Alexander’s Blog

Have you run into some interesting errors or humorous Knowledge Base Articles lately? Well, I run into them once in a while. Here are a few. Sometimes in the middle of an intense troubleshooting session you deserve a little relief. Check em’ out.

The reason for this error was that the operation completed successfully

This error was on my SharePoint server.

The Windows SharePoint Services Timer service depends on the Netlogon service which failed to start because of the following error:

The operation completed successfully.

According to this screenshot from May 25, 2011 I used Adobe Acrobat Professional last time on April 23, 2072. That’s 61 years from now.

Last Used On 4/23/2072

Sometimes you need to slow down while surfing the Internet.

You’re disruptively hitting our Dell Factory Outlet web servers too fast, please slow down your incoming HTTP requests to our web servers. Thank you for your cooperation.

Microsoft KB article 282850: Cookies Lost After Upgrading to Windows XP

Microsoft KB article 281923: Hair color of the “person” icon for a user group becomes gray if the group contains more than 500 users

Microsoft KB article 228001: Network Adapter Does Not Work if Unplugged

Microsoft KB article 830680: Forgotten Password Wizard Prompts You to Insert a Disk into Drive C

Authentication prompts have been a pain in the neck for a lot of SharePoint users over the years both in SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 environments. There are several reasons for the prompts. I can’t cover all the possible solutions but I have documented multiple solutions to different authentication prompt issues.

Problem

In SharePoint 2010, you have multiple site collections on your intranet that you access on a regular basis. When you access these sites remotely from an external network and connect to the first site you are prompted for authentication. You logon successfully. Then you try to connect to the second, third and fourth Site Collection but you are prompted for authentication each time. You want to have access to all the sites without being prompted for authentication each time.

Solution

Add the intranet sites to the Local intranet zone in Internet Explorer (IE).

1. In IE8 or IE9 go to Tools, Internet Options, Security tab, Local intranet, Sites, Advanced and add all the Site Collections to the zone.
2. Click close three times to close all windows.
3. Restart Internet Explorer.

Now once you logon to the first intranet site, you should be able to access all the other sites in different Site Collections without entering your username and password.

NOTE: There are lots of other scenarios where you may experience multiple authentication prompts and depending on the scenario you may have to use a different solution. One setting that you should be aware of is located in the Internet Explorer’s options.

1. Go to Tools, Internet options, and select the Security tab.
2. Select the appropriate zone (e.g. Internet zone).
3. Click Custom level.
4. In the User Authentication section select the appropriate setting (e.g. Automatic logon with current user name and password).
5. Click OK twice.

NOTE: You can deploy this setting to client computers using Group Policy. Go to User Configuration -> Policies -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Internet Control Panel -> Security Page -> Trusted Sites Zone. In the right-hand pane locate “Logon options” double-click it. First Enable the option and then in the drop-down box select the option “Automatic logon with current username and password.” On the client computer run gpupdate /force at the command prompt to refresh the Group Policy.

Prompt for Credentials When Accessing FQDN Sites From a Windows Vista or Windows 7 Computer

There is another issue that you may run into that is documented in the KB article 943280. Sometimes you may get prompted for authentication when you open a Microsoft Office document in SharePoint. Here are the steps documented in the KB article 943280 to resolve the issue in Windows 7 clients.

Click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters

On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click Multi-String Value.

Type AuthForwardServerList, and then press ENTER.

On the Edit menu, click Modify.

In the Value data box, type the URL of the server that hosts the Web share, and then click OK.Note You can also type a list of URLs in the Value data box. Here’s a sample.

https://*.Contoso.com

http://*.dns.live.com

*.microsoft.com

https://172.169.4.6

Exit Registry Editor.

After this registry entry is created, the WebClient service will read the entry value. If the client computer tries to access a URL that matches any of the expressions in the list, the user credential will be sent successfully to authenticate the user, even if no proxy is configured.

Note You have to restart the WebClient service after you modify the registry.

Things to avoid in the URL list

• Do not add an asterisk (*) character at the end of a URL. When you do this, a security risk may result.
  http://*.dns.live.*
• Do not add an asterisk (*) before or after a string. When you do this, the WebClient service can send user credentials to more servers. See the following examples:
  • http://*Contoso.comIn this example, the service also sends user credentials to http://extra_charactersContoso.com
  • http://Contoso*.comIn this example, the service also sends user credentials to http://Contosoextra_characters.com
• In the URL list, do not type the UNC name of a host. For example, do not use the following:
  *.contoso.com@SSL
• In the URL list, do not include the share name or the port number to be used. For example, do not use the following:
  • http://*.dns.live.com/DavShare
  • http://*dns.live.com:80
• Do not use IPv6 in the URL list.

Important This URL list does not affect the security zone settings. This URL list is used only for the specific purpose of forwarding the credentials to WebDAV servers. The list should be created as restrictively as possible to avoid any security issues. Also, because there is no specific deny list, the credentials are forwarded to all the servers that match this list.

NOTE: You can deploy the above setting to clients using Group Policy.

Disabling Authentication Prompts in SharePoint 2010

In SharePoint 2010, another thing you can try to disable authentication prompts is to modify the Web.config file.

<system.webServer>

<security>

<requestFiltering allowDoubleEscaping=”true”>

<verbs allowUnlisted=”true”>

<add verb=”OPTIONS” allowed=”false” />

<add verb=”PROPFIND” allowed=”false” />

</verbs>

</requestFiltering>

</security>

Disable “Remember my credentials” Option

If the users check the option “Remember my credentials” and then they change their password, they will keep getting prompted for authentication. It is not a good idea to remember passwords for security reasons and when working with SharePoint you might want to disable this feature. You can disable this feature using a Group Policy. Open the Group Policy (e.g. Default Domain Policy) and go to Computer Configuration -> Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options and enable the setting “Network access: Do not allow storage of passwords and credentials for network authentication.”

Use Credential Manager in Windows 7

Yet another method to avoid authentication prompt is to use Windows 7′s Credential Manager. Go to Control Panel -> User Accounts and in the upper left hand corner select Manage your credentials.

Select Add a Windows credential and provide the logon information.

There is no need to reboot the computer. You should be able to access the site in your browser without being prompted for logon credentials.

Additional References

Here are some additional references that you may find useful.

1. Authentication requests when you open Office documents
2. Office 2003/2007 Integration and Forms based authentication (FBA) with SharePoint (MOSS)
3. Unable to “Check Out” a Document in MOSS 2007 Published Through ISA Server 2006
4. Understand duplicate authentication prompts ISA 2006 publishing MOSS using FBA

Updated: March 22, 2012

A lot of blogs and articles on the Internet indicate that in order to crawl PDF documents in SharePoint Foundation 2010 you must install Microsoft Search Server. I want to clear this myth by stating that according to Microsoft, Search Server is not required to crawl PDF files in SharePoint Foundation 2010.

The main problem that people run into is the fact that, unlike WSS 3.0, SharePoint Foundation 2010 does not have an interface to add file extensions for additional file types and iFilters. So how can you crawl additional file types, such as PDFs, in SharePoint Foundation 2010? One easy solution is to use the following VB script. The VB script is available in the KB article 2518465. Here’s the step-by-step procedure.

1. Copy the following content to notepad and save the file with a .vbs extension. For example, AddExtension.vbs.Sub UsageSub Usage
   
   WScript.Echo “Usage:    AddExtension.vbs extension”
   WScript.Echo

   end Sub

   Sub Main

   if WScript.Arguments.Count < 1 then
   Usage
   wscript.Quit(1)
   end if

   dim extension
   extension = wscript.arguments(0)

   Set gadmin = WScript.CreateObject(“SPSearch4.GatherMgr.1″, “”)

   For Each application in gadmin.GatherApplications
   For Each project in application.GatherProjects
   project.Gather.Extensions.Add(extension)
   Next
   Next

   End Sub

   call Main

2. Copy the script to SharePoint Foundation Server and run it at the command prompt. This will add the PDF extension.
   > WScript AddExtension.vbs pdf
3. Register the PDF iFilter by going to the following registry key.
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension\.
4. Right-click the Extensions folder and select New, key.
5. Enter .pdf for the key name.
6. In the right-hand pane dobule-click the Default value and enter the following for the Value data:
   {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603}.
7. Restart SPSearch4 by typing the following at the command prompt:
   net stop spsearch4
   net start spsearch4
8. Run crawl by typing the following at the command prompt:
   >stsadm –o spsearch –action fullcrawlstart
   The stsadm.exe utility is located in the “14 Hive” folder at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN.
9. You should now be able to crawl PDF files in SharePoint Foundation 2010.

Note that this method adds the PDF extension. You can use the same technique to add additional filters as necessary.

If you go to Google or Bank of America’s Web site you will notice that your browser displays a custom logo to the left of the URL. It’s nice to have a custom icon or logo for a SharePoint 2010 site so when visitors add the site to their Favorites in Internet Explorer or Bookmarks in Mozilla Firefox it displays the custom icon/logo. I wrote about this last year but in this blog I have added numerous troubleshooting tips that will come handy. You can follow the procedure described below to change the browser icon for a SharePoint 2010 site.

There may be other methods of achieving this but this is the method that I use. The procedure is very simple but it requires you to use SharePoint Designer 2010. The good news is that SharePoint Designer 2010 is a free download from Microsoft. The bad news is that if you don’t know what you are doing you can completely destroy your site by “messing” with your site in SharePoint Designer.

WARNING! Always backup your site before you make any modifications to your site in SharePoint Designer 2010.

1. Create your site icon and save it as favicon.ico. There are lots of free programs that you can use. I have been using an old program called Easy Icon Maker. Keep in mind that you don’t have to use such a program. You can use any application (MSPaint, Word, etc.) to create the icon then copy it to MSPaint program and save it as a JPG or PNG. Then convert it to .ico file using a convert utility. More on that in the Troubleshooting section.
2. Upload the favicon.ico file to the SharePoint site. I prefer to upload it to the SiteCollectionImages library so it is available to me for all the subsites.
3. Go to the SiteCollectionImages library and open the favicon.ico file.
4. Copy the path to the clipboard.
5. Open SharePoint Designer 2010.
6. Open your SharePoint site.
7. In the Site Objects section select the Master Pages folder. You will notice a default.master page and v4.master page.
8. Select the v4.master page.
9. Under Customization, click Edit File.
   
10. When prompted to check out the file, select Yes.
    
11. On the toolbar, in the Page Views section click Code.
12. Notice the line that starts with SharePoint:SPShortIcon. The path in this line determines which icon will be displayed in the browser. By default, it points to the favicon.ico file in the images library.
    <SharePoint:SPShortcutIcon runat=”server” IconUrl=”/_layouts/images/favicon.ico”/>
    
13. Change the path for the IconURL to your custom favicon.ico file. For example for my winnetusergroup.com site I would change it to http://www.winnetusergroup.com/SiteCollectionImages/favicon.ico.
14. Save the v4.master file.
15. You will prompted by a warning that once you save the file your page will not longer be based on the original site definition. Did I mention that you should always backup your site before you make any modifications to your site in SharePoint Designer 2010? If you have backed up your site, select Yes.
    
16. In the left hand pane right-click v4.master page and select Check In.
17. Select an option for the version. If you are not sure what to select, accept the default option of Check In a minor version and click OK. You will notice that the green check mark changes to a blue icon with an “i”. This means the page is no longer based on the site definition. If things get messed up you can right-click the file and select Reset to Site Definition.
18. Close SharePoint Designer.
19. You should now see your custom icon when you refresh your browser screen. When visitors add your site as Favorite they will see the custom icon in the listing. In addition, the address bar will display your custom icon instead of the default icon.
20. Here’s a sample of SeattlePro’s Web site displaying custom space needle icon in the address bar as well as the Bookmarks toolbar.
    

NOTE: If you are working with a standard HTML-based Web site (not a SharePoint site) then all you have to do is copy the favicon.ico file to the root of the Web site, e.g. wwwroot folder, and your icon will be displayed automatically. The root folder is where your home or index file is located. There is no need to edit any files.

Troubleshooting Tips

If your icon is not displaying properly, here are some troubleshooting tips.

1. Make sure that you modified the v4.master page and not the default.master page.
2. If your site is using SSL, depending on how you configured your site, you may see the custom icon when you add it to the Bookmarks toolbar in Mozilla Firefox or Favorites bar in Internet Explorer if you do not add the s after http. However, it will not display the icon in the address bar. To see the icon in the address bar you must use https in the URL when you edit the master page.
3. In Mozilla Firefox your icon will always be displayed properly. If you want to test your icon use Firefox. In Internet Explorer (all versions) it’s hit and miss. In my experience, Internet Explorer displays it only about 5% of the time. And that 5% is completely random. Do not waste too much time trying to get this to work in Internet Explorer.
4. If your site gets messed up because you modified the master page, reset it to the site definition. Just right-click the master file and select Reset to Site Definition. It will create a copy of the current master page and reset the site definition.
5. If your icon is not displayed, you may have forgotten to check in the master page. Unless the page is checked in, visitors cannot see the changes.
6. If your icon is not displayed, you may have to login to the SharePoint site. For example, if its a public site the icon may not be displayed but if you login to the site with your account the icon will show up right away.
7. If you have an existing icon and then you change the icon by uploading a new favicon.ico file you may have to clear the cache and restart the browser. Sometimes the old icon will be cached and you must restart the browser while other times your new icon will be displayed right away. A lot depends on which browser you are using and how you have configured your browser.
8. The icon has to be certain size or else it may not display at all. Check out my blog post.
9. You can’t just rename a jpg, bmp or png file to favicon.ico. You must either use a utility that allows you to save files with .ico extensions or use a tool that allows you to convert it from other formats to .ico format. There are a number of free utilities available to do the conversion. The quickest way is to use an online conversion tool like this one.
10. Although I have used GIFs (including animated GIFs) and you can also use PNG files, I would suggest you stick with ICO files because all the browsers support ICO files. The name of the file must be favicon.
11. If your custom icon is not working, make sure the size of the favicon.ico file is 16×16 pixels. Sometimes you can have a larger file, such as 64×64 pixels and you can try and convert it to ICO but in my experience the smaller size icons work the best. I often reduce it to 32×32 pixels, save it, and then convert it to ICO format. Larger file sizes tend to cause problems.
    

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    Copyright ©2011 Zubair Alexander. All rights reserved.

Have you ever experienced the following error in SharePoint Server 2010 when you try to open a Microsoft Word 2010 file? I have run across this error a few times on Windows Server 2008 R2 computer running SharePoint Server 2010 and Office 2010.

Word experienced an error trying to open the file.

Try these suggestions.

* Check the file permissions for the document or drive.

* Make sure there is sufficient free memory and disk space.

* Open the file with the Text Recovery converter.

Here’s a solution that has worked for me.

1. Open Word 2010.
2. Click File, Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings.
3. Select the Protect View option.
4. Deselect all the Protected View options. You may not have to disable Data Execution Prevention mode. Experiment with the various options until you get the results.
   WARNING! Obviously, depending on your environment and security requirements you may be taking risks when you disable Protected View. Microsoft recommends that you do not change any Trust Center settings. I know, I know! Easy for them to say.

   

5. Open Word 2010 file. It should open fine.
6. I have noticed that once I am able to open the file I can go back and enable the Protected View and it still open the files just fine. Hmmm? I haven’t spent enough time to really research this but just wanted to let you know.

You may also experience this error in other Microsoft Office 2010 applications. Just use the same method to disable Protected View.