Reinstall OEM-installed Windows 8.1

One of the first steps of the re-installation process of Windows 8.1 is that it asks for a Windows key. There is a "bug" that prevents a valid Windows key from working when the general Windows 8 installation disk is used on a laptop with a pre-installed OEM version.

Fortunately, if there are no installation disks supplied, then Windows 8.1 can still be easily re-installed on such a laptop, for example on another partition or disk:

1. Get a copy of the Windows 8.1 ISO, e.g. "Windows_8.1_EN-US_x64.ISO" and extract the contents to a USB stick

2. Bypass the Windows key screen by creating an ei.cfg text file in the sources folder on the USB stick. It should contain the following (replace "Core" with "Professional", if you have a valid key for that edition):

[EditionID]

Core

[Channel]

Retail

[VL]

0

3. Restart the laptop with the USB stick in it. The initial Windows key screen is skipped. During the latter part of the installation another Windows key screen pops up. Here the genuine valid key can be entered

Notes

• It has to be a USB stick, an external disk will not work: Win 8 can only be installed from an USB stick or a DVD
• Unfortunately, I cannot supply a link to the above mentioned ISO file
• Make sure the BIOS settings are such that the USB stick can be booted from and is the first in the sequence of bootable devices. Check how to enter the BIOS and set the bootable USB device on the site of the laptop manufacturer. Each manufacturer has a different method. For Lenovo IdeaPad: press and hold the small round button next to the power adapter entrance during a reboot

SQL Server contained database feature

SQL Server 2012 has a "contained database" feature.

In the normal case the logins of the (SQL Server) server are coupled to the users in each of its databases. The logins are stored in its MASTER database. If a database gets restored to another server, then the mapping is lost and you end up with "orphaned users". Those accounts can no longer access the database.

For a contained database on a SQL Server:

• The server logins are not used/required. Users can be created and used without a matching login on the server. These users are called "portable users"
• The database handles the autorization instead of the server. This is called "contained database authentication". Activate this delegation of functionality on the server:
  

  EXEC sp_configure 'contained database authentication',1
  GO
  RECONFIGURE

  In SSMS, a new option appears in the ->Security->Users->New User... screen: "SQL User with password"
• Works for SQL and Active Directory Accounts, e.g. statement for both without logins:
  

  CREATE USER [testdomain\testuser]
  CREATE USER [biuser]

Notes:

• Partial containment: in 2012 only the "partial containment" functionality works. In the future a "full containment" option if foreseen
• Connect from SSMS: you need to specify the database, otherwise the connection attempt fails, because the database is now doing the authentication
• Security: once a portable user gains access to a contained database through contained database authentication, that user also ends up gaining guest access to all other databases on the host system
• Conversion: conventional existing users can be converted into portable users through the use of a special stored procedure: sp_migrate_user_to_contained. It provides an argument that you can use to specify whether or not to disable the server-level login -- something you'll typically want to do as a best practice to avoid ugly login problems that can occur when duplicate logins and users overlap each other
• Downsides: no cross-database joins, linked server use, database mail, possible tempdb colation issues. Use "select * from  sys.dm_db_uncontained_entities" to check containment readiness

PowerPivot cannot load from procedure with info messages

Data can be loaded into PowerPivot from a SQL Server stored procedure, but the procedure cannot contain:

• PRINT statements, like print 'lets start'
• informational RAISERROR events, like raiserror ('lets start', 0, 1)

Both return messages to the client. Tools like Management Studio can handle these messages and display them in a separate window. PowerPivot handles them like the returned data and fails reporting an error. The error is not very helpful:

OLE DB or ODBC error: lets start; 01000.
An error occurred while processing table 'Query'.
The current operation was cancelled because another operation in the transaction failed.

The only solution is to remove these instructions from the procedure and any procedures it might call. There is no way to suppress this on the OLEDB connection during the call to the procedure.

It is also advisable to have the following two instructions at the start of the procedure:

• set fmtonly off
• set nocount on

LISTAGG / implode solution for SQL Server

Group multiple records into one and concatenate the values of the string/text values of a field:

ALTER view [dbo].[vcomments] as
with x as
(
select
cmt_domain,
cmt_indx,
cmt_seq,
concat(cmt_cmmt1,cmt_cmmt2,cmt_cmmt3,cmt_cmmt4,cmt_cmmt5,cmt_cmmt6,cmt_cmmt7,cmt_cmmt8,cmt_cmmt9,cmt_cmmt10,cmt_cmmt11,cmt_cmmt12,cmt_cmmt13,cmt_cmmt14,cmt_cmmt15) as cmt_cmmt,
cmt_lang
from
v_cmt_det_act
)
select
cmt_domain,
cmt_indx,
--FOR XML PATH returns a one record XML datatype in which all records are "unioned".
-- However, special characters are encoded as excape sequences, i.e. "<" becomes "<"
-- To reverse the encoding, get the entire root document/element as a value using the VALUE function.
-- The [1] is required because VALUE expects a singleton, i.e. exactly ONE element
rtrim(substring(
(
select char(10) + '[PAGE ' + cast(x2.cmt_seq as nvarchar(2)) + ']' + char(10) + x2.cmt_cmmt -- a field with no name gets no XML element to enclosed it. In short, the XML tag is removed
from x x2
where x1.cmt_domain = x2.cmt_domain and x1.cmt_indx = x2.cmt_indx
order by x2.cmt_seq
for XML PATH (''), type -- the brackets indicate the XML root element. Specifying an empty string as root element name removes it
).value('(/)[1]','nvarchar(max)')
,2,100000)) as cmt_cmmt
from
(
select distinct cmt_domain, cmt_indx
from x
) x1

Query Active Directory from SQL Server

Get active directory server and LDAP servers in a domain
nltest /dclist:sub.dom.com

results amongst others in:
\\dcserver1.sub.dom.com -> dcserver1 is the AD server

Analyse active directory structure
Use Sysinternals ADExplorer to analyse the structure of active directory. Connect to server: dcserver1

Users in a group from command prompt
net group adtestgroup /domain

Active Directory structure in FROM clause
E.g. FROM "LDAP://sub.dom.com/OU=Groups,OU=Global,DC=sub,DC=dom,DC=com"

LDAP = case-sensitive protocol name, always this value
Before the slash: sub.dom.com, is the domain for which to find the AD structure
After the slash: the part of the tree to search. Specified from right to left. So in the example, from parent to child:
com -> dom -> sub -> Global -> Groups -> ADTestGroup, searches the nodes beneath the lowest level, which is ADTestGroup

The names ("dom", "Groups", etc), type ("OU", "CN", "DC") and depth of the levels are dynamic. So check with ADExplorer how AD is configured in the specific instance.

Users in a group from SQL Server
First, add a linked server to ADSI (fill with correct password for DOMAIN\ACCOUNT):

exec sp_addlinkedserver @server = 'ADSI', @srvproduct = 'Active Directory Services 2.5', @provider = 'ADSDSOObject', @datasrc = 'adsdatasource'
exec sp_addlinkedsrvlogin @rmtsrvname = 'ADSI', @useself = 'False', @locallogin = null, @rmtuser = 'DOMAIN\ACCOUNT', @rmtpassword = '********'

Select users in group "adtestgroup":

select * from openquery(ADSI,'
    SELECT objectCategory, cn, sn, mail, name, department, company
    FROM ''LDAP://sub.dom.com/DC=sub,DC=dom,DC=com''
    WHERE MemberOf=''CN=adtestgroup,OU=Groups,OU=Global,DC=sub,DC=dom,DC=com''
    ORDER BY cn
')

Unfortunately, dynamic sql is not possible inside a udf, so a procedure is needed:

alter procedure cst_usersingroup(@grp nvarchar(100))
as
begin
    declare @sql as nvarchar(max) = '
    select samaccountname as accountname, name, mail, department, title, company
    from openquery(ADSI,''
        SELECT objectCategory, cn, sn, mail, name, department, company, title, samaccountname
        FROM ''''LDAP://sub.dom.com/DC=sub,DC=dom,DC=com''''
        WHERE MemberOf=''''CN=' + @grp + ',OU=Groups,OU=Global,DC=sub,DC=dom,DC=com'''''')
    x
    order by samaccountname'

    exec(@sql)
end

Select all BI_* and EDW_* groups from active directory:

select lower(cn) as grp, whencreated, whenchanged, distinguishedname
from openquery(ADSI,'
    SELECT cn, distinguishedname, whencreated, whenchanged
    FROM ''LDAP://sub.dom.com/OU=Groups,OU=Global,DC=sub,DC=dom,DC=com''
    where CN=''bi_*'' or  CN=''edw_*''
') x
order by cn

Notes:

• In most cases, all domain users can query AD using the basic search method specified before. More advanced AD search methods might be disabled and require special rights

Create schema with separate autorization

Perform the following steps in SQL Server to create a schema called "bi" and give create view rights to user "domain\testuser":

CREATE SCHEMA [bi]
CREATE ROLE [db_bischema]
ALTER AUTHORIZATION ON SCHEMA::bi TO [db_bischema]
GRANT CREATE VIEW TO [db_bischema] -- "create view" includes the power to drop views
ALTER ROLE [db_bischema] ADD MEMBER [domain\testuser]

Advantages:

• If views are removed from or added to the schema, autorization does not need to be added to each individual view
• Give certain users the rights to (re)create the views inside the schema, without the risk of modification of the rest of the database

Pass table-valued parameter from VB.Net

1) Create table type itemtabletype for a table with one, unique clustered column called "item":

create type itemtabletype
as table (
item nvarchar(30) not null,
primary key clustered (item)
)

2) Create a procedure cst_testtabletype that has itemtable type as a table-valued input parameter:

create procedure cst_testtabletype

( @tv itemtabletype readonly )

as

begin

declare @itemcount int = 0

select @itemcount = count(*) from @tv

select concat('succesfully parsed item ',item) from @tv

end

The procedure returns all items provided in the table-valued parameter prefixed with the words "successfully parsed item ".

3) Give execution rights to user(s) and/or groups that are allowed to execute the procedure and table type:

grant exec on type::itemtabletype to [User]
grant exec on cst_testtabletype to [User]

4) Finally, create the following test routine  in VB.Net:

    Public Sub Start()

        'create data table
        Dim Table1 As DataTable

        'create a table named tmptbl
        Table1 = New DataTable("tmptbl")

        Dim row As DataRow

        Try

            'declare a column named item
            Dim item As DataColumn = New DataColumn("item")

            'setting the datatype for the column
            item.DataType = System.Type.GetType("System.String")

            'adding the column to table
            Table1.Columns.Add(item)

            'declaring a new row
            Dim i As Integer
            For i = 1 To 1000
                row = Table1.NewRow()
                row.Item("item") = i
                Table1.Rows.Add(row)
            Next

        Catch

        End Try

        'establishing connection. you need to provide password for SQL server
        Dim myConnection = New SqlConnection()

        myConnection.ConnectionString = "Server=mySQLServer;Database=myDB;Trusted_Connection=True;"

        Try

            myConnection.Open()

            Dim myCommand As New SqlCommand("cst_testtabletype", myConnection)

            ' the table-valued parameter is called @tv for cst_testtabletype
            Dim myparam As SqlParameter = myCommand.Parameters.Add("@tv", SqlDbType.Structured)
            'create parameter
            myCommand.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure
            myparam.Value = Table1

            Dim dr As SqlDataReader = myCommand.ExecuteReader()
            While dr.Read()
                Debug.Print(dr.Item(0))
            End While

        Catch ex As SqlException

            MsgBox(ex.Message)

        End Try

    End Sub

IsNumeric() stinks

Read the thoroughly insightful and funny post by Mike Teevee as a reaction to the technet documentation with regards to the useless ISNUMERIC() function introduced in SQL Server 2012:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186272.aspx

Select "SQL Server 2012" under "Other Versions", otherwise the post is hidden.

Silverlight not working because of font issue

If Silverlight is installed correctly, but still not working, check for Windows Fonts with an ampersand in the name and remove them:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/719317/silverlight-5-error-1001-font-filename-issue

Uneasy way to determine proxy server

Open a command prompt and perform the following steps:

1. Inspect the output of netstat -an | find "EST" (short from 'ESTABLISHED')
2. Go to a fresh site (one that you have not recently visited)
3. Run the netstat command again, looking for the new connection. It might look like:
   TCP 192.168.1.1:1989 192.168.1.88:8080 ESTABLISHED

(credits go to Royce Williams)

Alternatively, install TCPView and look at the remote address and remote port columns for the browser connections.

Configure Reporting Services proxy for Bing maps

Add the following XML element to the web.config of both folders:
...\MSSQL\MSRS11.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportManager\
...\MSSQL\MSRS11.MSSQLSERVER\Reporting Services\ReportServer\

Add at the end between the runtime close tag and configuration close tag:

</runtime>
<system.net>
     <settings>
          <ipv6 enabled="true" />
      </settings>
      <defaultProxy enabled="true" useDefaultCredentials="true">
           <proxy bypassonlocal="True" proxyaddress="http://:"/>
       </defaultProxy>
</system.net>
</configuration>

It might be needed to restart the Microsoft Reporting Services service.

Change records per page in Master Data Services

To change the number of records/rows per page in the Explorer view of Microsoft Master Data Services (MDS), do the following:

• Select an entity
• Click on Settings in the top-right corner
• Set "records per page"

Note:
This has to be done per entity and each time the entity is edited. It is not possible to set the records per page one time for all entities.

To change the number of entries in a dropdown list for all entities:

• Edit table master_data_services.dbo.tblSystemSetting
• Update the SettingValue for SettingName "DBAListRowLimit" to the desired value

Cannot map network drive to Sharepoint library

Example error: "Your client does not support opening this list with Windows Explorer"

Steps to check beforehand:

• Add Sharepoint web address to trusted sites within IE
• Login to Sharepoint with "remember this login" turned on

Solutions:

• Use IE 32-bit instead of the 64-bit version, if on a 64-bit Windows:
  c:\program files (x86)\internet explorer\iexplore.exe
• Install Desktop Experience http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754314.aspx
  It is a feature that can be found in the server manager
• Uninstall IE10 - Windows automatically reverts back to IE 9 - or apply hotfix:
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2846960

Unable to read exported Excel workbook because of illegal character

After exporting from reporting services, Excel opens the workbook with one of the following errors:

"Replaced Part: /xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml part with XML error. Illegal xml character. Line 1, column 36242."

"Excel found unreadable content in..."

SOLUTION

1. Rename the Excel workbook from *.xlsx to *.zip
2. Within the zip file, open the folder \xl\worksheets and open file sheet1.xml in a text editor, i.e. Notepad++
3. Use Notepad++'s GOTO feature to go to position 36242 and determine the offending character
4. Replace this character in the report's source, i.e. by using the SQL REPLACE function if the source is a plain SQL query
   Note: this is a reactive measure. Each time the error occurs, the character needs to be determined and replaced

For example, these Unicode characters cannot be part of the value in any field in the report:

code: visual representation
26: [SUB]
191: ¿

OCR a (region of a) PDF using C# and "freeware"

Perform the following steps:

1) Install Ghostscript to make conversion of PDF possible:
https://code.google.com/p/ghostscript/downloads/list

2) Install Imagemagick to convert more easily from PDF to JPG:
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/binary-releases.php#windows

3) Install MODI using Sharepoint Designer 2007, if the Office version on the system is more recent then 2007:
Download Sharepoint Designer 2007
Start setup, custom, disable all
Then select all options under Microsoft Office Document Imaging

By default (on English Windows) only four English-alike languages can be recognized, so install other language packs, e.g. for Japanese or Chinese if needed. In Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate this can be done using the "optional updates" from the Windows Update tool In other versions additional languages are not available.

4) From C#, add COM reference to Microsoft Office Document Imaging

5a) Convert a PDF page to JPG from code by executing the following command line syntax:

Whole page:
convert -type grayscale -density 300 jp.pdf[0] jp.jpg

Region of the page:

convert -type grayscale -density 300 jp.pdf[0] -crop 600x600+50+50 jp_crop.jpg

5b) Convert the JPG image to text

Example C# code:

MODI.Document d = new MODI.Document();
d.Create(@"c:\tmp\image\jp_crop.jpg");
d.OCR(MODI.MiLANGUAGES.miLANG_ENGLISH, false, false);
MODI.Image i = d.Images[0];
Debug.WriteLine(i.Layout.Text.ToString());

Note:

• If the OCR statement returns a "bad language" error, then install the requested language pack
• If the OCR statement returns a "document not ready" error, then uninstall and reinstall MODI by using remove programs and rerunning the Sharepoint Designer setup
• The language of the text that is parsed needs to be known and set in the OCR function

Analysis Services fails with "attribute key cannot be found" on Unicode field

ERROR
The attribute key cannot be found when processing: Table: 'dbo_viu_isb', Column: 'city', Value: '　'. The attribute is 'City'.

OR

The attribute key cannot be found when processing: Table: 'dbo_viu_isb', Column: 'customername', Value: 'ﾊﾟﾅｿﾆｯｸ（株）'. The attribute is 'Customername'.

CAUSE
The problem is caused by the Unicode nature of the SPACE character in the text field in the database. In the field are for example Kanji characters and unicode has about 18 characters for SPACE:

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/category/Zs/list.htm

There is no way to tell Analysis Services or SQL Server the difference between these spaces. In short: collation, case sensitivity, accent sensitivity, width sensitivity or Kana sensitivity have no influence.

WORKAROUND
Convert all the kind of SPACE characters to one SPACE character, e.g:
replace(ad_.ad_name,' ',' ') as ad_name

This appears to do nothing, but the first empty space finds ALL space characters, e.g. ASCII 32 and Unicode 12288 and the second parameter converts it to ONE space (Unicode 32)

Openrowset fails with "network access was interruped"

A SQL Server openrowset query using ODBC to retrieve data from an Excel spreadsheet fails with the error:

"Your network access was interrupted. To continue close the database and then open it again."

Example Openrowset query (Excel 2010+):

SELECT *
FROM OPENROWSET('MSDASQL', 'Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};Dbq=C:\temp\test.xlsx;Uid=;pwd=;','SELECT * FROM [memberlist$]')

Solution:

• Disable all network connections and try again. Only works if the frontend (e.g. Management Studio) and the backend (SQL Server database) are on the same machine
• Change SQL Server service user to an NT account

Remarks:

• In some cases, activating the network connections again will prevent the error from occurring
• In some cases, changing the NT account to the "local service" account will prevent the error from occurring
• The MSDASQL keyword indicates that openrowset will use the ODBC driver in stead of an OLE DB driver

Packing intervals

Solution to the "packing intervals" problem by Itzik Ben-Gan:
http://www.solidq.com/sqj/Pages/2011-March-Issue/Packing-Intervals.aspx

Scroll to code listing 4 for the SQL code.

Registration is required to copy and paste the code. It can only be copy and pasted from the PDF that can be downloaded after registration.

Execute query under cursor

There is no way in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to execute the query under the cursor. There is the option to execute the entire script with F5 or CTRL+E, but the script might contain multiple SQL statements.

The quickest solution is to install a freeware add-in:

• Download dbForge SQL Complete:
  Note: registration is required
• Install the add-in

The option for auto-capitalization and intellisense is enabled by default. This can be disabled, so only the "execute query under the cursor" (CTRL+SHIFT+E) feature remains:

• Start SMSS
• SQL Complete -> Options -> General -> uncheck "Enable SQL Complete"

Count of weekend days in date range

Use the formula in "calc_name" or "calc_df" to calculate the number of inclusive weekend dates in a date range. Inclusive means that if e.g. the start date is a Saturday, it is counted as 1. The code is pure SQL Server T-SQL, with no need for helper tables or cursors.

Note:

• "Set datefirst" is not needed, but can be used to check the correct outcome of the "calc_df" calculation
• The "calc_df" function is more robust, since it does not rely on localized day names. But it is a bit more verbose and obfuse then "calc_name"
• Column "correct" contains the correct number of weekend dates that can be used as a reference for the calculation
• Subquery X contains some random test values for start- and enddates

SET DATEFIRST 7

SELECT
x.*,
(DATEDIFF(wk, sd, ed) * 2)
  +(CASE WHEN DATENAME(dw, sd) = 'Sunday' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)
  +(CASE WHEN DATENAME(dw, ed) = 'Saturday' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) as calc_name,
DATEDIFF(wk, sd, ed) * 2
  +CASE DATEPART(dw, sd)+@@datefirst WHEN 8 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
  +CASE DATEPART(dw, ed)+@@datefirst WHEN 7 THEN 1 WHEN 14 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END as calc_df,
@@DATEFIRST as datefirst,
(DATEDIFF(wk, sd, ed) * 2) as weeks,
CASE WHEN DATENAME(dw, sd) = 'Sunday' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END as sun_start,
CASE DATEPART(dw, sd)+@@datefirst WHEN 8 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END as sun_start_df,
CASE WHEN DATENAME(dw, ed) = 'Saturday' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END as sat_end,
CASE DATEPART(dw, ed)+@@datefirst WHEN 7 THEN 1 WHEN 14 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END as sat_end_df,
DATEPART(dw, sd)+@@datefirst as sun_df,
DATEPART(dw, ed)+@@datefirst as sat_df
from
(
select 1 as correct, '2013/3/17' as sd, '2013/3/22' as ed union
select 2 as correct, '2013/3/16' as sd, '2013/3/22' as ed union
select 2 as correct, '2013/3/16' as sd, '2013/3/17' as ed union
select 3 as correct, '2013/3/16' as sd, '2013/3/23' as ed union
select 3 as correct, '2013/3/10' as sd, '2013/3/22' as ed
) x