Microsoft CRM 3.0 Partner Readiness Tour

This week kicks of the Microsoft CRM 3.0 Partner Readiness Tour. Partners can sign up for this free one-day event to learn about all of the new features that will be in the new version.

• Native Microsoft Outlook experience for managing sales, service, and marketing business processes.
• Enhanced reporting and analysis tools with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services.
• Innovative and intuitive business design and customization tools.
• Simplified deployment and management tools for IT professionals.

Click here to see the list of cities and register for the event.

Great Plains 9.0 Partner Readiness Tour

This week, Microsoft Business Solutions launches the Great Plains 9.0 Roadshow. This is a free one-day event for Partners that are looking to get a sneak-peak at the new features of Great Plains 9.0 (aka Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0).

• Expanded, flexible automation and online capabilities
• Centralized setup, installation, and upgrade functionality
• Personalized report navigation enabling the ease of sharing information
• Employee access and relevant visibility into industry-specific information and applications through role-based home pages
• Microsoft Business Portal 3.0 enhancements

Click here to see the list of cities and register for the event.

Give Microsoft Your Input and Get Free Software

Below is a cool offer from the Microsoft Usability team...

Do you wish software was easier to use? Microsoft Business Solutions products are being designed and created for people like you. By participating in Microsoft User Research you can directly impact the design of our software, thereby making it better and easier for you to use. You’ll receive complimentary software for participating in our usability research studies. Sign up here!

Get involved in the product development process at Microsoft. Help us understand your needs by signing up to participate in Microsoft Usability studies!

Some activities you would be able to participate in include:

· Lab Studies & Focus Groups: These studies will give you hands-on and detailed experience with Microsoft products that are currently under development. Your input goes directly into product development.
· Site Visits: We’ll come to you! A Usability Engineer will visit you at your workplace to gain a better understanding of your work environment in order to help build products and/or solutions that meet your business needs.
· Online Surveys & Online Focus Groups: Participate in our studies from the convenience of your home or workplace.

To register for future usability studies, simply fill out a brief questionnaire. You will be contacted for opportunities that match your background and/or interests. All scheduled participants will receive a software gratuity after participating in a study! Contact uccoord@microsoft.com for more information.

Add/Remove Programs Window Will Not Open

Edit : August 2011 - This post is nearly 6 years old and it's probably the most popular post I've ever made. It's the number one Google result for this error.  Still getting dozens of hits per day. Over 100 comments! I'm glad I could give something back to my fellow IT pros.  (PS - why not throw me a bone and click an ad on my site, like one of the big banners up top? I might earn a penny or two. hehe  Thanks!)
---

Just ran into this crazy issue. One of my clients has a server running Windows 2000 Server. I needed to remove a program so of course I go to Control Panel and click on Add/Remove Programs. Nothing. It doesn't open. Try again. it still won't open. I then start noticing that each time I do this, it's spawning another instance of mshta.exe in my task manager. Strange. I've been troubleshooting for a few hours, trying various suggestions from around the net - reboot the server, register some files, apply some updates, put on my rally cap, etc.

But I've finally found the article that worked like a charm. It's a Microsoft KB article. Isn't it odd than you can search the KB and never find a helpful article but you'll find a website that links to the exact article that you WISH your KB search would have found???

Anyway, here is the link to the article.

What you need to do is just go to the command line and run these 3 commands to repair some registry entries.

regsvr32 mshtml.dll

regsvr32 shdocvw.dll -I

regsvr32 shell32.dll -I

This worked like a charm. My Add/Remove Program window opened right up.

Great Plains consulting services available

Just wanted to let everyone know that my consulting services are available for anyone in need of Great Plains help. As a Microsoft Great Plains MVP with 8 years in the business, I have a great deal of experience with the product as well as all the connections I need to locate additional resources with expertise in other areas of the product that I personally may not be too familiar with.

We can cover all aspects of a Great Plains project - Analysis, Design, Installation, Upgrades, Database Migrations, Customization, Integration, Implementation, Training, Support, etc. As well as implementations of MBS Business Portal and Microsoft CRM along with general IT consulting - Windows Server, Exchange, Small Business Server, SQL, Sharepoint, etc.

I'm located near Baltimore, MD - servicing the Mid-Atlantic / east coast region. And I'm certainly willing to travel outside of the Maryland, Virgina, Pennsylvania area for good projects.

Please visit Tech Roundup, my Microsoft Great Plains blog at www.JasonHartman.net and if you are interested in my services, you can email me at TechRoundup@JasonHartman.net.

Installing Vista (Longhorn) Beta 1 on Virtual PC

I was just trying to fire up my Windows Vista (Longhorn) Beta 1 into a copy of Microsoft Virtual PC and ran into a similar problem that I had with some of the previous Alpha builds. The built in formatting/partitioning tools couldn't create a proper partition for Virtual PC. In the past this required me to start with a Virtual PC image from an XP system that already had a partition on it. Then reformat this existing partition and continue with the Longhorn install.

But luckily this time around, i found a handy blog entry with some steps on how to get this partition created from scratch on a blank VPC image using DISKPART from the command prompt during the install. Check it out.

It seems to have worked for me. Looks like Beta 1 is installing as I type.

Next OS from Microsoft will be called Vista

Just announced today, the previously code-named "Longhorn" operating system, will be called "Microsoft Vista". The Microsoft Vista webpage is already up.

I'm already enrolled to receive the first beta release and i'm very much looking forward to it. Hopefully its a few steps beyond some of the alpha builds that i've had. Sounds like Beta 1 will be out in a few weeks. I'll post my thoughts once i've had a chance to play with it.

Release dates set for SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005

At Microsoft's Tech Ed conference this week, they have finally announced the release date for Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006. They will be launched the week of November 7, 2005. You can click here to visit the official launch site on MSDN for future news and updates.

Great Plains now supports SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4

Recently Microsoft released Service Pack 4 for SQL Server 2000. Now Microsoft Business Solutions has announced that Great Plains 7.5 and 8.0 will support SQL 2000 SP4.

Customers and Partners can hit this link to view the latest list of requirements for Great Plains 8.0.

Great Plains Extender and SmartList Builder now available for download

Two of the most anticipated products in the "Great Plains 8.0 Extensions" release are now available for download. These are Extender and SmartList Builder. They are both OEM'd products from eOne Solutions. Extender allows you to customize your Great Plains windows and add additional fields to the system without the need to write any Dexterity code. SmartList Builder allows you to create custom SmartLists that can address modules not typically available in the out-of-the-box SmartLists and you can also build SmartLists for third party products.

Customers and Partners can download them from these links:

Great Plains Extender
Great Plains SmartList Builder

Also, Customers and Partners can go to this site and get all sort of info on Great Plains 8.0 Extensions and links to download the other new modules.

Great Plains "Report Pack" now available for SQL Reporting Services

Just released is a collection SQL Reporting Services reports for Great Plains 8.0. You can download the new report pack right here. Below is a list of the reports that are included. Also just released is a new report pack to run against your IIS log files to get all sorts of info on the activity of your web servers.

• Commissions Report - Shows sales commissions by territory, salesperson, and year. Expand a territory to view sales commissions by a salesperson, or expand a year to view quarterly commissions by territory.
• Customer Profitability Report - Shows sales, total profit, and gross margin percentage per customer for the selected year. Expand customer ID to view the sales, total profit, and gross margin percentage by document number.
• Inventory Value by Site Report - Shows a bar graph of the value of inventory by site and the total inventory value for the company. Click an inventory site bar to display the Inventory Value by Site. Use the Item Number Report to view items and their total value for that site.
• Item Quantity Back Order Report - Shows the quantity of items that are back ordered, quantities that are allocated to purchase orders, and item quantities available for all sites. Expand each item number to view item quantities for all sites.
• Open Purchase Orders Report - Shows purchase orders that have not been closed or canceled per vendor or for all vendors. The report also displays in a list view the number, status, and date of each purchase order, along with the vendor assigned to the purchase order. Expand each purchase order to display the line items and the status of each line item.
• Open Sales Orders Report - Shows a list of unposted sales orders for a range of customers. The report displays in a list view the sales order number, the date of each sales order, customer information, the requested ship date, and the amount remaining on the order, as well as the salesperson assigned to the order. Expand each purchase order to display the line items and specific information about each line item.
• Work Center by Weeks - Employee Capacity Report - Shows the available work centers and the employee capacity of each work center by weeks.
• Work Center by Weeks - Machine Capacity Report - Shows the available work centers and the machine capacity of each work center by weeks.

I'm glad to see MBS start taking advantage of SQL Reporting Services. Also, the word on the street is that the next release of Microsoft CRM (CRM 2.0? CRM 2005?) will be yanking out Crystal Reports Enterprise and instead converting to SQL Reporting Services.

Microsoft Data Protection Server

Microsoft has a new product in the works. It's called Data Protection Server. It's a disk-based backup solution. It's a separate service like SQL or Exchange that would run on top of Windows 2003 Server. It sounds like Volume Shadow Copy on steroids. It takes snapshots of your files periodically throughout the day and stores them on the Data Protection Server. And like VSC, it will have a mechanism for allowing the users to restore their own backups, if they have accidentally overwritten or deleted a file for example.

You'll still need your tape backup solution, such as Backup Exec. DPS isn't intended to replace that just yet. It's just meant to provide a quicker, simpler way to recover your data for the majority of problems. Tapes will still be needed for long-term backups and the ability to move data out of the server itself and offsite of the facility in case of disasters.

The first release will be intended primarily to backup your file servers. Future versions should have the ability to target specific applications such as SQL and Exchange.

Sounds pretty interesting. It's still in development but you can go the DPS website and signup to be notified when the beta is released.

Service Pack 3 for FRx 6.7 is available

Just released in the last week or two is Service Pack 3 for FRx 6.7. I first had a chance to see this in action last week at Convergence 2005 and then had my first install of it this week for a client.

Here are the two new items that stand out for me:

1 - Built in report wizard. You'll see a new "magic wand" icon on the main tool bar. This brings up a totally new window for the report wizard. It takes you thru about 7 different steps that are required to build your report. It even has a small thumbnail preview image of the report that changes dynamically as you complete each step. Very nice looking and its so easy, even *I* could create a financial statement. :)

2 - You no longer get a login box if you are using NT authentication. Whenever I implement FRx, i always setup 2 ODBC sources - one for Great Plains using SQL authentication and a 2nd one for FRx using NT authentication. This makes it easier for the users to login to FRx. To facilitate this I can create a network security group called "FRx Users" and then add this group in as a user account in SQL Enterprise Manager. So in the future if someone needs access to FRx, they just need to add them into the NT security group, rather than having to go into SQL. But even though FRx was authenticating the user based on their NT credentials, they still saw a login box when getting into FRx and just had to click "Ok" without entering any password. But now with FRx 6.7 and SP3, you will not get a login box at all if your NT credentials are valid. Very smooth and simple for the users. As a test, i switched my FRx ODBC source to use SQL authentication and then i WAS prompted for my SQL username and password to get in.

It's nice to see FRx finally getting a little attention from the dev team. I'm thinking that since FRx 6.7 now requires the .Net Framework 1.1 that we'll continue to see some nice new enhancements in the pipeline. One rumor i heard is that in the next major release, FRx will no longer store its data in .mdb files but rather in SQL. That would be excellent. I don't know if this means that the shared Sysdata folder would go away completely or just parts of it. Anything would be an improvement.

MBS Customers and Partners can download FRx 6.7 SP3 right here.

Microsoft CRM Live Chat on March 8th

I wanted to let you know that the MBS Community site is hosting a live real-time chat about boosting the performance of your Microsoft CRM 1.2 installation in March. This chat will occur on Tuesday, March 8, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific time.

The chat room is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/businesssolutions/chatroom.aspx

And here's a description of the chat:

***Tuning the Performance of Your Microsoft CRM 1.2 Installation***

Here’s your chance to talk to the guys who know! Take a breather from the whirl of Convergence 2005 and join Chad Rexin and Greg Gawryluk, Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Support Engineers, in an in-depth chat about the best ways to tune up the performance of your CRM 1.2 installation. Chad and Greg will talk about which tweaks have the potential to increase performance the most and are also relatively easy to perform, plus they will delve into more
complex optimizations.

Great Plains Service Pack 2 now available

Microsoft Business Solutions has release Service Pack 2 for Great Plains. Partners and Customers can use this link to download SP2.

Also, at the bottom of that page you'll find links to get the latest service packs for other related products such as Integration Manager and FRx.

Microsoft CRM 2005 - not quite around the corner

Just last week, Microsoft announced that their next generation CRM product will be delayed a little longer. Rather than coming out in the next few months, we're now looking at a fourth quarter release in 2005.

Microsoft CRM 2005 (formerly going to be called Microsoft CRM 2.0) is being held up in an attempt to add some more of the features that partners have been requesting. One of the big topics is to make installation easier and require just a few clicks. Other areas for improvement include workflow and more exposed API's for developers to extend the solution.

I guess i'll be waiting a little while longer before seeing the new and improved customization tools that were supposed to be available.

Convergence 2005 is less than a month away

The annual Microsoft Business Solutions customer conference will be here before you know it. Convergence 2005 starts on March 6th in San Diego, CA. Be sure to visit the official website and register ASAP.
Here is a summary from the website....

Convergence 2005
March 6-9, 2005
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, California, United States

Welcome to Convergence 2005, the premier event for Microsoft Business Solutions customers. Each year we come together for an intense four days of sharing ideas and exploring ways that will increase the efficiency of your business now and in the future. Thank you for joining us.

Convergence 2005 promises to be our most exciting event ever. You will be busy from the moment you arrive - from the opening sessions and plentiful networking opporunities and hands-on labs and in-depth solutions sessions. You'll also be treated to compelling presentations from Microsoft's most inspiring executives, including Bill Gates and Doug Burgum.

This is your conference, so we encourage you to make the most of it. Widen your circle of contacts. Expand your knowledge base. Identifiy new business opportunities. Convergence is about creating memorable experiences that can help unlock your true business potentional. It's where issues become answers. And in 2005, it's where business is headed.

I'm definitely going to be there. I've never been to Convergence before, i'm more of a Tech Conference kinda guy, but i've heard for years how awesome this event is so i'm really looking forward to it. I hope to see my fellow MVP's there and i'll be hanging out in the new MBS Community Room as well. See ya in San Diego!

Want to beta test SQL 2000 SP4?

Service Pack 4 for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is currently being beta tested. You can sign up to be a beta tester. Just check out this page.

"SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4) includes a roll-up of bug fixes, added platform support for AMD64, and Intel Extended Platforms in WOW so you can use 32-bit applications on 64-bit architectures. This is the first service pack to service the 64-bit release of SQL Server. SP4 is suitable for all SQL Server 2000 customers who want to update their existing installations to incorporate all changes since SP3a. In particular, customers who want to use their 32-bit applications on 64-bit hardware should consider the SQL Server 2000 SP4 beta." -- From Microsoft

Also on that page, you'll find a few other SQL-related beta programs available including SQL Reporting Services Service Pack 2 and SQL 2005 Express Beta Service Pack 2.

The notes on the Reporting Services SP2 mention some new Sharepoint webparts for viewing and browsing reports. Sounds like a nice way to integrate those SQL RS reports into your Sharepoint portal.

Microsoft CRM 2005 is just around the corner

The word on the street is that Microsoft CRM 2005 (formerly Microsoft CRM 2.0) will be released to manufacturing (RTM) in March with general availability (GA) this summer.

The enhancement i'm most looking forward to is the improved customization tools. Supposedly you'll be able to do a lot more with the built-in tools than you could in the previous 1.x versions. You were very limited - adding a new field to an existing table and form was about the most complicated thing you could do. Anything else required .Net development. I don't think i should have to right any VB code if i just want to add a new table or a new window. The schema in CRM 2005 is supposed to be much more extensible with the built-in customization tools - you can easily add new objects such as tables and forms that didn't exist.

There is also talk that there will be a special bundled edition that will combine Small Business Server 2003 and Microsoft CRM 2005.

I'm trying to get my hands on a beta of CRM 2005 so i can provide a better review. I'll keep you posted.

Problem starting Server and Workstation services after installing Great Plains

Edit : August 2011 - This post is over 6 years old and it's the most popular post I've ever made. Still going strong! It's one of the top Google results for this type of error.   Still getting dozens of hits per day. Nearly 100 comments! I'm glad I could give something back to my fellow IT pros. I know I spend most of MY day researching errors on Google as well.   (PS - why not throw me a bone and click an ad on my site, like one of the banners up top? I might earn a penny or two. hehe  Thanks!!)
--


I've stumbled across a rather odd issue the past few weeks. At first I just thought it was a typical Windows problem but when it started turning up on more than one machine, i figured there had to be a common thread.

Here is the problem. Your XP machine can't browse the network. You can get the internet just fine but can't connect to any servers. As you are troubleshooting the problem, you discover that several Windows services are not running - Server, Workstation, Computer Browser, Net Logon, among others. These services not running will definitely prevent you from browsing your network and connecting to other machines.

So you try to start Computer Browser manually - it tells you it can't start the service because it has a dependency on another service - which turns out to be Server and/or Workstation service.

So now you try to start Server or Workstation service and you get the same error message on both of them - "The system cannot find the file specified". It also registers an Event 7023 in the event log and says "The system cannot find the file specified." This was happening on my laptop for a few days and i wasn't having much luck finding a solution. In fact, i was getting ready to re-install Windows XP.

But then i ran into the exact same problem on a few workstations at a clients site that i was just working on. They were going thru an upgrade to Great Plains 8.0. So i decided to look a little bit on PartnerSource, which i hadn't checked before since i didn't think it was a GP related issue. I did find an article that talks about this problem. Here is the link for CustomerSource or ParterSource users.

The title is - Error 1068 "The specified file cannot be found" and the Workstation Service Does Not Start After Installing or Updating Great Plains (869971).

What seems to be happening is the installation, update or maybe uninstall of Great Plains is wiping out some registry entries that point to the location of the .dll files that run the Server and Workstation services. So you need to edit the registry and put these keys back in place.

Here are the steps from the TK article:

WARNING If a mistake is made on any of the instructions listed below, you may not be able to restart your system. If you are not familiar with the Registry, please seek assistance from Microsoft or your local Microsoft support representative. Microsoft can be reached at 1-800-426-9400.

1. IMPORTANT - Back up your system before making these changes. It is also important to create a new Emergency Repair Disk.

2. Verify that ServiceDll is stored in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM CurrentControlSet Services lanmanworkstation Parameters

3. You should see an entry with the Name of ServiceDll, Type REG_EXPAND_SZ and Data value of %systemroot%\system32\wkssvc.dll.

4. If this entry does not exist, you can add it with the following steps: a. Choose Edit-New-Expandable String Value. b. Name the new value ServiceDll (it is case sensitive). c. Double-click on this new value and specify Value data: %systemroot%\system32\wkssvc.dll. You could also copy the reg key from a working workstation.

5. After the entry is added to the registry you should be able to start the Workstation Service. NOTE - The uninstall/install of Great Plains does not remove this registry entry.

Ok, so those steps tell you how to get the location of the Workstation service dll back into the registry. You may find that the last key "Parameters" is missing all together. If that is the case, then right click on LanManWorkstation and select New->Key and name this Parameters. Then continue with step 3.

But in my experience, i was missing both Workstation and Server dlls and all of the machines that had the problem. So here are my additional notes on how to get the Server service running again.

The Registry location is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM - CurrentControlSet - Services - LanManServer - Parameters. Again, i was missing "Parameters" key all together so right-click on LanManServer and select New->Key and name it "Parameters". Then in this folder, create a new entry named ServiceDll, of type Reg_Expand_SZ (Expandable String Value) and a data value of %systemroot%\system32\srvsvc.dll. This is the dll for Server service. With this new entry in place, you should now be able to start the Service service as well.

With Server and Workstation service both running, you should now be able to start Computer Browser and any other services that were dependent on them. This should get you properly connected back to the network.

So i've seen this happen on 3-4 different machines now. The one thing in common would be that they previously had Great Plains Dynamics 6.0 un-installed and then Great Plains 8.0 installed. Must be something to do with the Great Plains 8.0 installation since i've un-installed Dynamics 6.0 a million times and have never seen this problem. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this situation with my other upcoming Great Plains upgrades. I hope this can help someone else and save you from re-installing Windows like I was about to do.

Update : I seem to be getting lots of hits from Google searches concerning this problem. If you've run into this situation and my article helped you, please click down below on the comments link and leave a note, or shoot me an email - TechRoundup@jasonhartman.net. If this looks like a wide spread issue, i can pass the info along to my contacts at Microsoft and see how we can get this taken care of or at least publish some better TechKnowledge articles about it. Thanks for your help!

Jason Hartman selected as Microsoft MVP for Great Plains!

Just wanted to pat myself on the back and let you know that i've been named a "Microsoft MVP" for the Microsoft Business Solutions - Great Plains product line. This is the first year anyone has received the award for Great Plains so i'm very honored to be among the first 3 recipients.

The Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award is given out to customers and partners that are active in the various technical communities - websites, forums, blogs, newsgroups, etc. They demonstrate a high level of expertise in their subject area and have a willingness to share this expertise with the Microsoft community. You can read more about the program here.

Here is the breakdown for all of the MBS MVP's for 2005.

• Habib Salim - Great Plains
• Jason Hartman - Great Plains
• Victoria Yudin - Great Plains
• Glenn Adams - Retail Mgmt System
• Scott Colson - Microsoft CRM
• John O'Donnell - Microsoft CRM
• Matt Parks - Microsoft CRM
• Erik P. Ernst - Navision
• Luc Van Dyck - Navision

Congrats to all of my fellow recipients. I'm looking forward to the coming year as an MVP and hope to continue providing valuable info to the MBS Community.

MBS Community Chats this week

The MBS Community is running two chat sessions this week...

Title: What's New in Microsoft Navision 4.0

Description: Have questions about using the new release of Microsoft Navision? Experts from the product management and product support teams answer your questions on features, configuration, compatibility, and more.

Date: 1/11/2005
Time: 8:30 AM PDT

URL: Click here

Title: Microsoft Solomon 6.0 and Business Portal 2.5

Description: Have questions about the recent Microsoft Solomon and Microsoft Business Portal releases? Jim Rowney and Scott Tucker of the Microsoft Solomon product development team tackle your questions about the new features and functionality--as well as best practices for the daily management of your organization's data. Whether you're curious about using the new Favorites feature, assigning resources to tasks, or configuring a new role in Business Portal 2.5, Jim and Scott are here to help.

Date: 1/12/2005
Time: 11:00 AM PDT

URL: Click here

The Ultimate Gadget

First of all, just wanted to wish everyone a happy and successful 2005.

For Christmas, i bought myself "The Ultimate Gadget". It's a Pocket PC - specifically the Dell Axim x50v. Being the big nerd that i am, i can't believe i've gone all of these years without ever owning a PDA of any sorts. Now seemed to be the right time to do it - this Dell Axim is more powerful than some of the PC's in my office!

Lets take a quick look at the specs and features...

Intel 624mhz X-scale processor
64MB of RAM / 128MR of ROM
Slots for both an SD memory card and a Compact Flash card
Runs Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition with Windows Media Player 10
A beautiful 3.7" VGA display, capable of 640x480 resolution!
Integrated Intel 2700g graphics processor with 16MB of RAM
Integrated 802.11b Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity

With such incredible graphics processing power, many people are ripping their DVD's down to fit on the SD or CF cards and playing movies on them! I've played a few smaller movie trailers so far - still working on getting a full length movie on there. Video games are also top notch. Can't wait to take this on the plane with me next time!

It's very cool to be able to wander around the house with your PDA and surf the net and check email at the same time with its built-in wifi card. Another cool trick, is to use a wireless Bluetooth keyboard such as the Dell Executive Bluetooth Keyboard. This makes it MUCH easier to type an email or jot down some notes, rather than trying to tap on the tiny on-screen keyboard or use the hand writing recognizer.

I've also found an excellent source for information on my Dell Axim over at www.AximSite.com, especially on their message boards.

For my next trick, i'd like to get a new Bluetooth enabled cell phone and allow my Axim to connect to it wirelessly and use the phone as a modem to get me out to the Internet from just about anywhere.