Colt Kwong Blog

Office 365 Free Trial

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

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:

1. 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.
2. 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

Skype join Microsoft Family

I used IP phone regularly because I used to communicate with my teammates around the globe, and I also joined a Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Ignite Training last month, that's why the recent purchase of Skype by Microsoft draw my immediate attention.

These two big companies develop their own Internet telephony business and products over the last decades competitively, and finally Microsoft got the anti-trust approval to buy Skype yesterday.

From end-user perspective, I hope this US$8.5B mega deal would improve the (fundamental) IP phone technology and call quality. In the business world, I hope this acquisition will drive a bright direction and vision of Unified Communication across Microsoft products.

A memorable moment and hand-shaking photo of Microsoft and Skype CEO - Steve and Tony.

Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7

User Account Control (UAC) may affect the scheduling of custom script in your workstation. If you have prepare a custom script that want to put into Windows and let it run periodically (such as the Warm-up script for SharePoint), Windows Task Scheduler is definitely the #1 choice. However, one of the most common issues that I heard is - Why don't the script run, even though the Task Scheduler shows "success"?

Normally, when we add a new task in Task Scheduler, the log will show the status is success but you find your custom script is actually never run. The first thing I would check it probably whether the account that run that scheduled task have sufficient rights. In other word, the UAC is enabled such that the script cannot be executed as normal. Therefore, you can easily adjust the "run-as" account in Task Scheduler, or disable the UAC right away in your development/testing machine and try again.

Warm up script for SharePoint 2010

A very common request for all SharePoint 2010 administrators is a warm-up script that could keep the SharePoint warm and in good performance condition. Due to the fact or JIT, SharePoint administrators get various reports (or complaints?) from users about the SharePoint server performance / response time, especially on the first time visit in the morning or if when they have been idle for a while. Few SharePoint warm up scripts / techniques are shown as follows:-

• Warm-up server: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/joelo/archive/2006/08/13/697044.aspx
• SharePoint app: http://spwakeup.codeplex.com/
• PowerShell script: http://nearbaseline.com.au/blog/2010/02/powershell-warmup-script-2/
• Timer job: http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/SharePointWarmupJob

A very simple VBScript in doing similar thing is as follows:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run "iexplore http://www.google.com/", 9                ' The target URL
WScript.Sleep 2000

strComputer = "_COMP_NAME_"                ' The computer that run this script

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
& "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colProcessList = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("SELECT * FROM Win32_Process WHERE Name = 'iexplore.exe'")

For Each objProcess in colProcessList
    objProcess.Terminate()
Next

ULS Viewer Tool

Referring to the CorrelationID in SharePoint or any other ULS logs, ULS viewer is the must-have tool for all administrator or developers because it displays all logs content in a user-friendly way, like this: