MOSSIG Launch a huge success

Last night was the launch of the Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group (MOSSIG), which was a huge success. We had around 50 people registered for this inargural event and about 40 people turned up. This shows that there is a great interest in the new Ofice System. At the end of the night we had a show of hands as to who found the evening enjoyable and interesting and who would attend another MOSSIG event (overwelming support).

It was clear last night that the participants would like a community feel to the SIG, this will involve getting together to discuss and solve real world problems in a group forum, participating in discussion threads and attending presentation evenings like last night.

Some future presentation topics are already in discussions: InfoPath Server 2007 (Ben Walters), Enterprise Content Management in MOSS 2007 (William Cornwill), Workflow in MOSS 2007 (Tim Wragg).

If you have any ideas on what could be presented, if you have experiences you would like to present or if you have any ideas on how the MOSSIG could operate please post comments to this entry.

Launch of Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group (MOSSIG)

27 JUNE, 6PM

The 2007 Office release is the most significant release of Office for a decade, adding further servers, applications and services to expand and enhance the Office System.

The challenge for us, our businesses and our clients is to collectively know and apply the features that the Office System brings.

Introducing the Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group (MOSSIG) which has been formed specifically with the Victoria.NET members as a community to learn and share their experiences whether they be application, server or solution based.

We will be kicking off our inaugural meeting next Tuesday the 27th June at 6pm with a jam packed session for Office Users and Developers alike, so please consider passing this invitation on to your non-developer colleagues as well.

PRESENTATIONS:

A Lap Around The Office 2007 System

Join Tim Wragg (Professional Advantage) as he gives us an overview of the new & updated servers, applications and services for the Office 2007 System

The new Microsoft Office 2007 Interface - Business Focus Topic

Join William Cornwill (SDM) as he discusses why Microsoft has changed the interface and the new features

Developer view of Microsoft Office 2007 - Business Data - Technology Focus Topic

Join Ed Richard (Software Objectives) as he talks about data storage of Sharepoint 2007 and using Line Of Business data in applications like Word and Excel.

Open Forum

A chance to Network with each other and open up the floor to discuss their thoughts and experiences with the Office System

TO REGISTER:  E-mail Ed Richard at Ed@SoftwareObjectives.com.au, by COB on Monday 26 June.

Antivirus (AVG) plugin not compatible with Outlook 2007

Having sent some emails using the new Outlook 2007 Beta 2, I noticed that they were being delivered with no content in the body. I determined that the AVG Anti-virus plug-in that scans incoming/outgoing emails is not Outlook 2007 Beta 2 aware and strips out all content coming in or going out. I have now disabled the plug-in in AVG and emails are flowing again.

If you use any other applications that use plug-ins for Outlook, you might wish to review that they are functioning as intended.

Mapping host headers causes looping Windows Authentication

A new feature added to Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows XP SP2 (Loopback check security, that helps mitigate reflection attacks). If you configure an IIS site to use a host header and configure that site to use windows integrated authentication, you may have experienced problems logging in to the site.

The symptoms can include:

• IIS prompting for credentials event though you are logged into the domain and have configured IE to pass credentials automatically.
• Not being able to log into the site no matter what username/password you use
• Getting HTTP 404.1 when trying to access the site
• Authentication events in the security event log like Event ID 537 : An error occurred during logon

A detailed description of the issue can be found at: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=896861

To resolve the issue you can either turn off the loopback check on the entire server or indicate which host header map back to the local loopback address. (I have found that only the disabling solved my issues).

Method 1: Disable Loopback Checking

• open regedit
• Find HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
• Create a new DWORD value called DisableLoopbackCheck and give it a value of 1
• Restart the computer

Method 2: Specify Host Names

• Open regedit
• Find HKLM\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\MSV1_0
• Create a new multi-string value called BackConnectionHostNames
• Add the host headers to this value that map back to the local loopback
• Restart your computer

MOSSIG - Microsoft Office System SIG has been formed

I along with three other colleagues Tim Wragg, Ed Richard, and Ben Walters are starting a new special interest group (MOSSIG - Microsoft Office System Special Interest Group). The SIG will be dedicated to the pursuit of all things Office 2007. The launch evening will be held on the 27th of June at Microsoft Melbourne at the Como Centre, so lock the date into your diary. The MOSSIG has been formed as part of the Victoria.NET group.

Office 2007 is on the way, and the public beta 2 has been released so goto http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx and check it out.