Kurt Shintaku's Blog

Customize your 404 error pages with the Web Page Error Toolkit!

For large web sites with extensive amounts of content, 2 to 10 percent of traffic is looking for pages that either don’t exist or have been moved. Most web servers return a generic 404 error page or a sitemap when a user’s desired page cannot be found. These unhelpful pages often result in a dead end for users.

With Microsoft’s Web Page Error Toolkit, you can create dynamic 404 pages that contain customized error messages along with search results seeded with relevant keywords to help your users move past the missing page and find the information they need.  Below is an example of a screenshot of what the typical 404 error page looks like “before & after” the application of the Web Page Error Toolkit:

The Toolkit is a customizable ASP.net application that replaces the default error page on your IIS server. The Toolkit enables you to use Live Search (or any search engine) to return results for the specified domain and locale, control the number of results returned on your page, choose whether to offer spelling corrections, and customize your error message.

You also have the option of choosing from several keyword extraction strategies that are included with the install, or providing your own implementation.

DOWNLOAD: 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=deca3e03-4f93-46d1-affc-493c0e02eb63&DisplayLang=en

Requirements:

• Windows 2000; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista; Windows XP
• IIS 5 or greater
• ASP.net 2.0 or greater
• VS 2005 or greater to customize the keyword extractor

Read more about the kit at:

• http://dev.live.com/blogs/devlive/archive/2008/06/03/339.aspx
• http://dev.live.com/blogs/livesearch/archive/2008/06/02/WebPageErrorToolkit.aspx

With the release of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft’s IT department produced a new whitepaper entitled “Identifying Server Candidates for Virtualization”.

The whitepaper is a detailed look at the criteria and tools that Microsoft uses to determine which servers to virtualized to maximize consolidation while minimizing risk and cost.

It goes on to explain Microsoft’s “RightSizing” initiative which not only identifies server candidates but also communicates the virtualization strategy to Microsoft’s business groups.

DOWNLOAD:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700692(TechNet.10).aspx

Note:  This document is backed by another document called, “Virtualization Strategy Provides Tools, Processes, and Compliance Capabilities to Enhance Business Support and Drive Adoption”
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Results.aspx?DisplayLang=en&nr=50&startDate=5%2f22%2f2006&period=30&sortCriteria=date

Microsoft headsets and webcams are optimized for Windows Live Messenger through the Call Button. Until now, there has not been a simple means to configure the Call Button to start Office Communicator.

The goal of the Call Button Integration Support kit (the kit) is to change that. The kit enables an organization-wide change in the configuration of Microsoft LifeChat (headset) and LifeCam (webcam) software so that the Call Buttons on the headsets and webcams start Office Communicator instead of Windows Live Messenger.

By setting a Group Policy and installing the kit, Microsoft headsets and webcams can be set up to start Office Communicator instead of Windows Live Messenger.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/digitalcommunication/officecommunicator/default.aspx

We just posted a really interesting whitepaper for SCCM2007 users – something to at least keep in your back pocket.

Once of the great capabilities of SCCM2007 is the ability to manage clients on the Internet that are not physically connected to the corporate LAN. Known as “Internet-based Client Management”, this capability requires some work on the ISA Server to provide SSL-pipes to secure I/O between the management servers and the Internet-connected client.

Think “loan officers” or “roaming laptop users that never-connect-back-into-the-corporate-network”.

How to Configure ISA SSL Bridging for System Center Configuration Manager Internet-Based Client Management
http://blogs.technet.com/isablog/archive/2008/07/03/just-published-on-technet-how-to-configure-isa-ssl-bridging-for-system-center-configuration-manager-internet-based-client-management.aspx

In something of a quiet and unheralded moment to all other than folks interested in true Enterprise Architecture, Mike Walker, made a pretty big announcement the other month at the Japan Strategic Architecture Forum:  He announced the “Enterprise Architecture Toolkit Alpha”.

The Toolkit is essentially a Solution Accelerator, or a package of tools, documentation, and framework elements to jumpstart people in establishing Enterprise Architecture and it’s traditional components.  Capabilities include: (as per Mike’s blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/mikewalker/archive/2008/04/14/japan-strategic-architecture-forum-day-2.aspx)

• Repository – Meta-data repository for uniting enterprise processes, storing existing architecture assets and a catalog for patterns (Software Factories in Microsoft terms or Architecture Building Blocks (ABB) in TOGAF ADM terms)
• Architecture Management – Portal and Workflow assets that aid in the processes and govern architecture creation through the SDLC or through post production service management processes.
• Strategy Management – Portal and Workflow that aid in the creation of as-is or current state architecture, to-be or future state architectures and the management of technology life cycles of architectures.
• Community – Portal technologies that aid in the communication and collaboration, vetting of ideals through-out the enterprise, communication of Principles, Policies, Standards and Design Patterns, Add-Ins and Templates for architecture development.
• Modeling – Usage scenarios for how to leverage Microsoft Visio to correlate architecture information from the Architecture Meta-Data Repository to Visio diagrams and shapes.

Since this is a solution accelerator the EATK capabilities are implemented as a series of scenarios.

Interestingly, since it was announced in Japan, most of the information is in Japanese.  A lot more on the topic can be found at this link:
http://blogs.msdn.com/mikewalker/archive/2008/07/07/the-enterprise-architecture-toolkit.aspx

For more information about Enterprise Architecture and how to leverage Microsoft technologies in your organization to implement one correctly leveraging establish best practices to cross-platform boundaries, go to: 
http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/EA

A company called Eventure has produces what looks to be the very first add-on for Office Communicator 2007.

Called “Communicator Plus!”, Eventure has produced a beta of a product that promises to be an extraordinary way to manage many aspects of Office Communicator 2007 that are frankly lacking today. 

For example:

1. AUTO RESPONDER
   Communicator Plus! allows you to set an auto responder message which will be sent out to your selected list of recipients if they start a conversation while you are away or busy in a meeting.
2. QUICK TEXT
   Save commonly used instant messages and associate them with a hot key. No more typing the same text over and over again.
3. CUSTOM ALERTS
   With custom popup and sound alerts you will never miss important updates and participants especially in multi party conversations.
4. PERSONALIZED PRESENCE STATES
   Office Communicator 2007 allows you to create four custom away or busy presence states, Communicator Plus! allows you to configure them conveniently.
5. EVENT LOGGING
   Never miss a thing! Contact sign-ins and sign-outs, status changes, display name and phone number changes. Everything can be logged and can be archived in Excel spreadsheets. You can also monitor event viewer in real-time to analyze communicator events or view contact status updates.
6. DESKTOP CONTACTS
   You can now view any desired contact on your desktop in the form of small floating windows. You can right click on a contact to create its contact card. What more? You can customize contact card colors, transparency color etc…
7. ADVANCED CHAT ARCHIVAL
   Communicator Plus! allows you to log all conversations locally in a more flexible way. You no longer need Microsoft Outlook 2007 to log conversations! Logs are displayed hierarchically and sorted by date and participants, plus you can perform advanced searches to locate conversations quickly.

Contact Eventure at complus@eventure.biz to be added to the Beta program.

I think this is really cool.  If you’re familiar with Microsoft’s publication, “The Architecture Journal”, you know that is contains some very thoughtful material written specifically for the Enterprise Architect.

We’ve had it available in a variety of formats: 

• Paper
  (which is subscribe-able for free at https://www.msarchitecturejournal.com/default.aspx
• Online
  (viewable at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/arcjournal/default.aspx)
• Adobe Acrobat PDF 
  (downloadable at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/arcjournal/bb201656.aspx#english)

Now we have a fourth: 
A specifically designed ‘reader’ application for Architecture Journal!

Demonstrating many of the UX principles highlighted in recent issues, this new reader is a locally installed application that enables you to take every issue of the Journal into a searchable, immersive, and easy-to-read experience.

The application synchronizes with our content management services so that you’ll automatically have access to the latest Journal issues without needing to download PDF files or checking online.

It allows you to flag articles that you want to read and add them to a “reading list” that hovers on the right hand side of the application.  It also allows you to highlight and mark up articles for your own notation and memory.  And it’s available in 4 languages.

DOWNLOAD:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=dd466bbb-1b7d-438e-9f9a-954ce2058f15&displaylang=en

Note:  The reader requires .NET 3.0 because it takes advantage of Windows Presentation Format.

We update these tools every 3 weeks it seems but for once, it would appear that the update for Process Monitor is seriously worth the download if in fact you’re using Microsoft Application Virtualization a.k.a. Softgrid 4.5 Release Candidate.

ProcMon 1.35 is downloadable at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx and provides eyes into registry access as it’s done while an application is virtualized.  Without this version of ProcMon, App Virtualization will effectively blind ProcMon from seeing any activity going on within the virtual shell that a given app is running in if you’re using MAV.

The Exchange team just released some new whitepapers for the Exchange Architect in your organization:

• Continuous Replication Deep Dive –
  http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/
  2008/07/01/449116.aspx
• Planning for Large Mailboxes with Exchange 2007 –
  http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/07/01/449112.aspx

Additionally, go to http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/07/01/449113.aspx for details on some metrics to pay attention to when monitoring capacity and performance on an Exchange Server that’s not being monitored by System Center Operations Manager.

Coming soon:  MapPoint 2009 North America with Routing & Mapping Tools Spreadsheet

Microsoft’s latest version of it’s popular business mapping software complete with ActiveX control and API for integration with database and other business applications is coming. 

Microsoft MapPoint 2009 gives Information Workers the power to visualize business data, communicate insights with instant impact and integrate maps into the work they do in Microsoft Office. With MapPoint, step-by-step wizards save time and bring clarity to tabular data as you map information from Excel, Access or other database sources. Quickly create and view sales territories, analyze trends and evaluate performance by geography. Insert detailed maps into your PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Web sites to illustrate everything from sales performance to customer locations to new business opportunities. Then, easily share the information across your organization.

MapPoint 2009 Fleet edition offers the same software as the standard version of MapPoint, but has licensing to allow for tracking multiple vehicles in a fleet.  Each dispatcher is required to have a license; vehicles do not typically require a license.

The folks at MP2K are already taking pre-orders for the product for $269. Your order includes free shipping within the United States and a copy of our MapPoint Power Tools spreadsheet.  It also includes a 6-month premium membership ($40 value) on MapForums.com the MapPoint and Virtual Earth discussion site. Free USPS Priority shipping within the U.S. Canada shipping $35 (via FedEx). Other international shipping $75 (via FedEx). Shipping July 21st, 2008.

The Microsoft® MapPoint products are being released on the August 1, 2008 Volume License price list.