** The next post of this "weekly" item will be on or around the 21st of March 2009 - I won't have updated much until just before then anyway. **

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.

(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 15th to 21st February 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now 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;963022

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Coreserver.msp): January 27, 2009

19th February 2009

Modifed

None

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

II. Articles - 2007 Products

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://www.zimmergren.net/archive/2009/02/12/sharepoint-online-%E2%80%93-a-first-look.aspx

SharePoint Online – A first look (Blog - Tobias Zimmergren)

12th February 2009

B. Other Office 2007 products

None

C. Other relevant products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5c74880c-ced5-4a1b-9888-8cb027c628f5&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta Evaluation Virtual Hard Drive Images (for Hyper-V)

19th February 2009

 

Modified

None

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

None

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1757

III.02.13 Limits: Is there a limit in the number of views in the "Selected View" dropdown list?

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1755

V.204 InfoPath 2007 Essential Training (CD-ROM) (lynda.com, Inc - David Rivers) *released*

(above is in the Courses section)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1756

V.204A (Training: InfoPath 2007 Essential Training (CD-ROM) (lynda.com, Inc - David Rivers)) *released*

(above is in the InfoPath section)

Modified

None

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

VI WSSv2 FAQ

New or Modified

None

I bought a 2TB external USB drive system from Western Digital - the MyBook Mirror Edition - which is quite a large external box with USB 2.0 access to what are two 1TB drives which use RAID-1. You can also use the included WD RAID Manager software to set this as RAID-0 but I didn't need the space (or the speed increase) and prefered the security of a second copy so I left it as it was.

I was pretty happy at the price which for Finnish standards (don't convert this to dollars, folks!) was a very reasonable 235 Euros. When you consider that an "equivalent" 1TB device from Buffalo cost almost as much and that a special offer in the local shop for a single (of all things) Fujitsu-Siemens external 1TB was 100 Euros, 235 for a RAID-1 2x1TB device was pretty good.

Then it came to installing the included software. The user guide which I'd checked on the web before I bought the device said it included WD Anywhere Backup and "Google Software". The latter seemed both a waste of time installing and also was free software in any case, but I decided I might as well install the backup software so that backups were automatic.

So that's what I did. I installed only the "included" WD Anywhere software and didn't install two different pieces of WD software that were clearly labelled as 30-day trial (which WD Anywhere wasn't) and didn't install the Google software - which turned out to be Google Desktop Search; Google Toolbar (both of which I didn't want on this machine) and Picasa (which I already had installed on it).

I then connected up the MyBook Mirror (OK) and ran the "included" WD Anywhere software - which told me it was a 30-day trial edition !

Needless to say no code was included on the CD or where they usually are on a sticky at the back of the CD envelope, so I couldn't convert this to the full version.

So would I have to pay to use this "included software" past the 30 days? It certainly looked like it.

So I went looking for the Western Digital site (not of course at www.westerndigital.com that would be too easy but at www.wdc.com) to see where I could complain about this. I didn't find an e-mail address (all suppliers these days seem to make finding an e-mail address as difficult as possible) but I did find a download link for a copy of WD Anywhere Backup "free if you have registered your WD product".

So that's it. I'm forced to register my product (which as the product number on serial number is on the bottom I can't do until the initial backup has finished) and then I can download a (probably newer version) copy of the software that was supposedly included with my device in order to upgrade the supplied copy into a full version.

Now I wonder how many computer amateurs thought "Oh, they only supply a trial edition, I'll have to upgrade it on-line with my credit card."

Not a few, I'll bet. Sneaky, Western Digital.

P.S. The backup of almost the whole drive finally finished and I was able to turn the device upside down to get at the serial number.

First my normal glasses weren't enough to read it so I had to get out my reading glasses. With them I got a version of the serial number that was rejected. I tired a few likely variations. Rejected too.

So time for glasses plus a magnifying glass. A couple more "certain" letters now became uncertain and so I had to try a few more serial numbers before at approximately the tenth attempt all told I finally got one that was accepted.

It will perhaps not surprise you that the WD installation etc. didn't get a perfect score in their questionnaire that they force (yes, force - I left an answer out and wasn't allowed to proceed) you to fill in when you register. I also made good use of the space for additional comments on the documentation (which you'll remember said the box included a free version of the Backup software) and on the experience as a whole (too small serial number!!).

How a couple of things that have nothing at all to do with the quality of the product itself can screw up its ratings !

P.P.S. It didn't even end there. When I registered I didn't get a code for the software ! Instead I got a link to download the software - the same version of the software that I already had installed.

So I had to install software I already had installed and during this installation I wasn't asked for a code (thank goodness, as they hadn't given me one) but only for my E-mail address. This then they obviously match up with the e-mail address in the registration. Having done that the software "upgrade" went through and my copy of WD Anywhere Backup no longer stated that it was a trial version.

They then sent me an e-mail to confirm that I had installed the software and THAT (!!) included a code for the software ...

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.

(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 8th to 14th February 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now 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

None

Modifed

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;959637

Description of the SharePoint Server 2007 hotfix package (Coreserver.msp): December 16, 2008 (ver 3.0)

19th January 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=841057

Support for changes to the databases that are used by Office server products and by Windows SharePoint Services (ver 9.0)

19th January 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=958714

Unexpected query results when you execute common searches in a SharePoint Server 2007 site: "Turn on more accessible mode Skip to main content Turn off more accessible mode" (ver 2.0)

9th January 2009  (Note: ver 2.0 is a name change - name before "Error message when you execute common searches in an Office SharePoint Server 2007 site: "Turn on more accessible mode Skip to main content Turn off more accessible mode"" 11.11.2008)

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=930892

Error message when you try to open an InfoPath 2007 form from a hyperlink: "Insufficient security privilege"

26th January 2009

Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

II. Articles - 2007 Products

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://thorprojects.com/blog/archive/2009/02/11/fundamentals-of-sharepoint-performance-disk-sql-and-network.aspx

Fundamentals of SharePoint Performance - Disk, SQL, and Network (Blog - Robert Bogue)

11th February 2009

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd441390.aspx

Workflow Scalability and Performance in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (David Mann, Mann Software, LLC and Rohit Puri)

11th February 2009 (date added - article dated February 2009)

http://tinyurl.com/cogt4v

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Custom Application Development Series:  Document Workflow Management Project (Eric Charran)

11th February 2009 (date added - article dated January 2009)

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8b2c7980-b604-493f-b5ee-52c562458e34&displaylang=en

Web Content Management Training Modules (6 Training Modules with Videos)

4th February 2009

B. Other Office 2007 products

None

C. Other relevant products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=58ce885d-508b-45c8-9fd3-118edd8e6fff&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express (ver 10.00.1600.22)

8th February 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7522a683-4cb2-454e-b908-e805e9bd4e28&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express with Tools (ver 10.00.1600.22)

8th February 2009

 

Modified

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=21eabb90-958f-4b64-b5f1-73d0a413c8ef&displaylang=en&tm

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image (ver 4.2) [Note: includes IE8 RC1 VM]

[Note: Odd. This is still v 4.2 but has a different date (was 12.2008) and now includes RC1 not Beta 3]

6th February 2009

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

http://www.point8020.com/Training.aspx

Link to free training (18 hours - Enterprise Search; 12 hours Developer) (Point8020.com)

12th February 2009 (date added)

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1749

X.300 FusionCharts Free (free - InfoSoft)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1751

X.301 MiniCalendar Web Part (codeplex - "nsergiu")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1752

X.302 Twitter Web Part (free - Aidan Garnish)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1753

X.303 MOSS 2007 - C# Protocol Handler (codeplex - John Koz)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1754

X.304 Sharepoint List Security Manager (codeplex - "mehulbhuva")

Modified

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1377

V.299 (The Kindle Device version 2)

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

VI WSSv2 FAQ

New or Modified

None

 

I've always assumed that they way I do things in my SharePoint sites (which gives *me* the control on who gets to be added and with what rights) is wrong and that in fact the correct way to do authentication is to pass the authentication of SP sites to the Active Directory people. After all they are responsible for authentication to the rest of the company's stuff, why not to the SharePoint sites as well?

In other words I've always assumed that any well-organised (and large) SharePoint installation would have an equally well-organised set of structured AD groups that would be used for SharePoint authentication.

It was just that I didn't fancy the hassle of setting that up so never did it or even make it particularly clear to other people in the company that it was even possible to use AD groups ...

(They don't read blogs. I hope.)

Anyway it turns out that I was right all along.

I dipped at the weekend into the (MS Press) "Best Practices book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735625387/heme0f) again and found a very good section on just this problem

The Best Practice is to use (SP) User Groups (something which I always call "SharePoint Groups" - presumably that was the name in v2) rather than AD Groups.

They have a very long section explaining why (roughly because it's alright to use AD groups when you start out but gets complicated - especially when some users have admin rights for part of the system and then they too start contacting the AD team - as you go along and the fact that the AD people don't know SharePoint specifics doesn't help.

There's also several pages with columns given the problem; the effects of doing this with AD groups; the effect of doing this with User groups (etc.) which to me just serve to emphasise that initial written section.

Yet another example of that book making you think.

I still think it's a pity the book isn't in several handy (=thinner, lighter) volumes though. You ought to be reading it in odd 10 minutes imo but because it's so darn heavy you don't carry it around with you so it's not available for those 10 minutes breaks (and when you open it, you feel duty bound to study it for a longer period (which means for me at least that it's not opened as often as it should be)).

It does come with the text on CD-ROM though so I suppose you *could* transfer it (licensing permitting) to a Netbook so you have it with you all the time. ("Licensing permitting" because Netbooks don't have DVD/CD drives).

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.

(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 1st to 7th February 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now 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;958127

Performance is poor when you try to generate a custom audit report for a SharePoint Server 2007 site

3rd February 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;958302

Error message when you add a new variation label and try to create the hierarchy: "The variation system failed to pair up pages /en-US/web/Pages/default.aspx">http://<Server>/en-US/web/Pages/default.aspx and /ja-JP/web/Pages/default.aspx because their Content Types do not match"

2nd February 2009

Modifed

None

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

II. Articles - 2007 Products

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd424930.aspx

Updating Security Account Credentials (TechNet Mag, Mar 2009 - Pav Cherny)

6th February 2009 (date added - article is from the March issue)

http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/02/05/quick-and-easy-data-access-with-excel-services.aspx

Quick and Easy Data Access with Excel Services (MS Team Blog - John Campbell)

5th February 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=bcb22028-1772-41d3-b336-c50052812fa1&displaylang=en&tm

SAP Service with Custom Web Part Sample

5th February 2009

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd433177.aspx

Connecting with Excel Services in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to Create a Controller Workspace

5th February 2009 (date added - article dated January 2009)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4ce750af-5564-4b92-b74b-703d4c150ba6&displaylang=en&tm

Topics to consider before deploying SharePoint Products and Technologies

4th February 2009

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd440954.aspx

Integrating External Document Repositories with SharePoint Server 2007 (Scot Hillier, MVP with Trent Swanson and Bhushan Nene)

4th February 2009 (date added - article dated February 2009)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1c222804-51c7-4bb5-ae3d-89c68ad27a78&displaylang=en&tm

SharePoint Diagnostics Tool (SPDiag)

3rd February 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=31775ed3-183b-490a-8e05-75a63a89d6aa&displaylang=en&tm

SAP Service With Business Data List Sample

3rd February 2009

http://www.sharepointusecases.com/index.php/2009/02/use-case-integrating-microsoft-office-sharepoint-with-microsoft-dynamics-crm-part-2/

Integrating Microsoft Office SharePoint with Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Part 2 (Blog - Toni In)

2nd February 2009

http://sharepointsolutions.blogspot.com/2009/02/give-blood-to-your-workflow.html

Give Blood to your Workflow (Ed: Very good post on SPD Workflow - hate the title) (Blog - Russell Wright, SharePoint Solutions)

1st February 2009

B. Other Office 2007 products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=33002913-fe64-4eb6-a9fe-e84df79bc52a&displaylang=en

How to Leverage Project Server 2007 with PerformancePoint Server 2007 Monitoring and Analytics

29th January 2009

C. Other relevant products

None

 

Modified

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=be58d769-2516-43cb-9890-3f79304528ff&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3.0 x64 (ver 3)

4th February 2009   (Note: new URL - the URL for v2.0 still points to that)

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

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032399989&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Webcast: Windows Workflow Foundation Overview with Visual Studio 2008 (Level 200) (Lindsay Rutter)

29th January 2009

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032399972&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

MSDN Webcast: Windows Workflow Foundation Overview with Visual Studio 2005 (Level 200) (Lindsay Rutter)

27th January 2009

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032396522&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft does IT: Designing, Developing, and Deploying SharePoint Server 2007 Solutions (Level 300) (Jad Honein)

27th January 2009

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032391565&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Office Project Server 2007: Server Administration (Level 300) (Jean-Francois LeSaux)

19th January 2009

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1741

VII.48 Social Computing with Microsoft SharePoint 2007: Implementing Applications for SharePoint to Enable Collaboration and Interaction in the Enterprise (Wrox - ISBN: 978-0-470-42138-3) (Chapter 1 - Social Computing)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1742

X.293 Import Files Utility (codeplex - Mike Ruberg)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1743

X.294 SharePoint List Association Manager (SLAM) (codeplex - AW Systems)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1744

X.295 SharePoint QuickLaunchExtender (codeplex - J. Vossers)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1745

X.296 SharePoint Dispose Checker Tool (Code Gallery - Paul Andrews)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1746

X.297 SharePoint InlineSiteSettings (codeplex - J. Vossers)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1747

X.298 SPOExpandAndCollapseAll (codeplex - "Erw1n")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1748

X.299

Modified

None

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

 

It's possible to mark any forum post as "Propose as Answer". The idea is that this helps the Moderator by letting him/her quickly know which threads possibly contain a solution. He/She can then access the threads that include such a post and then decide whether the post is worthy of being changed from merely "Propose as Answer" to being marked as an Answer.

It's a good idea, but unfortunately there are many people who don't seem to get the idea behind it and who post a reply in a thread and then immediately mark their own reply as "Propose as Answer".

Well this post is to tell you that in all but one of the SharePoint forums, you are wasting your time if you do that because this is what I do when I do a sweep of the threads that include "Propose as Answer".

Firstly I of course find the "Propose as Answer" post.

a) If the person who has marked it is the person who posted it I remove the mark.

b) If the person who marked it is someone whose name I recognize (and can thus trust their judgement) I very very quickly scan the post and then 99% of the time Up it to Answer status.

c) If I don't recognize the name of the person who marked it, I spend more time looking at the post before deciding whether to "Up" it or not (in which case I remove the "Propose as Answer").

d) Posts which aren't answers at all (and it's always a surprise to see post marked "Propose as Answer" that include questions rather than answers - but it does happen) get the Propose as Answer removed of course.

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

So you see, don't mark your own posts with "Propose as Answer" and you have a chance that they will - at some later date - be marked as an answer. Mark your own posts and they won't be.

Note too that I also on occasion move posts directly to Answer status. But only when I read them the first time. So this (usually) won't apply to a post that has in the meantime been marked "Propose as Answer" by the poster.

When I was preparing to write my book and writing down a list of chapters, I had a chapter called "Backup and Restore" pencilled in.

When it came to writing it, I realised that I didn't want the title of this chapter to scare off potential readers of the book and it became "Making Copies of your Data and Using them".

It was a good title because when I started writing the chapter I had realised that I wanted to write about what a normal user (and a user with a bit of additional rights) could do and didn't want to write at all about the sort of stuff done only by the company's backup expert.

So that chapter started with having an Off-line copy (using Colligio but mentioning using Outlook 2007 for that); using Save List as Template  and using the Recycle Bin(s) and only when those sections were done did it mention backup and restore using both stsadm and SPD 2007.

Maybe the same sort of process went on in the brains of the people behind a newly released book which covers the same sort of things as my one - less than 20 page - chapter in their almost 400 page book.

They also didn't want to put people off with a title that included backup or Restore either, but in their case they went for a "finer" title rather than my simplistic one for my chapter and called it (as you'll all have no doubt realised by now) "SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide".

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1584505990/heme0f

They start in fact with the same kind of thing as a chapter called "End User Resources" has Recycle Bins, Save List as Template and (which i didn't) Versions.

Up to about halfway in the book they also cover the same stsadm and SPD 2007 versions of Backup and Restore.

So why buy their book and not mine? (A stupid question as you should of course all buy my book and then look around for books that complement it. <grin>)

Well of course one reason is that they have a lot more room to go into more details about the various options available when backing up / restoring with SPD and stsadm. Another is that they have a chapter on Central Admin backup and restore tools - something that I'll obviously have to read because it never occured to me to use them. But perhaps the main reason as far as the first half of the book is concerned is a chapter on Tips and Tricks for SharePoint's Built-In Backup and restore Tools which are more chatty than the "what do you click" chapters but which helps you to avoid things like having your backups slow down the system to a crawl.

The other reason to buy the book is that it's a full offering that includes the kind of info that your company's Backup specialist needs to know. So there are chapters on both SQL Server 2005 Backup and Restore (plus one on SQL Server 2005 High Availability - I'm not sure how that made it in) and on Windows 2003 Backup and Restore (and again an odd one on Windows 2003 High Availability).

So there you have it. As I wrote in an earlier blog item, this is not a book that will get you a new job but may help you keep one.

I do think it's a worthwhile book to own, but I admit that, considering that it only just came out, I'm surprised on the space spent on Windows 2003 and the almost total lack of any mention at all of Windows 2008 (all I could find was a paragraph saying that it existed and wasn't covered in the book (!) - my own book came out over 3 months earlier and has a chapter on installing in Windows 2008 which only because I had written too *many* pages was moved to the web site for the book rather than being in the printed copy. It was in any case available from day one.).

I'm also a bit surprised by the space given to High Availability which seems to a certain extent to stretch the "Disaster Recovery" title quite a bit - for instance while using RAID-1 discs means that if one disk physically crashes you still have a copy of the data on the second disk (and if you notice you can slot in a new disk to go automatically back to Raid-1 status), and so actually you avoid the need to recover from a disaster as a disaster hasn't occured, it does seem pushing it in a SharePoint Disaster Recovery book to spend almost 3 pages explaining what all the different versions of Raid are for - especially when you see that the first 2 pages are very standard definitions of the different kinds of RAID systems with no reference to SharePoint at all.

In short there are places here where you get a strong impression that they had to stretch to reach the 400 pages they had been told to write. The book would have perhaps been better at 350.

However it has no competition except for individual chapters in some other books. So I'm going to read the chatty chapters to see when to use what method and then refer to the "how to do" chapters when I need to do things.

Oh, and I'd better add that there is a chapter on custom development and scripting to which my only objection is that it too has large chunks of text where - like the RAID section - there is standard information with several lots of consecutive pages where SharePoint isn't mentioned at all. Maybe this is just the fact that the book despite being from a normal publisher (Charles River) is also labelled as being "Course Technology - CENGAGE Learning". Perhaps being pedagogic demands such large amounts of basic knowledge. For me it goes just a little bit too far sometimes - surely its target audience knows what RAID is, for instance?

 

It's odd how the US and the UK share a common language but seemingly have a different outlook on everything else.

You would rarely (maybe never) see a blurb in a book written by a Brit that thanks God "for providing me with the skills to write this book", yet in technical books written by US authors you see it all the time. Similarly it seems to be par for the course for US authors to thank their "lovely wife XXX and our two wonderful children" (or even more excessive prose) whereas UK authors might just stretch themselves to a "thanks to my wife for putting up with me" in their blurbs.

In a similar way US computer magazines always seem to say that they like a product even if reading between the lines you realise they actually hated it, whereas UK computer magazines take delight in calling a spade a spade and saying that something is useless if that's what it is.

So (finally getting to the subject ...), it's not really suprising that the US and the UK have two different takes on the number of Windows 7 versions.

A US writer said in his piece that Microsoft have taken note of the complaints about the number of Vista versions and have announced both fewer versions and no overlaps (i.e. each version contains what the previous version did and a bit more). Theme: it's it wonderful ...

Meanwhile the UK PCPro magazine has a piece on its web site (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/246562/windows-7-to-come-in-six-flavours.html) complaining that there are almost as many versions of Windows 7 as there were of Vista (and thus that Microsoft haven't learnt a thing).

I'm with the latter interpretation. But then I'm a Brit (despite being an exile) and my book didn't thank God or go on and on about my wife (let only my "kid") either.

 

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.

(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 25th to 31st January 2009

NOTE: Amendment to KB articles: Microsoft are now 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;950074

Error message when you complete the upgrade from an earlier version of GroupBoard Workspace to GroupBoard Workspace 2007: "Upgrade completed with errors"

26th January 2009

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;962928

You cannot browse to an SSL-secured Office SharePoint Server 2007 site or to the Search Settings page for a Shared Services Provider

23rd January 2009

Modifed

None

I.b Forefront KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.c InfoPath 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

I.d SPD 2007 KB Articles

New or Modified

None

II. Articles - 2007 Products

New

A. Office 2007 Server Products

http://www.sharepointusecases.com/index.php/2009/01/use-case-integrating-microsoft-office-sharepoint-with-microsoft-dynamics-crm/

Integrating Microsoft Office SharePoint with Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Part 1 (Blog - Toni In)

28th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=d5f7a3ac-b983-4065-9d29-1ad31029f154&displaylang=en&tm

Integrating SAP data by using the Business Data Catalog

28th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f159af68-c3a3-413c-a3f7-2e0be6d5532e&displaylang=en&tm

Analyzing Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Usage

23rd January 2009

******* SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services and SharePoint section ********

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326288.aspx

Deploying Models and Shared Data Sources to a SharePoint Site (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb283155.aspx

How to: Publish a Report to a SharePoint Library (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326285.aspx

How to: Publish a Shared Data Source to a SharePoint Library (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326347.aspx

Viewing and Managing Report Server Items from a SharePoint Site (SQL Server 2008 version)

1st January 2009 (BooksOnline January 2009)

******* SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services and SharePoint section ********

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326288(SQL.90).aspx

Deploying Reports, Models, and Shared Data Sources to a SharePoint Site (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb283155(SQL.90).aspx

How to: Publish a Report to a SharePoint Library from Report Designer (SharePoint Integrated Mode) (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326285(SQL.90).aspx

How to: Publish a Shared Data Source to a SharePoint Library from Report Designer (SharePoint Integrated Mode) (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb326347(SQL.90).aspx

Viewing and Managing Report Server Items from a SharePoint Site (SharePoint Integrated Mode) (SQL Server 2005 version)

12th December 2006 (yes, the date is right - I just found this)

B. Other Office 2007 products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e06453b8-b2dd-4177-969c-2f89aa841e11&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint with Service Pack 2

23rd January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f8b9301a-3175-4350-a554-3064ab9278c8&displaylang=en&tm

Planning Series I in Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007

23rd January 2009

C. Other relevant products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7c2b5317-a40f-4e86-8835-d37170c5923e&displaylang=en&tm

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image (one - XPPro SP3 one - includes IE8 RC1)

28th January 2009 (not a "modified" as the URL for the previous version is different and still valid)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=13c7300e-935c-415a-a79c-538e933d5424&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (Trial Version - valid 60 days + 3x60 days)

27th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e8a5aec0-de34-405e-9304-1c378f44077c&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter  (Trial Version - valid 60 days + 3x60 days)

27th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b6e99d4c-a40e-4fd2-a0f7-32212b520f50&displaylang=en&tm

Windows Server 2008 Standard (Trial Version - valid 60 days + 3x60 days)

27th January 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=6cf0f7b6-c0a7-48f8-977e-9bc76b97ff98&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft Search Server 2008 Technical Library in Compiled Help format

23rd January 2009

Modified

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e0fadab7-0620-481d-a8b6-070001727c56&displaylang=en&tm

Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 VHD

25th January 2009

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

None

IV WSS v3 FAQ

New

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1738

V.205 Erfolgreiche Portalprojekte mit Microsoft SharePoint (in German) (Microsoft Press, Germany - Reiner Ganser, Christoph Müller)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1739

V.206 Konzepte und Lösungen für Microsoft-Netzwerke. Exchange, SharePoint, LCS, MOM, SMS, ISA, VMWare, Citrix, Storage, iSCSI, SAN, NAS, Backup, Veritas (in German) (Galileo Press - Ulrich B. Boddenberg)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1740

V.207 SharePoint 2007 - Coffret de 2 livres : de la création d'un site collaboratif au développement associé (in French - the two books listed here as items 59 and 110) (Editions ENI -Sandrine Schmitt, Antony Bidet) *released*

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1737

VI.162 CardioLog 2007 (commercial - CardioLog)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1733

X.289 SPOShowBirthdayWebPart (codeplex - "Erw1n")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1734

X.290 Password Webpart (codeplex - Steve Robbins)

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1735

X.291 SharePoint Property Bag Settings (codeplex - "havivi")

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1736

X.292 CardioLog Lite for SharePoint 2007 (free - CardioLog)

Modified

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1412

V.128 Social Computing with Microsoft SharePoint 2007 (Wiley - Brendon Schwartz, Matt Ranlett, Paul Galvin) *released*

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1588

V.129 SharePoint 2007 - Personnalisation, développement et déploiement (in French) (Editions ENI - Stéphane Eyskens, Ludovic Lefort) *released*

http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=1584

V.179 Praxisbuch Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (in German) (Hanser Fachbuchverlag - Dirk Larisch) *released*

V WSSv2 KB Articles (plus SPS 2003 Hot fixes)

New or Modified

None

 

I've just amended the entry in the books list for "SharePoint 2007 - Personnalisation, développement et déploiement (Editions ENI - Stéphane Eyskens, Ludovic Lefort)"

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/2746046725/wssfaq0fe-21

to *released* status.

This means that French readers - in addition to the many translated books - now have 5 French language SharePoint books to choose from (one of which, admittedly, is for InfoPath 2007).

Meanwhile the (larger) number of German originals has increased with one converted to released status (Praxisbuch Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Hanser Fachbuchverlag - Dirk Larisch)

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/3446417079/wssfaq0e-21

and two (although one is only just a SharePoint one) new ones listed but not yet out

(see the total list at http://wss.asaris.de/sites/walsh/Lists/WSSv3%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx in the German - Originals section for those).