Brad Marsh’s Weblog

WOW, its been over a year since I posted anything last time… I am going to try and start investing some more time into my blog, so any readers that I still have I am sorry for the long gap – its been a busy period.

Anyways back to the help – lets start with a nice easy quick one. You might remember in SQL 2000 days to give some rights to trace you needed to give the user SYSADMIN rights, well gone are those days, while it still works lets face it, its not too secure is it!

— Use this for users that are AD based

— Use this for a SQL user

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So you are here because you for got your mater password or didn’t enable SQL authentication and create an SA password on setup and your windows authentication is failing… Well the good news is this should help you change the password.

Below are the steps for SQL 2008 (the same can be applied to 2005, change the paths accordingly)

Follow the steps below to rebuild the Master Database.

1. From a command prompt window change to the following directory:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Release"

2. Next paste the following into the command prompt window and press “Enter”:

Setup.Exe /Action=RebuildDatabase /InstanceName=MSSQLSERVER /SqlSysAdminAccounts=domain\UserName

The instance name will be MSSQLSERVER unless you are using a named instance and in that case change MSSQLSERVER to your instance name and the SqlSysAdminAccounts will be an account with SysAdmin (Be sure to change the domain\username details) rights then and press “Enter” again.

That should do it!

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I was always very envious of the US and UK, where Google had released there fully blown GPS navigation to the public via Android phones. And then I stumbled upon a post back over at the great guys at XDA, and it would seem someone has come up with a hack to allow the GPS navigation for Google for ALL countries!

I have loaded it up and run it on my Desire, and wow is this thing extremely accurate, even more so than my dedicated tom tom unit.

GPS locks almost immediately, unlike my old windows mobile touch pro

The only complaints I have is, well its still Google maps so its using data, if only it could download the maps to the SD card, it would just be so much sweeter.

And the voices, the very much a Droid voice is hard to understand as it speaks a little fast, as it says the street name and the turn IE. ‘Continue on Bond street, and turn left into Daisy road’  I think this feature is great that it is saying the street names unlike other GPS solutions but they need a better voice, something more human than robotic.

Anyways enough of my chit chat you want the download right?!

http://www.4shared.com/file/mPbfFaMc/maps4404414-brut16.html

Or

http://www.multiupload.com/Z1JHL9IRMO

Installation:
Just download & install. Then you will have both original and modded maps installed at once.

Install can be done via an app installer installed on the device or via the Android SDK

For further info refer to the original post at XDA – http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=630887

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There are many methods out there to do such a task, it seem many PHP solutions for this and also some JavaScript functions to do this, but they all seem overkill in terms of what’s required to be changes for each redirect.

here is a script with minimal changes required to get it working, this solution is based on the ever popular JavaScript.

A perfect example of using a script like this is if you are trying to target a particular market, for example. I am based in Australia, and I have a .com.au domain, and a .com domain. I might have a different offering or market to what I offer in Australia, so with that said I have 1 website but with multiple alias’s and pages for different markets. I need to somehow separate these with the URL, as .com.au tells me AU, .com tells me global.

So how do you use the below script easy:

Change:

“MyFirstDomaiName.com.au/MyFolder"

to your domain (without the www) and folder location

"http://www.MyFirstDomaiName.com.au/RedirectToFolder1/default.aspx"

Change this to be your location you wish to redirect to

http://www.MySecondDomaiName.com/RedirectToFolder2/default.aspx

this is the second URL you want it to redirect too.

<html>

<head>

<script language="javascript">

    var href = document.location.href;

    if (href.indexOf("MyFirstDomaiName.com.au/MyFolder") > 0) 

        document.location.href ="http://www.MyFirstDomaiName.com.au/RedirectToFolder1/default.aspx"

    else

        document.location.href ="http://www.MySecondDomaiName.com/RedirectToFolder2/default.aspx"

</script>

</head>

</html>

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Due to the popularity of this script there is no way I could not support 2010 also so here it is!

For those newbie’s to my blog, welcome and here is the full script:
(I also suggest before posting any questions you might have refer to the implementation guide posted some time ago)

'====================

'

' VBScript: <Signatures.vbs>

' AUTHOR: Peter Aarts

' Contact Info: peter.aarts@l1.nl

' Version 2.04

' Date: January 20, 2006

' Moddified By Brad Marsh Now works with both 2003 and 2007 outlook 

' Contact: gentex@iinet.net.au

' Date 20 May 2010

' Tested on windows 7, Vista, XP, XP64 and office 2003, 2007 and 2010. 

' NOTE will not work that well with various email accounts

'==================== 

'Option Explicit

On Error Resume Next

Dim qQuery, objSysInfo, objuser

Dim FullName, EMail, Title, PhoneNumber, MobileNumber, FaxNumber, OfficeLocation, Department

Dim web_address, FolderLocation, HTMFileString, StreetAddress, Town, State, Company

Dim ZipCode, PostOfficeBox, UserDataPath

' Read LDAP(Active Directory) information to asigns the user's info to variables.

'====================

Set objSysInfo = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo")

objSysInfo.RefreshSchemaCache

qQuery = "LDAP://" & objSysInfo.Username

Set objuser = GetObject(qQuery)

FullName = objuser.displayname

EMail = objuser.mail

Company = objuser.Company

Title = objuser.title

PhoneNumber = objuser.TelephoneNumber

FaxNumber = objuser.FaxNumber

OfficeLocation = objuser.physicalDeliveryOfficeName

StreetAddress = objuser.streetaddress

PostofficeBox = objuser.postofficebox

Department = objUser.Department

ZipCode = objuser.postalcode

Town = objuser.l

MobileNumber = objuser.TelephoneMobile

web_address = "http://www.gentex.com.au"

' This section creates the signature files names and locations.

'====================

' Corrects Outlook signature folder location. Just to make sure that

' Outlook is using the purposed folder defined with variable : FolderLocation

' Example is based on Dutch version.

' Changing this in a production enviremont might create extra work

' all employees are missing their old signatures

'====================

Dim objShell, RegKey, RegKey07, RegKey10, RegKeyParm

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

RegKey = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General"

RegKey07 = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General"

RegKey10 = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\General"

RegKey07 = RegKey07 & "\Signatures"

RegKey10 = RegKey10 & "\Signatures"

RegKey = RegKey & "\Signatures"

objShell.RegWrite RegKey , "AD_Gentex"

objShell.RegWrite RegKey07 , "AD_Gentex"

objShell.RegWrite RegKey10 , "AD_Gentex"

UserDataPath = ObjShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%appdata%")

FolderLocation = UserDataPath &"\Microsoft\AD_Gentex\"

HTMFileString = FolderLocation & "Gentex.htm"

' This section disables the change of the signature by the user.

'====================

'objShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\MailSettings\NewSignature" , "L1-Handtekening"

'objShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\MailSettings\ReplySignature" , "L1-Handtekening"

'objShell.RegWrite "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail\EnableLogging" , "0", "REG_DWORD" 

' This section checks if the signature directory exits and if not creates one.

'====================

Dim objFS1

Set objFS1 = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If (objFS1.FolderExists(FolderLocation)) Then

Else

Call objFS1.CreateFolder(FolderLocation)

End if

' The next section builds the signature file

'====================

Dim objFSO

Dim objFile,afile

Dim aQuote

aQuote = chr(34)

' This section builds the HTML file version

'====================

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

' This section deletes to other signatures.

' These signatures are automaticly created by Outlook 2003.

'====================

Set AFile = objFSO.GetFile(Folderlocation&"Gentex.rtf")

aFile.Delete

Set AFile = objFSO.GetFile(Folderlocation&"Gentex.txt")

aFile.Delete

Set objFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(HTMFileString,True)

objFile.Close

Set objFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(HTMFileString, 2)

objfile.write "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC " & aQuote & "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" & aQuote & ">" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Microsoft Office Outlook Signature</TITLE>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=" & aQuote & "text/html; charset=windows-1252" & aQuote & ">" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<META content=" & aQuote & "MSHTML 6.00.3790.186" & aQuote & " name=GENERATOR></HEAD>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<body>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<font color=696969 face=" & aQuote & "Arial" & aQuote & "><h6> "& FullName & " | " & title & " | "& Company & " | Australian Technology Park <br>"& vbCrLf

objfile.write "T +612 " & PhoneNumber & " | F +612 9209 4423 | <a href=http://www.Gentex.com.au><font color=#696969>www.Gentex.com.au</font></a> |<a href=mailto:" & Email &" > <font color=#696969>" & Email &" " & vbCrLf

objfile.write "</h6></font></a></B>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "</font>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<font color=696969 face=arial><A href=http://www.Gentex.com.au/> <img src=http://www.Gentex.com.au/images/Gentex-logo-web-175x70.gif border=0></a>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<br>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<img src=http://www.Gentex.com.au/images/mspartner.jpg>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<br>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "</font><font color=696969 size=1 face=arial><br>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write "<hr size=1 align=left width=465 color=696969>" & vbCrLf

objfile.write " This email is intended for the intended recipients(s) and may contain confidential information. <br> Reproduction, dissemination or distribution of this message is prohibited unless authorised by the sender.<br> If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately and you must not read,<br> keep, use, disclose, copy or distribute this email without the sender's prior permission.<br> The views expressed by the sender are not necessarily those of Gentex Technology Pty Ltd</font>"  & vbCrLf

objfile.write "</FONT></BODY></HTML>" & vbCrLf

objFile.Close

' ===========================

' This section readsout the current Outlook profile and then sets the name of the default Signature

' ===========================

' Use this version to set all accounts

' in the default mail profile

' to use a previously created signature 

Call SetDefaultSignature("Gentex","")

' Use this version (and comment the other) to

' modify a named profile.

'Call SetDefaultSignature _

' ("Signature Name", "Profile Name") 

Sub SetDefaultSignature(strSigName, strProfile)

Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001

strComputer = "."

If Not IsOutlookRunning Then

Set objreg = GetObject("winmgmts:" & _

"{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & _

strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")

strKeyPath = "Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\" & _

"CurrentVersion\Windows " & _

"Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\"

' get default profile name if none specified

If strProfile = "" Then

objreg.GetStringValue HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _

strKeyPath, "DefaultProfile", strProfile

End If

' build array from signature name

myArray = StringToByteArray(strSigName, True)

strKeyPath = strKeyPath & strProfile & _

"\9375CFF0413111d3B88A00104B2A6676"

objreg.EnumKey HKEY_CURRENT_USER, strKeyPath, _

arrProfileKeys

For Each subkey In arrProfileKeys

strsubkeypath = strKeyPath & "\" & subkey

objreg.SetBinaryValue HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _

strsubkeypath, "New Signature", myArray

objreg.SetBinaryValue HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _

strsubkeypath, "Reply-Forward Signature", myArray

Next

Else

strMsg = "Please shut down Outlook before " & _

"running this script."

MsgBox strMsg, vbExclamation, "SetDefaultSignature"

End If

End Sub

Function IsOutlookRunning()

strComputer = "."

strQuery = "Select * from Win32_Process " & _

"Where Name = 'Outlook.exe'"

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _

& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" _

& strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colProcesses = objWMIService.ExecQuery(strQuery)

For Each objProcess In colProcesses

If UCase(objProcess.Name) = "OUTLOOK.EXE" Then

IsOutlookRunning = True

Else

IsOutlookRunning = False

End If

Next

End Function

Public Function StringToByteArray _

(Data, NeedNullTerminator)

Dim strAll

strAll = StringToHex4(Data)

If NeedNullTerminator Then

strAll = strAll & "0000"

End If

intLen = Len(strAll) \ 2

ReDim arr(intLen - 1)

For i = 1 To Len(strAll) \ 2

arr(i - 1) = CByte _

("&H" & Mid(strAll, (2 * i) - 1, 2))

Next

StringToByteArray = arr

End Function

Public Function StringToHex4(Data)

' Input: normal text

' Output: four-character string for each character,

' e.g. "3204" for lower-case Russian B,

' "6500" for ASCII e

' Output: correct characters

' needs to reverse order of bytes from 0432

Dim strAll

For i = 1 To Len(Data)

' get the four-character hex for each character

strChar = Mid(Data, i, 1)

strTemp = Right("00" & Hex(AscW(strChar)), 4)

strAll = strAll & Right(strTemp, 2) & Left(strTemp, 2)

Next

StringToHex4 = strAll

End Function

For those running the script already, why not update it so you have the additional support, or those that have upgraded to 2010, you don’t have to wait any longer here is the section of the script you must change

' This section creates the signature files names and locations.

'====================

' Corrects Outlook signature folder location. Just to make sure that

' Outlook is using the purposed folder defined with variable : FolderLocation

' Example is based on Dutch version.

' Changing this in a production enviremont might create extra work

' all employees are missing their old signatures

'====================

Dim objShell, RegKey, RegKey07, RegKey10, RegKeyParm

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

RegKey = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Common\General"

RegKey07 = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General"

RegKey10 = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\General"

RegKey07 = RegKey07 & "\Signatures"

RegKey10 = RegKey10 & "\Signatures"

RegKey = RegKey & "\Signatures"

objShell.RegWrite RegKey , "AD_Gentex"

objShell.RegWrite RegKey07 , "AD_Gentex"

objShell.RegWrite RegKey10 , "AD_Gentex"

UserDataPath = ObjShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%appdata%")

FolderLocation = UserDataPath &"\Microsoft\AD_Gentex\"

HTMFileString = FolderLocation & "Gentex.htm"

Remember for both scripts you need to change the ‘gentex’ with your organisation’s name etc. once again refer to the implementation guide before asking any questions.

for the history of all articles published regarding this script see below:

• AD Based Outlook Email Signature for 2003 and 2007

• AD Based Outlook Email Signature for 2003 and 2007 Continued – Implementation Guide

• AD Based Outlook Email Signature for 2003 and 2007 Part 3 – Removing the Reply / forward signature

• AD Based Outlook Email Signature for 2003 and 2007 Part 4 – Now writes TXT and RTF as well as HTML

Enjoy,

Brad

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It’s been a while since my last blog post, what a busy year it has been.

Excuses aside, I thought I would take the time out to share  my findings and experience with ZOHO products…. While I used the ZOHO projects (which is essentially a project management software online) some time ago, I recently logged back in and and had had a look at some of there other offerings, and I have got to say wow haven’t they done some work!

They have in total about 22 web based applications, all of which have there use, but some more so than others, especially the business applications, such as CRM, Projects, Meetings, Invoices, Creator.  These online apps give you amazing amounts of functionality and some with even better flexibility to tailor it to your business needs.   While some applications may not meet the needs for large enterprise business, they certainly could be utilized for the SMB market.

Take for example the Zoho creator, it gives the business / user a simple UI, it also provides advanced users script to create databases that have almost no limit, if you had the time and patience, you could create yourself a CRM system, assets management.

The best thing about the Zoho products is that they are free, well at least to a degree, for super small business you actually be able to get away with using them all for free, as they impose limits on users / and or functions per month. but they also do have really quite affordable pricing models.

Check it all out for yourself: https://www.zoho.com/

NOTE: I am in no way associated with Zoho, nor am I receiving any finical gain. I am simply a user evaluating and enjoying my experience with there applications.

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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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