Good stsadm reference

I just wanted to post a link to this stsadm reference document:
http://www.helloitsliam.com/Downloads/Articles/Mindsharp%20STSADM%20White%20Paper.pdf

The stsadm is a powerful tool if used correctly.

Outlook 2007 Service Pack 2 issues

So we just had a very interesting outlook issue that it took a while to find the answer to. We noticed that we were unable to expand distribution groups to there individual email names. Then we noticed that we couldn't add accounts to our outllok clients. After more troubleshooting we found that it was only effecting computers with outlook 2007 service pack 2. Once we narrowed down the issue I started to do some reasearch. And I came across the following KB article from Microsoft: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969519/. the article explained all of the errors that we were having. We used method 2 to modify the exchange server registry and everything went back to working correctly. Apparently the root of the problem was the exchange server set to use DSProxt instead of the Referal service, and after Outlook 2007 service pack 2 it can no longer use the DSProxy. Well I am ust glad we found the error. It took a while so I thought I would add another link to the solution.

Another Test Passed

A few months ago I was given the opportunity to take a free version of a new type of Microsoft test. In return I received three free test vouchers. So I decided to start working on getting my Server 2008 certifications. And here are the results of my first test:

So I have added another certification. I am hoping with our current migration to Server 2008 and Hyper-V that I will be able to get a lot of experience working in Server 2008.

A Few Solutions to Recent Problems

So I have had a couple strange problems recently that I thought I would post the solution to. I had several computers that wouldn't install automatic updates after XP service pack 3 was applied. I found that the way to solve this was to re register a dll file. If you just paste this: 'regsvr32 wups2.dll' in the run coomand box (start->run), everything then works great with automatic updates.

The other problem I had was with SharePoint v3. I set up a new SharePoint server for the company I am now working for. I setup a few simple things and was ready to start granting access to the main site. When I tried to add users or groups from active directory, I got the following error code: Operation aborted (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004004 (E_ABORT)). I search for quite some time and tried many things but none of the solutions seemed to work. Then I came across this post: http://prequest01.wordpress.com/2008/11/27/unable-to-add-active-directory-users-to-the-sharepoint-groups/ . It solved my problem right away. I am not sure why this option was checked on the SQL server and I hope it does not crash any of our other database apps. It is unfortunate the Microsoft caused SharePoint to produce errors when inserting into the database.

So it has been a while since I posted but my life has been pretty busy. I found a new job working for a company called Western Electronics. I work as computer support/report writer. I also had a new baby girl at the end of September. You can see the details of that over at http://cbpeterson.blogspot.com

Anyways the fun continues and hopefully I will be able to start posting some technical things. I did recently get a new laptop.  I purchased a Dell Studio 17 laptop. So far I like it. I am able to play blu-ray disks on it which has been a lot of fun. I am hoping to try my hand at creating a new website for myself. The main reason I got the laptop was for my month of teaching I did at Brown Mackie college. I taught the intro to computers class for October. They didn't need me this month but they may contact me in the future. 

A Unwelcome Surprise

So this week I recieved a shock. On Tuesday we recieved an email about a mandatory company meeting. When I showed up there were people from all different departments in the meeting. We then proceeded to find out that we were all being laid off. They reduced the IT staff to a skeleton crew. They claimed that the TIC buisness was not generating enough revenue. I have a feeling that it was the home building part of our buisness though. It has been losing money left and right. Anyways I am back out on the jobn search now. Hopefully I can find something soon. Until then mabey I can try and learn a few new skills.

Creating a Custom List Form for a SharePoint List

I worked on this for a while so I thought I would put all the links in one place:

So I wanted to modify the Editform.aspx page for a custom list I had created. I needed the users to only see a few of the fields for editing. The rest of the fields were being populated by an InfoPath form. So I followed the directions in the following post: http://kalsing.blogspot.com/2006/11/create-custom-list-form-for-sharepoint.html

This worked and I was able to click on the link that was sent in the email to users letting them know they had anew form. then I went into the list and clicked on the 'Edit Properties' button. This returned me to the root SharePoint site and not the item. So I was a little baffled. So I looked through a blog post(http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2006/11/06/Custom-Edit-Forms-for-SharePoint-2007-Lists.aspx) by Jan Tielens about the same thing. I found that when you right click on the properties of the list in SharePoint designer that it had no edit form associated with it. Also when I tried to add my new form it would give me the following message: "The page you have selected does not contain a reference to the correct SharePoint list. Please select another page". So I finally found a solution here: http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/ShowPost.aspx?postid=2023228&isthread=false&siteid=17

It seems that you must hide the original generic editing webpart. Since I replaced it it removed some code it needed in order to reference the page. I hope this helps someone else who is having the same issue.