Brad Marsh’s Weblog

With the release of windows 7, they have no longer included a default windows mail client for the first time, in as long as I can recall.

So if you got use to outlook express or windows mail in VISTA, then you might want to get your hands on Windows Live Mail, very similar to windows mail in terms of interface, but for multiple accounts, I find it actually surprisingly much easier to manager all my email accounts.

Though backing up data might be a little tricker, here is a quick easy guide to follow

http://liveunplugged.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!F92775FC46A390CA!174.entry

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Finally some one has cracked it, they have made an easy to use and style menu replacement. Your probably about to say but there are hundreds or Menu replacements for DotNetNuke (DNN) and yes there are, alot of which I have used, though none of them used DNN the existing styling.

The one I am most excited about was the drop in replacement for the Solpart menu, lets face it this was always the most style able and configurable menu that ever came out with std DNN, and SEO has always been a pain in the rear end with this menu.

So for people like me that have a stack of DNN sites that used the solpart menu simply for style purposes over SEO (which lets face it the avg person / client that knows nothing about what SEO is, wants looks over functionality).

I like the best of both world’s DDN Done Right (Mark Allan) has produced an awesome extension for DNN with a simple install and a simple change to the skin tag and hey presto your solpart menu retains its funky look as it did before and   you have some better overall SEO structured menus, True hyperlinks, and a better overall user experience.

No only Has Mark enhanced the solpart, he also added functionality to better DNN new default nav provider, and the ability to add some really cool menu over effects, using  JQuery

http://www.dnndoneright.com/Standard-DNN-menu-upgraded.T94.aspx(See bottom menu)

and further to that Mark has created Mega menus also, and look to be creating additional templates, I know I for one will be watching very closely to DDR’s site for further updates!

for more info keep an eye on Marks Blog

Download DDR’s Free menus here

Thanks for the FREE menus Mark

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So we were getting various sharing volitions when trying to save some changes to an existing document, both on windows VISTA and windows 7, this started to become an annoyance, but let it go because it was only now and then. I found out it wasn’t isolated to me, turns out many others have been affected by this annoyance also.

So you might get error messages like "Your changes could not be saved to ‘Filename.xlsx’ but were save to a temporary document ‘CERSS322′ (this is a random string). Close the existing document, then open the temporary document and save it under a new name."

If you try and save it again you might also get "Your changes could not be saved to ‘Filename.xlsx’ because of a sharing violation. Try saving to a different file."

once again if you were to save it it might actually save correctly.

There was lots of talk about an Anti-Virus might actually open this file scanning it when you have it open hence the reason for the sharing violation, and this could be well possible, but its more likely to be the Windows  Desktop Indexing service., you could disable this though that might be a drastic measure. you can right click on the file and turn the indexing on that file off.

So to do this right click on the file giving you problems go to ‘Properties’  > click on the ‘Advanced’ button > removed the tick from ‘ Allow this file to have contents indexed in addition to file properties’

See images below for more info.

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Some times there is a need for clients to have only particular pages protected by and SSL Cert. which means we need to create a redirect to HTTPS, this could be done on the page level through the code, but there is a better way, via IIS, let me show you how.

First thing is first ensure you have installed your  valid SSL onto your IIS Server, once its installed you should be able to view the certificate, and will look something like this:

Next you need to select which files or folders you want to have protected with your SSL, in other words which pages do you need to be HTTPS:// on, in this case I have selected the ‘login’ folder on my website, within IIS locate the folder or file right click on it and choose ‘Properties’ .

If you selected a folder look for the ‘Directory Security’ Tab

If you selected a file look for the ‘File Security’ Tab.

Select the appropriate tab, toward the bottom within the ‘Secure Communications’ you will see an ‘Edit’ button click this, you will then be prompted with a pop-up box with some additional options, here you will notice that ‘Require secure channel (SSL)’ and ‘Require 128-bit encryption’ are not ticked, tick both of these options, then press OK. And Ok once more.

Because all requests to the folder or file you have set now MUST use HTTPS, people by default will get a  generic IIS 403.4 error, to prevent this error and redirect the user to the HTTPS link you must perform a redirect. IIS can do this for you.

Above we show the HTTP errors that IIS contains, change the highlighted one to use a custom script for redirection to HTTPS:

I have called mine RedirectSSL.Htm and replaced the default 403.4.htm with the custom error.

Note: The above custom error should be set at the website level

Ensure the custom error has the following contents

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>
<!–
if (location.protocol != ‘https:’)
{
window.location = ‘https://’+ location.host + location.pathname + location.search;
//alert(location.host + location.pathname + location.search); Just for sanity check
}
// –>
</SCRIPT>

This script will change your URL to add the HTTPS prefix, by using this as your landing page for the error 403.4 the user will be re-directed to the URL with HTTPS in front forcing them to use your SSL.

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So on your outlook 2003 your getting an ole registration error occurred. Well don’t stress, its an easy fix.

Close outlook 2003

Open start > Run > type:

regsvr32 %windir%\system32\ole32.dll

No open Outlook and try again…

Still not working?

then give this ago

Open Outlook again

• click on the Send/Receive pull / Drop-down menu ( this is the same button which gives the error message, the pull down is located on the right side, its an arrow)
• Choose Send/Receive Settings
• Uncheck “Make This Folder Available Offline”
• Now re-check “Make This Folder Available Offline” again

Done!

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Microsoft were nice enough to give us a feature within SQL 2005 which would allow us to grant a user permission to do a SQL trace using Profiler, without having to give them SQL SYSADMIN access… which is GOD access… that’s a big no no.

For SQL 2005 / 2008 users use the below

SQL user Example:

GRANT ALTER TRACE TO [UserNameHere];

AD user Example:

GRANT ALTER TRACE TO [domain\Myaccount];

For the SQL 2000 users sorry you still have to use sysadmin access but I did come across a nifty trick that may do the job.

“write a batch file that calls Profiler from the command line as follows:

profiler /Sserver /Uuser /Ppassword /Tx

Then I bought a batch file compiler (do a google search and lots come
up, most around $30) and compiled the batchfile in to an executable.
Now I just distribute the executable.”

Read the article here

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You might get the below event error if Database mirroring fails, or the auto failover for some reason does not work.

This below error will be found only on the witness server.

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS / MSSQLSERVER
Event Category:    (2)
Event ID:    1479
Date:        21/08/2009
Time:        4:29:18 PM
User:        N/A
Description:
The mirroring connection to "TCP://xxxxx.domain.com.au:5022" has timed out for database "YourDatabaseName" after 10 seconds without a response.  Check the service and network connections.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

You can easily increase the time of the time out of the mirror timeouts.

ALTER DATABASE yourdatabase SET PARTNER TIMEOUT 30

This will increase you database time out to 30 seconds.

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With 2003 Exchange purging users was super simple through the GUI, you simply ran your clean up agent after deleting the mailbox and then you saw the disconnected mailbox then right click and purge, it was effortless. 2007 is certainly not effortless but its not all that hard either, you just have to start using more PowerShell, which is not such a bad thing, so here is how:

Step 1

First thing is first, Find the mailbox you wish to delete within the console, once you have located the account right click and choose remove, be warned this will also remove the AD account associated with the mailbox if you only want to remove the mailbox then choose disable.

Ok so you have now disconnected the mailbox you can no longer see this in the mailbox list, and there is a good chance you cant see it in the disconnected Mailbox just yet either.

Step 2

Open PowerShell and run this

get-mailboxdatabase

This command will show you your database name, copy the database name and then issue the below command, replacing the MailboxDatabaseHere with your database name

Step 3

Clean-Mailboxdatabase "MailboxDatabaseHere"

This clean-Mailbox database is the same as the clean up agent that was found in 2003’s GUI, once you have successfully ran this command go back to the GUI and see if you can see the mailbox you removed in the ‘Disconnected Mailbox’, once you can see it you will be able to delete the mailbox if not see step 5.

Step 4

If you are unlucky and you cant yet see it then hit refresh in the right pane…. Still cant see it ok, open PowerShell once again and run the below command:

Get-MailboxStatistics | Sort-Object DisplayName -Descending | ft DisplayName,@{label="TotalItemSize(KB)";expression={$_.TotalItemSize.V alue.ToKB()}},ItemCount

This will return a list of all mailboxes in alphabetic order

With this list locate the mailbox you have just removed, and take note of the ‘DisplayName’

Step 5

Now that we can see the mailbox here we need can then purge the mailbox do this by running the below command be sure to change ‘MailboxDatabaseHere’ to your Exchange database and also change the ‘DisplayName’ to your account name, found using the above script.

Remove-Mailbox -Database "MailboxDatabaseHere" –StoreMailboxIdentity DisplayName -confirm:$true

That’s it your mailbox is no longer you have successfully purged it, not so hard after all.

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1. Compatibility

The slow uptake or even non existent uptake of the VISTA operating system was due to incompatibility of drivers and applications, now that VISTA has been around for a while, and all major vendors now fully support Vista / 2008 server, being that windows 7 shares quite a bit of VISTA codebase in terms of drivers support.

Windows 7 also seems to have a very prominent place in the WWW, with major vendors jumping on board the beta band wagon, releasing pre driver support, Microsoft also already  offering upgrade paths, in association with all major PC vendors, such as Dell, HP, Asus the list goes on.

With that said its seems with the release of VISTA and the long public beta releases of windows 7, may of payed off with, thus compatibility between devices is a thing of the past.

2.  Legacy support

While this comes under compatibility I think this needs a specific mention, as I think this is one of the most compelling selling points from a SMB perspective. Its the ‘windows 7 XP mode’

what this is, is essentially a Virtual PC (VPC), but wait before you stop reading its a whole lot more than just a VPC… While they now support USB within the VPC, which is a vey nice addition. The VPC fully integrates with the guest OS, what this means is if you install an application within XP VPC,  it will appear within the windows 7 start menu, meaning you can launch the application from your primary machine without having to interact with the VPC at all.

Why is this such a big deal, and why should this help the SMB market take to windows 7 as there next OS?

Simple windows Vista no longer supports 16 bit applications, as it does not have a 16bit sub system like XP does. With the XP mode 16 bit is supported, therefore for all those SMB’s that have so many of those legacy systems that are 16bit based that couldn’t go to VISTA because of this reason, but yet IT managers, CTO’s and CEO’s  didn’t want to spend the money to re-develop a 32bit version, when they have a perfectly good working application.

With XP mode 16 bit is very plausible that you can run your 16bit apps directly from windows 7!

        3.  Efficiency

With the overhaul of the task bar (referred to as the superbar), jump lists, ‘Aero shake’ to quickly minimize all apps apart from the shaken app, and the massive additions of shortcut keys that interact with windows 7  (many can be found in my previous blog post) All of these significantly increase the speed of which a user can work, while some seem very gimmicky like the Aero shake, it actually serves a  unique and quick outcome.

The other side to efficiency of windows 7 is not just in the shortcuts and the new features but yet the OS it self has significantly improved on boot and shutdown times, It’s processing of newer applications on modern hardware is superior over XP, where windows 7 uses the processor and memory more efficiently.  Also for mobile users battery life is increased, it is said they they have reduced the power draw by up to 15%, and other tweaks for notebook users.

Last one is not for everyone but the fact that windows 7 allows Muti-touch, this can significantly speed up the processes of how quickly you can access your apps and files.

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Ok So I have installed windows 7 (7100) on my little EeePC 900, the EeePC has 2 gigs of RAM and a small 1.6 Atom, with this small combo 7 smashes the pre-installed XP.
Boot time is better by about 5 seconds and general performance to open applications and general processing is just far better, while it uses substantially more memory than XP, but lets face it all new entry level PC’s have 2 gigs of RAM these days.

But with saying that I would blame a lot of the memory usage on the rotten IE8 that is bundled with windows 7, I have many complaints about this browser, so rather than complain I am finding I am using Chrome more regularly, faster better on the memory and processor. MS if you read this use the KISS principle (Keep it simple stupid) Google has done this very well for years.

Anyways lets get to the shortcuts and handy little functions that windows 7 has added!

• My absolute favourite function has to be the if you have multiple screen configurations, you can click on a maximise screen and drag it to your other screens. Previously we had to resize / minimize and then move the open window to a new screen and then maximize… very annoying.
• Next is the many many windows short cut keys, also work with multiple monitors or even single display :
  • Windows key + Left: docks current window to the left side of the screen.
  • Windows key + Right: docks current window to the right side of the screen.
  • Windows key + Up: maximizes and/or restores foreground window.
  • Windows key + Down: minimizes active window.
• Previously running an app in administrator was a right click, and then run as admin , while that still exists there is a quicker better way of doing this with keys: It’s now as easy as holding CTRL + SHIFT when you open the application.
• Another one for those with multiple monitors: Windows + SHIFT + Left (or Right) will shift a window from monitor to monitor.

Some handy things windows 7 includes:

• Windows 7 now includes Gabriola. This is an elaborate display typeface that takes advantage of OpenType layout to create a variety of stylistic sets.
• Windows 7 now burns ISO files themselves instead of making us install unwanted third-party apps.
• In the case that something happens to your system, you can make yourself a system repair disc. Just search “system repair disc” in the start menu.
• For the advanced users finally a desktop OS that gives us the ability to setup software RAID, one of my favs!
• Advance defrag for windows 7, read more here : http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/01/25/disk-defragmentation-background-and-engineering-the-windows-7-improvements.aspx
• Multi-Threaded File copy, this is by use of the command line robocoy which is included within windows 7, this is something I personally use on a constant basis, and is very powerful, if you haven’t used this before you are missing out!
• UAC is substantially improved, where there is no need to turn this off any more, it only disturbs you on install of applications. this is something I turned of on VISTA as soon as I could, but one windows 7 I Have found that its something that’s not annoying and have left it on its default setting. Its also now provides us with a toggle bar where we can increase or decrease the default UAC settings.
• A new calculator- about time it only took about 10 years!
• Owh yeah an codec’s to play AVI Divx and other regularly used formats FINNALY!!!!!!!
• And the whole OS is touch friendly!

Another feature I will be talking about in more depth is the default install XP with program  integration as a virtual machine. I will be blogging about business reasons as to why corporate should go the distance and  install windows 7.

there is so much more they have done windows 7 is really all that and a bag of chips, its got my 2 thumbs up, I just hope they don’t bloat the final release with unnecessary junk

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