=994

III.87 How do I transfer templates as part of an upgrade from v2 to v3?

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=992

X.30 Application Pool Viewer (free - "Geoffrey")      [new, takes advantage of a free number]

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=990

X.42 SharePoint Feature Manager (free - Todd Baginski)

Modified

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=976

III.77.03 Application Templates: Do you have a batch file handy for installing the second lot of WSS 3.0 Application Templates?

(the above was moved from II.10 and the leader text "Applications Templates: " added)

http://www.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=906

V.28 Professional SharePoint 2007 Development (Wrox - John Holliday, John Alexander, Jeff Julian, Eli Robillard, Brendon Schwartz, Matt Ranlett, Dan Attis, Tom Rizzo)

Deleted

None

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

IV WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;933738

An update is available that addresses an issue in which items that use the Date and Time fields are off by one hour in Windows SharePoint Services (ver 2.0)

9th March 2007

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;933853

How to manually update the TIMEZONE.XML file to be DST 2007-compliant if you cannot install update 924881 or a later update for Windows SharePoint Services software (ver 1.1)

8th March 2007

Modified

None

V. MS Articles for WSSv2

New

None

Modified

None

VI Non-MS Articles for WSSv2

New

None

Modified

None

VII WSSv2 FAQ

New

None

Modified

None

This time for once there's a request for help.

If you go to www.acer.co.uk (having found that www.acer.com doesn't respond at all) and look at the drivers and downloads section you finally (after they've made it somewhat difficult for you) find a place where you can select your portable and look up the downloads (drivers and applications) that are available there for it.

In my case I have a Acer Ferrari 4005 bought just over a year ago and supplied with XPPro. It works fine with the Vista I installed but the mouse pad is a touch too (British understatement as it's driving me mad) active [makes typing difficult as your hand moves over the mouse pad and whoosh you are typing in the wrong place] and I wanted to do something about it (and I couldn't seem to find anything suitable in Vista itself) so I was looking for the Vista version of the Acer applications supplied with the portable.

It didn't really come as a surprise (I love the portable but I've never found their support sites brilliant) to find that they still only have the XPPro drivers and applications there and no sign of anything for Vista.

Select the Ferrari 5000 model (the latest versions of which come with Vista installed) and you find Vista drivers and Vista Acer applications.

So my question is a simple one. Has anyone out there with a 4000 series model running Vista tried these 5000 model applications and, more importantly perhaps, did they work ?

My comments section awaits you :)

P.S. The Finnish importer seems to be blundering with those new (5000 and 1000) Ferrari models. Earlier model versions (3000, 4000) were only sold in Finland in one version - the version with the best specification. Thus the Ferrari truly was exclusive. That was the case too with the 5000 and the 1000 when they came out. But nowadays prices have gone down so much for H-Ps that you can buy what *seems* to be a similar specification H-P for about half the price. The distributor has reacted by bringing out much worse specification Ferraris in addition to the original full-spec ones (with 1Gb instead of 2GB memory for instance). The result is that Ferraris are now no longer a "luxury" item and you might just as well buy an H-P. The build is almost certainly worse but you can extend the warranty to 3 years for about 100 Euros and that is an on-site service unlike the Acer extended warranty which forces you to pack up the faulty PC in the box in came in and then contact Acer in Germany for details of how they want you to send it to them. I still paid for Acer extended warranty (for more than 200 Euros) because my previous Dell gave up the ghost after two years (= needed new motherboard) and I didn't have extra warranty of course, but still. Next model a Lambourghini (Asus) perhaps ? Black or Yellow?

As I thought, all I actually needed to do was look up "Outlook Express" in the index of Vista: In a Nutshell and I would have been directed to the Chapter on Windows Mail and a note that this is what Outlook Express is called these days.

Again the emphasis was on the Mail part of Windows Mail which I find very odd because there are many ways of handling mail out there (and Windows Mail is nothing special) whereas Outlook Express is one of the usual ways in which MVPs and others provide support to the public newsgroups.

Windows Mail is any case a pain because I've discovered that I can no longer say that my e-mail address for it is a hotmail one. This means in my case that I would have to (shock, horror) use a real one. Luckily it still even without me assigning any e-mail address in Windows Mail allows me to reply to newsgroup messages. Previously all my replies filled up my hotmail address (as used in OE) so where are they going now I wonder.

Anyway back to in a Nutshell. Maybe it's my memory but I remember them as thin and mean with not a wasted explanation. Now the Vista one - while not a 900 page massive volume - is certainly not lean and it seems to have lost it's meanness too with rather too much explanation of what seems to me the simple things (such in this chapter as setting up Windows Mail for first Mail and then Newsgroups neither of which are even close to rocket science). (The book has 700 pages).

One other minor niggle is that I am naturally using the so-called Classic View of Control Panel (so-called because they are calling things by different names so you are constantly looking in the wrong place - where's Display when you need it, oops its *below* the item in Classic View called Personalization; what's Classic about that ?) and the in a Nutshell book thinks that its readers are using the (for want of a better word) Idiot's View which seems to have many more depths of menus before you get anywhere.

So if you find a "here it is" in the book, it tends to maybe have the right name but not the right location.

Again my recollection is that the "in a Nutshell" books were for experts and experts use the snappier Classic View don't they?  Somewhere along the way they seem to have lost the track - too long answers for simple stuff and the wrong set of menus. Luckily the index is still there and that so far has worked for me when I've been looking for things that Vista has misplaced. Once of those for me was Add and Remove Programs which *wasn't* in the index as that (which it should have been) but under Programs, uninstalling p483 where naturally it told me it was at Control Panel / Programs / Programs and Features when it's actually (Classic Mode) at Control Panel / Programs and Features.

Enough perhaps. I need a reference book and for now this is the best I've found for Vista, warts and all.

It turns out that Outlook Express is in Vista after all. As usual I was reading Jerry Pournelle's regular weekly "column" which since Byte foolishly didn't renew his contract is now on his own web site (Chaos Manor) and I saw when he was talking about E-mail that "Windows Mail" in Vista is in effect Outlook Express.

Oh yes, I thought, maybe for the mail part of Outlook Express but with a name like that it's hardly going to cover newsgroups too.

But I looked; found Windows Mail; started it and yes there's a thing there (apart from the Mail part) called "Microsoft Communities" and it's identical in look and feel (if you take the basic version) to OE.

So I subscribed to my usual 5 SharePoint newsgroups and started off downloading the headers at 1000 headers a time (having changed the default from the crazily low 300 that was in OE too).

Just as I'd discovered on several other machines and operating systems lately there is something wrong with the .setup_and_administration newsgroup. Tell it to download 1000 headers and you are lucky to get 80. Once I got 5 before it stopped and there were still many thousands left on the server (after many many tries I had got just 898 messages). I have no idea what is causing this but it is a major pain especially as some people think you don't need to quote what you are replying to and so if you don't have all the headers you don't see that original message at all.

Can someone fix this please ?

P.S. It was odd, actually. Unlike in normal OE I didn't have to specify that the newsgroups I wanted were in msnews.microsoft.com. That was what lay behind the "Microsoft Communities" label. But any thoughts I had that maybe they've restricted you to only that, vanished when I saw that the menu bar was nothing more or less than the OE menu bar with the option of creating new newsgroup blocks.

Thank goodness, despite the installation screens being in Finnish at least the Nero software installed was in English and through use of my existing security code (as used in the XPPro side of the same portable) the trial installation was converted into the full one. I really like it when things go so smoothly.

As far as I could see that installation works fine in Vista (Vista was listed as supported on their web site) but one thing I won't be using it for is to convert and transfer (in Nero language "burn") Microsoft .wmv format webcasts to my IPod.

For that I need ITunes and thanks to BetaNews here (http://www.betanews.com/article/iTunes_and_Vista_Still_Have_Issues/1173211152) I know there are problems with ITunes in Vista 32-bit and that it doesn't yet work at all in Vista 64-bit.

While the release of iTunes 7.1 does include a number of compatibility fixes that enable the software to work with most Windows Vista editions, Apple warns that users may still encounter problems. The company is working with Microsoft to resolve outstanding bugs.

Apple notes that ejecting an iPod using Windows Vista's "Safely Remove Hardware" feature could corrupt the device and require a full restore using iTunes. In addition, iTunes text and graphics may display incorrectly, and contacts may not sync properly from Windows to an iPod. For now, iTunes and iPods remain incompatible with 64-bit versions of both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

So I'll need to keep Nero on the XPPro side for a while longer just for that.. That's not much of a hardship because I don't transfer webcasts to Ipod on a regular basis - mainly in fact only when I know I am going somewhere where I have a lot of waiting time, as without any fast forward (or mark place) on the IPod you have to watch the web casts in the same timeframe and use the IPod for nothing else in between to avoid losing your place. The big Archos I have is much better in that respect - pity it's virtually impossible to convert .wmv webcasts to the mode it uses (in a quality you can use).

P.S. To anyone wondering what the heck this Vista stuff has to do with SharePoint, well it may have escaped your attention that people with Vista and perhaps especially people with the Vista version of IE7 have been having some problems accessing and using v2 and v3 SharePoint sites. So now with one home machine running Vista and Office 2007 (ignore the dual-boot to XPPro for now) and the other running XPPro and Office 2003 (mainly so I can continue to use FP 2003 with the v2 WSS FAQ sites) I am covering quite a bit of the possible scale of SharePoint newsgroup/forum questions. Is that a good enough reason for you ?

P.P.S. One of the installations I did in Vista was Virtual PC 2007 (and I didn't bother telling you about that because it just went through smoothly and as far as I can remember in English) and guess what my first Virtual PC installation is going to be ?

But first. Why wasn't it possible for me to open Documents and Settings in the Vista boot drive and work my way down to Favorites so that I could copy my Favorites across from the XPPro side. Instead I had to start fiddling about with the menu item Add Favorites and really p*** about to get these across.

I forgot also to say yesterday that I didn't have at first music but that Vista managed to find a driver and that took care of that.

What however I didn't have was the latest graphics driver for my Mobilty Radeon X700 that I later discovered maybe only has 128MB memory itself but it's also stealing over 0.5GB of mine (without bothering to tell me). Vista claimed it's own ("Microsoft") driver was the latest and greatest but a trip to amd.ati.com (I'd forgotten they'd bought ATI) gave a new driver from the end of February so that is now installed. Hopefully that will clear up yesterday's problem of the machine going to sleep OK but refusing to wake up (which forced me to do something I always hate which is to take out the mains cable and then the battery). I've in any case now changed the power settings and closing the lid should now be the only thing that puts the portable into hibernation (default was sleep for some odd reason).

Kudos by the way at this point to the "Vista - in a Nutshell" book from O'Reilly that listed hibernation in the index and also warned about needing to upgrade the graphics card and/or amend the power settings if the machine wasn't waking up as it should. That was a perfect book for me. I'll leave the Missing manuals and Missing Manuals Starter Edition for people who haven't seen quite so many Operating Systems come and go. I'll also leave their Definitive Edition well alone too because that was written by Mr William Stanek who continues in his blurb to be proud that he helped to bomb Iraq in the first Gulf War. Given the fact that this book is not just meant for the US market, someone ought to have a quiet word with Mr Stanek. (Oddly enough I blogged and complained about this the last time I mistakenly went so far as to buy a book by him something like two years ago. Nothing changes (and I had more readers then!)).

As for Finnish (grrrr). Zinio gave me no choice and installed the Finnish language version of its reader. OK I understand it but that's not the point. Give me the choice ! 

Similarly I'm re-installing the latest version of the Nero I have on the other side (from where I will remove it if the Vista version works) and the installation routine is telling me in Finnish what to do. Hopefully there at least they aren't installing a Finnish version of the software as then I will really scream (and do it all over again after setting my locale temporarily to English).

That's it other than to say that Thunderbird just lies there for hours trying to send a single message. Not a great implementation, that.