"An unexpected error has occurred” in Sharepoint - Find more details

Are you getting frustrated with “An unexpected error has occurred” in sharepoint 2007? I found some useful tips. You can get more error messages from MOSS especially when they are not written to the application log. Do follow the steps below to get more:

1. Go into the web.config of the specific sharepoint web and set custom errors to off. Search for customErrors tag

mode=”Off”

2. Turn on tracing and the callstack by setting both to true. Search for SafeMode

CallStack=”true” DirectFileDependencies=”10″ TotalFileDependencies=”50″ AllowPageLevelTrace=”true”>

Though event viewer also stores vital informaiton but above tricks are handy when a log in not written to EV

Security Validation error in sharepoint

While creating one of the sites from the browser i came an error saying "The security validation for this page is invalid. Click Back in your Webbrowser, refresh the page, and try your operation again"
I got bit confused as i didn't know where to find and sort it out so i checked few sections in central admin site found one place. You can check for this :

• Navigate thru the following Central Administration Site->application management->web application settings->"turn security validation off"

{61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} - "The update cannot be started because the content sources cannot be accessed" error in Sharepoint

I was trying to install moss 2007 on one of the rebuilt box and came across strange error. I googled it found out that actually the error CLSID {61738644-F196-11D0-9953-00C04FD919C1} is related to what i found in registry:

• Open  Start-->Run-->regedit.exe and goto HKCR->CLSID and search for the GUID
• With the registry editor open, ensure that your cursor is on the computer at the beginning of the tree (make sure you are not in the middle of some previous edit session in the registry editor).
• Edit-->Find and paste in the GUID. It'll stop at the application entry - and you will want to note the application name on the right side pane. In this example, it was the IIS WAMREG admin service that popped up.

This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool which is present in "Administrative Tools"; Follow the steps to sort out the error

• Now, open Component Services (typically, from the server - Start-->Administrative Tools-->Component Services), expand Component Services, Computers, My Computer, DCOM Config. Scroll down and find the application (IIS WAMREG in this case)
• Right-Click-->Properties and select the Security tab. You'll have some options here - the first block Launch and Activation Permissions - ensure that the Customize radio button is selected, and click Edit. Now, add your service account - giving it launch and activate - and in some requirements - remote launch / activate permission
• Restart IIS and continue on with no error

Micrsoft VPC 2007 v.s. VMWare Workstation 6.5

I did a real usage comparison of VPC 2007 and VMWare 6.5 and im astonished by my experience.
The great thing that microsoft has done is to provide VPC free of cost but in lieu of this the end user has to compromise in many areas like:

• It is really good for those who can use it free to have multiple environments on same machine provided they have good configured box in terms of memory and processor
• VPC is not good in performance; i felt it too by working with it even with good configured machine. If running with 1 GB then you have memory issues for VPC
• There is not server and client version of VPC
• VPC cant be used by network admins to manage and control various VPC images to be shared among different teams like dev, test, implemtation etc with variety of roles
• The admin console in VPC lacks in various configuration and settings
• Atleast 2 VPCs makes the host machine very slow
• Hardware detection of host is not that effective; For example if you have any software that virtually adds something to your h/w then VPC will do least; also you may have to install sound drivers and etc again in VPC
• Network configuration is not very flexible and not very effective
• No cloud computing support
• And much more. Im not against VPC as i like it too much but when for the good and positive side of effective and productive usage of a tool i felt the need of few above points. I wonder why microsoft can't make VPC more stronger and charge few more $ but to come out with a scalable and high performance tool

I wish if i could share the snapshots of VMWare Workstation but im running late for my dinner with friends and want to share this with  you all. VMWare Workstation 6.5 is just fantastic and im too impressed with this tool. This is what i explored in VMW so far

• It is not free but can be tried with a trial of 30 days but i hope that once you try it out then you wont let it go. It takes more space than VPC but its worth
• VMW is real fast like bolt
• I opened 3 images and all worked fine along with my host with 2 GB box
• Networking is really excellent in VMW
• Most of above points are taken care pretty well by this tool
• Many more features and definitely this is a better Virtual Imaging tool than VPC
• I was highly excited to see the working and performance of this tool

I can only say I've moved on from VPC to VMWare Workstation from today. I will be sharing more details and information on VMW