Ben There, Done That

So this weekend I decided to install SharePoint 2010 on my desktop at home.  My desktop is running Windows 7, and due to requirements of other software I need, I’m unable to run Windows Server 2008 on it.

Running a stand alone installation of SharePoint 2010 is great, however, I wanted to see if I could get a complete install on Windows 7 and user SQL Server 2008.  Fortunately, I found this blog post by Neil Hodgkinson that explained how to do it.  Everything appeared to be working great and the configuration wizard finished without any problems.  Unfortunately, that appearance didn’t last too long.

My problem arose when I went into Central Administration and, despite being a farm administrator, the first thing I noticed was I couldn’t create new web applications.  There were some other security issues as well, however, those are beside the point.  The purpose of this post is how to go about fixing this issue if you encounter the same thing.

After mulling over the issues for a few minutes, I remember are beloved User Access Control (UAC) and other issues I’ve seen when it is enabled on Windows Server.  So, I went into my UAC settings, disabled them complete, restarted my computer, logged into Central Administration and what do you know, it worked!  I can now create new web applications and have full control over my SharePoint 2010 installation.

I saw this feature pop up on twitter a couple days ago and I had to check it out.  If you want to see (and access) all the Windows 7 settings you have to check this out.

Here is a blog post showing how to Enable/Access GodMode in Windows 7.

http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2010/01/03/enable-godmode-on-windows-7.aspx

There was another post highlighting the other GUIDs you can use for other various “GodMode” type folders here – http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-379690.html

Enjoy!

After a little over a month since my last blog post I’m back.  The lapse in posting had several contributing factors.  The biggest being that within the last month I go married and then went on a week long honeymoon to St. Lucia with my beautiful bride. (I’ll maybe put up a few pics when we get our favorites).  That combined with the increased workload to make up for the time off didn’t give me a lot of time to blog.  I’ve also been eagerly awaiting the Office 2010 suite of products to start working with.

So, rather than posting sever updates, I figured I would post one update that highlights what has been going one.

First, I have the SharePoint 2010 bits that I have started testing.  Due to an NDA with Microsoft, I can’t talk about them other than if you want to get a peak, head over to http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/2010/Sneak_Peek/Pages/default.aspx where MS has posted 3 videos giving you a sneak peak at SharePoint 2010.

Secondly, I have also installed the Office 2010 clients.  I was accepted into the Office 2010 beta program on http://connect.microsoft.com.  There is no NDA in place for the clients, so there may be more posts following on that topic.

Also, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 have both RTM’d.  You should expect to see them on MSDN and TechNet the beginning of August.  I’ve seen several dates, so I won’t try to predict, just keep your eyes open. You can see the official Microsoft Post here.

The June Cumulative Update Package for SharePoint 2007 has also been released.  Head over herehttp://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2009/07/20/june-cumulative-update-packages-ready-for-download.aspx to get the download links and more information about the update.

I read an article on The Seattle Times website that in an attempt to compete with Google Docs, Microsoft will be releasing a free web based version of Microsoft office. Read the Full Article here.

I think that’s all I have for now, stay tuned as more and more information becomes available on the Office 2010 suite of products.

I’m currently running Windows 7 build 7057 on my MBP.  I recently update from build 7048.  However, I had the same problem in both build, my Broadcom wireless on my MacBook Pro would sporadically stop working.  Sometimes it would take a few minutes to fail, sometimes it would take hours.  Once it even kept working all night.  I was beginning to think I might have to roll back to build 7000.  I was wondering about updated driver, but was having problems find them.

Finally I found my answer, why scouring the forums, someone mentioned they used the latest Broadcom Drivers from the HP Site.  So, I gave it a shot and download this driver.  So far its been working great and I haven’t had an problems with my wireless.  Here is a screen shot of the latest drivers and version number.  I’ll update this post if I discover any problems.

On another note, it would be great if Apple would keep up with these Windows drivers as well.  I know…the MBP is supposed to be fore Mac OS, but there are more and more people running Windows on their Mac’s and boot camp just isn’t being updated regularly enough to have the most recent Windows drivers.  Either boot camp needs more regular updates or Apple should provide Windows driver downloads on their site.

Ok…this blog posting is way off topic, but I have a friend, Bryan, that I talk to and discuss things with regularly…this posting is for him and the random things we have been talking about lately.  Specifically random thoughts that could actually make sense as well as some gripes we have with some online services.

1.  I installed Windows 7 on my desktop the other day after such great success with it on my MacBook Pro.  Well, the result, catastrophe, it’s been nothing but a headache and I’m about ready to go back to Vista on my desktop (look for an upcoming blog post on this).  Bryan’s theory…Microsoft is using MacBooks as their development platform for Windows 7…based on my experience, it’s almost plausible and believable.  It goes right along with how many people inside Microsoft use Google for Search.

2.  Gmail labels and the lack of organization available.  Those guys are all engineers, we’re anal, we like stuff organized.  Have you every tried to have a highly organized gmail inbox?  You can’t do it.  Our primary example, Bryan and I both do 99%, if not all of our billing online.  So you have all your emails relating to bills.  In those bills you have Comcast, AT&T, Electric, Water, Rent, etc.  Sure you can label a “bill” email Bills and Comcast, but what if you want to pull up only your Comcast bills?  Go ahead, give it a try…let us know how it goes.  Yeah, that’s what I thought, you can’t do it.  Following that same logic, if you want highly organized/categorized emails, you have a REALLY long list of labels.  Our solution, how about some “sub-labels” Google or the ability to filter on more than one label at a time would be a good start?  We’re all engineers who like our organization, help us organize.

3. Microsoft new security approach – a top secret division to create viruses for the Mac.  This one we haven’t seen any evidence of, and nothing to back it up.  But after reading this article we wondered why not.  If they are offering rewards to catch hackers rather than fixing security holes that have been found.  Microsoft and Mac have always had arguments going on about the most secure OS.  Microsoft obvious sells a lot more and has a lot broader user base, and therefore many more viruses and security holes discovered.  So, why not create a Top Secret division of Microsoft to create viruses and exploit the security holes in Apple’s OS to make the two OS’s seem even in terms of security

Ok, so that’s all for now, just the fun things we talk about and come up with in our spare time…feel free to post any other random gripes and conspiracy theories about technology that you may have