Month: September 2005

Changing MSDE Authentication Scheme After Installation

If you are using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000) you are supposed to decide if you are going to use “integrated windows authentification” only or if you are using “mixed mode authetication”. Latter is sometimes considered less secure but if you are developing ASP.NET applications it can be easier to use a non-NT user for the connection.

If you ever tried that you are surly familiar with the “login is not associated with a trusted connection” exception when trying to access the database. Today I had to install an ASP.NET application on a server with MSDE where mixed mode authentication was not available. A quick research on the net revieled a blog entry indicating how to change the authentication scheme of MSDE after the installation.

  • Stop the MSDE service
  • Search the registry for

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MSSqlserver\MSSqlServer

    (for unnamed instances) or

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\Instance Name\MSSQLServer\

    (for named instances)

  • Change the key LoginMode to value 2.

Unlike a comment on the page, value 0 will not work (at least it didn’t in my case).

Opera for Free

Opera is now available for free, ads and registration have been removed.

Just gave it a quick try, and I have to say, I like it 😉 I think, Firefox is going to have to co-exist with Opera on my HDD.

Update: According to Heise.de (German), Opera has been downloaded over 1 million times within only two days, more than any previous (ad-enabled) version.

Server-Side Bookmarks: SiteBar

I currently work on several computers quite simultaniously and I am also browsing the net using these different machines. In past times this often caused that I had some bookmarks on computer A and others on computer B. According to Murphy’s Law, I always needed a link of a computer which was currently not available.

The solution to this problem is obvious: using a server based bookmark management. On my search for free solutions I found SiteBar which seems to be quite popular. It can be set up in different modes for shared bookmarks of many users and for individuals. I used the latter mode for my installation as it is to be used by me exclusively. Still, the installation features a public and private area for links so not all links can be seen by every visitor.

SiteBar integrates well with all browsers. I had no problems importing my bookmarks files from Firefox and I’ve now set up special shortcut links in my links list on all browser instances I use across the different computers to add the currently viewed site to my SiteBar. The “integrator page” lists several useful plugins for various browsers which allow (for some browsers) to sync local bookmarks and server bookmarks. This particularely solves the problem of bookmarks being only available if the server is online. The corresponding plugin for Firefox is in beta statdium at the moment and only supports syncing server to local bookmarks up to now.

At the moment, we are also evaluating to use SiteBar for the development team at our company to share important links to various resources.

Java and OLE: Commercial Libary

COM and ActiveX components are still important technologies for interoperation on Microsoft Windows. One of the powers of the .NET platform is easy integration with existing code in the mentioned form. For Java-developers, the idea of COM and ActiveX seems strange at a frist glance as it obviously kills platfrom independence, one of the key benefits and the USP of Java most often cited. Still, when focusing on the Windows desktop, integration of existing technologies, especially Micosoft Office, is often an important requirenment. A commercial library promissing easy integration of COM and ActiveX components in Java Swing applications can be found here.