Recovering data from a crashed hard drive

Q: I have an external USB hard drive that is no longer showing up as an active volume. What can I do to recover the data from the drive?

A: There are several tools on the market to assist with recovering data from a crashed drive. Listed below are a few of these tools.

• Spinrite from www.grc.com
• Ontrack's tools from www.ontrack.com
• PC Inspector has also received high remarks. This freeware tool is available at http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

Microsoft IE7 RC1

Microsoft is gearing up to ship Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) for Windows XP by offering a late beta release of the Web browser, known as Release Candidate 1. Expected to ship during the last quarter of this year, well ahead of Windows Vista, IE7 is the first real upgrade of the browser since the summer of 2004. And it is the first version of Internet Explorer in this decade to offer actual new features.

IE7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is available for download from Microsoft. For more information about Internet Explorer 7's new features, visit Microsoft's IE site.

To read the full story, go to http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9002698&source=NLT_PM&nlid=8

To help customers become more secure and up-to-date, Microsoft will distribute Internet Explorer 7 as a high-priority update via Automatic Updates for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 soon after the final version of the browser is released (planned for fourth quarter 2006). Microsoft is making a non-expiring Blocker Toolkit available for those organizations that would like to block automatic delivery of Internet Explorer 7 to machines in environments where Automatic Updates is enabled.

For those not wanting to receive IE7 as a criticial update with Windows Update, Microsoft offers a utility that will block the automatic download. To download this utility go to the Microsoft Download Center.

Ajax Examples

I recently found a few helpful articles on CodeProject.com, discussing various ways of using Ajax.

Using Ajax.NET Pro in a SharePoint Web Part
The article describes how to configure Ajax.NET Pro with SharePoint so that it can be used in Web Parts.

Introduction to Anthem.NET
How to do AJAX without writing any JavaScript.

Magic AJAX: Applying AJAX to your existing Web Pages
How to apply AJAX technologies to your web pages without replacing ASP.NET controls and/or writing JavaScript code.

An Introduction to AJAX Techniques and Frameworks for ASP.NET
This article introduces AJAX to ASP.NET developers implementing an example web page in different ways using ASP.NET Atlas, ASP.NET callbacks, Ajax.Net, Anthem.Net and MagicAjax.Net.

Simple AJAX implementation for ASP.NET Web applications
The article describes a simple approach of implementing AJAX functionality in ASP.NET web applications.

Visual Studio .NET 2003 Service Pack 1

Microsoft recently released Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2003 containing many fixes to problems published on KB (Knowledge Base). For a complete list of all the bug fixes, go to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;918007&sd=rss&spid=3040.

To download the service pack, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=69d2219f-ce82-46a5-8aec-072bd4bb955e&DisplayLang=en

Microsoft Patches Contain Memory Bugs

Earlier this month, Microsoft released 12 patches for fixing 23 vulnerabilities. Of those 12 patches, MS06-040 and MS06-042 were discovered to have memory bugs causing programs to crash.

MS06-040 affects programs that use very large chunks of memory on some versions of Windows. According to Microsoft, programs such as Microsoft Navision 3.7, which require allocations of more than 1GB of memory, can crash after the update is installed.
Most Windows systems do not experience the bug, but Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and the 64-bit version of Windows XP Professional Edition are affected. Microsoft's hotfix for this problem can be downloaded from their site.

More troublesome has been the MS06-042 update for Internet Explorer, which has caused browser crashes while using Web-based applications such as PeopleSoft, Siebel and Unicenter. Microsoft issued a hotfix for this update earlier in the week and is promising to reissue the buggy update next Tuesday. For more information on this bug, please visit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923762/

What is "Atlas"?

Q: What is "Atlas"?

A: "Atlas" is the code name for a set of ASP.Net technologies used to add Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) support to ASP.NET. It consists of a client-side script framework, server controls, and more. In other words, Atlas is Microsoft's implementation of Ajax.

This new Web development technology from Microsoft integrates client script libraries with the ASP.NET 2.0 server-based development framework. In addition, "Atlas" offers you the same type of development platform for client-based Web pages that ASP.NET offers for server-based pages. And because "Atlas" is an extension of ASP.NET, it is fully integrated with server-based services. "Atlas" makes it possible to easily take advantage of AJAX techniques on the Web and enables you to create ASP.NET pages with a rich, responsive UI and server communication. However, "Atlas" isn’t just for ASP.NET. You can take advantage of the rich client framework to easily build client-centric Web applications that integrate with any backend data provider.

• “Atlas” enables you to take full advantage of the capabilities of the browser to deliver richer web experiences that work on any modern browser.
• “Atlas” enables ASP.NET developers to enrich their web applications with incredible ease.
• “Atlas” includes a rich client-side Javascript framework that enables easy creation and reuse of script components and rich client-side behaviors.
• “Atlas” makes it super easy to consume services from ASP.NET, and to build composite applications from services on the programmable web.

For more information, go to http://atlas.asp.net. To download the latest CTP (Community Technology Preview), go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=D746076A-3352-4407-B9D5-832BA4DFFC7B&displaylang=en

Using SPUserUtil to synchronize SharePoint user Display Names, E-mail addresses with Active Directory

I found an article on keith Ritchie's blog detailing how to use SPUserUtil to synchronize SharePoint user Display Names and Email addresses with the information in Active Directory

SPUserUtil will mean either WSSUserUtil or SPSUserUtil respectively (WSSUserUtil is used to administer Windows SharePoint Sites on a standalone WSS Farm/Virtual server OR Windows SharePoint sites in the same virtual server of a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 site.) SPSUserUtil is a superset of WSSUserUtil, designed for working on SharePoint Portal Server Areas.

To view the article, go to http://blogs.msdn.com/krichie/archive/2006/02/18/534767.aspx

What is AJAX and how do you use it?

Q: What is AJAX and how do you use it?

A: AJAX is short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. For more information and an example on how to create an AJAX site, go to http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9002170

Detecting Mobile Browsers

As discussed in our last meeting, web applications can be built to handle both PC browsers and mobile browsers. To do so, the application needs to detect if the browser is a mobile device and redirect the application to a page designed to display UI adequate for the smaller mobile browser. Detecting the browser is done using the following code sample, and it's typically placed in the Page_Load() of the login.aspx or default.aspx


Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
Try
If Not IsPostBack Then
If Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice = True Then
Response.Redirect("mobile/login.aspx")
End If
End If

Catch ex As Exception
ProcessEx(ex)
End Try

End Sub

Determining if an address is within a radius of a zip code

Q: I need to take a list of vendors and be able to extract those vendors within a mileage of a zip code. For example, list all vendors within 40 miles of 44131. Is there a utility that will facilitate this?

A: The USPS offers several free web services that perform these functions. Go to http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp and click on "web tools" in the lower left corner.

Web Part Compatibility

When web parts first came out with SharePoint 2001, there wasn't much of an issue with compatibility. However, now with SharePoint 2003 out for several years, ASP.Net 2.0 supporting web parts, and soon SharePoint 2007 will be released, one has to consider version compatibility among these versions. Listed below are some facts to help decipher any compatibility issues.

• Using Son of SmartPart will allow you to run ASP.NET 2.0 UserControls and WebParts in SharePoint 2003.
• SharePoint 2003 web parts will not work in ASP.NET 2.0 pages with Web Part Zones.
• SharePoint 2003 web parts will work in SharePoint 2007.

In addition, take time to review Dino Esposito's article "WebParts: From Sharepoint to ASP.NET 2.0". It discusses the similarities and differences between the two models.

What Software is Installed on a PC?

Q: Does anyone know of any FREE software that I can use that will tell me in a report format what software is installed on a pc? I have to rebuild a few computers and it would be nice to be able to just run a peice of software from a thumb drive and get a quick report.

A: Listed below are two vendors that sell products specifically for this purpose.

• http://www.expressmetrix.com/products
• http://www.belarc.com

Your worst security risk may work for you!

Most developers consider security as an outside risk. However, contrary to popular belief, most security breeches occur from within an organization. This article from Microsoft.com discusses this issue in more detail and offers some solutions to combat this problem.