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Windows Virtual PC by default does not support to add a Virtual Floppy drive. This feature has been removed from the GUI and hidden from general public. Windows Virtual PC still allows you to attach and work with VFD files but now you need to complete some steps from Command Prompt before your can work with them.

Example of the my “Windows XP Mode” virtual machine settings. As you can see no floppy.

Microsoft guys created a script which still allows you to attach a VFD file, but you still need to create a VFD file from scratch before you can continue. Download the Floppy Drive Scripts.zip.

C:\Scripts\vm>cscript FloppyDrive.vbs
Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Missing command-line argument

Usage: FloppyDrive.vbs /vm:"Name of virtual machine to be started"

                       /action:info       – to display information about the current floppy configuration
                               disconnect – to disconnect any attached floppy disk or floppy disk image
                               vfd        – to attach a virtual floppy disk image
                               physical   – to attach a physical floppy disk

                       /floppy:name       – where name is either the full name and path for a virtual
                                            floppy disk or the letter of a physical disk to attach

After running FloppyDrive.vbs you see that there a action to attach a vfd file. After providing right parameters I got the following message:

cscript FloppyDrive.vbs /vm:"Windows XP Mode" /action:vfd /floppy:"C:\mklinks\floppy.vfd"

Attaching C:\mklinks\floppy.vfd to the floppy drive.
C:\Scripts\vm\FloppyDrive.vbs(113, 3) (null): The system cannot find the file specified

The script does not create my floppy drive and therefore I installed the WinImage tool.

Create new file and save the file as floppy.vfd.

Now a re-run my FloppyDirve.vbs script and the file was attached.

If I open the VMC file now I can see my virtual floppy has been added to the configuration. Without the VB script this can be added manually and will perform same actions as the script.

<floppy id="0">
            <pathname>
                <absolute type="string">C:\mklinks\floppy.vfd</absolute>
                <relative type="string">..\..\..\..\..\..\..\mklinks\floppy.vfd</relative>
            </pathname>
        </floppy>

After releasing Exchange Server Service Pack 1 (SP1) Microsoft added new functionality called Export-Mailbox cmdlet for Exchange Management Shell.

The Export-Mailbox cmdlet exports all message types, including messages, calendar items, contacts, distribution lists, journal entries, tasks, notes, and documents. However, the Export-Mailbox cmdlet does not export rules.

To export data from a .pst file, you must run the Export-Mailbox cmdlet from a 32-bit computer that has the 32-bit version of the Exchange management tools and Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Outlook 2007 installed.

Well all prerequisites were in place; I opened the Exchange Management Shell and run the following command line:

[PS] C:\Documents and Settings\admin>Export-Mailbox -identity user1 -PSTFolderPath c:\user1.pst

Confirm
Are you sure you want to perform this action?
Exporting mailbox content from the mailbox ‘Gaag, van der Rob’ into .pst file ‘c:\gaagr.pst’. This operation may take a long time to
complete.
[Y] Yes  [A] Yes to All  [N] No  [L] No to All  [S] Suspend  [?] Help (default is "Y"): y
Export-Mailbox : Error was found for User1 (user1(at)networknet.nl) because: Error occurred in the step: Moving messages. Failed to copy messages to the destination mailbox store with error:
MAPI or an unspecified service provider.
ID no: 00000000-0000-00000000, error code: -1056749164
At line:1 char:15
+ Export-Mailbox <<<<  -identity user1 -PSTFolderPath c:\user1.pst
    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidOperation: (0:Int32) [Export-Mailbox], RecipientTaskException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DFCFF30D,Microsoft.Exchange.Management.RecipientTasks.ExportMailbox

The export failed. After reading some posts on Google I found the solution myself. I tried to export my own mailbox which worked fine so the problem has to be within the permissions set. To get full access run the Add-MailboxPermissions cmdlet.

Add-MailboxPermission -identity user1 -Accessrights FULLACCESS -User admin 

Export-Mailbox -identity user1 -PSTFolderPath c:\user1.pst 

With these steps I can develop a procedure to backup mailboxes when they are removed from the system.

When installing Windows Server 2008 R2 out of the box the configuration does not  support wireless networking. If  drivers are available Windows will find them with plug and play installation but not enable the functionality. Since Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 supports booting from a VHD file from local disks I am now building a  standard image which I will use for testing and development. The new VHD boot feature is amazing in helping IT professionals having multiple VHD files which they can boot from. Last night I needed to update my system with all latest patches and system settings therefore I needed to access the Internet without any wired connection.

Not connected. No Connections are available after checking my adapters.

Microsoft released new tool named DISM.exe (Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool) which ships with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

DISM enumerates, installs, uninstalls, configures, and updates features and packages in Windows images. The commands that are available depend on the image being serviced and whether the image is offline or running.

Open elevated command prompt and query all available features “dism /online /get-features /format:table”

WirelessNetworking is disabled. To enable this feature execute “dism /online /enable-feature:WirelessNetworking”

dism enables the WirelessNetworking feature and after I check my available wireless network connections the WIFI networks are not shows.

If you are planning to deploy and install Windows 7 on your computer systems and you are downloading ISO files than this tool can help you in creating the USB or DVD’s installation files. Now days I only download the ISO file from MSDN of the Microsoft Volume Licensing websites.

The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.

To download the tool please click here. Run the setup, next and install.

Start the “Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool” shortcut from the menu.

Browse the iso file and click next.

Choose USB drive or DVD.

Select your removable drive and click Begin copying.

That’s it! Insert the USB drive and power the system, change the boot order and select the removable drive.

Adobe PDF file format is by default not available on a Windows Server 2003 or a SharePoint 2007 (MOSS) installation. Most organizations today use PDF files and it would be helpful for their users to have PDF files stored in the full text search index. To get this working install the Adobe Reader from Adobe website.

I installed the latest version of Adobe Reader 9.2 today and followed the instructions I found on the following links:

• http://www.joiningdots.net/blog/2007/05/sharepoint-2007-and-adobe-pdf.html
• http://blogs.msdn.com/ifilter/archive/2007/03/29/indexing-pdf-documents-with-adobe-reader-v-8-and-moss-2007.aspx

Searching with some keyword of the PDF files the result returned nothing. PDF files were not index.

Reviewed the Crawl log and found failing messages for PDF files:

Crawled (The filtering process could not process this item. This might be because you do not have the latest file filter for this type of item. Install the corresponding filter and retry your crawl. )

I also tried to add the path system variable to the Adobe Reader installation folder and did another full index but this did not help.

The solution for the problem was changing two registry entries:

• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf and change Default Reg_Multi_SZ value to

{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\12.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.pdf and change Default Reg_Multi_SZ value to

{E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}

After these registry entries have been modified run iisreset; “net stop osearch” and “net start osearch”. Re-run the full index crawler on your content.

Thanks to the community I got the PDF icon and the PDF search working on the Sharepoint 2007 platform!

We have a Sharepoint “Document Library” which has several different subfolders. E.g.

Within these subfolders there are several documents stored. For example within the “Form” subfolder where form documents are stored based on word or PDF files. All those subfolders within the “Information Technology” document folder hold several documents. The challenge I had is to create a table of content page which showed all those subfolders with their document content. I created a new page based on “Blank Web Part Page” and add the “Information Technology” document library which showed all the folders.

I could change current view and change the “Folders” option to show all items without folders but still this solution didn’t help. I wanted to filter individual “Document Library” subfolders and their content.

I tried all possible options with this “Information Technology” webpart to filter for a subfolder but nothing which helped me. Than I learned from Laura Rogers here how to insert a “Data View Web Part” and filter the content within a “Document Library”.

Some steps to achieve this:

• Create new ASPX file and attach your masterpage (Format menu –> Master Page –> Attach Master Page..)
• Create new custom content for PlaceHolderMain

   

• Drag your “Document Library” in the content area you want to show

   

• Make sure you are in the table and in the taskpane go to “Data Source Details” and click the Current Data Source link.

• Change the scope level to RecursiveAll
  
• We are done now and all documents will be shown stored in this “Document Library”. Now we can filter the path for specific Sharepoint subfolders. Click on the chevron of the data view and click Filter.

  

• The Filter Criteria window is shown and you can set all different type of criteria. Enter the subfolder you want to show. In my case the Form folder.

   

• Save the ASPX file and check it out.

The result:

Hopefully by now you get the picture how to customize the data view webpart. You can change all columns and insert hyperlinks were needed.