Catch my Point

Search Scope Rule Behavior : Include vs Require

2008-09-17T15:47:00.005-04:00

While creating Scope rules I always used to get confused with "Include - Any item that matches this rule will be included, unless the item is excluded by another rule" and "Require - Every item in the scope must match this rule" behavior options.

If you have only one scope rule for a scope both the options behave same but if you have multiple rules for the scope then the behavior change. "Include - Any item that matches this rule will be included, unless the item is excluded by another rule" works like OR operator where as "Require - Every item in the scope must match this rule" behaves as AND operator.

via http://kaishenghoo.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8A7458DB12CA5AC9!206.entry

Browse websites HTML Source easily with Google Chrome

2008-09-15T14:01:00.005-04:00

You can View Source easily with Google Chrome browser with view-source:http://microsoft.com Other shortcuts are available at LifeHacker

Extending SharePoint Search Noise Words

2008-09-09T14:32:00.009-04:00

Margriet Bruggeman, Nikander Bruggeman has nice article of adding new entries to SharePoint Search Noise Words List.

In SharePoint Server Farm environment, servers hosting SSP will have their noise words @ [drive letter]:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Applications\[application GUID]\Config folder and in W.F.E servers the deafult set of noice wors are located in [drive letter]:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\12.0\Data\Config folder.

"Who is Stupid?" search in Powerset for Images

2008-09-03T22:18:00.007-04:00

When I was reading this techcrunch article I tried couple of searches like

Who was the first president of the United States? and

who is the richest man?

for which I got apprpriate results then I tried

Who is stupid?

the results are little shocking to me. looks like some one is playing political ~~google~~ yahoo bomb

Google Chrome and SharePoint Compatilibility

2008-09-02T16:19:00.003-04:00

I am using Google Chrome browser for my SharePoint development for past one hour or so. Here are some things I notice

Browser opens very fast (Compared to IE & Firefox)
Pages seems to open little faster than or almost same time as IE
Here comes the main problem - "Editing Pages/web parts"

Buttons on the "Page Tool Bar" seems to be not working and they redirect to Home Page. Example : When I click "Edit Page" in the tool bar I am getting redirected to Home Page. I was able to get into edit mode by using Site Actions -> Edit Page
Once in Edit Mode the "Check in to Share Draft" button in the Page Tool Bar is also behaving the same (redirects to home page).
HTML Content Editor doesn't work (just as in Firefox)
The "edit" drop down menu of webparts is broken, the drop down menu doesn't show up instead it shows up as below Workaround for this is to use "Page" dropdown menu to Add and Modify WebParts

Though Chrome browser has issues editing SharePoint content seems like it passes Acid 2 CSS test

Installing Google Chrome on Windows Server 2008

2008-09-02T15:30:00.005-04:00

I just tried to install Google Chrome browser on my Windows Server 2008, it crashed on me with below error message (worked on fine on Windows Server 2003)

The installation is forbidden by system policy

Below steps worked for me

Go to http://www.google.com/chrome/thankyou.html?oneclickinstalled=&statcb=
Click "click here" link and make sure you select "save" in the file download dialog.
After saving the file right click on setup file and select "run as administrator"

If you still get the same error message try below steps

Click Start -> Control Panel
Open Administrative Tools
Open Local Security Settings
Click Software Restriction Policies
If no software restrictions are defined, right click the Software Restriction Policies node and select New Software Restriction Policy
Double click Enforcement
Select "All users except local administrators"
Click OK
Reboot the machine

Source : http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3622780&SiteID=17

CAML Query & Custom Site Columns

2008-09-02T13:25:00.004-04:00

Recently I have come across an issue where my CAML Query didn't yield right results. I did get expected results when I execute at the Site Level but when execute on the Site Collection level we got totally unexpected results.

After doing some research and drilling through the SharePoint ULS Logs we noticed below error

SMReportsData GetQueryResults - Query Execution threw SPException: One or more field types are not installed properly. Go to the list settings page to delete these fields.

after testing each and every colum in the "Site Column Gallery" we found out one column which was created (a year ago) using a solution downloaded of the internet (some one's blog) is throwing exceptions, though this coulmn is not used anywhere is the Site Collection it is breaking my CAML Query.

The biggest problem is I cannot delete the column as it is throwing exceptions while trying to select it from Site Column Gallery and I don't have Source Code of this Column. Luckily I was able to find a mirror site and get the source code with the Key to sign the assmbly but Imagine if we didn't had the key? I feel like it is very important to make sure you have the solution key if you are downloading a solution (esp. Custom Site Columns) from internet. It should be Ok if you are downloading a solution from professional software provider where we can get support.

Code Acceptance checklist for Custom MOSS Solutions

2008-08-19T11:44:00.000-04:00

Microsoft has a good checklist for code acceptance for developing Custom MOSS solutions. Below are some points with useful links

You avoid using AllowUnsafeUpdates. You use ValidateFormDigest() and, if necessary, use elevated privileges to interact with SharePoint objects. In cases where AllowUnsafeUpdates must be used, you ensure that AllowUnsafeUpdates is set to False in your try-catch-finally block, or you use a Dispose() method (as required by the IDisposable interface) to avoid security issues.What you need to know about AllowUnsafeUpdates (Part 1) What you need to know about AllowUnsafeUpdates (Part 2)
When logging code, you use the Portal Log class to log the SharePoint Unified Logging Service (ULS) logs.Trace Log Example from Microsoft
When using the Count property of a SPListItemCollection, you only call it once and then store it in a variable that you can refer to when looping. You do not call it inside a loop.

Configuring SPHierarchyDataSourceControl to show all sites from Root of Site Collection

2008-08-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

SPTreeView Control by default shows all the lists, document libraries & Sites in the Current Context (Web), if you want to show only the Sites from the Root of your sitecollection. Open your master page using SharePoint Designer and find "SPHierarchyDataSourceControl" and update it to look like below element.

<SharePoint:SPHierarchyDataSourceControl runat="server" id="TreeViewDataSource" IncludeDiscussionFolders="false" ShowDocLibChildren="false" ShowFolderChildren="false" ShowListChildren="false" RootWebId="INSERT YOUR ROOT WEB GUID HERE" />

Make sure that you remove "RootContextObject" attribute, RootContextObject property value overrides "RootWebId" property.

SPTreeView : Could not bind to the 'EncodedName' property (specified by TextField) while data binding TreeView. Please check the Bindings fields.

2008-08-18T14:19:00.000-04:00

Recently when I tried customize "SPTreeView" I came accross below error

Could not bind to the 'EncodedName' property (specified by TextField) while data binding TreeView. Please check the Bindings fields.

The problem is I was trying to assign ID of "SiteMapDataSource" to SPTreeView Controls' "DataSourceId" property, when I updated the "DataSourceId" property to SPHierarchyDataSourceControl Control ID SPTreeView works fine.

The original page layout could not be found, so the page was reattached to a different layout

2008-08-14T21:54:00.000-04:00

When I tried to re-attach a page to its pagelayout I get an SPD error message saying the page layout could not be found though the page layout exists.

I was not able to figure out what caused this problem but I was able to fix this issue by updating page layout URL manually.

Make sure your page reattached (click Ok when SPD prompts page was reattached to different pagelayout)
Using browser go to your Page Library
From "Actions" menu select "Open with Windows Explorer"
Copy the Page to local hard disk (Drag and Drop)
Open the Page using WordPad (Page has special Characters) and find "" element and update the Path to your original PageLayout Path.
Upload back to your SharePoint Pages Library

List of Microsoft Hot Fixes after Service Pack 1

2008-08-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

Installing Service Pack 1 broke Advanced Search webpart on my development environment. Microsoft has a hot fix for this. http://www.harbar.net/articles/postsp1.aspx has a nice list of post SP1 hot fixes along with their build numbers.

SharePoint Events and Error Reference

2008-08-05T23:23:00.000-04:00

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721660.aspx has the list of most common MOSS Events and Error Messages.

SharePoint Crawler converts links to lower cases for indexing

2008-07-26T00:46:00.002-04:00

SharePoint Crawler converts links to lower cases before indexing, this is OK if you are not indexing Complex URLs. But this could be a problem if you index pages with query string parameters and if parameters are case sensitive.

Example:if you have a Content Query Webpart (http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2008/02/18/Subclassing-the-Content-Query-Web-Part-Adding-Dynamic-Filtering.aspx) or Data view webpart with filters (passed by Querystring).

In above example "Division" is case sensitive, SharePoint Crawler will not be able to index this webpage as CQWP will throw exception when it access same page with http://liware/sites/publishing/widgets/pages/default.aspx?filter1field=division&filter1value=europe url.

The above image is from Andrew Connell Blog (http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2008/02/18/Subclassing-the-Content-Query-Web-Part-Adding-Dynamic-Filtering.aspx)

How to index Complex URL's in MOSS

2008-07-23T14:42:00.000-04:00

By default configuration SharePoint doesn't index pages with Complex URL's (Query Strings). In most cases (intranet sites) this is acceptable but for Internet websites we would like MOSS to index all our dynamic pages also.

Go to Shared Services Provider and Select "Search Settings"
Select "Crawl Rules" and Create a New Crawl RuleEnter path of your SharePoint Site. If you have only one site with complex url's then it is recommened to enter path of that site.Make sure you select "Crawl complex URLs (URLs that contain a question mark (?))" and "Crawl SharePoint content as Http pages." If you don't select "Crawl SharePoint content as Http pages", SharePoint will not index Complex URL's (even if "Crawl complex URLs (URLs that contain a question mark (?))" is checked )

Drawbacks when "Crawl SharePoint content as Http pages" is checked

Item level permissions are not stored; that means users might see results even though they don't have permissions to link/item/page.
Crawler indexes all application pages (_layouts folder ). Make sure you have a crawl rule (like *://*/_layouts/* ) to exclude all _layouts pages.
Crawler treats the SharePoint Site as a regular Web Site and follows only the links it indexed (just like any other external Search Engine ). If you create a new page and publish it but didn't link it anywhere in your site this page will not be indexed.
No metadata will be indexed.

MOSS Error : The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service.

2008-07-21T10:24:00.000-04:00

I often get " The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service." on my development environment. Though Office SharePoint Server Search and Windows SharePoint Services Search windows services are running fine. Fix

Restart "Office SharePoint Server Search" and "Windows SharePoint Services Search" Windows Services
do IISRESET

This problem can also occur in new environments where these services are not configured properly

Go to Operations tab in Central Administration
Select "Services on Server" from Topology and Services
Select your Indexing/application Server from the server menu and make sure "Office SharePoint Server Search" and "Windows SharePoint Services Search" services are started.

Update (July 22nd 08) More Error messages

Your search cannot be completed because of a service error. Try your search again or contact your administrator for more information.
Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.

Fix

Check Event Logs for Error Messages
Make sure your Search Databases are up and accessible to MOSS Search Service.

Upgrading Error: "There is nothing associated with this server farm that can be upgraded."

2008-04-08T15:48:00.001-04:00

WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 doesn't recognize your WSS 2.0/SPS 2003 Virtual Server, if the IIS WEB Site is renamed. Unfortunately there is not much documentation about this, but renaming your Web Site back to the name in the "VirtualServers" table in the WSS 2.0/SPS 2003 Configuration table fixes this problem.

More Info : http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1351949&SiteID=1

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937291 has more information on errors with resolutions you could face while upgrading SharePoint.

STSADMIN : Backup/Restore vs. Import/Export

2007-10-17T23:19:00.002-04:00

I have been asked by many about the differences between Backup/Restore vs. Import/Export operations, they both really serve very different purpose.

Backup/Restore

Import/Export

Can back up top-level websites (Site Collections), an individual database, a Web application, or an entire farm.
There is no Default File Extension for back up files
Supports "Full" and "Differential" back up. If "overwrite" option is selected while restoring it overwrites entire SiteCollection
Supports UNC path to save/restore backup files.
Backup of Site Collection can be tracked by stsadm -o backuphistory operation

Like Smigrate.exe utility in SPS 2003, you can migrate sites, subsites and Site Collection.
Default file Extension (if not mentioned) ".cmp"
Provides "versions" option to control migrate/overwrite files in site
Backup files should be copied to server
Sites/SiteCollections would not track export/Import history

Syntax

For site collection backup

stsadm -o backup

-url <URL name>

-filename <file name>

[-overwrite]

For catastrophic backup

stsadm -o backup

-directory <UNC path or local drive>

-backupmethod <full or differential>

[-item] <created path from tree>

[-percentage] <integer between 1 and 100>

[-backupthreads] <integer between 1 and 10>

[-showtree]

[-quiet]

For site collection restore
stsadm -o restore

-url <URL name>

-filename <file name>

[-hostheaderwebapplicationurl] <Web application URL>

[-overwrite]

For catastrophic restore
stsadm -o restore

-directory <UNC path>

-restoremethod <overwrite or new>

[-backupid] <GUID from backuphistory, see stsadm -help backuphistory>

[-item] <created path from tree>

[-percentage] <integer between 1 and 100>

[-showtree]

[-suppressprompt]

[-username] <user name>

[-password] <password>

[-newdatabaseserver] <new database server name>

[-preservechangelog]

[-quiet]

stsadm -o export

-url <URL name>

-filename <export file name>

[-overwrite]

[-includeusersecurity]

[-haltonwarning]

[-haltonfatalerror]

[-nologfile]

[-versions] <1-4>

[-cabsize] <integer value>

[-nofilecompression]

[-quiet]

stsadm -o import

-url <URL name>

-filename <import file name>

[-includeusersecurity]

[-haltonwarning]

[-haltonfatalerror]

[-nologfile]

[-updateversions] <1-3>

[-nofilecompression]

[-quiet]

Useful Links

http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/f/?en-us/library/16a7e571-3531-4a4e-baa7-f348a9f9d1d11033.mspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2006/10/16/what-happened-to-smigrate-exe-what-if-i-only-want-to-upgrade-one-site-what-can-i-do-now-with-stsadm-exe.aspx

http://blah.winsmarts.com/2007-10-Backup_and_Restore_Strategies_in_MOSS_2007.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/joelo/archive/2007/03/09/sharepoint-backup-restore-high-availability-and-disaster-recovery.aspx

Naming conventions in SharePoint vs. Windows File System

2007-10-10T08:52:00.001-04:00

As mentioned in my previous blog post, the naming conventions are very different

SharePoint Naming Conventions (source)

Site Names

In WSS Site Names may not contain the following characters: \ / : * ? ” < > | # { } % & ” ~ +
You cannot start a site name, subsite name, or a site group name with an underscore (_) character or with the period character
You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a site name, a subsite name, or a site group name
You cannot use the period character at the end of a site name, a subsite name, or a site group name

File Names

Invalid characters: ” # % & * : < > ? \ / { | } ~
Cannot be longer than 128 characters
You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a file name
You cannot use the period character at the end of a file name
You cannot start a file name with the period character

Folder Names

You cannot use the following characters anywhere in a folder name or a server name: ~ # % & * { } \ : < > ? / | ”
Cannot be longer than 128 characters
You cannot use the period character consecutively in the middle of a folder name
You cannot use the period character at the end of a folder name
You cannot start a folder name with the period character

Miscellaneous

The complete URL for the file or folder cannot be longer than 260 characters. Note that this includes the server, site and library name.

NTFS file system (source)

Use a period (.) to separate the base file name from the extension in a directory name or file name.
Use a backslash (\) to separate components in paths, which divides the file name from the path to it, or one directory from one another in a path. You cannot use a backslash in file or directory names. However, they can be required as part of volume names, for example, “C:\”. UNC names must have the following format:

\\<server>\<share>.

Use any character in the current code page for a name, including Unicode characters, except characters in the range of zero (0) through 31, or any character that the file system does not allow. A name can contain characters in the extended character set (128–255). However, it cannot contain the following reserved characters:
< > : ” / \ | ? *

Use a period (.) as a directory component in a path to represent the current directory.
Use two consecutive periods (..) as a directory component in a path to represent the parent of the current directory.
Do not use the following reserved device names for the name of a file: CON, PRN, AUX, NUL, COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, COM5, COM6, COM7, COM8, COM9, LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, LPT4, LPT5, LPT6, LPT7, LPT8, and LPT9. Also avoid these names followed by an extension, for example, NUL.tx7.
Do not assume case sensitivity. Consider names such as OSCAR, Oscar, and oscar to be the same.
Do not end a file or directory name with a trailing space or a period. Although the underlying file system may support such names, the operating system does not. You can start a name with a period (.).
Maximum Path Length
In the Windows API, the maximum length for a path is MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters. A path is structured in the following order: drive letter, colon, backslash, components separated by backslashes, and a null-terminating character, for example, the maximum path on the D drive is “D:\<256 chars>NUL”.

Note Functions in the Windows API convert “/” to “\” as part of converting the name to an NT style name.
The Unicode versions of several functions permit a maximum path length of approximately 32,000 characters composed of components up to 255 characters in length. To specify that kind of path, use the “\\?\” prefix.

Note The maximum path of 32,000 characters is approximate, because the “\\?\” prefix can be expanded to a longer string, and the expansion applies to the total length.

Implementing Server Hardening on SharePoint Servers

2007-10-03T16:15:00.001-04:00

After building our QA Server Farm Environment, we installed thrid party Server Hardening software on our web front end servers, that totally knocked out our servers, Web Aplications Created using Central Admin server were not able to Propogate to Web Front end servers, all the SharePoint solutions deployed failed. Luckily we had VMWare backups we were able to restore but there is not much documentation out there about server hardening on SharePoint farm.

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog entry has nice collection of links for different security topics on Office SharePoint Server and WSS v3, though some of the MSDN Links are broken. Below are updated links

Securing Your Web Server
Securing Your Database Server
Securing Your Network
Securing Your Application Server

MOSS Planning : Guidelines for Performance

2007-10-03T00:14:00.001-04:00

Recently I had an opportunity to deploy Microsoft CRM with Selentica add on to integrate with SharePoint, which created thousands of Site Collections. Initially I was little hesitant to create so many Site Collections especially after reading Microsoft Guidelines for Performance (image below).

There was really no Performance change after this deployment (We have been checking performance for a month now) may be because of my 5 Server farm, but Site Collections do give more flexibility managing content databases and security compared to sites.

WSSADMIN.EXE and OWSTIMER.EXE Memory Leaks

2007-09-26T12:51:00.001-04:00

Windows SharePoint Services Administration (WSSADMIN.EXE ) and Windows SharePoint Services Timer (OWSTIMER.EXE ) are processes which always take up most of the memory on my Dev Env. SharePoint App Pools and SQL Server do take lots of memory but I do IISRESET very often and SQL Server is also very reasonable but WSSADMIN.EXE and OWSTIMER.EXE really consume ridiculous amount of memory.

MindSharp team has an stsadm extension for resetting OWSTIMER

Spencer Harbar has a good tool to recycle Application Pools (Screenshot below), I wish in future releases it could be extended to include WSSADMIN.EXE RESET and OWSTIMER.EXE RESET ... but until then a batch file with below commands will do it.

net stop "Windows SharePoint Services Timer" net start "Windows SharePoint Services Timer" net stop "Windows SharePoint Services Administration" net start "Windows SharePoint Services Administration"

Configuring DotNetNuke Portal to use other than Port 80

2007-09-26T00:25:00.008-04:00

I remember when I first started playing with DNN about 3 years ago, it was such a pain to make DNN WebSite work on a not standard Port number (other than 80), because of this reason I always used host headers for DNN development Env. (Windows 2k3 Server).

The problem is when you change the Portal Alias and add a port, and try to access the portal you will have a never ending loop of redirection

If you use Internet Explorer (any version) : you will see your worker process takes 100% CPU and take up all memory and recycles itself.If you use Firefox : it show a below friendly message

The page isn't redirecting properly

Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

* This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to acceptcookies.

Solution :Simple add below element to your web.config (within <appSettings>)

<add key="UsePortNumber" value="True"></add>

SharePoint Search deletes HOSTS file and then throws HOSTS file not found error

2007-09-25T09:13:00.001-04:00

Today I found this weird error message in my MOSS Server Event Logs. I just don’t understand why is SharePoint Search Admin Job is calling ‘System.IO.FileInfo.Delete()’ on hosts file.

Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (e9de7a85-9375-431c-b48b-b1ef522b6f65).

Reason: Access to the path ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’ is denied.

Techinal Support Details:
System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’ is denied.
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileInfo.Delete()
at Microsoft.Search.Administration.Security.HOSTSFile.CleanupDedicatedGathering(Hashtable HOSTSFileMappings, StringBuilder HOSTSComments, IEnumerable obsoleteHosts, String dedicatedName, Boolean isDirty)
at Microsoft.Search.Administration.Security.HOSTSFile.ConfigureDedicatedGathering(SearchServiceInstance searchServiceInstance, SPServer dedicatedWebFrontEndServer, IList`1 previousWebApplicationHostNames)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.SynchronizeDefaultContentSource(IDictionary applications)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.Synchronize()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ApplicationServerJob.ProvisionLocalSharedServiceInstances(Boolean isAdministrationServiceJob)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Out of curiosity I backed up hosts file and then gave ‘everyone’ full permissions to the hosts file then after some time I see this error message

Application Server Administration job failed for service instance Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance (e9de7a85-9375-431c-b48b-b1ef522b6f65).

Reason: Could not find file ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’.

Techinal Support Details:
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’.
File name: ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’
at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy)
at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options)
at System.IO.StreamReader..ctor(String path, Encoding encoding, Boolean detectEncodingFromByteOrderMarks, Int32 bufferSize)
at System.IO.FileInfo.OpenText()
at Microsoft.Search.Administration.Security.HOSTSFile.ParseHOSTSFile(Hashtable& HOSTSFileMappings, StringBuilder& HOSTSComments)
at Microsoft.Search.Administration.Security.HOSTSFile.ConfigureDedicatedGathering(SearchServiceInstance searchServiceInstance, SPServer dedicatedWebFrontEndServer, IList`1 previousWebApplicationHostNames)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.SynchronizeDefaultContentSource(IDictionary applications)
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.Administration.SearchServiceInstance.Synchronize()
at Microsoft.Office.Server.Administration.ApplicationServerJob.ProvisionLocalSharedServiceInstances(Boolean isAdministrationServiceJob)

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Update : According to the Technet article you don’t have to add any specific permission om the MOSS server. But The account need to be able to add some entries to the host file for search purposes.

Apparently COMPUTER\WSS_ADMIN_WPG is suppose to have Modify permissions on the HOSTS-file, which fixes this problem. more info

Update 2 : I tried giving modify access to “WSS_ADMIN_WPG”, but it still didn’t solve the issue. My Hosts file is gone and am left with “Could not find file ‘C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS’.” errors in event log.

IIS (Un)Friendly Error Message

2007-09-20T08:33:00.001-04:00

This is a funny error message from CodeProject, being a Microsoft Developer centric website didn't expect this error message from them.