Microsoft MSDN .img file

Microsoft seems to have switched file formats from .iso to .img for some of the software available on MSDN.

What is an .img file? At first I thought I had to use Nero to burn the image to a disk and then install, but I noticed that in Windows 8 you can natively mount .iso and .img formats.

Since I don't plan on installing these .img files on Windows 8 or Server 2012 yet, you can simply rename the file from .img to .iso and then use the file as you would normally use an .iso

Sharepoint 2013 Preview

Sharepoint 2013 is just around the corner, full of new features to take the platform to the next level

Here are some of the new features

• Visual Experience
• Metro Interface
• To brand a SharePoint site, designers just create a site design as they typically would, by implementing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Designers can create these files by using their design tool of choice, whether that is Adobe Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression Web, or some other HTML editor. You don't have to use SharePoint Designer or Visual Studio 2013 to brand a SharePoint site
• App Store
• Everything in Sharepoint 2013 is an App, lists, workflow, site pages, remote web apps, etc.
• Make your apps available to everyone to try and buy through the public Store or only available to your employees through the corporate catalog
• Social Networking
• The introduction of Community Sites offers a forum experience to categorize discussions around subject areas, and connect users who have knowledge or seek knowledge about subject areas
• My Sites for micro-blogging, allows likes, hash tags and news feed functionality following content, people and sites.
• Integration
• Organize all your projects and tasks to get visibility into upcoming deliverables across SharePoint, Outlook and Microsoft Project
• Sync your content in SharePoint to your desktop with SkyDrive Pro
• Development
• Based on common web standards like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Furthermore, implementation relies on established protocols like the Open Data protocol (OData), and OAuth
• Support for the newly developed web-based tool "Napa" Office 365 Development Tools for developing apps
• Visual Studio 2012 now includes a new app project template in the Apps folder named Apps for SharePoint 2013
•  In addition to the use of Representational State Transfer (REST) endpoints for web services, there is a broad new API for both server and client development. Remote event receivers and now supported in addition to client-side rendering
• Cloud
•  Improved and enhanced to support the new cloud-based architecture and app-driven development framework
• Full support for development against the Windows Azure Workflow platform
• Content
• Many new features for videos and using videos on pages. A new video content type is added, and the video upload process is improved for content authors
• Content authors can insert an iframe element into an HTML field on a page. This lets content authors embed dynamic content from other sites, such as videos or map directions
•  Support for image renditions. Image renditions let you display different sized versions of an image on different pages
• Cross-site publishing lets you store and maintain content in one or more authoring site collections, and display this content in one or more publishing site collections
• Designate any library or list as a catalog. After the Cross-Site Collection Publishing feature is enabled for a site collection, you can designate any library or list within that site collection as a catalog so that content can be reused on publishing site collections
• Localization
• Built in integrated translation service that lets content authors select content for export for human translation or specify content for machine translation.

These are only a subset of all of the new and improved features and functionality in the Sharepoint 2013 Preview, for more information check out Microsoft's official Sharepoint 2013 sites at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303422(v=office.15)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj162979(v=office.15)


Download the preview at:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh973397

Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2012 Gotchas

I have attempted to install SCSM 2012 unsuccessfully multiple times and learned a few things that I'll share that will hopefully save someone hours of time hunting down solutions for these issues.

The first issue I ran into was during the SCSM Data warehouse management server installation, during this install you will be asked for multiple database names, rather than selecting the default names, I chose to append '2012' to all the database names. The install will fail with 2012 in the database names, I tried this in three separate environments and it failed in all three.

The next issue was the SQL instance name, if you create a new instance besides the default MSSQL and include 'MSSQL' in the name of the new instance, the installation will fail. Tried this in a couple of different environments and always a failed installation.

The last issue is during an upgrade from SCSM 2010 to SCSM 2012, about three quarters of the way through the installation it will attempt to make changes to the SSRS server, if there is a web folder on the site with the name 'Data Sources' the installation will fail. This failure will be a catastrophic failure and require a disaster recovery scenario to rebuild/reinstall. The horrible thing about this issue is that if you have been creating reporting solutions using the SQL Business Intelligence Development Studio, when you publish your projects to the SSRS server I believe it will automatically create the Data Sources Folder. For the upgrade, rename this folder, run the upgrade and the change the name back after it succeeds.

SQL 2008 Native Client Installation Error

I recently worked on a Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2012 upgrade project and on both of the management servers during the prerequisite installation the SQL Server 2008 Native Client installation would fail. After searching around through what seemed like hundreds of sites, I found a solution that works consistently.

Error Message - An error occurred during the installation of assembly 'Microsoft.VC80.CRT...

Export and delete the following registry keys...

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide\Winners\x86_policy.8.0.microsoft.vc80 & vc90 entries…

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS\DerivedData\Components\x86_policy.8.0.microsoft.vc80 & vc90 entries

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS\WINNER\Components\x86_policy.8.0.microsoft.vc80 & vc90 entries.


Note: On my 2008 R2 Server the third set of keys was not present

Then run services.msc and set the "Windows Module Installer" to automatic and Reboot.

The installation will now complete successfully.