Tilde key not working in VMware fusion

Problem:

Today I ran into a small but frustrating problem. The tilde key (~) didn’t work on my VMware fusion machine.

Situation:

I run Windows 10 in VMware fusion on a Macbook Pro. I searched a bit around the internet but didn’t find the right solution. By the way, my keyboard layout is US, so the ‘~’ key should be on the key just left from the ‘1’.
Some trial and error with keyboard combination with CTRL, ALT, Winkey etc didn’t work out. Strangely enough, I got it to work on the command prompt by pressing SHIFT+ALT+`, but that didn’t work on e.g. Notepad++ and Visual Studio.

Solution:

I found out that you can fix that in the settings of the VM itself. You don’t need to shutdown you VM. Just do the following:

• Open the Settings of you VM
• Click on ‘Keyboard & Mouse’
• Just under the list of Profiles, you will see a gear wheel button which you can expand.
• Click in the gear wheel popup menu on the option ‘Edit profile’
• In the popup window, click on the tab ‘Key Mapping’ and unselect the option ‘Enable Language Specific Key Mappings’. This will do the trick (a least for me).
• Close all settings windows, return to your (running) VM and voila, the ‘~’ will work back again.

I assume that this will work on other Windows versions on VM's as well. Just give it a try.

Happy programming!

IE9 and SharePoint 2010: Memory Leak!

Today, I ran into a really stupid issue. It seems that IE9 has a memory leak when using SharePoint 2010. On each refresh of a SharePoint 2010 page, the amount of used RAM is increasing by approx. 5 MB.
I found a lot of talking about it, but no solution yet.
Seems that Microsoft doesn't work on that, well at least don't let know us.
By the way, I am running Win7 x64.
Absolutely stupid. You cannot expect end-users to restart their IE9 browser a couple of times during the day. Even more ridiculous is the fact that IE8 doesn't have that issue.

Possible solution: deactivation of the ActiveX NameCtrl. Let's try that, or use another browser.

The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view

Until a couple of weeks ago, I was using Office 2007 on a Windows 7 (x64). Showing SharePoint (MOSS 2007) lists in datasheet view worked fine.
Recently, I changed to Office 2010 (Prof, x64) edition. I fully uninstalled Office 2007 and installed Office 2010.
Then the following error shows up when using the datasheet view:

The list cannot be displayed in Datasheet view for one or more of the following reasons:

- A datasheet component compatible with Windows SharePoint Services is not installed.
- Your Web browser does not support ActiveX controls.
- Support for ActiveX controls is disabled.

To my surprise, the solution is to install 2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components, or with other words the Access Database Engine.
So if you love surprises, start working with SharePoint and Office ;)
BTW, I am working with IE8.

Windows 7 and a GodMode

Ever heard of a GodMode (strange name by the way) in Window 7? Yes, it's there.
Create a folder somewhere and call it:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
And you get a control panel with 270 options, getting from Action Center (15 actions) down to Windows Update (2 actions). It seems to me that not all settings you can edit and control via control panel are listed. However, is it useful? I don't know, I usually use the search box in the upper right corner of the control panel.

Edit Office Document from SharePoint in IE8 64 bit version

Have you ever tried to open a Word document from a SharePoint 2007 document library using Internet Explorer 8 64 bit edition? Today I tried, because I am running a 64 bit Windows 7 edition.
Guess what, next message was shown:


So I tried also to open a Word document from a SharePoint 2010 document library in IE8 x64. Of course, it doesn't work either. Only the message was a bit different:


Oh, by the way, I am using Office 2007 SP2. I didn't try it with Office 2010 (not installed yet). Maybe that will work? I guess not, but I let you know.
Thanks Microsoft! :(

Update:

I read on technet that the IE8 64 is a so called Level 2 brower. According to Microsoft, Web browser support is divided into two levels: level 1 and level 2. Although administrative tasks on SharePoint sites are optimized for level 1 browsers, SharePoint Server 2010 also provides support for other browsers that are frequently used. To ensure that you have complete access to all functionality, we recommend that you use a level 1 browser for administrative tasks.

So it seems that editing a Word document from SharePoint is administrative task. In SharePoint it is called 'contribution'... do you follow it?

Read more at Microsoft Technet:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc263526%28office.14%29.aspx

Windows 7 and Blue Screen

Yep, it's still there. Today, I successfully installed Windows 7. No installation errors, normal function of existing application. So far so good.
O, than I got noticed to install at least one 'critical' update. Well, o.k. then, I choose also three other, less important updates.
Than the installation started, and yes!!! the blue screen of death appeared. So, it's still there, and the problem event has got a name: the BlueScreen event

Do you need to click or to cut a button?

Sorry, but for this post you need to know the Dutch language (a bit)

I installed a Dutch version of Windows 7 Ultimate edition on a virtual pc. Just to see how it looks like. I found a small application to capture a part of the screen and I started it (in Dutch called 'Knipprogramma'). From that moment, I got confused, do I really have to 'cut' the new button?



For non Dutch speakers, its the last part of the sentence: "Knip op de knop Nieuw" which sounds in English as "Cut on the button New".