OK, "havoc" is a big word which isn't really justified.

I'm at present working through the Admin Studio Evaluation Guide (don't ask what this has to do with SharePoint [because the answer is "nothing at all"]!) which means I have installed the trial version of Admin Studio (a product that includes InstallShield) and which used to come from MacroVision (although I'm fairly sure it didn't start there) but now since the 1st of April comes from some other (new?) oddly-named company (begins with an "A" - accerta or something, nothing I've ever heard of). That change of ownership is so new that all the sites point to MacroVision pages and the documents still come from MacroVision.

All was going well. I set up (for a change) a VM using VM Fusion (roughly the Mac equivalent of VM Workstation) that had Windows 2003 Server installed and then installed the trial version of Admin Studio and was working through the examples in the Evaluation Guide.

I was about halfway through so I suspended the machine with Admin Studio open and at the page I was going to continue at this morning.

I restarted it this morning and started reading my e-mail on my work machine (I was using Admin Studio on my own Mac while waiting for a better work machine capable of running VM systems).

So, on the MacBook in that VM, the automatic upgrade of security fixes went into action and so I had to re-open my Admin Studio and find my place in the Evaluation Guide again.

Not too much of a problem you might think except that now there was a built-in "Start; wait a couple of seconds; delete" process going on caused it seemed later to be by DEP no longer liking that app.

So I tried getting rid of the two security fixes added today and re-booted. Now without me even trying to run Admin Studio, I was getting messages saying that Admin Studio wasn't being allowed to start !

I seem to have fixed it by re-running the Admin Studio installation; writing over the files but then saying Repair, but I've removed that Automatic Upgrades function (that I *never* use on my PCs so why did I set it in this VM?) and will try to remember to take at least a snapshot before adding any more security fixes to this VM. (I had of course taken a copy of the VM but that was before Admin Studio was installed with only the OS and security fixes [but not the yesterday ones!!].)

 

 

I knew that the HP workstation didn't come with a graphics card not even an imbedded (useless) one.

That made sense - if you pay that kind of money you are likely to want to pay several hundred dollars for a graphics card too so why (as Apple do with the MacPro) supply you with a good but not great graphics card that you might then throw out.

So that wasn't the negative.

Nor at the time did it seem that it not being supplied with a keyboard would be a problem as the usual junk ones just get dumped virtually immediately. (Although the same logic could apply to a mouse and they included one of those).

But as it happened this *was* a problem thanks to the very first (actually second) step in their long and almost automatic software installation routine.

Typically the problem was caused by the completely pointless "Are you Sure?" step !

What happens when you first switch on the machine (after installing the graphics card of course - which went smoothly enough, once I'd worked out how to take the "lid" off the slots at the side of the machine for the metal edge of the card to be able to fit it) is that it first (for this Nordic model) asks you to select which language version you want (use mouse to go down to English which isn't default which is very odd) and then the next screen is the infamous "are you sure" step.

To say that you are sure, you need to press F10. Now most keys (Enter say) would have given me no problem, but my keyboard is a Microsoft keyboard with Fingerprint reader where the F10 key has two uses (Search or something is the other one) and as of course the special driver for that keyboard hadn't been loaded so early in the procedure so although the keyboard basically worked, pressing F10 simply had no effect at all.

My alternative keyboard is a Microsoft wireless keyboard so that no doubt wouldn't even be recognized as a keyboard until much later in the startup process.

So within seconds of switching on the machine I was competely stuck and all because the HP setup guys had insisted on confirmation via a(n) F key.   (Yes the dual meaning WAS intentional!) 

I do have a simple keyboard but that is at work because it's better than the rubbish keyboard that came with the office portable. So I either had to go to work (20 mins drive away) or wait until the next day OR ring the next door neighbour's bell.

So that's what I did and luckily she was in and wasn't using her computer and could lend me her keyboard right away (a keyboard that I would hate to use normally but with single role F keys) and I could get past that man-made stumbling block and install the OS using the built-in routine.

Anyway that was one of the two temporary negatives.

The other was that this is the first computer that came without a power cord. Luckily I had a couple that I had saved in my computer storage location (=dump) but I remember thinking at the time that I hardly needed to keep them because if I buy a new computer it will come with one. Well this one didn't (and of course I needed to have both the old and the new computer on at the same time in order to see which software to install on the new one; which parameters etc. - I had dual video and ethernet cables handy of course).

So no keyboard; no power cord; no graphics card and actually no metal protector thing opposite the x16 slot that I was going to be using to install the graphics card into. No how much do they save by not including that ? 0.001 cents ??

Enough of that. On to the three permanent positives. All were unexpected.

The detailed documentation on the web made it clear that although there was a firewire outlet at the front of the machine, it was only active if a Firewire card (part number supplied) was installed in the first PCI slot and connected to this outlet.

The inference was that the card wasn't installed and you'd have to buy it and install it yourself. I only didn't order the card because I had a Firewire card somewhere in my store.

But, as you'll have guessed by now, that card was already installed so firewire worked both from the front (1) and the back (2).

The second thing that wasn't mentioned as being included was a multi media reader card. Again, HP had a suitable one and they included assembly instructions for it but again there was no mention of one being included as standard.

It was, and it also oddly included a single USB port - not that there was a shortage of them with several on the front already and a few more at the back.

So that's two of the permanent positives.

The third was that the box includes not just a sound card but also loudspeaker(s) so there is no longer any need for any speakers taking up useful space on the desk.

OK it's not stereo and the quality probably could be improved with some decent (desk) speakers, but it's sound that's not terrible to listen to and it works, so for now I'm moving my speakers (and woofer which is even bigger) off the desk and going for the Nordic uncluttered (sterile?) look. [At some time to be replaced no doubt by piles of SharePoint books]

As I wrote, the positives are permenant positives and the negatives very much short term, but why, oh why, did those HP guys insist on F10 being pressed before you could install the software? Do they all have those really awful standard HP keyboards I wouldn't be seen dead with (except that is when I'm looking for a(n) F key that works!)?

Well it's arrived and it's much more solid (and heavier) than the Fujitsu-Siemens virtually home user model it replaces.

More on how it opens when I've opened it. (I got it home at about 8:30 PM yesterday and I've learned by experience to add graphics cards and the like when I'm not already tired).

The information on it on the HP site looks pretty good although there a few pointless PDF files (Accessibility.pdf was a single paper which consisted of about two lines which said in effect "this workstation model follows standard accessibilty principles" or some such rubbish. I didn't actually bother to read it properly when I saw what roughly it was saying) and there's a later (?) driver to my graphics card just proving which it was a good idea to switch that to one that model of desktop officially supported. (There are other relevant drivers too)

But that wasn't the "interesting thing".

No the interesting thing is that the model I got is supplied with Vista Business DVDs BUT H-P have actually installed XPPro on it.

Yes, it's one of the "pay for a Vista license and then use that license to be allowed to install XPPro" models that I've read about earlier than HP and Dell both have "in response to customer demand".

Hence the Vista DVDs (Nordic languages + English) as that's what you've paid for. But when you on startup create a Recovery disk, it's going to be a recovery disk of XPPro. Probably I'd guess with SP2 although SP3 shouldn't (as this isn't an AMD processor) cause Blue Screens at least.

As I already have a portable running Vista Ultimate and as this is anyway my wife's PC (and this time I'll be putting my assorted junk in a VM to keep it away from messing with her applications in any way), it's probably a good idea to leave it at XPPro anyway.

The only real question is Office 2007 or Office 2003 ?

For the book I wrote it was very useful to have Office 2007 on one machine and Office 2003 on another so if Office 2007 gets put on this one I have a good argument for keeping the old one ...

(Actually not so good once the "VM for my junk" idea gets known)

P.S. My wife decided on Office 2007. (Her main argument for that seemed to be the fact that we had O'Reilly "Missing Manuals" for all the Office 2007 products). So now I'm going to have to set up a VM with Office 2003 for test purposes. I suppose it will be logical to have that as XPPro-based....

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 11th - 17th May 2008

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are not not amending the date of a KB article if the change made is marked as a version point change (so from 2.2 to 2.3 for instance).
This ought to mean that the amendment made is cosmetic rather than important as important text changes ought to result in a major version change (such as from 2.2 to 3.0).
Because of this change and to avoid unnecessary effort I will in future not amend the listings in the WSS FAQ sites if only a minor version change has taken place.
I will continue to amend both the date and version numbers of major version changes and of course will continue to add all relevant new KB articles that my RSS feeds and other sources give me.

I.1 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952167/en-us

Folders may have to be excluded from antivirus scanning when you use a file-level antivirus program in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or in SharePoint Server 2007

15th May 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951655/en-us

The slide content type is unavailable in standard enumeration in SharePoint Server 2007

9th May 2008

Modified

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;928744

Error message when you try to update Excel 2007 workbook data from an external data source in SharePoint Server 2007: "Data Refresh Failed" (ver 2.0)

13th May 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;944267

How to troubleshoot common errors that occur when you run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard on a computer that is running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or SharePoint Server 2007 (ver 3.0)

13th May 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;946484

Search results are incomplete when you use a CAML query that uses the SPSiteDataQuery class to search content on a SharePoint Server site or on a Windows SharePoint Services site (ver 2.0)

1st February 2008

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

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

*** Special Section with WSS 3.0 / Visual Studio 2005 VPC image and appropriate Virtual PC and Virtual Server downloads ***
(all have been added dated the 15th of May to keep them all together)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1beeac6f-2ea1-4769-9948-74a74bd604fa&displaylang=en&tm

Windows SharePoint Services Developer Evaluation VPC Image

15th May 2008

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/Articles%20for%202007%20Products/EditForm.aspx?ID=3547&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwss%2Easaris%2Ede%2Fsites%2Fwalsh%2FLists%2FArticles%2520for%25202007%2520Products%2FLatest%252020%2Easpx

Virtual PC 2007 (ver 1.0 of 19th Feb 2007)

15th May 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=28c97d22-6eb8-4a09-a7f7-f6c7a1f000b5&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 (version 6.0.192.0)

15th May 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9f3d3eb5-5e03-4712-999c-e96f91bdf128&displaylang=en&tm

Virtual PC 2007 SP1 Release Notes

15th May 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6dba2278-b022-4f56-af96-7b95975db13b&DisplayLang=en

Virtual Server 2005 R2 - Enterprise Edition (ver 1.0 from the 3rd Apr 2006)

15th May 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=bc49c7c8-4840-4e67-8dc4-1e6e218acce4&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Update - Enterprise Edition (ver 1)

15th May 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/virtualserver/evaluation/virtualizationfaq.mspx

Virtual Server 2005 Frequently Asked Questions (updated 14th May 2008)

15th May 2008

*** End of special section ***

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6f3440e8-1ad1-4063-8f14-2d633c12cd21&displaylang=en&tm

IT Showcase: Creating Effective Enterprise Portals by Using SharePoint Server 2007 (ver 1.2)

13th May 2008

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/Documents/STSADM%20Posters/Stsadm_Cmd-Line_WSS_3.vsd

Stsadm parameters poster for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

12th May 2008 (date added)

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/sharepoint/Documents/STSADM%20Posters/Stsadm_Cmd-Line_MOSS_2007.vsd

Stsadm parameters poster for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

12th May 2008 (date added)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0e396ac2-f4b8-4013-bc04-3eb0a97ec2e7&displaylang=en&tm

SharePoint Deployment Planning Services Datasheet

12th May 2008

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a8a4e775-074d-4451-be39-459921f79787&displaylang=en&tm

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Tools: Visual Studio 2005 Extensions User Guide, Version 1.1

12th May 2008

http://www.aspose.com/documentation/file-format-components/aspose.words-for-.net-and-java/add-doc-to-pdf-and-other-conversions-to-microsoft-office-sharepoint-server-2007-with-aspose-components.html

Add DOC to PDF and Other Conversions to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 with Aspose Components (Aspose)

11th May 2008

http://blogs.msdn.com/ecm/archive/2008/05/09/building-a-news-workbench-on-moss-2007-part-5.aspx

Building a news workbench on MOSS 2007 -- Part 5 (MS TeamBlog)

9th May 2008

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

None

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

None

 

Modified

None

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2007 Products

None

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

None

Modified

None

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

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New

None

Modified

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823287

You receive a "Cannot connect to the configuration database" error message when you connect to your Windows SharePoint Services Web site (ver 3.0)

13th May 2008

VI WSSv2 FAQ

New or Modified

None

Microsoft have just made available a time-limited vhd version of "WSS 3.0 with Visual Studio 2005" at

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1beeac6f-2ea1-4769-9948-74a74bd604fa&displaylang=en&tm 

There are a couple of things with this.

Firstly, why on earth don't they tell us on the download page how many days/months/years this time-limited version works for. I would have thought that was pretty important information. Is anyone for instance going to bother trying to develop for SharePoint using Visual Studio if they are only given 30 days to do so ?

Note: I have no idea if it is 30 days or not, because the web page doesn't tell me either. See P.P.S. I now know

The other thing of course is why bother at all. WSS 3.0 is a free download anyway (actually two because there's a copy of the original WSS 3.0 and also a copy that includes SP1), and that is time-unlimited, so why bother with a time-limited version at all?

The answer to that obviously lies in the addition of Visual Studio in that vhd so you can develop (or rather try out development) using the Visual Studio WSS additions which can only be installed on the same server as WSS 3.0 itself.

But in order for that sort of testing to be worthwhile the time period needs to be at least 3 months. is It ?

Another question they don't bother answering on that download page is whether this is the WSS 3.0 version with or without SP1.

Sighs. Sometimes you get the impression that the people who are responsible for these download pages just can't be bothered to put themselves in the mindset of the people who will be using them.

P.S. The other method (if you just want WSS 3.0) is to install the Windows Server 2003 VHD from here

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=77F24C9D-B4B8-4F73-99E3-C66F80E415B6&displaylang=en

and then to download the normal WSS 3.0 (incl SP1 version); follow the usual pre-requisites on the server and then install 'WSS 3.0+SP1'.

Of course they don't tell you on *that* download how long the trial period is either. Sighs again.

P.P.S. You'll now see that the download page does say that this is the version of WSS 3.0 that includes SP1. (It also includes the "3.0" that it didn't before).

There must be a policy against saying how time-limited a download is because that part doesn't seem to have changed on the download page. What I can probably say without dire consequences (for me) is that what "time-limited" means here is not the number of days used but a fixed date at which this expires.

*** I should learn to look through the whole article. The fact that it's valid to 30th Sept. 2008  has been added as an "Additional Information" section so low down I didn't see it. Thanks to the guy who let me know that he'd added it there in response to my comments (yes, really) ... ***

I encourage you to start using this vhd as soon as possible if you want to try out SharePoint development using it as you will then get the maximum amount of usage time possible.

In the blog a few days ago I reported that the desktop "workstations" from Dell and HP were far too expensive and so I had gone for a "business" PC instead.

The PC was available immediately but as it only had built-in graphics I ordered a graphics card too so as I only ever want to do the pick-up run once (it being all of 10 miles away ...) the order was waiting for the graphics card to arrive as well.

Then, and I have no idea how I got to that page on their site, I noticed that they had a HP "workstation" tower with a Intel 4-core processor chip no less that was selling for a mere 400 Euros more than the box I had on order. Not only that but it already included 3 years next day warranty and 4GB of memory (which on the business model I was paying extra for in both cases) so the price difference sunk to just over 300 (yes, I was lying about the 400, it was more like 470 ...). So I switched the order to that (they have a good delete order policy).

So I ordered the graphics card they recommended for this model and started waiting. Once again the computer was ready but the graphics card would take a few days (and this time I couldn't use the computer without it as there was no (useless) graphics card included at all.

So I checked out the HP site to see if there was another graphics card recommended for this model that maybe had a shorter delivery time and found that the one they (the sales company not HP) had recommended wasn't on the list at HP for this model of workstation.

So back to the Internet. None of the lower price-level cards specified by HP for this model were at my seller's site but they were at another seller's site in Finland. So HP Finland have them and can deliver them.

Back therefore to my supplier. Can I change - surely you can get hold of these cards too? Yes, they could; yes they would change the order; yes, I'm still waiting for the graphics card to arrive.

But at least - and this seems important given that this seems to be a well-supported machine rather than just a box you can shove any graphics card you like into (although no doubt you could and it would work) - I now have the complete package that is HP-supported.

Leaves the Hard disk. That workstation has built-in RAID and it seems a pity not to use it for RAID-1 so I need a second 500GB drive. Do I pay 70+ for a Seagate with 5 years guarantee or 130+ for possibly the same drive with an HP label and 1 years guarantee. As I can insert the drive by screwing in the four guiding screws HP provide in the (workstation) box and slotting the drive in, the only question is where the holes for the screws are in the drives and does it matter. I think not so I'll buy the Seagate and swap it later if it doesn't fit (which seems very unlikely).

Finally. Of course the better processor; better model has put the price up by a bit but nowhere near the MacPro level and that is to a large extent (but not only) caused by the 3-year warranty extension for the MacPro costing an extra 350 Euros rather than nothing. In effect I'll get my HP workstation MacPro equivalent for 1400 instead of 2400.

Interestingly the HP Finland site is still showing the typical street price for the box I bought at from 1700+ and that was for a more normal dual core chip too. That of course was the sort of price level I rejected earlier when doing my first sweep as then I *would* have been up to MacPro levels for the similar kind of thing (but without several MacPro benefits like *four* front-accessible hard drive locations and eight memory slots not four (and each memory slot capable of 8GB not 2).

Time will tell if I got a bargain or not. But saving money wasn't the aim. Getting a solid machine with solid support at a reasonable rather than cheap price was.

These days with the world it seems having moved to portables it's becoming more and more difficult to find desktops from standard manufacturers.

The problem is compounded if you want to buy a desktop with a build quality that means it will last more than a year or so as the trend seems to be towards cheaply made units that cram in all the latest fast processor chips; big disks and latest graphic cards into boxes/Power supplies etc. that ca nothing has been spent on.

There's a price point for people who just want a low-level box (ca 500 Euros) and a price point for game players who presumably don't care about long life as they will be replacing the box in a year's time to get an even faster box (ca 1000 Euros).

The problem was that I was looking for a replacement machine for my wife whose main usage is doing all kinds of photo overlays (so she needs a reasonably fast processor and lots of disk space) and she had been warned by her neighbour about the quality these days of one of those 1000 Euros boxes. (From Fujitsu-Siemens as it happens) So that solution was out.

Instead I needed to try to find something that was better built than those even at the cost of less pure performance.

At first I didn't think this would be a problem. Money wasn't particularly the problem as I could add a few hundred Euros (to the 1000) and get a better-built box surely.

A few looks at the "workstation" models of Dell (always crazily expensive in Finland compared to anywhere else in the known world) and H-P disabused me of that idea. If you move to what hopefully are boxes that aren't built down to a price you double the price. So you're talking roughly 2000 Euros which was a bit much to replace an early 64-bit box that didn't cost much more than 1000 almost four years ago.

However at 2000 Euros there was also the Mac alternative. The MacPro.

First I had a look in a Mac magazine at "buying a Mac" and they recommended buying an iMac rather than a MacPro (as being enough performance even if not quite as much)) and I must admit I was tempted by the idea of an iMac with a built-in 24-inch screen. However that idea was shot down in flames when I suggested it because we already have a (professional level) 20-inch HP screen and "that's too big on that desk already". (Why is it we men don't think in such practical terms :) ?)

So the Mac Pro then. Well for me there would have been probably no contest and for a while I was seriously attracted to the idea until I started seeing some of the snags - which turned out in the end to mean serious amounts of money.

The first problem is that the standard MacPro model (and supposedly the cheapest model you can buy in the shops) costs 2500 Euros and although it has dual 4 core processors still only has 2GB memory so you need to add memory to that (and probably a hard disk because it comes with a 320 GB one). Now you can add non-Apple memory and disks so the price isn't the excessive Apple one, but ever little adds on and you're maybe up to at least 2800 anyway.

At that price you need more than 1 year's warranty. I've had a Dell portable at that price level crash and burn after less than 3 years careful (portable within the house only) usage. So an extension to 3 years which Apple kindly (?) provide for ca 330 Euros.

So now we're at more than 3100 Euros. It's getting a bit much. (Especially when you think that one of the attractions was 8 memory slots and four accessible disk drive locations, so 3100 wasn't where it would all end).

The next try is the Apple Shop. There you can configure your machine so for just over 2000 you can get a model with only 1 processor not two and for an extra 40 you can get a 500GB disk not a 320GB one. But you still have to buy more memory (and not from Apple) and at over 2000 there's still a case to be made for that 330 Euros extension to 3 years support. But do you have to ship it back to them yourself to get the support? Certainly there doesn't seem to be any pickup support even at that price point.

So buy a cheap and nasty but fast model anyway ?

For me maybe, but my wife wants things to work hassle-free so it's time for another look around.

What I in the end bought was a HP business model which has a reasonably fast Intel dual core processor; a 500GB disk and 2GB memory and the typical (for business models) really useless graphics (non-)card.

As it's not a commercial model it doesn't have as much of the junk installed on it (that I would need to remove) at birth and it has Vista Business which I might leave on it.

I'm also hoping that the build quality is at least somewhat better than the equivalently priced "gamer" models.

I've of course then also spent money on

- extending the warranty to 3 years (oddly, most business models - with slower processors - did include three years warranty, ought I to wonder about this model?) which cost less than 70 Euros and so was worth having, especially because I have good experience of HP support for hardware when under a next-day pickup warranty.

- adding 2GB to make 4. I think my wife will be happier with a 32-bit OS so there wasn't much point in adding more.

- adding a reasonable graphics card

- adding a second hard disk to double capactity

and as it turned out having to find a Firewire card I have kept somewhere from an earlier PC because as it's a business model it has *eight* USB ports but no Firewire port. What on earth do business users want 8 USB ports for ?

The main question it turned out that I got after announcing that I had ordered one of these things had nothing to do with processor speed; disk space; or the graphics card but "does it have a multi-reader for my digital camera cards?". It did. Why a business model needs one of those I don't know. But there it is and that it seems is the key selling point for this "customer".

 

I'm always very hesitant (i.e. it is NOT a sales point) when I see that a book has been written by someone who works for Microsoft.

Somehow I don't see them knocking something in a Microsoft product for not working or not working well.

Add to that that Microsoft employees often (but not always) tend to be a long way from people who actually use the product and I start thinking that maybe (well to be truthful I rarely reach even the maybe stage) I won't bother with this book.

There are exceptions of course. There are certain areas (a recent book about the internals of the search system comes to mind) where all that inside knowledge can be very useful.

But to the matter in hand. A new book on SharePoint administration has just made it to Amazon (which means it will be out in the fall/autumn).

You can with that massive introduction perhaps guess that it was written by someone from Microsoft.

Here's the blurb.

"Steve Caravajal is a principal architect with the Microsoft Corporation. He has been architecting, deploying and customizing SharePoint solutions for over 7 years."

Ah, yes, but has he actually been administering them ?

It would seem not.

Wouldn't you think that they could find a Microsoft guy (from internal Microsoft computing perhaps) with Administration experience if they really insist on having someone from Microsoft.

I'd have picked Todd Klindt (MVP, not Microsoft) myself.

Other info on that upcoming book here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584506016/heme0f

The other interesting quote - considering this is a book on administration - is

"Steve is a developer at heart, having written and managed the development of numerous enterprise software applications in C++, Java and .NET."

So why didn't he write a book on SharePoint development? Surely not because there are a lot more development books out there than pure admin books?

 

One of the great things about writing a book is that you are forced to look more deeply into things that you know about but apart perhaps from a quick test during the beta phase haven't really used.

Typically because there's so much else going on ...

Anyway there I was with a section of a chapter where I'd decided that I would write about how OneNote 2007 interacts with WSS 3.0. I already had chapters or part chapters on Word/Excel/PowerPoint (both 2003 and 2007) and how they interacted and also quite a lot on Access 2007 and WSS 3.0 so OneNote 2007 seemed to be the logical thing to complement it with.

Well the book gives all the details about how to set this up and so on, and obviously it would be fairly stupid of me to repeat that here, but suppose you have already set up a link between OneNote 2007 and WSS 3.0, does it work the way it should?

I hadn't used my standard WSS 3.0 site for my 'OneNote 2007 in WSS 3.0. screenprints so I later used the same techniques to make (a copy of) my 'SharePoint Bloggers' notebook shareable. So I now have OneNote 2007 on my (Vista) portable and a notebook that is shared between it and the WSS 3.0 site (stored in a VM on my Mac).

Now this notebook contains *private* extracts from SharePoint blogs and other documents that I think are interesting for future reference (typically via searching) so I'm continuingly updating the OneNote 2007 notebook's sections whenever I use the Vista portable.

But there's always been a problem that when I've been using the Mac, I couldn't add those items but instead used to use the Newsgator "Clippings" possibility to save away the blog items I was getting via RSS feeds for later addition to the Vista portable. By the end of a normal week I probably had about 50 such things to add and it was a painful way to spend a couple of hours at the weekend.

The first phase of me doing better by using the WSS 3.0 version of that notebook was to add OneNote 2007 to that Mac VM (Windows 2003 Server R2 running WSS 3.0) and then access the Shared Documents doc lib where the notebook was contained in a folder using the Mac VM's own copy of IE 6. After that, the particular section opened in OneNote 2007 inside the VM and I could amend it.

The next phase came when I realised I could specify that the VM also had access to Mac files. So now I can open the Shared Documents doc lib (and that folder) in the Mac's own browser (Safari) and then open the .one file for the section I want to update. This will then seemlessly open the OneNote 2007 from that VM so that I can amend the OneNote 2007 notebook section.

So I can now use the Mac as if it was running OneNote 2007 containing notebooks stored on the Mac.

As for the synchronization. It seems to work so that amendments to the web version are synchronized automatically to the version stored on the files of the Vista portable but that amendments to that Vista portable copy need to be manually synchronized (because that's the setting I have specified there) to get them to the WSS 3.0 copy. But it works and that, as I think you'll agree, is the main thing.

P.S. There is one thing to watch out for. If you have set the non-Web copy to be only synchronized when you actually say "synchronize now!", there's a little red mark next to the name of the notebook. I don't know about you but little red marks make me think something is wrong. Well, actually there isn't. All that little red mark means is that *at the moment* the notebook copy in the VM (or other PC running OneNote 2007) isn't connected. Right-Clicking and selecting "Sync now" will turn it to green and it will start synchronizing.

P.P.S. You may be wondering why I don't change the setting to "sync automatically whenever there are changes". Well the answer is obvious when you know (if you know!) that I have lots of VMs and because of the amount of RAM on that MAC (2GB) and the amount of RAM dedicated to the VMs (at least 1GB) I can't have more than one running at a time. So the VM containing my OneNote 2007 notebook shareable version isn't always available when I am running a PC (or even the Mac) that I want to access that shareable version (and I don't want it trying to attach all the time to look for new stuff, do I?).

I have a problem that my Black Zune thinks that if I delete a CD I've ripped to the portable (in order to transfer it to the Zune) from the portable, I also want it to disappear from the Zune.

Not so.  I want them to stay on the Zune and I don't want them taking up space I can ill afford on the portable (where other things are beginning so suffer because of the lack of space).

Now the interesting thing is that I also have a Red Zune and when I connect that to the portable, that can be connected as a guest and then none of this made to and from deletes happens.

So I've been looking for the setting that converts my Black Zune to a guest too and of course it's not there.

I've also been looking at other ways of cutting the connection but it seems from the wording that if I cut the connection between a CD on the portable and the copy of the CD on the Zune, the copy on the Zune is deleted (at least that's what the software seems to be warning me will happen).

So for the moment all I have is the following "solution".

Fill up the Zune as far as possible (until the portable runs out of space) with CDs from the portable. Then remove the Zune; delete all the files on the portable and - most impoortant - *never* attach the Zune to the portable again (because the first thing that would happen is that it would delete all my music on the Zune). Add any later CDs I acquire to the Black Zune only via the desktop where it is (will be) hopefully a guest and synchronization won't take place but I'll still be able to add stuff.

Meanwhile the situation with the Red Zune is probably the opposite!

Thank goodness they were out of Black ones when I ordered the Red one. The black one came later as a present and I'd have to start labelling them to know which Zune to attach to with PC.

Now if anyone has a real solution to this problem - please write a comment. I'm holding off on deleting all those files on the portable for a couple of days just in case. (So I have the possibility to test any solution with the Black Zune without the files on it disappearing ...

 

P.S. Well that was clever of me. Leaving the question mark off the subject so everyone would think I was presenting a solution. As it is I'm still in the same semi mess. So what I'm going to do is move the Zune folder to a USB drive and then if I really really do need to connect the Black Zune to the portable (or I forget the problem!) I can at least get the files back quickly and won't need to rip them from my CDs again.

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 4th - 10th May 2008

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are not not amending the date of a KB article if the change made is marked as a version point change (so from 2.2 to 2.3 for instance).
This ought to mean that the amendment made is cosmetic rather than important as important text changes ought to result in a major version change (such as from 2.2 to 3.0).
Because of this change and to avoid unnecessary effort I will in future not amend the listings in the WSS FAQ sites if only a minor version change has taken place.
I will continue to amend both the date and version numbers of major version changes and of course will continue to add all relevant new KB articles that my RSS feeds and other sources give me.

I.1 2007 KB Articles    (*now only one section for WSS and MOSS*)

New

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;952171

You are prompted multiple times for authentication when you try to access Central Administration, or you receive an error message when you try to configure the Office SharePoint Server Search service in SharePoint Server 2007

5th May 2008

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;952692

Upgrading Windows SharePoint Services from version 2.0 to 3.0 after upgrading Team Foundation Server 2005 to version 2008

5th May 2008

Modified

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940958/en-us

How to prevent SharePoint Designer 2007 users from changing a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site or a SharePoint Server 2007 site (ver 3.0)

8th May 2008

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New

None

Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

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://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc543192.aspx

Visual How To: Updating Document Information Panels for Content Type Changes in SharePoint Server 2007 (Joel Krist, Alona Systems)

10th May 2008 (date added - date of article April 2008)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc540662.aspx

Creating Business Applications by Using Excel Services and Office Open XML Formats (Sergei Gundorov)

10th May 2008 (date added - date of article April 2008)

http://blogs.technet.com/stefan_gossner/archive/2008/05/07/troubleshooting-spsite-spweb-leaks-in-wss-v3-and-moss-2007.aspx

Troubleshooting SPSite/SPWeb leaks in WSS v3 and MOSS 2007 (Blog - Stefan Gossner)

7th May 2008

http://sharepointsolutions.blogspot.com/2008/05/looping-through-items-in-sharepoint.html

Looping Through Items in a SharePoint List with SharePoint Designer Workflows (Blog - Ricky Spears, SharePoint Solutions)

6th May 2008

http://www.zimmergren.net/archive/2008/05/05/how-to-easily-construct-your-caml-queries-with-spquery.aspx

How To: Easily construct your CAML queries with CAML Query Builder (Blog - Tobias Zimmergren)

5th May 2008

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/dwise/archive/2008/05/01/inside-the-sharepoint-people-picker.aspx

Inside the SharePoint People Picker (Blog - David Wise)

1st May 2008

http://www.devx.com/codemag/Article/37736

SharePoint Applied—Stsadm Is Your Friend (devx.com - Sahil Malik)

22nd April 2008

http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2008/04/16/adding-breadcrumb-navigation-to-sharepoint-application-pages-the-easy-way.aspx

Adding Breadcrumb Navigation to SharePoint Application Pages, the Easy Way (Blog - Jan Tielens)

16th April 2008

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

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc531331.aspx

Install Project Server 2007 in Windows Server 2008 (single-server installation)

5th May 2008 (date added)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197402.aspx

Manage Active Directory synchronization in Project Server 2007

5th May 2008 (date added)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197632.aspx

Back up Project Server 2007 by using SQL Server tools

5th May 2008 (date added)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197459.aspx

Migrate Project Server 2007 by using SQL Server tools

5th May 2008 (date added)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197511.aspx

Restore Project Server 2007 by using SQL Server tools

5th May 2008 (date added)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197241.aspx

Back up Project Server 2007 by using the Stsadm command-line tool

5th May 2008 (date added)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc197471.aspx

Restore Project Server 2007 by using the Stsadm command-line tool

5th May 2008 (date added)

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

None

 

Modified

None

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2007 Products
 
http://wm.microsoft.com/ms/msdn/office/2007OfficeVisualHowTos/WSS3.0UpdatingDocumentInformationPanelsforContentTypeChanges.wmv

Visual How To: Updating Document Information Panels for Content Type Changes in SharePoint Server 2007 (Video) (Joel Krist, Alona Systems)

10th May 2008 (date added - date of article April 2008)

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/EditForm.aspx?ID=1376

V.118 Professional SharePoint Workflow Programming (Wiley - Shahram Khosravi)

Modified

None

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

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

VI WSSv2 FAQ

New or Modified

None