The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070020) – IIS 7 – Internet Information Se

In IIS7 I was trying to start my Default Web Site and was getting the following error screen.

The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070020)

A quick Google search turned up the following Microsoft Support Topic. Ok. Lets take a look at netstat and see what might be causing problems. Open a command prompt ([Windows Key + R] and enter cmd) and enter the command. After running netstat -ano, I noticed that there was indeed another process (with a process id of 796) accessing port 80. (You can enter netstat /? to see what the –ano flags are doing.)

The offending process that is using port 80 has a process id of 796. Now, how to find out what that process 796 is?
Using the tasklist command will show a list of all processes running in windows. You can use the /fi flags to filter the results. In this case I’m using a filter that will only show processes with a PID that equals 796. tasklist /fi “PID eq 796”

The process with process id is Skype. Makes sense that it would be using port 80. I promptly closed down Skype and was then able to start my Default Web Site in IIS Manager. Hope this helps someone.

Adding a 2nd blog account in Windows Live Writer in Windows 7 gets stuck on “Detecting blog icon”

I’m currently running Windows 7 and I tried to add my 2nd blog account to Windows Live Writer today. Unfortunately, Live Writer would get stuck on the “Detecting blog icon…” message when setting up the new account.

I did a bit of poking around on Google and found a couple of posts about this same issue.

This post mentions that running Live Writer as Administrator fixed the issue for them. (You can do this by right clicking on the Live Writer icon and choosing Run as administrator, btw.) Running live writer as Administrator did not work for me. I still got stuck on the “Detecting blog icon…” message,

This answer from Yahoo Answers mentions trying to close Live Writer and re-open it. Closing and Reopening Live Writer didn’t solve the problem for me. The next suggestion on this question was to reboot windows.

After rebooting Windows 7, I was able to successfully add my 2nd live writer blog account.

“Value does not fall within the expected range” when deploying WSP with VSeWSS's deploy command

I started to get a Value does not fall within the expected range error when trying to use the VSeWSS Deploy command from within Visual Studio 2008.

Value does not fall within the expected range.

I spent almost an hour trying to track down what exactly was causing my problem. There are tons of posts about this error message, but it seems like there can be many causes. Unfortunately, none of these solutions worked for me.
After banging my head on my keyboard for a while longer, I started to systematically exclude elements/folders of my VSeWSS project and then trying to run the Deploy command again. Seems desperate, I know, but it ended up helping me find out what exactly was causing this error. Excluding my project Features didn’t fix the error, but by excluding the whole TEMPLATES folder the error went away. I was onto something. I started to exclude sub folders and after playing around with this for a while, I narrowed the problem down to the nav folder within my IMAGES folder. After looking in the folder, the cause was obvious… /Facepalm.

Earlier this morning I had recreated some of my navigation images and replaced the old jpgs with pngs. Unfortunately, my project was still referencing the missing files. By removing the missing references, the error went away. Too bad the error wasn’t a tad-bit more helpful instead of being completely obscure.
In conclusion. If you’re experiencing the Value does not fall within the expected range error. Double-check your VSeWSS project for any references files or folders that no longer exist or any that exist in your folders but are not referenced by your project. Remove any that you find and it might solve your problems.

“A World Wide Web browser, such as Windows Internet Explorer, is required to use this feature” in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer

In Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer when I Check In a file to my website and choose to Publish a Major Version.

SharePoint Designer shows the following Dialog.

This document requires content approval. Do you want to view or modify its approval status?

When I click Yes, I get the following error dialog.

A world Wide Web browser, such as Windows Internet Explorer, is required to use this feature.

My first instinct was to make Internet Explorer my default browser *shudder*. I did this by opening Internet Explorer, clicking on Tools and selecting Internet Option. I then clicked the Programs tab and clicked on Make Default. Unfortunately, it didn’t make this silly error go away.

A little more digging into the issue presented something interesting. By bringing up Default Programs (Press your Windows Key and enter Default Programs into the search box) and then clicking on Set your default programs, you can see settings for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer web browsers.

By selecting and application on the left, you can set it to be the default program by clicking Set this program as default (clicking this for Internet Explorer didn’t work either, btw) or you can choose some specific defaults for the selected application by clicking on Choose defaults for this program. The latter is basically managing the extensions and protocols associated with the program.

The list of default settings for my web browser are displayed in the 3 images below.

Chrome Associations

Firefox Associations

Internet Explorer 8 Associations

Looking at the differences between the associated extensions, Internet Explorer doesn’t have entries for .shtml, .xht, or .xhtml by default while both Firefox and Chrome do. Thought I’d try to manually associate these three extensions with Internet Explorer to see if it fixed the issue, thinking that one of these extensions was being routed to Firefox or Chrome even with Internet Explorer set to be the default browser. You can do this by going back to Default Programs and clicking on Associate a file type or protocol with a program. Unfortunately, the error wasn’t affected by this change.

To get rid of this error, I actually had to uninstall Firefox and Chrome. I was able to re-install Firefox without checking the Make my default browser checkbox and the error was still gone, but any installation of Chrome would cause the error to come back.

It looks like the only fix for this is to remove Firefox and Chrome if they are installed. If anyone else knows of a valid work-around that allows you to keep Chrome installed, please let me know.

Thanks.

Minimum configuration to get ride of 'Server farm configuration not complete' message in SharePoint 2007

Setup SharePoint for the 1st time today and was annoyed to see the following message staring at me with no clear idea of what I was expected to do to get rid of it.

! Server farm configuration not complete !

So. My obvious question was what needs to be configured to get ride of this message. It wasn’t until I had completed the following from Central Administration that the message disappeared.

1. Clicked  on Shared Services Administration and added configured my Shared Services Providers
   1. This required me to create an associated Web Application (if your web application list is empty after creating a new one, see This Post about a potential fix.)
2. Configuring and starting the services below from the Central Administration –> Operations -> Topology and Services -> Services on Server screen
1. Office SharePoint Server Search
2. Windows SharePoint Services Help Search
3. Setup Outgoing Email Settings from the Central Administration –> Operations -> Topology and Services –> Outgoing e-mail settings

After configuring the above items, the message went away.

'HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable' message in IIS7 – Application Pools

One of my IIS7 virtual directories wigged out today and started to give me the following error screen.

Service Unavailable – HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.
I found a post from Rich Strahl that pointed me in the right direction. When I brought up my Internet Information Services Manager and clicked on Application Pools, my DefaultAppPool was stopped.

Unfortunately, my application pools were already set to auto-start and restarting the application pool didn’t solve my problem. As soon as I tried to bring up my website, the application pool would immediately stop again and give me the same error screen. After spending the next 10 minutes or so restarting Windows 7 and starting and re-staring my application pools to no avail, I decided to re-install my IIS7 and Windows Process Activation Service features.
After re-installing these windows features, everything was back in order. Unfortunately, I did have to add ALL of my virtual directories again, but I expected as much. You can re-install these features from the Programs and Features screen by clicking on Turn Windows features on or off.

On the Windows Features screen, you can uninstall any feature by removing the check next to it and then clicking OK. You can then return to this screen after restarting windows to reinstall them.

Hope this helps someone. If anyone knows how to correct this without reinstalling the features, please comment!

'Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password.' message in Windows Vista on a Dell D830 with a Fingerprint Scanner and Embassy Security Center. Bl

I received a new laptop for work (a Dell D830) and had a fairly easy time getting it setup for development. To my dismay, I notice periodic Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) while booting into Windows Vista. I looked up the error codes and was unable to find a cause and since my system always seemed to boot normally the next time.

Talking with a co-worker of mine that got a new laptop when I did, we both experienced seemingly random BSODs and were always a bit suspect of the Fingerprint scanner. I didn't really worry about it too much. That is, until this morning.

While booting this morning, I got another BSOD. When my system booted again, I was unable to logon to Windows Vista. Every time I would put in my username and password I would get the following error message.

"Logon failure: unknown user name or bad password."

I also noticed that I wasn't given the option to use my D830's Fingerprint scanner to logon either. I tried logging onto domain accounts and local account with no luck. I rebooted multiple times. I used Vistas startup repair tool with no luck. It was looking like I might have to hit a restore point or restore an image of my laptop.

Luckily for me, my boss had experienced a similar issue. The fix is a mixture of disabling your Fingerprint scanner and Dell's Embassy Security Center. The first step is to boot into Safe Mode by pressing F8 before windows boots and selecting it from the boot menu. You should be able to logon to windows in safe mode (if not, you might have a different issue.) Once you are logged on, perform the following.

Disable the Fingerprint scanner

(this step might be optional, since the second step might do it automatically.)

1. Press your Windows Key and type "Device Manager" and hit Enter to bring up the device manager.
2. Under Biometrics, right click on your fingerprint scanner and select Disable
3. Close the device manager

Turn off Secure Windows Login in Embassy Security Center

1. Press your Windows Key and type "Embassy Security Center" and press Enter (if you don't have this application, you probably have a different issue going on.)
2. Click on Windows Logon
3. Uncheck Enable Secure Windows Logon
4. Click Apply and close Embassy Security Center

After performing these steps, reboot your machine normally and try to login again. Worked great for us on our Dell D830 and was a bit of a pain to track down. I might post an update and let you know if this also clears up my random BSODs.

Hope this helps someone. =)