In order to support my SharePoint 2010 demo environment I have become quite a fan on Microsoft Hyper-V. I admit that I did not enjoy the learning curve and that there are a few “features” missing that would make it significantly easier to use as a portable demo environment, features that I have grown quite attached to in both Virtual PC and VMware. Now before you get all protective of Hyper-V I do understand that it is not intended for the use to which I am putting it. I mean, I suppose, drag and drop from host to guest could be considered a security hole in a production virtualization environment and “local shares” could present a performance issue…but is it that hard to add it to tools that I can choose to disable? Anyway, I got over all that by using remote desktop to connect to my guests rather than Hyper-V Manager. The remote connection makes up for almost all of the missing features.

I am upgrading my Silverlight demo code from the old beta to beta 2 and see that there are a few new considerations for the deployment of ClientAccessPolicy.xml files. In a previous post I demonstrated how to do this for SharePoint 2007. The heartburn that I get with that approach is any site collection owner or designer can drag the file into the site collection and open the site up to unwanted client access issues. In 2010 the virtual path provider no longer serves the files from the root of the site collection. In SharePoint 2010 you simply deploy the file to the root of the web application on the Web front ends. This means that for my My Site Host (http://me) I copy the file to c:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\me.

I want to thank the folks who attended my session in San Antonio. I had a great time and think the session is getting better every time I do it. I plan to release all the code after I update it for SharePoint 2010 Beta 2. In the mean time here is the PDF version of the presentation for the folks who were asking about it. I plan to create a post for each step in the process too. So check back for updates on that topic.

I have been SLAMMED lately (mostly traveling and speaking, but also taking time with my family) and not blogging enough, I get it, I hear you all loud and clear. I am going to try (starting this week) to publish little bites of new features and enhancements that I have not seen posted elsewhere.

Since I am in the process of building my post about yesterday’s SharePoint Saturday, it seems like a good time to show off what Office 2010 adds to the SharePoint 2007 upload experience.

Well, we’re half way through our 5 city tour with Catapult Systems “Best of SharePoint 2010”. My colleagues and I have delivered this great day long SharePoint 2010 overview in Austin, TX and Tampa, FL. Today is Dallas then Houston on Thursday and Denver next Thursday. There is still time to register if you are in Houston and Denver. Just hit our Events page and get all of the details.

Matthew McDermott, Microsoft MVP, and Brad Freels, Microsoft Senior Technology Specialist, will provide a 2 hour overview of the great new features of SharePoint 2010.

Including:

• Sites: UI Changes, Mobility Support, Office Client Support
• Communities: Social Improvements, My Sites, Activity Feeds
• Content: Enterprise Content Types, Metadata, Video Content Types
• Search: Phonetic Search, Navigation, Relevance
• Insights: Visio Services, Web Analytics, PerformancePoint Services
• Composites: BCS, External Lists, SharePoint Designer

We won’t be able to cover EVERYTHING in two hours- there is just too much! We will do our best to cover the highlights and take questions from the audience to drive the conversation into the areas that impact you the most.

Wow, anyone in attendance at the 2009 SharePoint Conference will tell you, there was a LOT going on. I don’t want to rub your nose in it, it is a simple fact, being at the conference, experiencing the nerdy goodness of ITF collaboration and sharing, seeing the SharePoint Fairy (#SPFairy) granting geeky wishes and stealing the attention from the conference floor, or rubbing elbows with the folks who write (or manage the folks who write) one of Steve Balmer’s “favorite products”, cannot be duplicated on-line. You have to be there to participate.

By now the planet knows that the 2009 Microsoft SharePoint Conference is sold out. Does that mean that you are going to miss all the good stuff? Not at all. You can attend the keynote address by Steve Balmer and Jeff Teper virtually. The keynote address will be streamed live at 9:00 Vegas time and available for viewing later from the Conference Web site. Go to www.mssharepointconference.com for more info.

You can follow the conference on Twitter @spconf and #SPC09.

Join us for this technical webcast as we discuss the new features and improvements in Windows Server R2 and how it brings virtualization enhancements within Hyper-V including Live Migration.

We will also explore the management improvements such as:

• Better Together with Windows 7 (Branch Cache & Direct Access)
• Platform Scalability
• Power Management
• Built-in File Classification Engine

This session is geared towards IT Management and Windows Server Administration, with a focus on the updates and changes in 2008 R2.

Building Successful Solutions on SharePoint

October 14th Program Description

SharePoint is a great platform on which to build and deliver solutions. The question, however, quickly becomes what to build, how to build it, and most importantly, how to ensure that what I build is successful. In this presentation, we discuss the SharePoint “Solution Quadrant,” which addresses the many types of solutions you can build on SharePoint. We explore how to build your solution, keeping in mind the concepts of modularity and reusability. And finally, we address end user adoption challenges and how to overcome these by providing the information people need right to their fingertips. In short, how to get the most value out of your SharePoint investment!