No1 Microsoft Fan

Using Detailed Errors in IIS 7.0

Using IIS 7.0 yet?
If you'd like to see more about just how awesome it really is please let me know and I'll mix up some goodies.
Some of the things I'm currently working on are IIS 7.0 videos for features like the new IIS Manager.

OK, let's get to the point of this blog post. (I just get a bit excited at times....)

The IIS Team has released an article on How to Use HTTP Detailed Errors in IIS 7.0:
Every Web-Site Administrator or Web Developer has seen "404 - File not found" , "401 - Unauthorized" or "500 - Server Error" messages in his browser. This article helps you understand how and why IIS 7.0 generates these errors and how they can be configured.

Many might think that generating error messages does not seem to justify a full article. But there is more to errors than meets the eye. Error messages are a sensitive topic, because every error reveals more about your web-site than you might want revealed. The more information someone can gather about your site, the likelier it is that you will be hacked. A search for "google hacking" or "cross-site scripting" reveals a wealth of information on this topic.

However, error messages are also a valuable tool to troubleshoot problems. Developers and Web-Site Administrators require as much detail as possible when an error occurs. Ideally the error message gives recommendations on how to fix the problem. Here is how IIS 7.0 addresses these fundamentally opposed goals.

http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/267/how-to-use-http-detailed-errors-in-iis7/

You may notice the Featured IIS 7.0 Web Host is the award winning http://DiscountASP.NET

IIS 7.0 Web Hosting is Here!

• Starting at $10/mo
• IIS7 on Windows 2008 Servers
• MS IIS7 Manager Access
• Trust Level Control
• Pipeline Mode Selector Tool
• ASP.NET 3.5/2.0
• LINQ, AJAX, PHP5

Ready to try IIS 7.0 / Windows Server 2008?
Want an honest incentive?
Well, how about 6 months free?
Go to https://www.discountasp.net/signup
Use this promotion code: WISEMX
(You'll get an entire year for the price of just 6 months.)
And I promise to help you with whatever is needed, I'm there for ya.
  Salute,
    Mark Wisecarver
    Technical Evangelist for http://DiscountASP.NET

Note: I am not paid for my endorsements or for my Developer Evangelism.

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Memorial Day 2008

Notes from a Patriot...

To all the Men and Women who have fought and died for Freedom.
Thank you!

To every Military Man and Woman of Valor, Integrity and Honor.
Thank you!

Men and Women of every nation, fighting for what is right.
Thank you!

To the Men and Women of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Salute! (with Honors)
   Mark Wisecarver
   -= Patriot Guard =-

Note: We were 1,600 Bikers strong at the Veterans Overlook yesterday. Ooh Rah!
Ride began on the Sevierville TN County Courthouse Steps, to the Veterans Overlook.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/may/24/remembering-the-veterans/

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Scott Guthrie's May 20th kicks for .NET developers

Scott's roundup of links for ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, .NET, Visual Studio, Silverlight and WPF.

I haven't pinged his links back before but this one is definitely worth checking out.

Note from Scott:
Apologies for the sparseness of my posting the last few weeks - work and life have been busy here lately.  Below is a new post in my link-listing series to help kick things up a little.  Also check out my ASP.NET Tips, Tricks and Tutorials page and Silverlight Tutorials page for links to popular articles I've done myself in the past.
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/20/may-20th-links-asp-net-asp-net-ajax-net-visual-studio-silverlight-wpf.aspx

  Salute,
    Mark Wisecarver
    Technical Evangelist for DiscountASP.NET

Ready to try IIS7 / Windows Server 2008?
Want an honest incentive?
Have you been following the news about the award winning services at http://DiscountASP.NET ?

Well, how about 6 months free with an award winning Host?
Go to https://www.discountasp.net/signup
Use this promotion code: WISEMX
(You'll get an entire year for the price of just 6 months.)
And I promise to help you with whatever is needed, I'm there for ya.

Note: I am not paid for my endorsements or for my Developer Evangelism.

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Telerik Sitefinity and DiscountASP.NET Provide for .NET User Groups

This is an exciting partnership.

Sitefinity and DiscountASP.NET Partner to Provide a Free Website for .NET User Groups
May 20, 2008. Newton, MA - Telerik, the publisher of the Sitefinity CMS and a leading vendor of UI components for .NET, and DiscountASP.NET, a Microsoft gold certified shared hosting provider, announced today the two companies have partnered to extend a unique offer to the INETA User Group (UG) community.

http://www.sitefinity.com/corporate/news/b1013P-cdt.aspx

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SQL Management Studio Shows All Databases

Looks like I'm not the only one.

Jason N. Gaylord Blogged about something today that has bugged me for a long time.
It's also something I get asked all the time in the DiscountASP.NET forums.
We do our best there to provide helpful answers and solutions while remaining 100% faithful to Microsoft.

From Jason:
SQL Management Studio Shows All Databases
This has "bugged" me for awhile. When you log into any version of SQL (2000, 2005, and even 2008) as a user with restricted access to just a single database (or even a few databases), you can still see a complete list of all the databases on that server. There have been times when I needed to share a database with a customer or have accessed a shared database at a host such as DiscountASP.net or GoDaddy and can see all of the customers on that one box. It's more of a nuisance than a real threat but I really wish it was changed. It has been confirmed as a bug. Please vote for it at http://tinyurl.com/6pk74q

http://weblogs.asp.net/jgaylord/archive/2008/05/21/sql-management-studio-shows-all-databases.aspx

Thanks Jason

Yes, to everyone on the SQL team at Microsoft...Thanks for all you do.
I started working with SQL Server 7 for ASP commerce back in the late 90's.
Before that I used Borland Paradox for business and Access/Excel at home.
SQL Server 2005 was so vastly improved I started using it at home for just about everything, including Outlook 2007, sweet.
I can't hand out any secrets but you can rest assured that we will be bringing the best of SQL Server 2008 to DiscountASP.NET
(I'm very excited about that.)

  Salute,
    Mark Wisecarver

Ready to try IIS7 / Windows Server 2008?
How about an honest incentive?
Have you been following the news about the award winning services at http://DiscountASP.NET ?

Well, how about 6 months of award winning hosting for free?
Go to https://www.discountasp.net/signup
Use this promotion code: WISEMX
(You'll get an entire year for the price of just 6 months.)
And I promise to help you with whatever is needed, I'm there for ya.
  Salute,
    Mark Wisecarver
    Technical Evangelist for http://DiscountASP.NET

Note: I am not paid for my endorsements or for my Developer Evangelism.

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Overview of New Features in VS2008

Just finished watching Zain's WebCast on some of the new features for Web developers in Visual Studio 2008.
Wow!

I'm already using VS2008 Pro but haven't had time to dive into what's new, yet.
I do love some of the new features that I have already become dependant on, like the new CSS support/features.

In this WebCast Zain went over the new features like a live wire...He was on fire!
Excellent job Zain.

If you missed it the WebCast will be posted soon, probably by the time you read this.
You can watch, or Download, it at your convenience.

Find all the resources on his blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/zainnab/default.aspx
(Including Web links, source files, etc.)
http://blogs.msdn.com/zainnab/archive/2008/05/20/overview-of-new-features-for-web-application-in-visual-studio-2008.aspx

Zain really does a great job at these WebCasts.
His previous LING WebCast, which included an overview of SQLMetal, was my favorite of all time.
Please have a look, I'm sure you'll agree.

Remember. .  .
If you're ready to try IIS7 / Windows Server 2008 and you need an incentive...
How about 6 months free with an award winning Host?
Go to https://www.discountasp.net/signup
Use this promotion code: WISEMX
(You'll get an entire year for the price of just 6 months.)
And I promise to help you with whatever is needed, I'm there for ya.
  Salute,
    Mark Wisecarver
    Technical Evangelist for http://DiscountASP.NET

Note: I am not paid for my endorsements or for my Developer Evangelism.

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Visual Studio SP1 Beta delima

(Insert pain and suffering)

Working with betas is risky, indeed.
It's something I've referred to as reaching into the Lion's cage to grab candy.

When SP1 Beta for VS2008 was released last week I blogged about it.
After running into some odd behavior trying to install it on Vista with VS2008 Pro I removed my blog post.
I didn't want to share my grief with anyone.

Today I found a very interesting Blog post by Mike Taulty and felt the need to share it along with my own discoveries.

I'm not suggesting you should install SP1 Beta but if you try please refer to these links first:

VS 2008 Service Pack 1 - Docs and Installation
by Mike Taulty
http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2008/05/18/10418.aspx

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 Beta
(Please read the comments!)
by Scott Guthrie
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/12/visual-studio-2008-and-net-framework-3-5-service-pack-1-beta.aspx

Error occurs installing Visual Studio 2008 SP1 Beta if KB944899 is installed.
http://blogs.msdn.com/webdevtools/archive/2008/05/15/remove-kb945140-before-installing-visual-studio-2008-sp1-beta.aspx

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Debunking 15 Myths About Microsoft

From ChannelWeb
http://www.crn.com/it-channel/207501463

Debunking 15 Myths About Microsoft

1) Windows Vista Is A Bird That Can't Fly.
2) Microsoft Licensing Is A Nightmare.
3) Anyone Can Make Money Selling SharePoint.
4) Steve Ballmer Is A Wild Man.
5) Vista-To-XP Downgrades Are Embarrassing To Microsoft.
6) Microsoft and Cisco Will Play Nice In Unified Communications.
7) Microsoft Is The Virtualization Turtle To VMware's Hare.
8) Microsoft Isn't Innovative.
9) Microsoft Is Clueless About Security.
10) Microsoft's Online Services Will Erode Partner Business.
11) Silverlight Is Designed To Lock People Into Microsoft Products.
12) Microsoft Doesn't Care About My Business.
13) Microsoft's Products Aren't Ready For The Enterprise.
14) Microsoft Doesn't Discount Its Software.
15) Windows Home Server Isn't Reliable For Data Storage.

By the way, have you seen the ChannelWeb Tools?
http://www.crn.com/tools/index.jhtml

From the IIS team...

The IIS Process Model Features
On-Demand Activation, Idle-timeout, Health Monitoring, Startup Limit, Shutdown Limit, CPU affinity, User Profile, etc.
http://blogs.iis.net/thomad/archive/2008/05/07/the-iis-process-model-features.aspx

I'm currently creating IIS7 videos and discovered a lot of confusion exists over this:
Clarifying the Confusion: IIS 7 Manager vs. IIS 7 Web Server
http://blogs.iis.net/rlucero/archive/2008/04/30/clarifying-the-confusion-iis-7-manager-vs-iis-7-web-server.aspx

And yes, even on Windows XP.
Remote Manager for Windows 2003, XP and Vista SP1
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/390/remote-manager-for-windows-2003-xp-and-vista-sp1/

Ready to try IIS7 / Windows Server 2008?
Need an incentive?
Have you been following the news about the award winning services at http://DiscountASP.NET ?

How about 6 months free?
Go to https://www.discountasp.net/signup
Use this promotion code: WISEMX
(You'll get an entire year for the price of just 6 months.)
And I promise to help you with whatever is needed, I'm there for ya.
  Salute,
    Mark Wisecarver
    Technical Evangelist for http://DiscountASP.NET

I am not paid for my endorsements or for my Developer Evangelism.

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Links for Shutdown day.

Posting these links on Shutdown day is just a coincidence.
I'm not a person who is unfriendly to the environment.
http://www.shutdownday.org/

Fact: In our house my lovely Brazilian wife, Leticia, and myself do all we can to teach our three children to be conservative.
We do not waste any food, we recycle everything and we make it a point to have near zero trash at the end of each week.
This has turned into a family activity that we all enjoy.
I've added a photo of the kids to my Photos page.

And now our regularly scheduled program...

Steve Schofield posted some very important information about IIS7 and Access DBs.
If you're working with Classic ASP or ASP.NET on IIS7 please take a look at these helpful posts.

IIS 7.0, Access 2007 and ASP.NET 2.0
http://weblogs.asp.net/steveschofield/archive/2008/05/03/iis-7-0-access-2007-and-asp-net-2-0.aspx

IIS 7.0, Classic ASP and Access 2007
http://weblogs.asp.net/steveschofield/archive/2008/05/03/iis-7-0-classic-asp-and-access-2007.aspx

The Microsoft EDUFun blog team points out the benefits of the new Popfly Game Creator:
http://blogs.msdn.com/edufun/archive/2008/05/03/popfly-game-creator-the-popfly-family-just-got-a-little-bigger.aspx

By the way, keep an eye on the EDUFun blog for some exciting stuff:
http://blogs.msdn.com/edufun/archive/2008/05/02/edufun-making-education-fun-for-kids-of-all-ages-through-innovative-use-of-technology.aspx

Jamie Rodriguez is very excited about the changes to IE "Click to Activate" and Installing Silverlight without a re-start:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jaimer/archive/2008/05/02/installing-silverlight-no-longer-requires-a-browser-re-start-woohoo.aspx

Automatically Start Silverlight on Install
http://blogs.msdn.com/piotrp/archive/2008/05/02/automatically-start-silverlight-on-install.aspx

John Mullinax shares "Why RoboChamps has something for you"
http://blogs.msdn.com/johnmullinax/archive/2008/05/03/why-robochamps-has-something-for-you.aspx

Some of you know I donated all of my Valve projects and code to the George Brown College of Game Arts in Canada.
Including one of my sites and the domains: http://sdknuts.net/
Point being, while I'm done with anything related to Valve/Steam I would definitely jump into RoboChamps.
It looks very cool.

The IIS7 team talks about how IPv6 stacks up on IIS7.
http://blogs.iis.net/nazim/archive/2008/05/03/using-ipv6-with-iis7.aspx

I absolutely love the changes in Windows Server 2008, Vista SP1 and IIS7.
Lately I've been doing a lot of research on the IIS7 Manager.
While the DiscountASP.NET crew was working on some new addons it was killing me to keep this secret.
Once the IIS7 team found out they got very excited:
http://blogs.iis.net/mailant/archive/2008/05/02/discountasp-net-iis-manager-ui-extensions.aspx

Ready to try Windows Server 2008?
Need an incentive?
Have you been following the news about the award winning services at http://DiscountASP.NET ?

How about 6 months free?
Go to https://www.discountasp.net/signup
Use this promotion code: WISEMX
(You'll get an entire year for the price of just 6 months.)
And I promise to help you with whatever is needed, I'm there for ya.
  Salute,
    Mark Wisecarver
    Technical Evangelist for http://DiscountASP.NET

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