Category: Blog

  • Balsamiq vs PowerPoint storyboarding with VS 2012

    I couldn’t fit my response to a brief discussion on Twitter regarding wireframing/storyboarding options into 140 characters… so following are some useful links and background on what may work for you to illustrate your amazing new app/solution/product. Balsamiq I love Balsamiq. I use it for nearly every proposal to illustrate effectively what kind of deliverable…

  • Installing Windows 8 on Lenovo W520 from USB

    A few minor gotchas when installing Windows 8 RTM on my Lenovo W520 – may affect others with Optimus switchable graphics, or other Lenovos. Issues encountered initially include: USB Boot drive not being picked up properly Stuck / hung on “Getting devices ready” during installation (94%) After downloading Win 8 RTM from MSDN these steps…

  • Activating Windows 8 Enterprise RTM – 0x8007007B

    The Problem I came across the following error message when activating Windows 8 Enterprise x64 RTM en-gb, downloaded from MSDN: “Error 0x8007007B  The File name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.” The Solution Using the key provided to you (MSDN etc.) you will need to run the following in an elevated command prompt…

  • CRM 2011 & SharePoint 2010 Actions Dropdown Missing

    The Problem You have configured CRM 2011 (online or on-premises) to store documents in SharePoint (online/Office365 or on-premises). Maybe you followed this excellent guide (SharePoint online) or this guide (SharePoint on-premises). Whichever way, you will have downloaded & deployed the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 List Component for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. However, you find that,…

  • Collaboration is the key to successful business

    For anybody lucky enough to be flying  wonderful Blue Islands in the near future (no credit card fees, free name/ticket changes, free baggage!) you get a bonus if you pick up the Blue Islands in-flight magazine as you get to read about the wonderful world of SharePoint and how it can positively affect your business!…

  • VMWare Workstation 8 & Windows Server 2012 RC0

    With VMWare Workstation 8, you may encounter display issues after installing VMWare Tools in a Windows Server 2012 RC0 environment. To address this, ensure that the “Accelerate 3D graphics” is checked or you may have weird display issues (I was unable to see mine… behaved like it was stuck as a screensaver) I’m sure VMWare…

  • International SharePoint Conference Slides

    A great three days at the International SharePoint Conference in London – lots of great content and good to see a lot of the usual faces, always love meeting more of the SharePoint Community. Serious props to Steve & Zoe and the rest of the Combined Knowledge crew for such a well organised conference. Here…

  • Office 365: The server block is not well formed

    A curious error occurred on Office365 the other day… nobody was able to access a document library on SharePoint Online – the helpful error message was “The server block is not well formed”… Without access to the server logs I raised a service request and after trying loads of things that didn’t help I was…

  • Making Better Decisions with Self-Service Business Intelligence & SharePoint

    I’ve just finished a couple of packed events on Self-Service BI with SQL and SharePoint… thank you all for attending in Jersey on Guernsey with Dan Hare and Mark Loane – thanks also to David Grady who was instrumental in the setup of our fancy new SQL 2012 demos with REAL data… no sight of…

  • Office365 – Open PDF in the Browser

    SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2010 Online have a default setting which prevents certain files (e.g. PDF) from being opened in the browser. This setting is in Central Administration – “Permissive Browser File Handling”, which allows users to open files in their native applications. This can be considered a security risk… however most organisations I have…