THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

 » Text messaging and the death of the English language | Education IT | ZDNet.com:
http://education.zdnet.com/?p=1021

Ive kum 2 teh konkluzion that komputers r makin me spel badlee

Seriously, do you find that you are more and more reliant on Word's spellchecker instead of remembering how to spell?  Get me on IM and you'll see how badly I'm spelling these days (note to Microsoft, can I have a non-leet enabled spell checker for IM?)  As we use IM in business, you can see how badly grammar is when it's 'as is' and 'unfiltered'.  Even in  my blog posting, it's pretty raw and needs work down here as I dump out my brain dumps and what not.

So...you seeing that you can't spell like you used to anymore?

Or..... write cursive or print either for that matter?  My handwriting is getting worse all the time....

Looking for resources?

sbs2k-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - this is the tech listserve for the sbs community
mssmallbiz-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - this is the official Microsoft sponsored SBS yahoogroup and is the best place for licensing issues
smallbizit-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - want to start a practice, chat about succession planning, marketing or anything on the "business side" of business? 
smbmanagedservices-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - considering or doing managed services?  If considering, lurk, if doing, chat.
mscrm_smb-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - got a question about CRM in the SMB space?  That's the group for you

Newsgroups for SBS:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs - main granddaddy of the SBS newsgroups.  Can be searched via google groups using advanced search of microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs as the group target.

I'm going to do more blogs in future posts but here's a sample of some of the best:

Must have SBS blogs:
THE BLOG YOU MUST HAVE OR I WILL COME AND HUNT YOU DOWN IF YOU DON'T:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs - if you have no other blog in your RSS reader/favorites, you MUST HAVE THAT ONE.
Second best SBS blog you must have or I will get Chico to chew on your legs - http://sbs.seandaniel.com/
Eric Ligman's Partner blog - http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/
The TS2 gang have a blog portal - http://www.ts2seminars.com/content/blogs.aspx
Windows server community lead has a ton of SBS blogs linked on his blog - http://blogs.technet.com/kevin_beares/
Look for the blog of your local community lead - mine's at http://norcalpcm.spaces.live.com/

I posted this in the smallbizit group and thought I'd blog this here as well.  Most small IT shops are family shops.  And when you begin to add employees, you need to think about their futures in your firm as well.

for your future...that is....one without you.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e4a868d7-a820-46a0-b4db-ed6aa4a336d9&displaylang=en&tm

WSUS 3.0 delivers updates to corporate environments from Microsoft Update.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=093f89c5-a887-4fcd-9b98-47d898b5295f&displaylang=en&tm

This readme file describes known issues affecting Microsoft® Windows® Server Update Services 3.0 (WSUS 3.0) and includes recommendations and requirements for installing WSUS 3.0.

The documentation for WSUS 3.0 on SBS 2003 R2 will be out soon, but the key thing to remember is that when you install it on top of R2, you don't run the wizard. Just install it over the top and don't change any of the settings.  WSUS 3.0 will be controlled by R2 just fine.

Today my sister and I went to a VW show and swap meet at the Madera Fairgrounds and while we entered her vintage 1961, painted to look like Herbie the love bug Volkswagon in the show, we opted not to enter the tattoo contest.  Yeah.... we just didn't have the necessary stuff to enter that one.  But it pointed out to me that people have passions of every shape and size.  (More photos on the event this year here as soon as the files get transferred up) Some of us are passionate about technology, some of us are passionate about Cars.  But lately (or maybe it's just that I'm getting old) the "passion" around operating systems has gone to the extreme.  There are people (also known in the usenet world as trolls) in the Vista General newsgroup that ...well.... need to join a VW group or get a tattoo or something.  It's an operating system, and quite frankly we need to pick the best one for the job.

There was a good email on a listserve that talked about this balance for the job at hand. That there was no such thing as a "right" answer.  Linux, Macintosh, Windows, all had a role depending on the needs of the customer.  It's the whole TCO and how cheap and easy support is to come by.  Any Operating system without attention, care and TLC is a security nightmare.

When it comes to making decisions regarding the operating systems we use to run our businesses, we need to be unemotional and leave the religious arguments at the door.

Tattoos are for things like the love of Volkswagons and what not.... it's not for software. 

(P.S. there are two Herbies in the slide deck, one is my Sister's, the other is actually a "Herbie" that was shipped over to France to be used in one of the movies)
P.S.S. fixed the link to the slide deck

When you are doing a search in Vista, you might want to click on advanced and click on that "include non indexed, hidden and system files".

In my case that was the only way I found where the .nk2 files were (so my Sister would have her autocomplete addresses back)... now I'm off to find her .ost file on the old system (yeah... I should have exported to pst files first but we saved the hard drive contents from her laptop, ghosting it to a small laptop drive that's now in a small case and I can get to any of her old data this way.

So one thing I forgot to do when moving sister from her old XP to her new vista was to grab the .nk2 files  

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011394511033.aspx

Copy the names in AutoComplete to another computer

Important  You must exit Outlook before starting the following procedure. The names will be included in AutoComplete when you restart Outlook.

1. On the computer with the saved AutoComplete names, go to drive:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

   Note  Depending on your file settings, this folder might be hidden. To view the files in this folder, do one of the following:

   Microsoft Windows XP

   1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
   2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
   3. Click the View tab, and then, under Advanced settings, under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders.

   Microsoft Windows 2000

   1. Double-click My Computer on your desktop.
   2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
   3. Click the View tab, and then click Show hidden files and folders.
2. Right-click profile name.nk2, and then click Copy.

   Tip  You can copy the file to removable media, such as a floppy disk or a CD, and then copy the file to the correct location on the other computer. Or you can attach the file to an e-mail message and send the message to yourself. On the new computer, open the attachment in Outlook, and then save it to the correct location.

    

3. On the computer where you want to populate the AutoComplete feature, copy the file to drive:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.
4. If the Outlook user profile name is different on the computer where you are moving the .nk2 file, you must rename the file with the same Outlook user profile name after you copy it to the correct folder. For example, if you move Kim Akers.nk2 from the original computer with an Outlook user profile name of Kim Akers, and you copy the Kim Akers.nk2 file to the new computer, you must rename it with the Outlook profile name being used on the new computer.
5. When prompted about replacing the existing file, click Yes.
6. Open Outlook to view changes.

The trick of it was I needed to rename that old .nk2 file to "default.nk2" on the new system and place it under c:\Users\Username.domain\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft.  And now her autocomplete is autocompleting.

If you hit this and perhaps installed Win2k3 sp2 and then removed it, you aren't alone.  Nick (the naked mvp) just hit this on a box that he installed SP2 and then had to remove SP2 because of networking issues.

Somehow in the uninstall of Sp2 the Microsoft Integration key gets mangled/missing, and the weird error with the wizards can be a result of that.  If you have (or the system has) enabled shadow file copies on the C:\ drive you probably will have a shadow copy of that registry setting you need.

Bottom line it probably would be wise to call Product Support Services as it could get a tad messy.

http://msmvps.com/blogs/clustering/archive/2007/04/27/how-to-create-a-fresh-windows-server-2003-sp1-without-install-service-pack-2-sp2-and-still-use-windows-or-microsoft-update.aspx

Unclick the box...

For those who have noticed that the blogs have been not chipper lately, my deepest apologies.  You see I'm a little pigheaded and stubborn about how the blogs are set up and for the most part they are funded out of my pocket and the generousity of the time and energy of a few other folks.  While I allow each blogger to decide if they want to make a little pocket change from google ads, I really don't want advertising on the blogs, nor sponsorship.  I see them as sort of a public service/PBS.  No commercials.  The opinions and views unimpacted by paid advertising.  The site isn't sponsored for funded by Microsoft either.  And for the most part the burden of administration falls on yours truly.  And this week has been extremely frustrating to me... because we've all been busy doing our real jobs, I couldn't find anyone to help me.  And this was the week we had to do the long overdue maintenance on the blogs.  So if the blog service has been choppy lately, perhaps it's just a reflection of the community... you get out of it what you put into it.  And the blog site, due to everyone being busy with real paying work, has been the reflection of that fact, that we're busy in business, and when you think about it... that's really a good thing.

Some of the reason for the choppiness was the overdue maintenance that I didn't have time to do other than this time of the year.

1.  We needed to clean out the spam in the SQL server - and believe me there was a lot of it
2.  Since the blog was a CS 1.1 to 2.0 to 2.1 to now 2007 and .net 1.1 to .net 2.0, you can tell there's a difference in how it handles the software than the sister site of www.msinfluentials.com that was .net 2.0 and CS 2.x from the get go.  It reinforces to me that inplace upgrades of anything leaves messiness behind.  MSinfluentials.com's app pool is nice and solid.  Msmvps.com is having some spiking issues that we're getting debugged on still. 

As a result over the last few months the performance on the blog site has been getting progressively worse.  Coinciding of course with the busy time at the office meant that in the last few weeks I've been doing the "what stupid admins do to keep web servers/servers up when an application is misbehaving" which is doing a lot of iisresets and rebooting of the server, knowing full well that that is only a bandaid and needed to get investigated.  The goal was throughout the early months of 2007 was to bandaid the blogs long enough to get them past my busy time so I could do things like I did the other day  where I was on the phone for several hours on a debugging call, setting up a dump, uploading it, bottom line trying to now get to the bottom of the issue now that I have time to get to the bottom of the issue.

But it's pretty obvious, that I'm not a coder or a .NET expert, let alone a SQL person.  In fact I even customized the error message on the blogs to reflect that fact.  Running a site that is... for the most part done out of love and volunteer also means that when you try to get expert help, you get it on their schedule and timetables.  At one point in time I was so desperate to get assistance that I was examining resources that I would pay to get folks to look at the blog application because I'll be the first to admit I'm not a .NET expert nor a SQL one by any means.  One day in fact I got so frustrated (and was in a mood) with my tweaking of the application pool that was ending up making the situation worse not better that I even shut down the main msmvps.com application pool in IIS for a few hours just because I didn't want to deal with it anymore (not to mention everything I tried kept making things worse).   Yes that was the day I was channeling Vlad as he blogged on his site.

Nick finally had some time the other day to look at the site and the actions we've taken so far include...

1.  Deleted out 9 gigs (approx) of spam from the SQL tables.
2.  Dumped out unnecessary event logs.
3.  Upgraded to Community Server 2007.
4.  Set up a debugging session(s) to identify what the issue is.

Bottom line, we're still in investigation mode here..and furthermore, bottom line, because it's still pretty much a volunteer effort here, we're not shooting for an uptime of 99.999999%.  This site will be what it is, a community site, with volunteer effort.  So it's a reflection of that.  This week I knew was going to be a disruptive week.

We've got a couple more disruptions planned.

1.  The search is still broken and messed up, bear with me on that as we put the Enterprise search module back online. 
2.  I want to get it on an updated SQL (up to 2005)
3.  I want to install Windows 2003 sp2 (disabling Checksum and RSS just to be safe :-)
4.  I ultimately plan to look for another server with a bit more room and more RAM and processor power. 

The title of this blog post is a favorite quote that I've saved from years ago... it was about a security researcher who said that putting up firewalls wasn't the answer, demanding better security from our vendors, and better understanding of what we already had and working with that to make use secure... and he ended with the phrase to not take for granted sources of help and information.

And above all else, don't abuse or take for granted sources of help and
information.  Without them, you might find yourself lost or
inconvenienced."
~Rain Forest Puppy

So if the blog site performance isn't what it should be or what you think it should be, sorry.  It just is what it is.  But it's going to stay without sponsors, and not turn into a member only forum.  It will stay the open site it is now, bombarded by spam posts and what not, just like it is today.  That might mean that you'll see .NET freakout a time or two. 

You are just going to have to take that for granted.  We're not running a business here.  This is a community. 

For further updates on the blog site and debugging, keep an eye on Yoda's blog.  He's detailing what we're doing to his tummy.

WSUS Product Team Blog : Update on svchost/msi performance issue and 3.0 Client distribution plan:
http://blogs.technet.com/wsus/archive/2007/04/28/update-on.aspx

So if you outsource...and if it's to a country outside of your location... do you disclose this to your clients?

Spotted a document on the download site on Microsoft about their privacy guidelines.... and it reminded me that in my industry I am bound to disclose when I use outside services.....

So do you when you use help desks from other locations?  Should you?

Microsoft Small Business Community Blog : Yes, “Designing, Deploying, and Managing a Network Solution for a Small- and Medium-Sized Business” courses ($223.99 Value!) are included in your SBS Software Assurance.:
http://blogs.msdn.com/mssmallbiz/archive/2007/04/27/2301751.aspx

Now THAT's kewl!

Interesting... want your classic menu back? 

For immediate release
Press Contact:
Jie Lin
Addintools
Founder/CEO
support@addintools.com

Bring Classic UI Look Back to Microsoft Office 2007

Hai Nan, CHINA - April 27, 2007: Addintools has announced the release of Classic Menu for Office 2007 v.2.18, a user interface enhancement add-on for Microsoft Office 2007.

The Microsoft Office team has done a wonderful job designing the new Office Fluent interface that has replaced the system of layered menus, toolbars, and task panes with the so-called Ribbon. For all its great looks, there are still many users who find the new interface difficult to get used to it, wishing it could look the same as in earlier versions of Microsoft Office.

Following the requests from many users, Addintools has introduced Classic Menu for Office 2007 v.2.18, an innovative application that will bring back the classic look to new Microsoft Office, allowing users to work in their usual manner without changing their habits. It lets users retrieve and show the main menu bar, standard toolbar, and formatting toolbar that are hidden or moved away from the direct view. The program works with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All new Office 2007 features remain accessible in the classic menu and toolbars.

Classic Menu for Office 2007 also lets users add the menus and toolbars to Quick Access Toolbar, so that it becomes possible to minimize the Ribbon and finish all operations without having to open it again. The program has been optimized for complete compatibility with Microsoft Office 2007 and supports all major languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, and Chinese.

The new Office look doesn't sit well with you? Download Classic Menu from Addintools!

Pricing and Availability

Product page link: http://www.addintools.com/english/menuoffice

Direct download link: http://www.addintools.com/english/menuoffice/Setup_OfficeMenu.exe (2.5 Mb) Company website: http://www.addintools.com

It's all Peter's fault that I'm vaklempt that there's new debugging tools on the Debugger site today... 

Daniel Pearson [MSFT] : Debugging Tools for Windows Updated:
http://blogs.msdn.com/danpear/archive/2007/04/27/2291614.aspx 


Debugging Tools for Windows Updated

It's been a while since our last update but the latest version, 6.7.5.0, of the Debugging Tools for Windows is now available for download <http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx> from microsoft.com. There's a ton of new features and improvements so get clicking!

   * New Features
         o Add %Y{l} format specifier to take a ULONG64 argument and
           display a source line.
         o Add $ntdll[w|n]sym built-in aliases.
   * New command-line options
         o Windbg: -lsrcpath to set local source path.
         o All: -log[a|o]u to generate Unicode log files.
   * Changes to default configuration
         o When loading modules from a user-mode minidump provide
           available misc and CV record info from dump. This can allow
           symbols to be loaded in some cases when PE image file is not
           available.
         o .reload with specific module name now defers loading.
           Force-loading can be done with /f as usual.
         o SDK content is now installed by default.
         o Samples now explicitly default to not building Vista-only.
         o .remote pipe names may no longer start with ‘/’.
         o Change symbol lookup order: root\file, root\extension\file,
           root\symbols\file. Note that you cannot depend on lookup
           order remaining unchanged.
   * !analyze enhancements
   * New and updated commands: .trap, lmDv, .allow_exec_cmds, .pcmd,
     .dml_file, gu, .fnent, .pagein, dt, bs, bsc, bm
   * New options for commands: .foreach, .reload, .dump, .dumpcab, x,
     uf, ln, .call, .open
   * New and updated extensions: !chksym, !cpuid, !dml_proc, !address,
     !chkimage, !vm, !error
   * Source Server
         o CVS sample scripts.
         o Updated documentation.
   * Additional Symbol Server support
         o Allow SymSrvNoProxy to apply to WinInet functionality.
         o New option to force WinInet or WinHttp regardless of whether
           Symbol Server is running as a service.
   * ExtCpp extension improvements
         o Allow empty strings as default values.
         o Add Unicode output methods.
   * Better Debugging
         o Improved handling of IA64 trap frames.
         o Improved handling of DML content.
         o Minidump generation improvements.
         o Improved handling of CABs.
         o Improved handling of out-of-memory conditions.
         o Increased symbol functionality.
         o Bugfixes for EXDI targets.
   * New and updated Tools
         o Kdsrv now automatically uses IPv4 or IPv6.
         o Updates for AutoDump Plus.
         o Convertstore: converts a two tier symbol store to a three
           tier symbol store.

Group Policy logon scripts may not run you log on to a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer for the first time:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=934642
The Spooler service may crash frequently on a Windows Server 2003-based server:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=934703
The Print Spooler service may stop sending print jobs to a printer that uses the standard port monitor on a Windows Server 2003-based computer:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=934885
Error message when you try to automatically install a printer that has an unknown printer driver in Windows Vista: "STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005)":
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=932206
Windows Vista may stop responding when you install software that adds legacy network drivers:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=934611

From Milly Staples - Outlook MVP 

Some common reasons why Outlook will not shut down completely when you click either the X or Exit:

1.  PDA synchronization software with your PDA in the cradle.
2.  WinFax Pro (especially 10.02 in Outlook 2003) - contact their support for an alleged fix.
3.  Franklin-Covey Plan Plus!
4.  COM Add-ins.
5.  Mail reminder add-ins that keep a stub of Outlook open in the background to check for new mail and fire reminders.
6.  Anti-virus/firewall programs that are set to scan incoming and outgoing mail.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

From Diane --

Microsoft Outlook: Outlook.exe won't exit:
http://www.slipstick.com/problems/close.htm

I'm trying to break a server and I'm not having any luck tonight.... how am I trying to break it?

By installing SP2 for Windows 2003 before any other patch and seeing if I can still install the "rest" of the five part SBS 2003 sp1 patch bundle (Sharepoint, Exchange, XP sp2 and the specific final SBS fix up patch) and not break anything.

Oh sure.. you need to make sure you follow the SBS blog and the networking issues that SP2 causes ...but on a new build I can't get help and support to break...and believe it or not... you CAN install Windows 2003 sp2, then Sharepoint sp2, then Exchange sp2, then the XP sp2 upgrade and THEN put on the final patch SBS 2003 sp1 specific parts

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/downloads/sp1/default.mspx

Granted you sort of have to know your SBS parts if you are installing from RTM to fully patched (without R2) and only after you get past Exchange 2003 sp2 is everything begin to be MU-able... but if you built a RTM box and blondely went to Microsoft update and pulled down Windows 2003 sp2 that got offered up to you, don't panic.

I'm proof positive that a new box will survive the patch journey.

Once you get it past that stage of Exchange 2003 sp2, Microsoft Update will take you the rest of the journey.

Got this via the blog today and thought it was interesting..... 

http://craig.dubculture.co.nz/blog/