Microsoft released a developer beta of the next Windows Phone update codename “Mango” last week. Mango brings a lot of cool new features to the Windows Phone platform like Facebook and Windows Live Messenger chat integrated in the Messaging hub, Internet Explorer 9 and a lot of other improvements.

One of the smaller improvements is the capability to use SharePoint 2010 without a UAG (Forefront Unified Access Gateway). This will alow you to use Hosted SharePoint products like the offering from Genotec.

More about Windows Phone Mango:

You can simply manage and administrate Office 365 from your Powershell prompt or with your own Powershell scripts.

Here is how you can connect to Office 365 with Windows PowerShell:

First create a object with your Windows Live Credentials. This command will open a Windows in which you can enter your Windows Live Credentials for your Office365 Accout. In my case tmauer@tmaurer.onmicrosoft.com and my password.

$LiveCred = Get-Credential

You can open a new Session:

$Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

Now join the session with:

Import-PSSession $Session

To close the Session:

Remove-PSSession $Session

Now if you join the PS session with Enter-PSSession you can now work online and run commands like Get-User. More about working with Powershell and Office 365 in the next posts.

If you use a Hosted SharePoint 2010 and you try to open a Word Document or try to open a Document Library with Explorer SharePoint prompts for login credentials even you are already logged in. To stop this behavior in Internet Explorer you can simply add your SharePoint Site to the Local Intranet Zone.

This is because SharePoint uses Windows Authentication. We deiced to use Windows Authentication because only Windows Authentication allows you to easily use the full feature set of SharePoint Foundation 2010.

1. Open Internet options and click on the Security tab and choose Local Intranet
   
2. Now click on Sites. On the first Windows choose Advanced
   
3. Now add your SharePoint Site URL
   
4. Restart Internet Explorer

When you try to create a three-state workflow in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010, the state fields are maybe grayed out like in this screenshot below.

The reason for this is that there is no column to show the states for the documents of the document library. You can simply solve this issue, by adding the “choice” column to the document library.

1. Choose the document library in which you wanna create the workflow and click on the Library button in the Ribbon
2. Click on create Column
   
3. Choose the type “Choice” and make sure you add three states
   
4. Now these states are available in the three-state workflow.

Some days ago, I made a post about “How to use Microsoft Sharepoint Workspace 2010 with Genotec Hosted Sharepoint“. If you work on a Mac you can also use Microsoft Document Connection for Mac, which is included in Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac.

This shows you how you can use Document Connection for Mac with Hosted Sharepoint from Genotec.

1. Start Microsoft Document Connection and connect to a SharePoint Site
   
2. Add the  Addresse of your hosted Sharepoint Site
   
3. Add your Credentials
   
4. And now you are connected to your Site Collection
   

This guide will show you how to add a Genotec Hosted Sharepoint 2010 to your Sharepoint Workspace 2010.

1. First Startup Microsoft Sharepoint Workspace 2010
   
2. Add a new Sharepoint to your Sharepoint Workspace
   
3. Add the Domain of your hosted Sharepoint (sharepointhosting.ch, Hostedsharepoint.ch or your own Domainname)
   
4. Add your User Account and Password. Its Important that you add the Domain before your Username (CP\username)
   
5. Now wait until your Site is synced with your computer
   
6. Now you can see your Sharepoint Site Collection in the Launchbar and you can start working with Microsoft SharePoint Workspace.
   

Thats how you can connect a Genotec Hosted Sharepoint 2010 to your Sharepoint Workspace. I recommend that you use the “Remember my credentials” checkbox because your computer is not in the same Active Directory Domain.

In the last days we had a customer ticket which was escalated because a user in our Hosted Sharepoint 2010 environment had the following problem. He could not upload multiple documents because the button was grayed out and he got the message “This control is currently disabled”.

This is a feature which is a client integration component, which is available on machines with a installed Office 2010 client. So if you have a Windows 7 PC and Office 2010 installed you get the following:

1. The first time you navigate on the Document Library you get asked about a ActiveX Control Object
   
2. You can accept that
   
3. Maybe you get asked again
   
4. Now you can use the Upload Multiple Documents Button
5. And choose the Office Files
   

I found this solution in the technet forums

Okay for a real backup solution you should use a backup software like Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager or Symantec Backup Exec. But maybe you have customer which needs a backup of his Sharepoint Site Collection. You also could use the Backup Tool in the Sharepoint Central Administration, but if you need to automate that, you will need Powershell.

Backup a Site Collection:

Backup-SPSite -Identity "http://sharepoint.company.com" -Path "C:\Temp\backup1.bak" -Force

Restore a Site Collection:

Restore-SPSite "http://sharepoint.company.com" -Path C:\backup1.bak -HostHeaderWebApplication "http://WebAppname" -Force -Confirm:$False

Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 is one of the new products which supports Windows Powershell commands. Its really easy to do the most tasks you do normally in the Sharepoint Central Administration with Powershell.

Microsoft created a Powershell Snapin for Sharepoint 2010, which is called “Microsoft.Sharepoint.Powershell”. This enables a lot of new Powershell cmdlets for Sharepoint.

With this small scripts you can simply create a new WebApplication and/or a new Sharepoint Site Collection.

Add the Sharepoint cmdlets:

Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

Help for creating a new Sharepoint WebApplication:

The Powershell command for creating a new Web Application is New-SPWebApplication.

Get-Help New-SPWebApplication
NAME
    New-SPWebApplication

SYNOPSIS
    Creates a new Web application within the local farm.

SYNTAX
    New-SPWebApplication -ApplicationPool <String> -Name <String> [-AdditionalClaimProvider <SPClaimProviderPipeBind[]>
    ] [-AllowAnonymousAccess <SwitchParameter>] [-ApplicationPoolAccount <SPProcessAccountPipeBind>] [-AssignmentCollec
    tion <SPAssignmentCollection>] [-AuthenticationMethod <String>] [-AuthenticationProvider <SPAuthenticationProviderP
    ipeBind[]>] [-Confirm [<SwitchParameter>]] [-DatabaseCredentials <PSCredential>] [-DatabaseName <String>] [-Databas
    eServer <String>] [-HostHeader <String>] [-Path <String>] [-Port <UInt32>] [-SecureSocketsLayer <SwitchParameter>]
    [-ServiceApplicationProxyGroup <SPServiceApplicationProxyGroupPipeBind>] [-SignInRedirectProvider <SPTrustedIdentit
    yTokenIssuerPipeBind>] [-SignInRedirectURL <String>] [-Url <String>] [-WhatIf [<SwitchParameter>]] [<CommonParamete
    rs>]

DESCRIPTION
    Creates a new Web application specified by the Name parameter. The user specified by the DatabaseCredentials parame
    ter must be a member of the dbcreator fixed server role on the database server.

    For permissions and the most current information about Windows PowerShell for SharePoint Products, see the online d
    ocumentation (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163185).

RELATED LINKS
    Get-SPWebApplication
    Set-SPWebApplication
    Get-SPWebApplication

REMARKS
    To see the examples, type: "get-help New-SPWebApplication -examples".
    For more information, type: "get-help New-SPWebApplication -detailed".
    For technical information, type: "get-help New-SPWebApplication -full".

Creating a new Sharepoint WebApplication:

# SharePoint cmdlets
Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
# Set variables
$WebAppName = "Contoso Sharepoint1"
$WebAppHostHeader = "sharepoint1.contoso.com"
$WebAppPort = 80
$WebAppAppPool = "SharePoint1AppPool"
# This User has to be a Sharepoint Manager Account
$WebAppAppPoolAccount = "contoso\sp_serviceuser"
$WebAppDatabaseName = "Sharepoint1"
$WebAppDatabaseServer = "SQLServer\InstanceName"

# Create a new Sharepoint WebApplication
New-SPWebApplication -Name $WebAppName -Port $WebAppPort -HostHeader $WebAppHostHeader -URL ("http://" + $WWebAppHostHeader) -ApplicationPool $WebAppAppPool -ApplicationPoolAccount (Get-SPManagedAccount $WebAppAppPoolAccount) -DatabaseName $WebAppDatabaseName -DatabaseServer $WebAppDatabaseServer

Creating a new Sharepoint Site Collection:

# SharePoint cmdlets
Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
# Templates
# Name                 Title                                    LocaleId   Custom
# ----                 -----                                    --------   ------
# GLOBAL#0             Global template                          1033       False
# STS#0                Team Site                                1033       False
# STS#1                Blank Site                               1033       False
# STS#2                Document Workspace                       1033       False
# MPS#0                Basic Meeting Workspace                  1033       False
# MPS#1                Blank Meeting Workspace                  1033       False
# MPS#2                Decision Meeting Workspace               1033       False
# MPS#3                Social Meeting Workspace                 1033       False
# MPS#4                Multipage Meeting Workspace              1033       False
# CENTRALADMIN#0       Central Admin Site                       1033       False
# WIKI#0               Wiki Site                                1033       False
# BLOG#0               Blog                                     1033       False
# SGS#0                Group Work Site                          1033       False
# TENANTADMIN#0        Tenant Admin Site                        1033       False

# Languages
# Name                	Title
# ----                	-----
# German				1031
# English				1033
# French				1036
# Spanish				1034

# Set variables
$SiteCollectionName = "Homepage"
$SiteCollectionURL = "http://sharepoint.contoso.com"
$SiteCollectionTemplate = "STS#0"
$SiteCollectionLanguage = 1033
$SiteCollectionOwner = "contoso\UserName"

# Create a new Sharepoint Site Collection
New-SPSite -URL $SiteCollectionURL -OwnerAlias $SiteCollectionOwner -Language $SiteCollectionLanguage -Template $SiteCollectionTemplate -Name $SiteCollectionName

Creating a new Sharepoint WebApplication and a Sharepoint Site Collection:

# SharePoint cmdlets
Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell
# Set variables
$WebAppName = "Contoso Sharepoint1"
$WebAppHostHeader = "sharepoint1.contoso.com"
$WebAppPort = 80
$WebAppAppPool = "SharePoint1AppPool"
# This User has to be a Sharepoint Manager Account
$WebAppAppPoolAccount = "contoso\sp_serviceuser"
$WebAppDatabaseName = "Sharepoint1"
$WebAppDatabaseServer = "SQLServer\InstanceName"
$SiteCollectionName = "Homepage"
$SiteCollectionURL = ("http://" + $WebAppHostHeader)
$SiteCollectionTemplate = "STS#0"
$SiteCollectionLanguage = 1033
$SiteCollectionOwner = "contoso\UserName"

# Create a new Sharepoint WebApplication
New-SPWebApplication -Name $WebAppName -Port $WebAppPort -HostHeader $WebAppHostHeader -URL ("http://" + $WebAppHostHeader) -ApplicationPool $WebAppAppPool -ApplicationPoolAccount (Get-SPManagedAccount $WebAppAppPoolAccount) -DatabaseName $WebAppDatabaseName -DatabaseServer $WebAppDatabaseServer

# Create a new Sharepoint Site Collection
New-SPSite -URL $SiteCollectionURL -OwnerAlias $SiteCollectionOwner -Language $SiteCollectionLanguage -Template $SiteCollectionTemplate -Name $SiteCollectionName

A lot of people wanna use Access or Excel Services with Sharepoint 2010. But this is only possible with Sharepoint Server 2010 Enterprise.

Here a short comparison of the different Sharepoint 2010 Versions and which Service Applications are supported.

Seen on www.sharepoint2010.at