Even though it doesn't take long to add a folder to %Path% by clicking through Windows, I prefer to do this using a little PowerShell instead.

Here's a set of scripts to make it easier to view the items in the "BackConnectionHostNames" registry key, as well as add and remove hostnames.

Here's a set of scripts to make it easier to view the hostname mappings in the hosts file, as well as add and remove hostnames.

In this post, I explain how I like to use Microsoft OneNote to manage what I call "development cheat sheets" -- which are especially useful when developing SharePoint solutions.

This post provides a sample installation guide for an extranet platform based on SharePoint Server 2010 and Office Web Apps.

Does your team utilize a step-by-step installation guide to build and deploy various environments, or do the Development, Test, and Release Management folks simply "wing it"? I certainly hope it's not the latter.

Do you use the U2U CAML Query Builder instead of writing CAML queries from scratch? If not, then you must really know your SharePoint (or perhaps you just enjoy making things harder than they need to be).

This PowerShell script makes it much easier to perform code coverage analysis in Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 3.5 solutions (e.g. SharePoint 2010).

It takes a little more work than expected, but you actually can "have your cake and eat it too" when it comes to Visual Studio 2010 code coverage analysis and .NET Framework 3.5 solutions (e.g. SharePoint 2010).

Looking for a solution to convert from HTML to PDF? Here is a list of the products I discovered during my research as well as the results of the head-to-head competition.

Intellisense isn't helpful when the underlying XML documentation in the code is wrong.

In my previous post, I described how I typically create a "static HTML prototype" for an ASP.NET or SharePoint Web application. By working directly in HTML at the beginning, I can rapidly define the structure of the content and subsequently create the corresponding CSS rules to style the pages...

While it typically takes less than a minute or two to configure an expiration policy on a SharePoint document library, there may still be reasons why you want to do this using the SharePoint object model instead. For example, suppose I have a "Temporary...

During the process of creating my previous post , I discovered the thumbnail images were not rendering as expected for the custom images that I added to the out-of-the-box SharePoint /PublishingImages picture library (via a feature). Here is the content...

In part 5 of this series , I showed how you can render semantic HTML for SharePoint list items (instead of the out-of-the-box table layout) using the new XsltListViewWebPart in SharePoint 2010. Note You can achieve similar results in Microsoft...

In part 4 of this series , I provided a sample SharePoint Server 2010 solution solution based on Dan Cederholm's Tugboat sample site (from his most recent book, Handcrafted CSS : More Bulletproof Web Design ). In that sample, however, all of the content...

In part 2 of this series , I explained how to programmatically add a new Reusable Content list item and subsequently add it to a Publishing HTML field on a page. I also provided a complete sample for SharePoint 2010 that demonstrates how this can be accomplished...

In my previous post , I introduced a scenario for using the "Reusable Content" feature in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010. In this post, I show you how to programmatically add Reusable Content list items (which...

In one of the sprints last year for my current project, I built a custom "document publishing" system based on the Web Content Management (WCM) features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. My client was looking to replace a legacy system...

In part 1 of this series , I mentioned that one of the options for creating SharePoint sites in multiple languages is to install the corresponding SharePoint language packs prior to creating the sites. This is the most common deployment scenario for localization...

In part 1 of this series , I mentioned how I've been involved in several SharePoint projects for large, multinational corporations including Agilent Technologies and KPMG . I also mentioned how one of the sprints last year for my current project was dedicated...

In yesterday's post , I provided a custom SharePoint Server 2010 solution based on Dan Cederholm's sample site for the fictitious Tugboat Coffee company (from his book Handcrafted CSS : More Bulletproof Web Design ). Since I had originally "ported...

In part 2 of this series, I provided a sample Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 solution based on Dan Cederholm's Tugboat sample site (from his most recent book, Handcrafted CSS : More Bulletproof Web Design ). Ever since then, I've been...

In part 1 of this post, I introduced the way I use VM snapshots to allow me to quickly rollback my SharePoint development VMs to key points in time. For example, I can quickly revert to a "baseline SharePoint Server 2010 configuration" in which no Web...

In a comment I made last week on one of my earlier posts , I mentioned how a few months ago I started using Hyper-V snapshots so I can quickly rollback my SharePoint development VMs to key points in time. The following screenshot shows the snapshots...

A little more than three years ago, I blogged about the default recovery model for various SharePoint databases . In that post, I described how I would often toggle the SQL Server databases in SharePoint development environments from the default Full...

In my previous post , I explained how I like to create separate VHDs for data and log files in my SharePoint development VMs. However, given the very small amount of content that I typically load into a SharePoint development environment, these VHDs certainly...

In the United States, "CDL" typically refers to a Commercial Driver's License -- but since I don't drive trucks for a living, I use the acronym for something entirely different. To me, these three letters correspond to the minimum number of drives I like...

Last week I received a "Logical Disk Free Space is low" alert from Operations Manager for my TFS 2010 build server (DAZZLER). After a few minutes investigating the issue, I discovered that my "Builds" folder was consuming a little over 2 GB of storage...

Nearly three years ago, I wrote a post that described the BackedUp and NotBackedUp folders I use on almost every computer I ever log on to (my laptop, desktop, a handful of servers, and more than a dozen VMs). I also showed how I created taskbar shortcuts...

Several years ago, while working on the "Frontier" project at Agilent Technologies , I encountered a scenario where I needed to quickly identify logon failures on the site. The Agilent site was (and I believe still is) based on Microsoft Office SharePoint...

In the current sprint of the project I'm working on, we are deploying Office Web Apps to support an enterprise collaboration platform based on SharePoint Server 2010. While creating the installation guide for this sprint, I used the following TechNet...

In the sample SharePoint solution I provided in one of last week's posts , you may have noticed that when programmatically creating the custom Sign In page, I insert the custom Claims Login Form Web Part into the Page Content field. In Microsoft Office...

A couple of years ago, I shared a script ( Restart SharePoint Services.cmd ) for restarting the various services in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. I've since created a new version of the script for use with SharePoint Server 2010....

This morning I thought I'd share one more very useful PowerShell script for SharePoint Server 2010. When using Central Administration and/or the Farm Configuration Wizard to create and configure the Search Service Application, the resulting databases...

In my first post today , I provided a number of scripts for deploying custom solutions and features in SharePoint Server 2010. However, those certainly weren't all of the PowerShell scripts that I currently use when working with SharePoint 2010. Here...

A couple of years ago, I shared the scripts I created for deploying solutions based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007, or what I like to refer to as the " DR.DADA approach to SharePoint ." Well, I probably should have done this long...

Last year I wrote a post about building Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 solutions on a Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 build server , which talked about copying various SharePoint assemblies to a "Reference Assemblies" folder and adding...

In my previous post , I provided the step-by-step process I use for configuring claims-based authentication in SharePoint Server 2010. If you follow those steps, then when you browse to the home page of the site and click Sign In , you'll be redirected...

I thought it would be helpful to share my step-by-step procedures for manually configuring claims-based authentication in SharePoint Server 2010 using an "ASP.NET database" and corresponding membership and role providers. Note that the following TechNet...

Prior to the recent "v2" release on my current project, we had been using the ASP.NET SqlRoleProvider to manage the various roles used by the Web site. Over a month ago, someone contacted me about an issue he was encountering with a specific user....

In a previous post discussing Web standards design, I mentioned how I like to use "Theme" folders to organize CSS files and related images that define a specific look-and-feel for a site. For example, suppose we are tasked with building the Internet...

In March, 2009, I wrote a post that explains why I always recommend enabling disk-based caching in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007. This morning a Microsoft PFE (Premier Field Engineer) reached out to me after he came across my blog...

A bunch of new content related to SharePoint 2010 application development was released yesterday. You can browse the content online via MSDN: Developing Applications for SharePoint 2010 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff770300.aspx ...

When using the "DR.DADA" approach to SharePoint development , I often find myself deleting sites (in DEV and TEST environments) and subsequently re-activating features or running some migration utility to recreate the site hierarchy. In fact, a few...

This is an update to the beta version that was released last December. It "provides developers with advanced guidance on how to develop for SharePoint." Here's the overview from the download page : The SharePoint 2010 Developer Training Kit provides...

In my post earlier this month on upgrading to Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 , I forgot to include the steps to change the Warn on Refresh setting of the trusted file location for the Excel Services Application. If you...

In one of my posts last month , I provided the following steps to "reghost" all of the pages in a Team Foundation Server (TFS) project site: Browse to the Site Settings page for the site (e.g. http://cyclops/sites/Demo/_layouts/settings.aspx )....

Update (2010-05-20) I made some changes to correct a few issues and also to include the final version of the XML input file that I used to update my TFS project sites. In my previous post , I showed how you can use PowerShell to export the quick...

In the part 1 of this series , I described how to enable the dashboard functionality in Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 on project sites upgraded from TFS 2005/2008 (i.e. sites originally created with the MSF Agile v4.x process templates). I noted that...

Suppose that you need to update a few SharePoint team sites to add a couple of links to the quick launch navigation. Assuming the number of sites to be updated is relatively small, then it is reasonable to manually apply the configuration changes via...

In part 1 of this series , I showed how you can add new Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 dashboard functionality to project sites originally created in TFS 2008 (or TFS 2005). Another feature that you might want to add to upgraded project sites is...

Another essential resource for those (like me) upgrading from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010: Index of SharePoint Server 2010 Windows PowerShell cmdlets http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff678226...

Here is an essential resource for those (like me) upgrading from Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 to SharePoint Server 2010: Stsadm to Windows PowerShell mapping (SharePoint Server 2010) http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621084...

In one of last week's posts , I provided details on upgrading from Team Foundation Server 2008 to TFS 2010, including some information about updating your TFS project sites. I also provided a reference to the following MSDN article for more information...

Earlier this morning I was upgrading some of my Team Foundation Server (TFS) project sites (many of which were originally created with TFS 2005) in order to showcase the new dashboard features in TFS 2010. While doing so, I encountered the following...

In an earlier post today, I described how I recently upgraded from Team Foundation Server 2008 (and Windows SharePoint Services v3) to TFS 2010 (and SharePoint Server 2010). While most of the upgrade went fairly smooth, during the process I discovered...

In my previous post , I provided an overview of the process of upgrading from TFS 2008 (and Windows SharePoint Services v3) to TFS 2010 (and SharePoint Server 2010). In this post, I provide more details about the upgrade process. Note that if you are...

This past weekend, I upgraded my Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2008 environment to TFS 2010. I also upgraded the TFS project sites to SharePoint Server 2010. Why the SharePoint upgrade? The TFS project sites previously ran on Windows SharePoint Services...