Today, I had a Windows Server 2003 system, on which I freshly installed .NET 4.0 and wanted to deploy an ASP.NET 4.0 application in it. Sounds simple enough, but everytime I tried to access the application, I got a 404 error. In my case, I had an MVC2 application, for which I also enabled the wildcard mapping (I know, it's not required with 4.0, but I did it anyways, just in case). When it was enabled, I got 404s for every request. When I took it out, at least a simple text file was delivered instead of a 404 error.

Well, the solution was very simple, but it took a while to find. The ASP.NET 4.0 web service extension was disabled. So, if you keep getting 404s for your ASP.NET application, check in the Webservice Extensions folder in the IIS Manager if the ASP.NET 4.0 extension is enabled.

Yesterday, I wasted a few hours trying to upgrade my SQL Server 2005 installation to 2008. Actually, upgrading is a simple process. You can simply select, which instance to upgrade, and the installer does the rest. It worked absolutely fine for my regular instance. I got some installation errors for a component, but didn't mind that at first. Everything seemed to be working.

At least I thought so, until I noticed, WHAT component got the errors. The SQL Server Management Studio was not installed. And the older 2005 version isn't able to connect to 2008. Bummer.

So I thought, let's try to reinstall it. Same error: "The error code is 2349." When you copy the details to the clipboard, you at least find the URL http://www.microsoft.com/products/ee/transform.aspx?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&EvtSrc=setup.rll&EvtID=50000&ProdVer=10.0.1600.22&EvtType=0xF45F6601%25401201%25401, that gives you the information, that the SQL Server Native Client is causing the trouble.

So I tried upgrading my SQL Server Express instance, but that was also dismissed with an error. Next, I uninstalled my SQL Server 2005 express instance, uninstalled the native client, and now added the Management Studio feature to my SQL Server 2008 instance. Same error, this is really getting frustrating.

So now, my last resort is to uninstall the whole d*rn thing and try to reinstall it. At least the installation only takes about 2 hours *cough*.

UPDATE: Even the complete uninstall did not help. As the error message states, the Native Client is supposedly not installed from the sqlncli.msi package. Well, I even uninstalled and reinstalled ONLY THAT package, to no avail. I'm still getting the same bogus error, when I try to install SSMS. Any help is welcome! I'm out of ideas.

But at least I'm not all alone with my ss2008 install problems. A friend of mine had other issues, but at least he was able to resolve them: http://www.entwicklungsgedanken.de/2009/01/28/installation-problems-with-sql-server-2008/comment-page-1/#comment-252.

UPDATE 2: I have found out, that it's the Visual Studio Tools for Applications 2.0 installer, that is causing the problems. But I still have no idea why.

UPDATE 3: Rollback all rants :-) I found the issue. A file could not be replaced/updated by the installer. This was due to the fact, that my hard disk seems to be defective. The file could not be read, even less replaced. After renaming it, the installation went fine. So now, I have performed a scandisk, the errors have been cleared, and everything is in order. Guess I'll be backing up more often now, though.

A newer (beta) version of the FCKEditorProvider for DotNetNuke has been made available: http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Forums/tabid/795/forumid/127/threadid/247501/scope/posts/Default.aspx

It finally integrates the newest version of FCKeditor, giving you much better styling support and various other features. So far, my tests have been quite positive with the new version.

One thing to note is the bothering "Red title" style, that is configured by default. If you wish to remove it, you can edit the fckconfig.js files located in the provider's "FCKeditor" and "Custom" folders. Just comment out the line that add the style to FCKeditor's custom styles, and you'll be rid of it.

Regards to Mauricio Márquez for his great work on the integration!

If you've ever built an ASP.NET application using a User Instance database, you may have come across the problem, that you would have liked to access the database using the Management Studio or similar programs, but just couldn't find the database, because it is in the user instance and not in the database server itself.

I'd like to issue my thanks to Mike of the Sql Server Express Weblog for publishing how it's done. I looked for hours trying to get the database attached to the regular server, but all that is not neccessary. You can directly connect to the user instance by using a named pipe. The original explanation can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlexpress/archive/2006/11/22/connecting-to-sql-express-user-instances-in-management-studio.aspx. Below are the required steps in short.

• Connect to the server normally.
• Issue a new query:
  SELECT owning_principal_name, instance_pipe_name, heart_beat FROM sys.dm_os_child_instances
• Locate the user instance you wish to connect to and copy the instance_pipe_name column's value.
• Open a new server connection and use the copied value as the server name.

And presto, you can access everything as you would in the regular server.

Note: The pipe name is generated, when the user instance is first created. After that, it will always remain the same, so you can store it for later use. Access is only possible, when the user instance is active (see the heart_beat column). If it is not, you must first launch the application that uses it (i.e. the web site).

When working with several POP3 accounts, it can be a real pain to always have to enter every single account when you reinstall outlook or have to switch profiles or simply have multiple computers. Other mail clients have an option to export account settings, Outlook doesn't. Bummer...

I ran into the Office Resource Kit, which at least helped a bit by enabling me to create a custom .prf-file. The accounts specified in the file can be used to create a new Outlook profile. A set of instructions on how to do this can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308300. When you've created your .prf file, you can set up your accounts on any machine by simply starting it. Hurray for automation :-)

When connecting to an exchange account for the first time, it sets up all default folders. This is done using the language of the connecting client, which may result in an unexpected layout. This happened to me, leaving me with english instead of german folders.

This would not have been such a problem, but I wanted to import my structure from a previous account. No problem importing things, but they went into new folders with the german names. Now I had two contact folders, two mailboxes, two calenders, everything was there twice, and the empty ones were the defaults...

At first, I was told, the account would have to be reset completely, wiping out all data already imported. But, actually there is a much simpler way of changing the folder names to the desired language. Simple start the Outlook of your desired langauge from the command line specifying the following parameter:

outlook.exe /resetfoldernames

Presto, everything is in your language. Now importing is a lot more fun because you can actually use the imported data.

Today, I got a new Exchange account to replace my existing one. After copying everything, I only had to get my Xda neo to sync with the new account. This did not prove to be that easy, as simply changing the configured account led to interesting errors. Not only would ActiveSync always give me an error, it also produced errors in my PIM's contact list. It would show all contacts for a split second, then only show about half of the contacts. I tried to remove them all, but was only able to remove those shown. The others remained and broke the synchronization process.

So, how do you solve this, you ask. I don't know, if this is the best way, but it was the only one I found and that solved my problems without having to hard-reset my device:

• Rename the file 'pim' to anything else and restart your PIM. This will clear all contacts, calendar entries, tasks, etc. If you don't sync all these items, you should probably make a backup first!
• Remove the mobile device from the ActiveSync connections
• Create a new connection to the PIM and start syncing with the new settings

I realize, this is not very comfortable, but at least it works and leaves the rest of your device intact (i.e. installed programs, customized sounds, etc.).