Colt Kwong Blog

Microsoft Server Products in Virtualized Environment

2012-02-09T08:45:00Z

When designing solutions to different customers, a common question that I had heard is whether software X supported in virtualized environment? What about server product Y and Z supported as well? Below is a quick and good reference to answer this question rapidly: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957006 :)

Lync 2010 Mobile Clients

2011-12-17T07:11:00Z

I used both Microsoft OCS 2007 and Lync 2010 at work and at Microsoft network. It's good to see that the official Lync 2010 clients for Windows phone is released: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nandal/archive/2011/12/13/lync-2010-client-for-windows-phone-is-now-available.aspx

I'm not a Windows phone users (yet) so I still need to wait and keep using the third party Lync client on iOS now. Anyway, here are the information of the mobile client of Lync 2010 in English and Chinese:

My 10th Consecutive Microsoft MVP Award

2011-11-11T14:44:00Z

I'm delighted and proud to receive a parcel recently because I got my 10th MVP award token last week!

It's my 10th MVP award and I saw different kinds of trophies and souvenirs over the past 10 years, but the concept of "token" is really cool. Over the past 10 years, I contribute to both online and offline communities, write blog, author book, found local user group as well as helping in international association. It's a really cool experience and I'm delighted that I can be part of community. I am happy and enthusiastic about this MVP program, I am more than happy to keep contributing and be part of it in the next 10 years. :)

The First SharePoint Conference in Hong Kong

2011-11-07T03:00:00Z

The first time ever SharePoint conference is going to be happened this Friday (Hong Kong time). I just registered and the agenda looks great. There are couple of speakers fly in and deliver sessions ranging from Level 100 to Level 300. I joined the local SharePoint user group for some times and I'm looking forward to meet the SharePoint MVPs and friends very soon.

Regards,

Colt

Copy Files between Host and Guest OS in Virtual PC 2007

2011-10-24T13:59:00Z

I have a new machine with Virtual PC 2007 SP1 installed, but the Shared Folder option is unavailable unfortunately.

It is because Shared Folder is one of the features that come with Virtual Machine Additions, which can be found at:

Go to the Guest OS
Select "Install Virtual Machine Additions" on the "Action" menu OR Use Keyboard shortcut "Right-Alt + i"

Download SharePoint 2010 Pre-Requisites by PowerShell

2011-10-03T03:51:00Z

Recently I come into a situation that SharePoint 2010 need to be installed in a standalone server (no Internet connectivity), and luckily I found this PowerShell script, which downloads all SharePoint 2010 pre-requisites and allows me to copy it to the SharePoint server directly.

Crawl Rules Tips in SharePoint 2010

2011-07-19T10:06:00Z

Manage Crawl Rules in SharePoint

SharePoint admin can include or exclude specific URL during the content crawling stage. The content in SharePoint will be crawled periodically so that that search index will be updated and users can view the latest search result quickly. Administrators can actually "modify" the search result by including or excluding more URLs such that specific content will be included or excluded respectively.

(* It sounds weird for me initially because it violates the concept of findability of public asset on a collaboration platform essentially. However, I do realize the business requirements and accept this truth after understanding the user requirements and business scenario from a real world customer).

To manage crawl rules in SharePoint 2010, you can follow:

SharePoint 2010 Central Administration > Application Mgmt > Service Apps > Manage Service App > Search Service App > Crawling > Crawl Rule

Regular Expression (RegEx) in Crawl Rule

Administrators can input a URL, a pattern or regex when managing crawl rule. I have a requirement to exclude all URLs with a suffix of "AllItems.aspx". However, it is possible that multiple places do have this page, e.g. DocLibA can have a page like "/DocLibA/Forms/AllItems.aspx" and DocLibB also have a page like "/DocLibB/Forms/AllItems.aspx".

In order to exclude a URL with this suffix, I need a pattern that replace DocLib and Forms. However, the DocLib can have multiple levels so the traditional pattern of astersk does not work because we have no clude about how many level do users create in the long run because: /*/AllItems.aspx is different from /*/*/AllItems.aspx

Therefore, the use of RegEx come up immediately and I need to use a wildcard like RegEx pattern with a specific suffix only. Therefore, I go look for some URL reference. However, I got another problem is that the RegEx pattern does NOT work in the same way as I wish because the forward slash "\" got distorted at all.

Original:

Distorted result: http://(/w+//forms//allitems.aspx)$

Finally, I have to use a pattern like this in order to exclude all allitems.aspx under whatever folder and whatever level:

Obtain SharePoint 2010 Total Sizes by PowerSehll

2011-07-18T15:09:00Z

I got a request to retrieve the usage and total size of SharePoint sites by a client and luckily I found this PowerShell scripts: http://get-spscripts.com/2010/08/check-size-of-sharepoint-2010-sites.html

In short, it retrieve and recursively loop all sub-sites and sum up the total sizes. I would like to repeat the scripts here for my own reference but please go to the link above for credit and comment.

function GetWebSizes ($StartWeb)
{
    $web = Get-SPWeb $StartWeb
    [long]$total = 0
    $total += GetWebSize -Web $web
    $total += GetSubWebSizes -Web $web
    $totalInMb = ($total/1024)/1024
    $totalInMb = "{0:N2}" -f $totalInMb
    $totalInGb = (($total/1024)/1024)/1024
    $totalInGb = "{0:N2}" -f $totalInGb
    write-host "Total size of all sites below" $StartWeb "is" $total "Bytes,"
    write-host "which is" $totalInMb "MB or" $totalInGb "GB"
    $web.Dispose()
}
function GetWebSize ($Web)
{
    [long]$subtotal = 0
    foreach ($folder in $Web.Folders)
    {
        $subtotal += GetFolderSize -Folder $folder
    }
    write-host "Site" $Web.Title "is" $subtotal "KB"
    return $subtotal
}
function GetSubWebSizes ($Web)
{
    [long]$subtotal = 0
    foreach ($subweb in $Web.GetSubwebsForCurrentUser())
    {
        [long]$webtotal = 0
        foreach ($folder in $subweb.Folders)
        {
            $webtotal += GetFolderSize -Folder $folder
        }
        write-host "Site" $subweb.Title "is" $webtotal "Bytes"
        $subtotal += $webtotal
        $subtotal += GetSubWebSizes -Web $subweb
    }
    return $subtotal
}
function GetFolderSize ($Folder)
{
    [long]$folderSize = 0
    foreach ($file in $Folder.Files)
    {
        $folderSize += $file.Length;
    }
    foreach ($fd in $Folder.SubFolders)
    {
        $folderSize += GetFolderSize -Folder $fd
    }
    return $folderSize
}

Usage: GetWebSizes -StartWeb <http://URL:Port>

It works great but please bear in mind that the scripts only work for items stored in DocLib and Lists, where order document versions and recycled items do not counted.

Crawl PDF Files in SharePoint 2010

2011-07-12T09:02:00Z

Go to Adobe PDF iFilter web page
Download PDF iFilter for 64-bit Platform
Extract and Install iFilter
Run RegEdit and modify Filter (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\Filters)
Run RegEdit and modify Extension (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension)
Run "iisreset" in cmd to restart Server(s)

Associate PDF icon to PDF documents in SharePoint 2010

2011-07-12T04:21:00Z

Go to http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html
Download PDF small icon (17 x 17)
Save it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\IMAGES
Edit DocIcon.xml under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML folder
Add <Mapping Key=”pdf” Value=”pdficon_small.gif” /> under <ByExtension> section

Remove Background in Replying or Forwarding an Email

2011-07-06T14:09:00Z

Microsoft Outlook allow users to compose an email with an attractive background / coloring / signature, but it's disturbing for me because it change my default/personalized style when I reply / forward an email.

I just want to compose a clean and tidy email so I look for the steps to remove a background in email, and I found two ways to do that:

Change to Plan Text mode completely (Lost all Rich Text Formatting): Format Text > Plain Text
Just remove background color: Options > Page Color > No Color

New Cloud Storage Explorer (Free Edition) is released

2011-07-04T02:44:00Z

In addressing the recent change of SkyDrive, Cloud Storage Explorer have just updated its free edition tool yesterday.

Fix The Annoying "Windows Explorer has stopped working" Message in Windows 7

2011-07-03T10:22:00Z

A friend of mine told me the captioned message when he try to right click an object in Windows 7 desktop. It's really strange because my friend and I are using the same installation disc while my Windows is working properly (touch wood) now. Anyway, below are the suggestions or directions that anyone who seen this message:

Restart your Windows - Well, it normally works :)
Disable User Account Control - Procedure here
Run Windows Update - Check any missing or outdated drivers of your OS and peripherals
Disable / Uninstall Anti-Virus - Sometimes it works

Office 365 Free Trial

2011-06-30T08:42:00Z

Office 365 is officially out this week, and I had already seen a post asking for the free trial in a local newsgroup today. Give it a try!

Free Cloud Storage Thoughts

2011-06-22T15:57:00Z

Cloud storage is life saver and the future. I had been using a couple of different online file archive / backup services, such as Mozy, Skydrive, DropBox, etc. There are lots of comparsion between product X, Y, Z out there so I won't repeat. Below are just my personal top 2 preferences and sharings:

Firstly, I like DropBox very much because it save my life last month by restoring / undeleting some important business and working documents for me. It's small (2GB) and light, fast and easy to use. Just create a folder, drop something there and all set. It appear on my iPhone, laptop, etc instantly.
Secondly, I use Skydrive to store my personal files and the Cloud Storage Explorer (formerly called SDExplorer) free edition is also my companion. Skydrive is little bigger (5GB - specifically for Live Mesh) but the interface is slow and not so user-friendly though.

Anyway, Cloud Storage Explorer doesn't work tonight then I go to the Web interface immediately. I learn that the interface is changed, then I switch to the Skydrive Web interface anyway.(I was wondered why the interface change would affect the explorer tool itself, assuming the API call behind have no direct relationship with the Web interface at all). I also confirm that it is a known issue because it had been announced on the official Cloud Storage Explorer website yesterday. Similar to DropBox, Skydrive also provide a file sync tool called "Live Mesh", which synchroizes files across devices.

Finally, the storage "fee" of course another important factors, but I would leave this factor because I'm sure people is happy to pay more if they want more space, ensure the files are safe and freely accessible any time any where.

Figure 1 - Create a folder, drop files there and then files will be sync with DropBox / Skydrive automatically

Figure 2 - Skydrive synced storage Web interface