Challenge the norm

One of the best ways to improve your productivity is to do email less. Yes, that’s right do email less. This means setting aside dedicated times to check and respond to email. Now many people would say that is totally impossible for them to do but my response is, have you actually challenged that way of thinking? Have you actually tried rather than just saying you can’t?

Here’s a great video (4 mins) from Tim Ferris the author of the Four Hour Work Week on how he manages email.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDhfaIbstIY&rel=0&border=1&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1

You’ll notice in there he actually briefly mentions this topic of challenging the norm when it comes to email. Interestingly, the person Tim speaks of who did this found that their boss actually commended them on improving their productivity and recommended the idea to other managers.

At the end of the day email is a tool, it shouldn’t rule your life. As Tim says, if you have a system that isn’t working you need to try something to improve it. In short, I encourage you to challenge the norm with email. Try looking at you inbox less and see how much more work you get done. All I ask is you give it a try.

For more help with improved technology productivity please see www.doemailless.com.

Another dud

Well April 1 has come and gone and the Conflicker worm didn’t destroy humanity. As “Worm chaos fails to strike” noted:

“there was no evidence it was doing anything other than modifying itself to be harder to exterminate.”

Like, duh! Why would it do anything else? As I noted in previous posts (here and here), the media does nothing to help the cause of IT security by using inflammatory articles. Why? Because they get ‘average’ users all apprehensive as to what will happen to their machines and then when nothing does (in this case again), users believe that it is all simply a case of ‘crying wolf’ and don’t change their online behaviour. This means their systems continue to remain unpatched and unsecured making it easier again for the bad guys.

There seems little doubt that the Conflicker worm is real and that it has many systems in its grasp but in the end it is all about money not about some sort of security statement or proof of concept attack.

The disjoint between informed IT security and the ‘average’ user simply grows when incidents like this occur. The lack of understanding and drive for sensationalism by the media simply makes the situation worse. In the end the only solution I can see is to force people to update their systems. You’re not allowed on the road with an unsafe car are you? Why are you allowed on the Information Superhighway with an unsafe PC? In the end regulation is the only way we can overcome this issue as I see it.

Till then, the bad guys just keep kicking goals.

SharePoint Designer is now FREE!

It just keeps getting better for SharePoint users doesn’t it? Microsoft has just announced that the tool that allows you to customize SharePoint sites, SharePoint Designer, is now FREELY available! Yes, I did say free and Microsoft in the same sentence.

This is big news as it means probably the three best tool for improved productivity in a business, Windows SharePoint, Search Server Express and SharePoint designer are now all FREE to download and use. Combine this with the new Windows Foundation server that has just been announced (and assuming it will run SharePoint) you can now drop a high quality Intranet solution into a business for very little money.

If you want to see the video of the announcement about SharePoint designer click – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=901f0335-63da-4e9c-bfbe-4ed22a92d276#filelist

To actually download SharePoint Designer to start modifying your SharePoint site click – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42&hash=gw61uO9NAwuBCXKIqV1LhuYD9Omkv5eLYQkFoqVFMUp9BZFnh8BuAaLkZa3gI1ndEgvoXQhF9vcR7Oy0%2fSJPLg%3d%3d#filelist

and the Homepage for SharePoint designer is here – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx

All Windows SharePoint Operations Guide subscribers will receive this free version of SharePoint Designer in the May DVD release.

I’m excited!

Web Edition

I’ve been doing some investigating into some questions I’ve had for a while around Windows Server 2008 Web Edition. Web Edition is a basic version of Windows Server that is really only designed to run web sites. It won’t allow the installation of high end database applications and also has certain memory restriction. The good thing is that it is cheaper than Windows Server Standard given it is designed for a single purpose.

I have always wondered –

Q1. Will Windows SharePoint Services run on Windows Server 2008 Web Edition?

A. Yes it can.

Q2. Will Search Server Express 2008 also run on Windows Server 2008 Web Edition?

A. Yes it can.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a screen shot of my test machine.

The top windows shows Search Server, the middle window shows Windows SharePoint and the lower window shows the system is running on Windows Server web.

My preference is normally to run Windows SharePoint and Search Server Express on a separate machine for performance and reliability reasons. That would always require an additional Windows Server license (typically Windows Server Standard). Even though both Windows SharePoint and Search Server Express are free it makes doing things this way pricey. However, now that I know you can use the Windows Server 2008 Web Edition it significantly reduces this price, making it a very viable option in my opinion.

So what you could provide is a stand alone server running Windows Server 2008 Web Edition, Windows SharePoint and Search Server Express. Not only does that give you a great intranet solution but it also provides a search solution for all the documents and public folders in your network. If you then install this configuration on a virtual machine (i.e. no hardware cost) all you are up for is the cost of Windows Server 2008 Web Edition. That’s a a lot of functionality for very little cost.

So, if you are thinking about a stand alone SharePoint / Search Server Express server you can definitely achieve that using Windows Server 2008 Web Edition.

Default location

For those who are not aware, when you install Windows SharePoint Services v3 onto a machine and you use the Basic install

SharePoint will also install Microsoft SQL Server Embedded Edition (SSEE) onto your system and do so into the C: Drive! By default the location is C:\windows\sysmsi\ssee\msql.2005\mssql\data as shown below.

This means that SharePoint data and indexes (including search data) will reside on your C: drive. Thus, as the amount of SharePoint data grows the free space on you C: drive will shrink. Normally the C: is also the boot partition that holds the Windows boot files. If that drive starts to get full it will generally make your system unstable.

Unfortunately, if you use the basic install there is no way to avoid this. The best option then is to move the SharePoint databases straight after installation to a data drive. You can do this using the SQL management tools which are available via the command line (messy) or via a free downloadable GUI tool from Microsoft. You simply need to detach the databases using the SQL tools, move the files (both MDF and LDF) to another location and then reattach using the SQL tools again.

SBS2008 has exactly the same issue as, by default, the SharePoint databases live on the C: drive. The great thing about SBS 2008 is that it has a built in wizard that will move the databases (detach, move, re-attach) for you automatically. The recommendation is to always move these data files immediately after installation as SharePoint databases can grow very large, very quickly.

SQL database management is something that I cover extensively in my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide. So, if you have SharePoint installed on a system and the C: drive is running low on space check C:\windows\sysmsi\ssee\msql.2005\mssql\data to see whether the databases are filling the disk. If so then you should shift them elsewhere as they are only going to continue to grow.

SharePoint Guide – April

The latest update of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide has been released for subscribers. One of the major additions this month, is a new chapter titled – tutorials. In here you’ll find out how to do things to improve your use of SharePoint. The first three tutorials are:

– Connecting to Outlook – How to link SharePoint with Outlook

– Creating linked fields – How to utilize look up fields in SharePoint

– Configuring a basic workflow – Implementing a basic workflow

Over time this chapter will continue to grow with step by step instructions about how you can get the most from Windows SharePoint.

I’m also excited to announce that next month (May) will be the first birthday of the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (who would have ever thought?). I’m planning some special offers to attract new subscribers plus a swag of additions as a thank you to existing subscribers, so stay tuned for more details. As always, I thank my subscribers for their ongoing support of the Guide, without them it would not be possible and remind them to go to the download site for the latest updates which are now available.

If you have any questions about the Windows SharePoint Operations Guide or suggestions for inclusions please contact me (director@ciaops.com).