Antivirus Software

I am asked all the time for assistance with home antivirus. Here are some free options:
Avast  (I use this)
Microsoft Security Essentials  (I use this. Yes... I run two antivirus programs)
Avira
Malwarebytes
AVG
Panda - Cloud and Free Tools

If you feel the need to drop money on antivirus here are some options:
Kapersky
Panda
Norton (I don't recommend it and I won't even link to it)
F-Secure
G Data

Last but not least, practice good browsing habits and back your data up with some level of regularity.

SharePoint 2010 - Access Assets Database

Great microsoft article explaining the configuration steps required to enable access database sites, such as the assets tracking site.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee662542.aspx

PSTools - Run As User

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896649.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553
psexec -u {DOMAIN}\{USER} -p {PASSWORD} "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\INFOPATH.EXE" /design

Sysinternals - Run As User

File this one under annoyances. To enable Right Click "Run as different user" option without having to hold the shift key, Download the SysInternals Suite from Microsoft.

Open up a command prompt, then run shellrunas /reg command from the Sysinternals folder.

Now all you should have to do is right click on the file, and you should have the run as different user option.

Another alternative is to use the following built-in command, but I found this doesn't work as well.
C:\Windows\System32\runas.exe /profile /user:{DOMAIN}\{USER} C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\INFOPATH.EXE /design

Microsoft Office Shortcuts

Here is a list of Microsoft Office 2010 programs and their path to the executable in the file system:

Microsoft Office 2010 Tools\Microsoft Office 2010 Language Preferences	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\SETLANG.EXE
Microsoft Office 2010 Tools\Microsoft Office Picture Manager	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OIS.EXE
Microsoft Access 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\MSACCESS.EXE
Microsoft Excel 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE
Microsoft InfoPath Designer 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\INFOPATH.EXE /design
Microsoft InfoPath Filler 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\INFOPATH.EXE
Microsoft OneNote 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\ONENOTE.EXE
Microsoft Outlook 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\OUTLOOK.EXE
Microsoft PowerPoint 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\POWERPNT.EXE
Microsoft Publisher 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\MSPUB.EXE
Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\GROOVE.EXE
Microsoft Word 2010	C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office14\WINWORD.EXE

SSIS - Excel Querying

The power and flexibility of SSIS never ceases to amaze me. With just a few simple lines of code you can import and manipulate data straight out of excel.

This piece goes on to the actual excel connection provider.

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Temp\<FILENAME.xls>;Extended Properties="EXCEL 8.0;HDR=YES;IMEX=1";

Instead of table loading the excel file on the datasource, utlize a SQL query such as this.

SELECT F1,F18 from [Sheet1$A3:D8]

WHERE 

  F1 IS NOT NULL

  ........

SharePoint 2010 - People Picker Configuration

There are so many nuances to this little tool in SharePoint. Configuration settings can only be done after installation using STSADM commands. Below are several resources I have found related to this topic.

Checking Accounts:
https://<SiteURL>/_layouts/people.aspx?MembershipGroupId=0
https://<SiteURL>/_catalogs/users/simple.aspx

People Picker Hide Inactive Accounts:
stsadm.exe -o setproperty -propertyname "HideInactiveProfiles" -propertyvalue "true"

Run These Command as SPFarm Account to Remove Old DBs:
stsadm -o sync -listolddatabases 1
stsadm -o sync –deleteolddatabases 1
stsadm -o sync –synctiming m:5 
(this is to alter the sync timing schedule in a DEV environment, default is 1 hour)

Awesome PowerShell Commands for Checking and Deleting Orphaned Users:
http://www.sharepointclowns.com/2011/04/find-and-delete-orphaned-users/

People Picker Resource Articles:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263196.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg602075(v=office.14).aspx
http://blog.helloitsliam.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=48

Resyncing an Account From AD:
Set-SPUser -Identity "<domain\username>" -web "<SiteURL>" -SyncFromAD

Manually Deleting Accounts:
1. In SQL: SELECT * FROM [WSS_Content_DatabaseName].[dbo].[UserInfo] WHERE tp_Login='DOMAIN\username'
2. Take note of the tp_ID
3. In IE, go to http://<your sharepoint site collection/_layouts/userdisp.aspx?ID=tp_ID, where tp_ID is the number you found from your select statement.
4. It should take you to the user's profile where you can click on the Delete User from Site Collection button.

Java vs .NET

This is why I use .NET. Even Cisco admits Java is a problem. See pages 40-41 of this link.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/vpndevc/2013-annual-security-report.pdf

SharePoint 2010 - Content Type Hubs & InfoPath Forms

Here are a couple of great articles on setting up a content type hub via managed metadata service, and connecting an Infopath form to a forms library using a content type.

• http://www.sharepoint4developers.net/en-nz/post/sharepoint-2010-content-type-hub.aspx
• http://geekswithblogs.net/kjones/archive/2011/05/31/145649.aspx

SharePoint 2010 - Reporting Services 401 Error

Excellent article about resolving connectivity issues with SharePoint, SQL Server Report Integration mode, and SSRS iteself. http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/br/sqlreportingservices/thread/7109c6b5-f2a2-4ce8-ae23-ae7850782a8f

SharePoint 2010 - Hiding "View All Site Content"

<%-- These styles: Hides the View All Site Content; Makes the Site Actions link white --%>
<!-- Custom Styles -->
<style type="text/css">
 #ctl00_PlaceHolderLeftNavBar_PlaceHolderQuickLaunchBottom_PlaceHolderQuickLaunchBottomV4_idNavLinkViewAllV4 { display:none; }
    .ms-siteactionsmenu .ms-menu-a span { color:#ffffff; }
</style>
<!-- Custom Styles --><

SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl ID="SPSecurityTrimmedControl2" runat="server" PermissionsString="ManageLists">
<<SharePoint:SiteActions control>>
</SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>

Related Links:
http://www.sharepointkings.com/2008/11/how-to-remove-site-actions-and-view-all.html
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.sharepoint.spbasepermissions.aspx

Built With Bootstrap

My portfolio web site has been featured on Built With Bootstrap!!

Python Google Sites API Project

I have open sourced my python project for downloading google sites api data.
https://code.google.com/p/pydev-googleapps-sites/

Drive Cleanup

I am impressed. I was having difficulty connecting my eSATA drive to windows 7. I found this program and it cleared out all old drive references from the registry. http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html#drivecleanup

SharePoint Log File Shrinking

Here is a real gem for recovering space taken up by log file growth. It is of course recommended that you back up any files first.

USE SharePoint_Config
GO

ALTER DATABASE SharePoint_Config SET RECOVERY SIMPLE
DBCC SHRINKFILE(N'SharePoint_Config_log', 50)

ALTER DATABASE 
SharePoint_Config SET RECOVERY FULL
GO

SharePoint 2010 - Setting Up Development Environment

Great whitepaper I found a while ago on setting this up:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4-lBnIxXbzWSmw5MHNuSG1ieGc

Google+ to RSS

Here are some interesting services for creating RSS feeds of Google+ posts.

• http://plus-one-feed-generator.appspot.com/
• http://www.google-plus-rss.com/
• http://plusfeed.frosas.net/
• http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/
• http://gplusrss.com/  (Requires you to authorize account access)
• http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ways-google-rss-feeds/

CloudCracker

Wow... now this is an interesting service, and scary.
https://www.cloudcracker.com/

Scheduled Test Print

This is a simple way to send a test print. Place this command in a scheduled task to prevent ink jet cartridges from drying up.

mspaint /p C:\Schedules\Printer\Google.jpg

Physical to Virtual Migration

Here are some useful tools and instructions for converting a physical windows machine to virtual. This example was used to convert a physical Windows 2003 server to a VHD, which was mounted on a Windows 2012 Hyper-V server.

1. Run Disk2vhd utility from Microsoft. There are some nuances to this program:
     A) Run the utility from an external drive not being converted.
     B) Make sure to check the Virtual PC option.
2. Once the .vhd is created, create a new virtual machine and attach the .vhd. Start it up in Hyper-V.
   If the "BOOTMGR is missing" (which is likely)... STOP. 
3. Dismount the .vhd from Hyper-V at this point and use the following instructions and utilities. There are two options in these instructions for mounting the VHD. I use the process of just mounting the VHD as a drive. This can be done through  Admin Tools --> Computer Management --> Disk Management --> Action --> Attach VHD.
     A)  http://xtralogic.com/testdisk_rebuild_bootsector.shtml
     B)  http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
4. Once the BOOTMGR is fixed, recreate the Hyper-V virtual machine and attach the .vhd.
   Make sure to add the hyper-v extensions/internals to the virtual machine under settings.
5. Start it up.You will now see multiple boot options, such as:
     A) disk2vhd
     B) Windows Server
6. Select the Windows Server boot option. You may only have 3 seconds to select this option.
7. The server may go through many HAL upgrade processes. At some point early on, back up your boot.ini file. Then go into boot.ini and increase the timeout and remove the boot option line related to disk2vhd. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323427
8.  If all goes well, you should start seeing drivers and hardware updating. Several restarts may be required.
9. Once upgrading is completed, go into network properties and configure the IP address, gateway, etc. Confirm that you now have internet connectivity.