I Think, Therefore I Code...

FormsAuthentication.Encrypt returns null

2012-01-21T23:56:00.001-08:00

I was refactoring some of our ASP.Net authentication code this weekend and ran into a problem when calling FormsAuthentication.Encrypt(ticket) after creating my FormsAuthenticationTicket. Calling the Encrypt method kept returning null instead of the encrypted ticket.

After a quick Google search, someone mentioned that they would also get null if their userData was null when creating their ticket. I double checked that my userData was valid and continued to scratch my head for a minute. Luckily, it was enough to set me on the right path.

It seems that FormsAuthentication. Encrypt will also return null if the name you pass into your ticket is null.

FormsAuthenticationTicket ticket = new FormsAuthenticationTicket(1, principal.Name,	
DateTime.Now, DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(30), rememberMe, userData, FormsAuthentication.FormsCookiePath);

Essentially, the two items in red above cannot be null if you want FormsAuthentication.Encrypt to return the valid encrypted ticket. Hope this helps someone!

Motorola S305 Bluetooth Stereo Headset Review

2011-10-15T00:26:00.000-07:00

Product: Motorola S305 Bluetooth Stereo Headset (Black)
Where I got It: Amazon.com

I wasn’t exactly in the market for a new set of headphones, but after several of my co-workers purchased these over the span of a few weeks, I figured I had to take a closer look. I’ve always liked the idea of having a wireless headset but have always been afraid of performance and connectivity issues. After purchasing and using the Motorola S305 Bluetooth Stereos Headset for about a month now, I couldn’t be happier with them.

I bought this headset to replace my wired ear buds that I wear each and every day at work. My ear buds sounded great, but being tethered to a laptop all day made it really easy to snag the wire on something ripping out your ear buds in the process. With a wireless headset you don’t have to worry about that pesky wire and can bring your tunes with you on your many trips to the local whiteboard, office water cooler or printer throughout the day (I can make it about 40-50 feet through the office for a caffeine refill without losing connection.)

The Motorola S305’s are very light weight which makes them pleasant to wear all day long. They are comfortable and plenty loud. More importantly, I have had no issues with connectivity or performance with these so far. Even with several other pairs of these headphones and many other Bluetooth/Wifi devices attached to my laptop and elsewhere in the office, I’ve had no issues.

Another great use of this headset has been to replace my iPod Nano/armband combo that I have been using for working out for the past few years. I purchased an iPhone about a year ago and have never use it for working out for fear damaging it. Now I can keep my iPhone in a safe place while working without wires or armbands getting in the way or restricting my range of motion. It’s also a great way to stream slacker or Pandora from my iPhone while I workout instead of just using my MP3s.

I am definitely not an audiophile, but the sound on these headphones is definitely more than adequate. They are plenty loud and don’t sound flat at all. They have performed well in every situation I have used them in. The bass and treble are adequate and sound great even during vigorous workouts. Having built-in controls on the headset to interact with your music player is a definite bonus. It’s nice to be able to adjust volume, play/pause and skip forward and back without having to interact directly with my music player (assuming the player supports it.)

The only negative impression I had at first was how flimsy/cheap they felt right out of the box. I was really worried to shove them into my backpack with the rest of my stuff and was extra careful while pulling them out for a while. After getting used to them, I have realized that they aren’t quit and fragile as they feel and it hasn’t been an issue. If you are rough on your electronics, you might want to avoid these headphones.
Another small issue is that I’ve only been able to get 5-7 hours of use out of a full charge. I would have ideally liked 8+ hours plus to get through a full work-day without having to recharge them, but that would probably be asking too much from a Bluetooth device. At least they charge somewhat quickly.

Pro’s

Light Weight and Comfortable
Build-In Volume, Play/Pause, Forward/Back Controls
Plenty Loud
Good Sound Quality
Adequate Treble and Bass
Price isn’t Prohibitive
Good Range
Works with iPhone/iPod
Includes a Mic for Taking Calls

Con’s

Feel a Bit Flimsy
< 8 Hour on a Full Charge
Worried about their durability if I Continue to use Them for Workouts.

Runners Up

EatSmart Precision Digital Bathroom Scale Review

2011-10-15T00:24:00.001-07:00

Product Name: EatSmart Precision Digital Bathroom Scale
Link: Buy it on Amazon.com
I bought the EatSmart Digital Bathroom Scale to replace our existing scale. Our existing scale would give you 5 different reading if you weighed yourself 5 times. These different reading would be within a 5-8 lbs range. Definitely not a product you could rely on.

The main reason I decided to buy this product, over others, is completely based on it's customer reviews. It sounds like very few people have had issues with the EatSmart scale and those few that did have problems were quickly contacted by the company to rectify the situation. I was very impressed and was able to buy with confidence.

The other reason I bought this scale was the reviews raving about how accurate this scale was. If I weigh myself 5 times on this scale, I get the same reading each time. If I drink a glass of water, my weight changes accordingly. Assuming this doesn't change as time goes on, I love it.

The price is affordable and lower than the price I paid for my previous two scales that broke within the 1st year. I have only had the scale for about 6 months now, and have no complaints so far.
Pro’s

Accurate.
Consistent!
Appealing Design.
Company seems to care about customer satisfaction

Con’s

Dust shows up a bit too easily

Runners Up

Dynamics GP Tip - Changing Required Field Style

2011-10-15T00:21:00.000-07:00

I have been working a lot with Dynamics GP lately and have found it fairly annoying to try and save a form several times to be prompted that I’ve missed a required field. This has mostly been in test environments where I’m playing around and am not quite sure what the required fields of a from might be.
A co-worker showed me how to change the style of required fields in Microsoft Dynamics GP and I’ve found that it helps quite a bit. You can see before and after images below to illustrate just how helpful this could be.

To do this, follow the steps below.

Click on the Home section
Click the Microsoft Dynamics GP menu item
Select User Preferences
Click Display
Change the Color and/or Font under Required Fields
Click Apply and enjoy!

Hope this helps someone.

Select a list of sales_order attributes from Magento

2011-10-15T00:12:00.003-07:00

I was diagnosing an integration issue with Magento where the postal code validation on our side was failing on a few imported sales orders. It seems that the version of Magento our client is using thinks that “MI” is a perfectly good postal code for Lake Orion, Michigan.

No problem, just need to edit the order in Magento and fix the problem… Oh, wait, the original implementers of the client’s system figured it’d be OK to just disabled the Order Edit functionality because it was too much work to get it to work with their new “Features”.

Ok, looks like the only easy solution is to go straight to MySQL and make the change there. Not ideal, but will get this handful of orders to come through correctly. Playing around with Magento and the extensible nature of their database design, it’s a bit confusing to get at a list of the appropriate sales_order attributes. You can use the following MySQL query to get a list of the varchar attributes of a sales order.

select v.*

from sales_order s

left join sales_order_entity e on (s.entity_id = e.parent_id)

left join sales_order_entity_varchar v on (e.entity_id = v.entity_id)

where s.increment_id = 1

The results of the list will be returned in a flat list of attribute values associated with the entity associated with the sales order. With these results, I can easily find the value for the attribute I want to update.

value_id	entity_type_id	attribute_id	entity_id	value
796932	12	211	1	Shipping
796933	12	216	1	John
796934	12	218	1	Doe
796935	12	220	1
796936	12	221	1	1345 King Street
796937	12	222	1	Lake Orion
796938	12	223	1	Michigan
796939	12	225	1	MI
796940	12	226	1	US

IIS7 error when enabling Wordpress Permalinks URL Rewriting

2011-10-15T00:12:00.001-07:00

I wanted to turn on Permalinks in Wordpress to use the following custom structure.

/%year%/%postname%/

I added the following section to my web.config file.

<rewrite>
    <rules>
 <rule name="wordpress" patternSyntax="Wildcard">
     <match url="*" />
     <conditions>
  <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
  <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
     </conditions>
     <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
 </rule>
    </rules>
</rewrite>

After updating the web.config and browsing to one of my posts, I encounter the following IIS7 error:
Cannot add duplicate collection entry of type 'rule' with unique key attribute 'name' set to 'wordpress'

When I’ve encountered this error in the past, it hasn’t been a direct problem with my web.config, but has been a problem with inherited sections or values from a parent website config or one of the default environment configurations. With that in mind, I added the following line to remove any existing rules with the name “wordpress” before trying to add my own.

<remove name="wordpress"/>
The complete web.config section looked like this and cleared up the error.

<rewrite>
    <rules>
 <remove name="wordpress"/>
 <rule name="wordpress" patternSyntax="Wildcard">
     <match url="*" />
     <conditions>
  <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
  <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
     </conditions>
     <action type="Rewrite" url="index.php" />
 </rule>
    </rules>
</rewrite>

Hope this helps someone!

WPF Visibility Binding Not Working

2011-10-15T00:11:00.001-07:00

I was playing around with WPF and binding to the Visibility property of a Grid. The examples seemed pretty straight forward, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get it to work! My test was setup like the following.
I was correctly referencing the BooleanToVisibilityConverter as a static resource.

<Window.Resources>
    <BooleanToVisibilityConverter x:Key="BoolToVisiblity" />
</Window.Resources>

My binding was correctly set to the IsControlVisible property of my ViewModel.

<Grid Margin="0,30,0,0" Height="63" VerticalAlignment="Top"

 Visibility="{Binding IsControlVisible,

 Converter={StaticResource BoolToVisiblity}}">
    <!--Content-->
</Grid>

The IsControlVisible property of my ViewModel seemed to be correct.

bool isControlVisible = false;
bool IsControlVisible {

 get { return isControlVisible; }

 set {
  isControlVisible = value;
  NotifyPropertyChanged("IsControlVisible");

}
}

20 frustrating minutes later, I find the problem. 10 bonus points if you can spot it right away…

That’s right, I forgot to make the IsControlVisible property in my ViewModel public! *Face Palm*

bool isControlVisible = false;
public bool IsControlVisible {

 get { return isControlVisible; }

 set {
  isControlVisible = value;
  NotifyPropertyChanged("IsControlVisible");

}
}

Perhaps this can save someone else some time!

How to Enable/Disabled Recording Devices in Windows 7/Vista

2011-10-14T23:59:00.001-07:00

I had some strange sounds coming over my speakers and thought it might be one of my recording devices (my built in mic, etc) acting up. To troubleshoot this I brought up the Sound window, clicked on the Recording Tab and right-clicked on each of my recording devices to disable them.

It turns out my problem was caused by something else and was easily fixed, but now I have a new issue. How to I enable my recording devices. If you check the Recording Tab in the Sound window, there are no devices listed. Maybe I can enable them directly from the Device Manager. Nope, nothing listed there either...

The solution is fairly simple, but seems to be completely non-standard for windows. Go back to the Recording Tab in the Sound window and right-click in the now blank tab. You should get a context menu that has two options (Show Disabled Devices and Show Disconnected Devices.) Click on Show Disabled Devices and you should now be able to see and enable your devices.

Not a huge issue, but fairly annoying since it is done differently than most other places in Windows (i.e. The network device screen. Disabled devices are still visible but are disabled...)

Unable to Add user to SQL Error While Installing eConnect Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010

2011-10-14T23:58:00.001-07:00

Problem

When trying to install eConnect for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 on a new Windows 7 machine, you might encounter an Unable to Add user to SQL error. I tried to fix the problem by using many combinations of local/SQL Server credentials during the eConnect installation process, but was unable to get past this error.

Solution

To get past the error I had to create a brand new Windows 7 user. I then had to use the new user when installing eConnect. It seems that the eConnect installation process is trying to setup SQL Server login information for the supplied user and has trouble if they already exist in SQL Server.

Hope this helps someone.

Services.msc – An error has occurred in this dialog. Error: 54 Unspecified error.

2011-10-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

The Problem

Every time I brought up Services.msc and clicked on a service, I would get the following Internet Explorer error.

Windows Internet Explorer
An error has occurred in this dialog.
Error: 54
Unspecified error.

The Solution

To correct his problem, install the latest version of Internet Explorer 8 (not sure if it will work with Internet Explorer 9+. If it does, please post a comment and I’ll update the article.)

This problem was encountered on a Windows Server 2003 box with Internet Explorer 8 already installed.

Qwest Actiontec Q1000 in RFC 1483 Transparent Bridging Mode

2011-10-14T23:49:00.001-07:00

I recently moved and was sad to find that my only internet option was Qwest DSL. I don’t exactly LOVE Comcast high speed internet, but it has always worked well for me in the past and I have had trouble with Qwest in the past. With Comcast, I have always used a cable modem to connect to Comcast and a separate wireless router to handle my home networking. With Qwest DSL, I had to purchase an Actiontec Q1000 Modem/Router which includes a four Gigabit switch and wireless b/g/n connection. Unfortunately, I had just purchased a Linksys E3000 router a couple of months before and would much rather use it.

I quickly found that I could setup my Actiontec Q1000 and then daisy chain my Linksys E3000 by connecting it directly to the Actiontec. I was then able to use the wireless of the Linksys E3000 rather than the Actiontec which seemed to work much better with much greater range. This seemed to work OK for most of my needs and I used it for about a month without a problem.

In this configuration the Actiontec would connect to Qwest and would assign IP addresses dynamically on the 192.168.0.1 network. My Linksys was setup to dynamically assign IP addresses on the 10.0.0.1 network. The Actiontec would assign the Linksys an IP address and the Linksys would then handle the needs of my actual LAN and all of my basic needs were met.

The problem came when I wanted to expose my server to the outside world and ran into a bit of a networking mess trying to expose by setting it’s IP address as the DMZ(There is probably a way to do it with this configuration, but I’m by no means a networking guru.) Fortunately, I found out how to put the Actiontec Q1000 into transparent bridge mode which effectively turned it into the modem I have been used to using with Comcast.

How to Do It?

(note: You will need your PPPoE username and password from Qwest to do this. I had to call them to get it.)

On the Actiontec Q1000
1. Log into your modem by entering the modem’s IP into the address bar of your browser (in my case, 192.168.0.1)
2. Click on Advanced Setup
3. Click on Wan IP
4. Select RFC 1483 Transparent Bridging
5. Save the Settings

On the other router (Linksys E3000 in my case)
1. Log into your modem by entering the modem’s IP into the address bar of your browser (in my case, 10.0.0.1)
2. Click on Setup
3. Click on Basic Setup
4. Change the Internet Connection Type to PPPoE
5. Enter your PPPoE Username and Password acquired from Qwest
6. Save the Settings

That’s all there is to it. Your Actiontec Q1000 should act as a Transparent Bridge and will assign your other router the external IP address and DNS information. With this setup I was able to correctly assign my server machine’s IP address as the DMZ. After updating my DynDNS, Viola, my server was exposed to the outside world.

Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard Review

2011-10-14T23:47:00.001-07:00

Product Name: Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard
Link: But it on Amazon.com
I’ve always been a fan of simple keyboards. I would take a basic $4.99 CompUSA special without a single unnecessary key over the latest and greatest keyboard any day. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) my keyboard died on me recently and I had to find a replacement. I decided to take some time, do my research and find a worthy replacement.

After some thought, I came up with a couple of requirements for my new keyboard. I definitely spend more time actively working (coding mostly) on my home PC these days and need a keyboard that was quiet, preferably back-lit and with a minimum number of extra keys/functions to get in my way. My search led me to the Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard and it has yet to disappoint.

The Logitech Illuminated Ultrathin Keyboard met my specific requirements based on the myriad reviews that I trudged through. It was quiet, back-lit (must not look like a spaceship,) had just a few extra function keys which were out-of-the-way and the overall design was pretty sexy IMHO! As a bonus, the keyboard was ultra-thin with a 9.3mm profile and keys that were very close to the keyboard on my work laptop. From the screenshots, I was worried about the soft-touch palm rest that comes built into the keyboard, but I have actually really enjoyed it as a feature and it hasn’t gotten in the way at all like most palm rests I have ever seen.

I have always been a fan of Logitech gaming mice, but this was only the 2nd Logitech keyboard I have ever owned. The 1st was a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and was fairly disappointing due to extra function keys and volume sliders that were always getting in the way. This keyboard was different. The minimalist design of the keyboard itself was great and the software was pretty awesome (just the the gaming mice I’d come to love.) The function keys were completely customizable and there was a section for Keyboard Inactive Keys which lets you completely disable certain keys that are prone to getting in the way. I disabled Caps Lock, Scroll Lock and the Insert key. I don’t think I’ve EVER really used any of them and it was nice to not worry about accidentally turning one on.

My only problem with this keyboard so far is that the front two pads on the bottom of the keyboard have come off when I slide my keyboard forwards or backwards on my desktop without lifting it. I think this is due to the hot weather and friction loosening the adhesive. The pads go right back into place for now, but I assume there will be a time in the not-so-distant-future where they will have to be removed or replaced completely. Other than that, the keyboard has been amazing.

Other Features

Bright, laser-etched, backlit keys that let you type easily--even in the dark
Cutting-edge, ultra-thin profile (9.3 mm) that adds an elegant touch to any desk
PerfectStroke key system for typing that's silent, natural and fluid
Sleek, minimalist design for the ideal combination of form and function
Soft-touch palm rest and full-size key layout for enhanced comfort
Convenient one-touch controls for volume and media playback are easily within reach.

Conclusion
The Logitech Illuminated Keyboard is a solid minimalist keyboard. There are function keys, but they definitely don’t interfere with every day use. The back-lit keys are great for working in less than optimal lighting or when gaming in the dark. The keyboard is thin, stylish and closely resembled a laptop keyboard (which is great if you are already used to it.) If you’re looking for a keyboard that looks great and performs even better, this might just be it.

Pro’s

Quiet!
Illuminated without looking like a spaceship
Minimalist Design
No crazy function keys that get in your way.
Thin form factor
Laptop Keyboard like keys
Software/Drivers

Con’s

Front pads on the bottom of the keyboard can come off if the keyboard is pushed forwards or backwards.

Runners Up

What is Pando Media Booster (PMB.exe)

2011-10-10T11:38:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine has been telling me about the game League of Legends for quite a while now. I didn’t realize League of Legends was a free-to-play game, but since I’m always willing to play a Free game for a while, I downloaded their client and started the install.

Later that night, I happened to check my Task Manager and noticed an unfamiliar process (PMB.exe) running. Hrm. Like any unusual process running on my PC, I decided to look into it a bit. A quick Scroogle search later It was obvious what had happened…

Installing League of Legends also silently installed an application called Pando Media Booster without my knowledge (or at least it wasn’t obvious that it was being installed. Perhaps it was in that ToS that no one can ever quite bring themselves to read.) With a name like “Pando Media BOOSTER”, how could it possibly be bad. After all, who wouldn’t want their media boosted…!

What is Pando Media Booster? (Thanks for Sharing Indeed!)

PMB.exe is a small application that is installed along with some free-to-use software such as League of Legends, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, NBC, etc… PMB.exe basically helps the company off-load the responsibly of sharing their media files, patches or installations directly by turning their user’s machines into Peer 2 Peer clients. (Rather than having pushing you a 600MB update file, which actually costs the company money, the users might receive parts of the file from hundreds of other players.)

Is PMB.exe Bad?

PMB.exe isn’t inherently bad and is a valid way for a company offering free or discounted software or media to save some money in operating costs. “Isn’t inherently bad” is assuming that the company that installs this process on your machine has told you what it is and has given you the option of whether you want to install it or not. In my case, I had NO idea it was being installed and was just lucky to have found it the same day. (I’ve recently had to switch to Qwest “High Speed” internet and unfortunately have NO bandwidth to spare.)

And unsuspecting user that leaves PMB.exe running on their system is pretty much being forced to seed files to thousands of users ALL THE TIME (PMB.exe has been reported by users to use up to 80+% of their internet connection’s upload bandwidth.) For some users this could lead to their ISP throttling their connection and/or actually charging them extra $$$ for using more bandwidth than they knew they were using.

Conclusion

Pando Media Booster isn’t a virus but might well be considered malware depending on how it was installed on your machine, if you were aware of it and if you were given an option to install it or not. In any event, it is legit malware and getting rid of it is an simple as pulling up your Programs and Features (Windows 7) and uninstalling it. Just be aware that it might get reinstalled with future installations or updates to the product that originally installed it.

Then again, if you want to support the company and have plenty of upload bandwidth to spare… Leave PMB.exe up and running. I’m sure they would greatly appreciate it.

Hope this helps someone and clears up any immediate concerns you might have.

Other Companies Reported to Bundle Pando Media Booster With Their Product
Dungeons and Dragons Online
Lord of the Ring Online
Star Trek Online
Maple Story
(Unconfirmed)
NBC Direct
Flyff
Games from gpotato.com

Any others? Comment below and I'll add them.

SharePoint Solution Installer timeout – Bamboo Nation – Project Management Central

2010-02-05T13:15:00.001-08:00

Bamboo Nation uses the SharePoint Solution Installer to deploy their Web Parts. When installing their Project Management Central suite of web parts, the installer would pause on the "Waiting (max. 15 minutes) for solution deployment…" screen before moving onto the next Web Part. After waiting through a couple of these (and refusing to wait through 26 of them) and then clicking Abort, I was presented with the log file which contained a bunch of timeout errors.

The installation process actually depends on the following two services being started or set to Automatic.

Windows SharePoint Services Administration
Windows SharePoint Services Timer

Both of these services were set to Automatic on my machine, so I almost ruled it out as a problem. The Administration service was started, but the timer service was not. Just to make sure, I tried to start the timer service and It failed.

The key difference between these two services lies in the Log On As column. The Windows SharePoint Services Timer service is set to log on with with my domain credentials.

I had recently changed my domain password. Updating my password on the Log On tab of the property screen for the timer service fixed the problem, and my Bamboo Nation Project Management Central installed perfectly.

Missing Merge Modules after updating Visual Studio - Unable to find module file 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules\Crystal_Database_Access2003.msm'

2010-01-28T11:21:00.001-08:00

This problem affects Visual Studio 2003 projects that have been updated to Visual Studio 2005 or great. If your solution has a Setup Project that depends on old merge modules, you might get the following error when trying to build the Setup Project.

Unable to find module file 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules\Crystal_Database_Access2003.msm'

Basically, the merge modules no longer exist in the given location. Fixing the problem is as easy as copying the missing modules into the ‘C:\Program Files\Common Files\Merge Modules\’folder, but tracking down the files was a bit harder than it should have been.

You can download the merge modules you need from the following address. Hope this helps.

https://smpdl.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/012002523100006009302008E/cr_net_2003_mm_en.zip

(If the above link stops working, please leave a comment and I’ll try to update it.)

Visual Studio – Disable the Attach Security Warning

2009-11-16T08:29:00.001-08:00

After installing Windows 7 I started to encounter a new popup when trying to debug the web application that I am currently working with.

This extra step is fairly annoying when you are debugging frequently. I heard rumor about a Registry Setting that could be updated or changed to get rid of this but could never track down the exact key or value. Luckily, there is a much simpler solution to getting rid of this error.

Navigate to: Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Local Security Policy->Security Settings->Local Policies->User Rights Assignment

Double click on Debug Programs and you’ll see the following screen where you can add your user. By adding your user, you will be a member of the debug programs group and this annoying error should disappear.

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070020) – IIS 7 – Internet Information Se

2009-10-16T10:48:00.001-07:00

In IIS7 I was trying to start my Default Web Site and was getting the following error screen.

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070020)

A quick Google search turned up the following Microsoft Support Topic. Ok. Lets take a look at netstat and see what might be causing problems. Open a command prompt ([Windows Key + R] and enter cmd) and enter the command. After running netstat -ano, I noticed that there was indeed another process (with a process id of 796) accessing port 80. (You can enter netstat /? to see what the –ano flags are doing.)

The offending process that is using port 80 has a process id of 796. Now, how to find out what that process 796 is?
Using the tasklist command will show a list of all processes running in windows. You can use the /fi flags to filter the results. In this case I’m using a filter that will only show processes with a PID that equals 796. tasklist /fi “PID eq 796”

The process with process id is Skype. Makes sense that it would be using port 80. I promptly closed down Skype and was then able to start my Default Web Site in IIS Manager. Hope this helps someone.

Adding a 2nd blog account in Windows Live Writer in Windows 7 gets stuck on “Detecting blog icon”

2009-09-07T01:42:00.001-07:00

I’m currently running Windows 7 and I tried to add my 2nd blog account to Windows Live Writer today. Unfortunately, Live Writer would get stuck on the “Detecting blog icon…” message when setting up the new account.

I did a bit of poking around on Google and found a couple of posts about this same issue.

This post mentions that running Live Writer as Administrator fixed the issue for them. (You can do this by right clicking on the Live Writer icon and choosing Run as administrator, btw.) Running live writer as Administrator did not work for me. I still got stuck on the “Detecting blog icon…” message,

This answer from Yahoo Answers mentions trying to close Live Writer and re-open it. Closing and Reopening Live Writer didn’t solve the problem for me. The next suggestion on this question was to reboot windows.

After rebooting Windows 7, I was able to successfully add my 2nd live writer blog account.

Directory "X" associated with feature 'XXX’ in the solution is used by feature 'XXX' installed in the farm. All features must have unique directories

2009-09-07T01:33:00.001-07:00

I copy and pasted a feature/module in my VWeWSS solution and updated the module.xml file. Unfortunately, I missed an edit in the file and caused a problem. After fixing my module.xml file, I got the following error message in visual studio.

“Directory "X" associated with feature ‘GUID1’ in the solution is used by feature ‘GUID2’ installed in the farm. All features must have unique directories to avoid overwriting files.”

This seemed like a straight forward error, but I had a bit of trouble tracking down what exactly to do to be able to use the Deploy command again. I was able to fix the error eventually by retracting my solution. You can retract a solution by performing the following step.

Go to Central Administration
Click on Operations
Click on Solution Management under Global Configuration
Click on the name of the problem solution
Click on Retract Solution
Choose Now for Rectract When?
Click OK
Wait for the retraction to complete and then try to deploy again from VWeWSS

Hope this can save someone a bit of time.

“Value does not fall within the expected range” when deploying WSP with VSeWSS's deploy command

2009-09-04T13:00:00.001-07:00

I started to get a Value does not fall within the expected range error when trying to use the VSeWSS Deploy command from within Visual Studio 2008.

Value does not fall within the expected range.

I spent almost an hour trying to track down what exactly was causing my problem. There are tons of posts about this error message, but it seems like there can be many causes. Unfortunately, none of these solutions worked for me.
After banging my head on my keyboard for a while longer, I started to systematically exclude elements/folders of my VSeWSS project and then trying to run the Deploy command again. Seems desperate, I know, but it ended up helping me find out what exactly was causing this error. Excluding my project Features didn’t fix the error, but by excluding the whole TEMPLATES folder the error went away. I was onto something. I started to exclude sub folders and after playing around with this for a while, I narrowed the problem down to the nav folder within my IMAGES folder. After looking in the folder, the cause was obvious… /Facepalm.

Earlier this morning I had recreated some of my navigation images and replaced the old jpgs with pngs. Unfortunately, my project was still referencing the missing files. By removing the missing references, the error went away. Too bad the error wasn’t a tad-bit more helpful instead of being completely obscure.
In conclusion. If you’re experiencing the Value does not fall within the expected range error. Double-check your VSeWSS project for any references files or folders that no longer exist or any that exist in your folders but are not referenced by your project. Remove any that you find and it might solve your problems.

“A World Wide Web browser, such as Windows Internet Explorer, is required to use this feature” in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer

2009-09-03T14:46:00.001-07:00

In Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer when I Check In a file to my website and choose to Publish a Major Version.

SharePoint Designer shows the following Dialog.

This document requires content approval. Do you want to view or modify its approval status?

When I click Yes, I get the following error dialog.

A world Wide Web browser, such as Windows Internet Explorer, is required to use this feature.

My first instinct was to make Internet Explorer my default browser *shudder*. I did this by opening Internet Explorer, clicking on Tools and selecting Internet Option. I then clicked the Programs tab and clicked on Make Default. Unfortunately, it didn’t make this silly error go away.

A little more digging into the issue presented something interesting. By bringing up Default Programs (Press your Windows Key and enter Default Programs into the search box) and then clicking on Set your default programs, you can see settings for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer web browsers.

By selecting and application on the left, you can set it to be the default program by clicking Set this program as default (clicking this for Internet Explorer didn’t work either, btw) or you can choose some specific defaults for the selected application by clicking on Choose defaults for this program. The latter is basically managing the extensions and protocols associated with the program.

The list of default settings for my web browser are displayed in the 3 images below.

Chrome Associations

Firefox Associations

Internet Explorer 8 Associations

Looking at the differences between the associated extensions, Internet Explorer doesn’t have entries for .shtml, .xht, or .xhtml by default while both Firefox and Chrome do. Thought I’d try to manually associate these three extensions with Internet Explorer to see if it fixed the issue, thinking that one of these extensions was being routed to Firefox or Chrome even with Internet Explorer set to be the default browser. You can do this by going back to Default Programs and clicking on Associate a file type or protocol with a program. Unfortunately, the error wasn’t affected by this change.

To get rid of this error, I actually had to uninstall Firefox and Chrome. I was able to re-install Firefox without checking the Make my default browser checkbox and the error was still gone, but any installation of Chrome would cause the error to come back.

It looks like the only fix for this is to remove Firefox and Chrome if they are installed. If anyone else knows of a valid work-around that allows you to keep Chrome installed, please let me know.

Thanks.

Minimum configuration to get ride of 'Server farm configuration not complete' message in SharePoint 2007

2009-08-27T14:46:00.001-07:00

Setup SharePoint for the 1st time today and was annoyed to see the following message staring at me with no clear idea of what I was expected to do to get rid of it.

! Server farm configuration not complete !

So. My obvious question was what needs to be configured to get ride of this message. It wasn’t until I had completed the following from Central Administration that the message disappeared.

Clicked on Shared Services Administration and added configured my Shared Services Providers
1. This required me to create an associated Web Application (if your web application list is empty after creating a new one, see This Post about a potential fix.)
Configuring and starting the services below from the Central Administration –> Operations -> Topology and Services -> Services on Server screen

Office SharePoint Server Search
Windows SharePoint Services Help Search

Setup Outgoing Email Settings from the Central Administration –> Operations -> Topology and Services –> Outgoing e-mail settings

After configuring the above items, the message went away.

Web Application list is empty in SharePoint 2007 – New Shared Services Provider and Application Pool identity

2009-08-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

After creating a web application in SharePoint and then trying to configure a new Shared Service Provider (SSP), I was dismayed to find my web application list was empty. Because of this, there was no way to select my my web application and I was unable to create a new SSP.

After doing some digging I found out that the list will not show web applications that have a built-in account (such as Network Service) associated with the application pool assigned to the web application. After configuring the application pool associated with my web application to use my domain user account instead, the Web Application list on the Shared Services Provider screen was correctly showing my web applications. I was then able to successfully create my new SSP.

'HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable' message in IIS7 – Application Pools

2009-08-25T10:55:00.001-07:00

One of my IIS7 virtual directories wigged out today and started to give me the following error screen.

Service Unavailable – HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.
I found a post from Rich Strahl that pointed me in the right direction. When I brought up my Internet Information Services Manager and clicked on Application Pools, my DefaultAppPool was stopped.

Unfortunately, my application pools were already set to auto-start and restarting the application pool didn’t solve my problem. As soon as I tried to bring up my website, the application pool would immediately stop again and give me the same error screen. After spending the next 10 minutes or so restarting Windows 7 and starting and re-staring my application pools to no avail, I decided to re-install my IIS7 and Windows Process Activation Service features.
After re-installing these windows features, everything was back in order. Unfortunately, I did have to add ALL of my virtual directories again, but I expected as much. You can re-install these features from the Programs and Features screen by clicking on Turn Windows features on or off.

On the Windows Features screen, you can uninstall any feature by removing the check next to it and then clicking OK. You can then return to this screen after restarting windows to reinstall them.

Hope this helps someone. If anyone knows how to correct this without reinstalling the features, please comment!

Windows 7 New Taskbar Review

2009-08-12T17:03:00.001-07:00

I’m starting to like the Windows 7 taskbar more and more. The application grouping takes a bit of getting used to, but I love how nice and clean it is. Rather than just showing you your open windows, the Windows 7 taskbar serves as more of an application launcher. I’ll share a few of my favorite features of the new and improved Windows 7 taskbar below!

Taskbar Overview

The layout is nice and clean. No more text labels to clutter up the bar. You can pin applications to the task bar for easy launching (good bye quick launch bar!) You can easily tell which application I have open and which are just pinned to the task bar but not open (In the image above Chrome is open, while Firefox and Internet Explorer are pinned but not open.) You can see that I have multiple Live Messenger windows open just by looking at the icon. You can also tell that I have an new message/alert by the yellow highlight on the icon itself.

Taskbar Icons

If you hover oven the Live Messenger icon with the mouse you get a popup window that will show all of my conversation windows along with the messenger itself. From this popup you can select a window by clicking on it, or close it by clicking on the red X. I was very delighted to find that clicking the middle mouse button on one of the conversation windows closed it, just like I had hoped and expected it to.

*PSA* If you don’t use you middle mouse button for more than scrolling, you really should. You can middle-click web links to open them a new tab in your browser or middle-click a tab to close it. I’m happy to see that you can now middle-click in the new Windows 7 Taskbar to close some things. */PSA*

Jump Lists

The above window (or Jump List as Microsoft calls them) is displayed when you right click an application’s icon on the taskbar. As you can see, this popup is customized for the application (Live Messenger) and gives you quick access to its features without actually activating the application. This window gives you access to frequently used options or other features that might be specifically programmed for the specific application. Very handy! (Note: You can also left click and move the mouse up quickly on the application’s icon to display this same window. Feature?)

Launching Apps

One thing that wasn’t immediately obvious to me was how to launch another instance of an application when I already had one open. In this screenshot I already have an instance of Visual Studio 2008 open. To open another, you right click the application’s icon and then click on the application button from the popup. You can also launch new instances of an open app by Shift + Clicking the icon (Thank BlackTigerX.)

Hold Shift to Open Files With Taskbar Apps

If you have a file that you would like to “Open with” one of your open applications, you can drag the file over the taskbar icon for the application while holding [Shift Key] down. You will notice that the popup label changes from “Pint to…” to “Open with…”. When you release your mouse button, the file will be opened with the application rather than pinning it to the taskbar.

Pinned Folders

Another initial annoyance was the way pinned folders work with the task bar. In Vista, I had a couple of work directories that I opened many times daily pinned to my quick launch bar. In windows 7 you can only have a single system folder pinned to your taskbar. Any additional folders that try to drag to the taskbar is then pinned to the single windows explorer/folder icon. By default, clicking this icon bring up your Libraries window (another handy Windows 7 feature that we wont get into yet.)

The additional folders that you pin to the taskbar are accessible by right clicking on the explorer/folder icon. Just like the paulf folder above. This screen also gives you quick access to a list of your frequently accessed directories.

Other Taskbar Improvements

The notification area of the taskbar is more customizable and allows you to decide which notifications you are interested in and which icons you would like to see. I like how I don’t have to look at 300 tiny icons for every app that wants to notify me about something (most of them doing nothing at all.)

The network icon on the taskbar has been greatly improved as well. Just by clicking on the icon I have direct access to information about the network I’m currently connected to, connect/disconnect to my VPN connection, and all wireless networks within range. There’s also a link to the Network and Sharing Center.

The button that I’ve outlined in red in the screenshot above will show/hide your desktop. Basically it opens or closes all of your currently opened windows. There is also another option that will allow you to “Peek” at your desktop which makes your windows transparent instead of hiding them completely. Nothing that the [Windows Key] + D shortcut didn't already do, but a feature none-the-less.

Tip

You can use the [Windows Key] + 1-9 as shortcuts to launch your taskbar applications. My 1st icon is my Windows Explorer, so I can easily launch it by pressing [Windows Key] + 1. Chrome is my 2nd taskbar app, so it’s [Windows Key] + 2, etc.

After spending the initial time getting used to the new taskbar, I think most people will agree that all of the new features are worth the new learning curve. I haven’t found any deal-breakers that might make me want to revert to the old windows taskbar! Hope someone find this useful.