Enable Aero interface on Server 2008 / 2008 R2

To enable the aero interface (the shiny glass effect you get on vista) you just have to make a couple of changes to the default installation (and make sure you have an OK graphics accelerator)

First off you need to activate the Desktop Experience feature on 2008, to do this follow these steps

• Open the control panel (Start -> Control Panel)
• When the list of icons appears double click the Program and Features if you don’t see it you may need to click the Classic View link on the left hand pane
• When the Programs and Features page has loaded click the Turn windows features on or off link on the left hand pane (You may need to authorise this if you are using UAC)
• When the Server Manager screen appears click the Features item on the left hand pane and then click the Add Feature link on the right hand pane
• When the list of windows 2008 features appears make sure that the Desktop Experience item is ticked (If it’s already ticked you can skip the next part and just close the screens)
• Click Next and then Install you may be asked for the installation media at this point.

Once the above feature is activated then you’re nearly there, next you need to activate the Theme engine that provides the Aero features .

• Click on Start then go to Run or type into the search box Services.msc
• When the services screen appears find the Themes item and right click on it then select Properties from the context menu
• When the Themes Properties (Local Machine) screen appears make sure that the Startup Type is set to Automatic then press OK.
• Right click on the Themes item again and select the Start item from the context menu
• The status of the Themes service should now read Started
• Close the Services screen

Now that the above is all taken care of you can activate your Aero theme as you do in Vista

• Right click on a blank area of the desktop and select Personlize from the context menu
• When the Personalization screen appears select the Windows Color and Appearance option
• When the Appearance Settings screen appears select the Windows Aero color scheme from the list box and then press the OK button

And that’s that, you should now have the aero theme enabled, also you can click the Windows Color and Appearance again and you’ll be presented with some more customisable options for aero if you want.

Error 500.19 when using a 32-bit application pool

Situation : When you run a 32bit website on 64bit IIS you receive the error "500.19 Error When Enabling 32-bit Application Pool"

What Happened : I got this error because I was also running WSUS services (SBS installation) and it seems to install a 64bit compression component that isn't 32bit compatible. You can safely disable this component and carry on. To do so open up a command prompt with administrative privileges and enter the following command %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /-[name='xpress']

That should sort it out for you, if you need to re-enable this anytime in the future you can run the following command %windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe set config -section:system.webServer/httpCompression /+[name='xpress',doStaticCompression='false',dll='%windir%\system32\inetsrv\suscomp.dll']

Lesson Learned : A lot of the extensions used on 64bit IIS seem to only be 64bit compatible, causing a lot of headaches when running a 32bit application.

"HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" when running 32bit Web App on 64bit IIS

Situation : When you run a 32bit Application on a 64bit IIS the error "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" is displayed

What Happened : I got this after converting a 64bit web app to 32bit so that I could run Jet4 and connect to an access Database.  The following error is also recorded in the event log "The Module DLL C:\Windows\system32\RpcProxy\RpcProxy.dll failed to load. The data is the error." The problems seems to stem from the inability to run a 64bit versions of RpcProxy.dll in a 32bit enviroment.

So anywho what we need to do is change the applicationHost.config file and inform IIS to only use the RpcProxy in 64bit apps. So....

• Open up the applicationHost.config file in notepad, it's located in the C:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\config folder
• Find the following line of text in the file <add name="PasswordExpiryModule" image="C:\Windows\system32\RpcProxy\RpcProxy.dll" />
• Change it so it looks like this <add name="PasswordExpiryModule" image="C:\Windows\system32\RpcProxy\RpcProxy.dll" preCondition="bitness64" />
• Save the file and exit notepad.

Lesson Learned : The preCondition="bitness64" argument seems to force the specified module to only run in 64bit enviroments, could be useful for other scenarios.

The 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' provider is not registered on the local machine under IIS7

Situation : You'll get the following error when you try to run an ASP.NET or ASP application under IIS7 that uses the Jet connection string.
The 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0' provider is not registered on the local machine

What Happened : Unfortunately the Jet database engine is a 32bit only and won't run on a 64bit version of IIS, to get around this we can make a 32bit Application Pool and then run the website under this pool.

• Open up IIS Manager and navigate to the server in question, right click on Application Pools and select the Add Application Pool.. menu item.
• 
  
  When the Add Application Pool Dialog pops up create a new application, call it something like 32 bit Application , similar to below
  
  
  
  
  

• Click the OK button, select the newly created item from the Application Pools list then click on the Advanced Settings... link in the right hand Actions pane
• When the Settings dialog is displayed, switch the Enable 32bit Applications option to True as shown here
  
  
  
  
  
• Press the OK button to return to IIS manager

Now what all that junk basically does is set you up the ability to run 32bit web applications in parrellel with your 64bit applications on the same IIS server, the only thing left to do is specify your web application to run using this application pool.  So....

• Right click your web applications folder from the sites treeview as below and select Managed Applications then Advanced Settings...

• When the Advanced Settings dialog appears select the Application Pool option and then specify the application pool you created earlier

Press the OK button then the OK button again, from this point you should be OK and your application should run in 32bit mode and get Jet working.

Lesson Learned : Try not to use Jet in the future, or if you have to make sure you have a 32bit application pool to run it on. Although I did have additional problems after this, namely "HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable" when running 32bit Web App on 64bit IIS and
Error 500.19 when using a 32-bit application pool

File Menu does not pull down on Word

Situation :When you click on the File Menu button the menu does not appear, the "File" text highlights but nothing happens

What Happened :This appears to stem from some corruption somewhere in either an add-on or the standard settings, to fix it click on Tools -> Customize... On the Toolbars tab select and highlight the Menu Bar item and click the Reset... button on the right hand side. Restart Word and it should be fine.

Lesson Learned :Sometimes shit happens and settings screw up.

"Setup Failed" error when installing crystal 7 on vista or 2008

Situation :When you attempt to install Crystal 7 on a vista or Windows 2008 machine you get a Setup Failed message with no other information as to the possible cause of the error.

What Happened :We all know that Crystal Reports is crap at the best of times and especially in such an early form of version 7 but when circumstances beyond our control push us to use this featureless junk pile then we have to figure out how to install it without the dreaded Setup Failed error message. The actual error seems to stem from the setups programs inability to update the dbnmpntw.dll file, it then throws a wobbly and has a spaz attack. Anywho to fix the issue rename the dbnmpntw.dll to dbnmpntw.old (if you get a permission denied error then you need to take ownership of the file and give yourself access to it on the security tab)

Lesson Learned :Don't use Crystal or Business Decisions software, don't believe me, go on Google and type crystal AND crap.

Vista caches shared items in program files or windows folders

Situation :When you change data or share a folder that exists in the program files or windows folders on vista, the logged in users get a different version of the file than the network users or other machine user.

What Happened :This is down to Program Compatibility Files in Windows Vista. Essentially changes made to "Program Files, "Windows" etc are locked if your not an admin and the changes made pushed into a virtual store, and updates to a file is stored in a temporary location whilst keeping the original intact so not to impact on other users, kinda crappy but a reality none the less, the magic location should you wish to find the actual file is :\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore or you can click the "Compatability Files" link on the folder if its visible.

Lesson Learned :This is blatantly the worst "Feature" I have ever seen with vista, I can see why they've done it but it really should be an option.

Can't access folders on 2008 even though permissions are given

Situation :When you're logged into the 2008 machine and you try to access a folder you're given a "You do not have permissions" message even though you know you are part of group that has permissions on that folder.

What Happened :For some stupid reason when you have the UAC turned on you have to have permission for the specifically logged in user setup on the folder before you can gain access to them, group level permissions seem to be ignored.... pretty stupid right... RIGHT! No matter turn UAC off and restart and everything should be back to normal.

Lesson Learned :Some serious user flaws exist in vista and 2008 server, this is one of them, lets just hope they pull their finger out on R2

Userenv 1104

Situation :You get a Userenv error in the event viewer with the Event ID of 1104 and the whingy description of "Windows cannot perform filter check for Group Policy object cn={GUID},cn=policies,cn=system,DC=single. The associated filter cannot be found. This Group Policy Object will be skipped"

What Happened :There are probably a million and one reasons for this to occur, but in my case it's because the domain was a single label domain and because WMI was configured in the group policy, this junk was showing up. Now there is a Microsoft hotfix for this, as explained here, but the error seems somewhat benign so I never bothered with it.

Lesson Learned :Never use a single label domain, this is what I used to use back in 99 but its still causing issues today... Booooo!

Double clicking a word or excel document does not open it

Situation :When you double click on word or excel document to open it, word or excel opens but doesn't load the document. When you go to File->Open this works fine.

What Happened :From what I understand this is down to a problem with Excel communicating with some other installed app that tries to interface with it on startup, you should be able to resolve the issue with by the following means:

Tools -> Options -> General. Uncheck Ignore Other Apps
Close excel
Go to Start -> Run and type excel /unregserver
Go to Start -> Run and type excel /regserver

If you're experiencing the problem with word you winword instead of excel in the above commands

Lesson Learned :I don't know, shit happens?

Outlook process stays open after closing

Situation : When you close outlook the process stays open, when you then attempt to open outlook again nothing appears to happen.

What Happened :Looks like something it holding outlook open, I never got round to figuring out what it was although if you clear out the users AppData or Application Data folder under "Documents and Settings" or "users" or wherever it maybe redirected it fixes the issue. Of course this isn't always and option so I did manage to make a macro that also fixed the issue. I know, I know a bit of a flaky workaround but if you've got someone moaning in your ear then you have to do what you have to do. Anywho to get this working, open up the VB macro Editor, double click ThisOutlookSession and select Application, chose the procedure "Quit" and paste this junk in

Dim objProcesses, objProcess
Set objProcesses = GetObject("WinMgmts:root/CIMV2").ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_Process WHERE Name = 'OUTLOOK.EXE'")
For Each objProcess In objProcesses
objProcess.Terminate
Next

Lesson Learned :Outlook is a pain in the ass, and once you shoehorn it together with Business Contact Manager... you're screwed.

You can't use a dynamic disk volumes for Vista or 2008 installation

Situation :I want to install vista or 2008 Server on an old HDD that I intend to flatten during the installation process.

What happened :I got to the point of selecting the disk during the installation and then I was informed that you can't install windows onto a dynamic volume... OK fair enough, I select advanced options in the hope of destroying the partitions and reassigning the drive, no joy, the installation process just tells you that it can't work with dynamic volumes.... FAIL!

Lesson Learned :Make sure if you're using an old disk that was previously set to dynamic that you reassign it from dynamic from within windows before using it for the installation.

Don't migrate single label domains

Situation : Update a SBS 2000 Network to SBS 2008 network.

What happened : OK so you can't do an update from 2000 to 2008 (SBS) because apparently it will just flop so I upgraded the 2000 server to SBS 2003, this took ages, you need Exchange 2003 SP2, Windows 2003 SP2 and SBS SP1 before you can then attempt to migrate to 2008. Anywho I then crated the answer file that you need to get everything to migrate and reinstalled SBS 2008 ready for the change over.... only it failed the domain was a single label domain so it flopped big time... Oh well.

Lesson Learned : Don't even attempt to update SBS 2000 or SBS 2003 to SBS 2008 if you have a single label domain, you will get so far into the SBS 2008 installation and then it will fail stating "you cannot migrate from a single label domain" or something similar.