September 2009 - Posts - SBSDiva Mobile

You just bought a computer. But who's computer is it anyway? Is it yours? Really? More and more it's the playground for vendors. The blog post at Shootingbubbles.com should be read in it's entirety. Go ahead and read it and then come back here.

So what do you think? Is it okay that every vendor that ever installs anything has the right to do a notification that there's an update to it?

Ed didn't have that software on his computer. It's not an "update" rather an additional piece of software.

Why should I trust any vendor that prechecks these software notifications? Apple has prechecked these boxes before, then unchecked them, now they are back to prechecking them again.

The battleground is currently our desktop, but what about the future in the cloud?

What will it take to get vendors to only offer up security updates and to stop blurring the lines between updates and security updates?

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Fri, Sep 25 2009 1:24

This was a moral imperative

As you can see, I had to buy this.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Thu, Sep 24 2009 20:54

If you are in the Live meeting for SymForm and can't hear the audio

Call 1-866-553-8146

code 5592528585

Dial into this number

(and sorry for any issues you may be having)

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Thu, Sep 24 2009 1:10

Richard and Greg talk to Dana Epp about the free tools he uses to manage his networks

RunAs Radio:
http://www.runasradio.com/
Richard and Greg talk to Dana Epp about the free tools he uses to manage his networks. The list of tools include nmap (http://www.nmap.org ), Microsoft's Baseline Security Analyzer (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc184923.aspx ), Windows Server Update Services (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wsus/default.aspx ), the Application Compatibility Toolkit (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd562082(VS.85).aspx ) and of course the SysInternals tools (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx ).

Dana Epp, Scorpion Software's founder and CEO, researches software security and sets the corporate vision in the convergence of information security principles and practices with digital information asset protection. As a computer security software architect, Dana has spent the last 15 years focusing on software development with a particular emphasis on security engineering. His latest research has been on risk-based authentication, focusing on strong two-factor authentication for small business.

Dana has been twice awarded the Community Spirit Award for Business in recognition of his ongoing initiatives in promoting high technology industries in his community, and won the 2001 Chamber of Commerce "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" award. In 2006 and 2007 Mr. Epp has been honored with the award and distinction of “Microsoft Windows Security MVP” for his work and expertise in Windows security. Mr. Epp is the author of "Computer Security Concepts: Managing Business Threats in a Wired World", a book written to explain at an executive level how to handle the threats of online risk as companies move to the new digital economy, and is the author of the popular security blog "Dana Epp's Rambling at the Sanctuary".

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Wed, Sep 23 2009 23:58

Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable

Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable

Windows 7 Application Compatibility Part 2: Virtualization

Date: Thursday, September 24

Time: 9:00am Pacific Time

https://ms.istreamplanet.com/springboard

Hear from a panel of experts how virtualization tools can help you with application compatibility concerns whether you’re migrating from Windows Vista or Windows XP. Join us to discuss how presentation virtualization, desktop virtualization and application virtualization can reduce testing times, expedite deployment and ultimately help you streamline PC management. We’ll cover the latest desktop virtualization technologies from Microsoft, including App-V, MED-V and XP Mode for Windows 7. Plus we share tips and tricks and demonstrate free tools to analyze and fix applications while answering your questions live during the event. Join live on Thursday, September 24^th, 2009, 9:00am Pacific Time. Missed Part 1? Watch the replay.

For IT Pro tips, tricks and resources for Windows 7, visit the Springboard Series.

As part of the “virtual” experience, you may submit your questions about Windows 7 Application Compatibility to the panel live during the event—or submit questions in advance to vrtable@microsoft.com.

Springboard Series: The resource for Windows desktop IT professionals

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: Windows 7

Wed, Sep 23 2009 1:09

The time for 64 bit

While I applaud the Microsoft partner program for mailing physical copies of Windows 7 to their Action pack recipients, they shipped the 32bit version of Windows 7. I think this is the time to start moving folks to 64 bit. Server 2008 R2 only ships in 64bit version. Lauren's HP laptop special is a 64 bit system. So why is Microsoft still pushing 32 bit on the folks that should be pushing the envelope? Okay so I know that we're also cheap, so that's one reason to do 32 bit, but truly this is the time to start inventorying if you can move to 64bit.

Do the applications work in 64bit? Does the hardware support XP Mode? All of these topics (and more) will be discussed next week in Las Vegas at SMBnation.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Tue, Sep 22 2009 0:05

So you want to know what version of SQL you are running on SBS 2008

So you want to know what version of SQL you are running on SBS 2008... run this query in your SQL management studio express...

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition'), SERVERPROPERTY('InstanceName')

Connect to the monitoring database and you get.... 9.00.4035.00, SP3, and Express Edition with Advanced Services, SBSMONITORING

Now you need to use the string \\.\pipe\mssql$microsoft##ssee\sql\query to connect to the rest of the databases on the server.

The Sharepoint is based on Windows Internal database and is 9.00.4035.00 SP3, Windows Internal Database (64bit) MICROSOFT##SSEE

Kewl huh?!

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: SQL Server

Sun, Sep 20 2009 0:20

>>>Partner Community Hot issues September 2009<<<:

Have you checked out the Partner forums this month?

>>>Partner Community Hot issues September 2009<<<:
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/partnermsgclient/thread/ab19e145-debb-4973-9ada-c9d5d6af2a86

TOP SUPPORT ISSUES
NEW & UPDATED KB ARTICLES
NEW WEBCASTS

TOP SUPPORT ISSUES
===============
The following "hot topics" were posted and resolved during the month of August in Office and Messaging client:

<Issue 1>

Product: Office Word 2007

Issue Description:

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

Word 2007 is installed on Windows 7. Opening a document causes Word hangs up.

Cause:

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

Incorrect DesignJet 500 printer driver

Resolution:

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

Remove DesignJet 500 printer driver

<Issue 2>

Product: Office Word 2007

Issue Description:

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

An error message "MS Word has stopped working" appears when exiting Word program on Windows Vista.

Cause:

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

Corrupted Word data registry key.

Resolution:

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

1. Open up registry. (Go to Start and type "regedit" in the search field and press enter.)

2. In registry, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Data

3. Right click on the "Data" folder and delete it.

<Issue 3>

Product: Office Word 2003

Issue Description:

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

The Send To – Mail Recipient option is grayed out in Word 2003 on one client.

Cause:

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

Related registry keys are missing.

Resolution:

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

1. Close all your open programs in Microsoft Windows.

2. Click Start, and then click Run.

3. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

4. Locate and then click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Messaging Subsystem registry key.

5. You should have the following registry values listed in the Windows Messaging Subsystem key:

Collapse this tableExpand this table

Name	Type	Data
MAPI	REG_SZ	1
CMC	REG_SZ	1
CMCDLLNAME	REG_SZ	Mapi.dll
CMCDLLNAME32	REG_SZ	Mapi32.dll
MAPIX	REG_SZ	1
MAPIXVER	REG_SZ	1.0.0.1
OLEMessaging	REG_SZ	1

6. If any one of the registry values are missing in the Windows Messaging Subsystem key of the registry, follow these steps to add the values:

a. With the Windows Messaging Subsystem key selected, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click String Value.

b. Type the name of the value that is missing from your registry as it is listed in the table that is in step 5, and then press ENTER.

c. With the value from step 6b selected, click Modify on the Edit menu.

d. In the Value data box of the Edit String dialog box, type the value for the missing string value.

e. Repeat steps 6a to 6d for each value that is missing from the table that is in step 5.

On the File menu, click Exit.

More information:

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

You cannot send a document as an e-mail message from an Office 2003 or Office 2007 program

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834008

<Issue 4>

Product: Office Outlook 2007

Issue Description:

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

When User receives a meeting request, it shows "No Response Required" in the preview window in Outlook. However, he will be prompted for "Accept" or "Decline" if he open this meeting request message.

Cause:

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

1. It is normal behavior if the problematic user has a delegate, and select the recommended option for "Deliver meeting requests addressed to me and responses to meeting requests where I am the organizer to:" in Outlook Options->Delegates tab

2. In such situation, the user will actually receives a copy of the meeting request, and it's usually his delegate's duty to decide whether accept or decline the meeting. That's why it shows "No Response Required" in the preview window.

3. If he wants to make the decision himself, he can open the meeting request for more actions.

Resolution:

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

Change the option to "My delegates and me" instead.

<Issue 5>

Product: Office Outlook 2003

Issue description:

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

Outlook 2003 failed to connect to SBS Server and the user gets an error message "Error locating one of the items needed to complete this...". Outlook data file cannot be added via Mail utilityas well.

CAUSE:

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

The issue is caused by MAPI connection related file mapisvc.inf corrupted.

RESOLUTION:

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

1. On the problematic machine, Close Outlook 2003, locate to the following two paths:

C:\Windows\System32

C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\1033

2. In Windows Explorer, click "Tools" and click "Folder Options"

3. Select "View" tab and uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".

4. Click "OK"

5. Find mapisvc.inf in the above two locations, rename them as mapisvc.old

6. Repair Office 2003 via "Control Panel->Add/Remove Program" (For Windows XP) or "Control Panel->Programs And Features" (For Windows Vista).

7. Create a new Outlook profile.

NEW & UPDATED KB ARTICLES

================

931663 Plot lines that contain labels disappear when you edit a Microsoft Excel chart or a Microsoft Graph chart in an Office 2003 program

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;931663

961940 Inline attachments are not displayed in Outlook 2007 e-mail messages

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;961940

884406 A Line chart may plot gaps in lines when the data range contains blank cells in Excel

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;884406

927009 A new window opens when you try to view a 2007 Microsoft Office program document in Windows Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;927009

884202 You must accept the Office End User License Agreement every time that you start an Office program

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;884202

NEW WEBCASTS
===================

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Advanced Tips and Tricks for Creating Custom Documents with Word 2007 (Level 300)

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032309179&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Tips and Tricks

https://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032425461&culture=en-US

Best regards,

Sophie Tan
Partner Online Technical Community
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We hope you get value from our new forums platform! Tell us what you think:
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/partnerfdbk/threads
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Sun, Sep 20 2009 0:16

>>>Partner Community News Sep. 2009<<<:

>>>Partner Community News Sep. 2009<<<:
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/partnerinterneiis/thread/1040920f-2250-45ab-b8a1-eb2093ba50da

In this Issue:

TOP SUPPORT ISSUES

NEW & UPDATED KB ARTICLES

NEW & TOP DOWNLOADS

NEW WEBCASTS

TOP SUPPORT ISSUES

===================

Issue

How can I allow non-admin users to modify IIS 7.0 web site configuration remotely?

Analysis

The feature is not supported on IIS 6.0 but is available on IIS 7.0. IIS 7.0 involves a new and very flexible configuration system. The new system allows the server administrator to specify which configurations can be modified by a non-admin user on site or web application level and which configurations should be locked in applicationHost.config root.

Solution

We can achieve this by granting Windows or IIS manger user accounts with IIS manager permission on a site or virtual/web directory. Then enable remote administration in Management Service feature and grant WMSvc account (account for remote admin with IIS manager user) with file system permission on the site/web application’s directory. Next, go to Feature Delegation to specify which configurations can be configured by the non-admin user and which ones cannot be modified (locked in applicationHost.config).

For more detailed information on this, please refer to:

Configuring Remote Administration and Feature Delegation in IIS 7.0

http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/159/configuring-remote-administration-and-feature-delegation-in-iis-7/

NEW & UPDATED KB ARTICLES

=========================

971832 A server certificate renewal request that is created in Internet Information Services 7.0 is invalid

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;971832

970259 PROBLEM: Enabling RPC over HTTP on a 64-bit Internet Information Services 7.0 webserver results in application pool failures

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;970259

NEW & TOP DOWNLOADS

=====================

Microsoft FTP Service 7.5 for IIS 7.0 (x64)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ffb7c167-279e-48d3-8169-dea85784c4d1

Microsoft FTP Service 7.5 for IIS 7.0 (x86)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=b7f5b652-8c5c-447a-88b8-8cfc5c13f571

Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Resource Kit

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=80a1b6e6-829e-49b7-8c02-333d9c148e69

NEW WEBCASTS

============

Using IIS Application Request Routing to Achieve Elastic Scalability in the Hosting Space

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032425613&EventCategory=4&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US

Best regards,

Peter Yang
Partner Online Technical Community
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We hope you get value from our new forums platform! Tell us what you think:
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/partnerfdbk/threads
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Wed, Sep 16 2009 21:14

On the topic of why "pop" is not a good thing for businesses to rely on

On the topic of why "pop" is not a good thing for businesses to rely on... from Paul Melidosian from the Smallbizit and SMBManagedServices lists:

Verizon has changed their SMTP policies and has started blocking SMTP
traffic on TCP port 25. This means people with pop email accounts that
traverse a Verizon Network may be unable to send email until they change
their computers' SMTP port settings to TCP port 587 assuming their email
host has the port open.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Tue, Sep 15 2009 20:17

Are you joining me for tomorrow's web cast?

Join Susan Bradley as she discusses the details about your business accounting and what you need to know to stay out of trouble and help you grow your business. Susan is a CPA as well as a Small Business Partner and MVP. She will help you understand the important aspects of running your company.

She will cover:

o What's deductible?
o Using Quickbooks • Should you incorporate?
o Tax implications of your decisions
o How to set up a chart of accounts
o Record keeping

Learn how to enjoy the end of the year interview with your Accountant, not dread it. Money is tight in this tough economy so everything you do should be efficient and optimized to either save you money or make you money.

Register for this Free Training:

https://training.partner.microsoft.com/learning/app/management/LMS_ActDetails.aspx?UserMode=0&ActivityId=510504

September 16th, 9-10am PST.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Sat, Sep 12 2009 0:39

The dirty little secret

The dirty little secret regarding all my SBS 2008 test boxes... is that I take off IE ESC on the Admin profile.. because when I'm trying to get files on and off I use the web... well email/web sites don't work too well when that is in place.

I leave it on the real servers.

I take it off on the play ones.

I remove it on the TS boxes... otherwise things like Quickbooks in a TS session won't load right.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: Security

Fri, Sep 11 2009 23:10

So what's your applicationhost.config file like?

Sometimes the error messages you get on a server point you in exactly the spot to debug something. Working on the blog up here for the last few years has gotten me more used to dealing with XML files and what not and in each SBS 2008 is an XML file you might want to learn more about.

It's called applicationhost.config and it's located at c:\Windows\system32\inetsrv\config\applicationhost.config.

Tonight in the partner forums someone hit an issue that pointed to a specific line in this file. This is also a prime plug as to why you want to ALWAYS have at your disposal a Virtual PC/HyperV/or VMWare version of SBS 2003 and SBS 2008. So that at any point in time you can compare an "in production" box to a clean one.

Like did you know the section on httpcompression actually calls for a dll from WSUS? So for those of you that use a third party patching tool and uninstall WSUS, if that doesn't cleanly uninstall, you may jeopardize your running web sites.

http://msmvps.com/media/p/1722706.aspx I uploaded my raw, clean, VMware copy of my applicationhost.config file so you can see what it does. Open it up in notepad and scroll around. The good news is that these get backed up with shadow file copies... but it wouldn't hurt opening up one (after making a copy of it of course) and just seeing how each of your SBS 2008 servers compare to one another.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: sbs 2008

Fri, Sep 11 2009 23:03

So we're patching the blog, patching the phone....

So we're patching the blog, patching the phone.......patching the Quicktime... patching the Snow Leopard... Patching the Blog servers (both Yoda and Brianna) ... and I'm sure someone somewhere is patching the cloud...

Are you patching tonight? I am.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: Security

Fri, Sep 11 2009 0:07

Throttling the memory on SBS 2008

So at the Florida group tonight I was asked if there was a blog post about how to throttle the memory on SBS 2008's use of Sharepoint and I did a "v8" moment of smacking my head and realizing I had not blogged this.....

Eriq Neale did two blog posts and two screencasts on exactly how to do this:

Setting the Maximum Memory Usage on SBSMonitoring | Third Tier:
http://www.thirdtier.net/2009/08/setting-the-maximum-memory-usage-on-sbsmonitoring/

Setting the Maximum Memory Usage on the Sharepoint Database | Third Tier:
http://www.thirdtier.net/2009/08/setting-the-maximum-memory-usage-on-the-sharepoint-database/

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: Allocated Memory

Thu, Sep 10 2009 14:47

SBS 2008 BPA Reports that The Windows SharePoint Services configuration databases log file is getting large (currently over 1gb in size):

SBS 2008 BPA Reports that The Windows SharePoint Services configuration databases log file is getting large (currently over 1gb in size):
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;2000544

We've seen this a bit on some servers.. just file this KB away in case you need it.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: News

Wed, Sep 9 2009 18:49

The Official SBS Blog : SBS 2008 Update Rollup 3 (KB 969121) Installation Failure:

The Official SBS Blog : SBS 2008 Update Rollup 3 (KB 969121) Installation Failure:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/09/08/sbs-2008-update-rollup-3-kb-969121-installation-failure.aspx

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: sbs blog

Wed, Sep 9 2009 18:48

The Official SBS Blog : How to Manually Create the SBS 2008 and WSUS Group Policies Objects:

The Official SBS Blog : How to Manually Create the SBS 2008 and WSUS Group Policies Objects:
http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/09/03/how-to-manually-create-the-sbs-2008-and-wsus-group-policies-objects.aspx

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: sbs blog

Wed, Sep 9 2009 17:37

Microsoft has a new online consumer safety site..

Microsoft Online Safety:
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/

Microsoft has a new online consumer safety site.. and the guy on the site ...

...kinda reminds me of Darren on Bewitched...

But the first Darren, not the second...

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: Security

Mon, Sep 7 2009 1:23

Running the wizard on WSUS 3 sp2

After the WSUS 3 sp2 installs, there is a wizard that pops up. You can hit cancel... or you can just be a SBSer and click next next next next next next......

How to run the WSUS 3 sp2 wizard and not break the WSUS integration with SBS 2008 (or 2003 for that matter)

Click start connecting

Leave it at ALL PRODUCTS. Next

(This doesn't download Biztalk patches to your server, this setting just ensure that as you add new computers with various products it will offer up the proper patches)

Ensure you pick at least Critical Updates, Security Updates, and Service Packs are selected under Synchronization Options, Products and classifications, update classifications. I unchecked drivers as a FYI. Next.

Set a auto sync -- or leave as is. Next.

Click finish.

The one area that most uncheck things which in turn "breaks" the integration is the "all products" section.

Posted by THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Filed under: WSUS

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