• Blog Posts of the Week (20th - 26th January 2013)

    Developers

     

    Authentication and Session timeout – Session expired message on clicking the login button

    By Brij Mishra published on 01-26-2013

    My client reported me a peculiar issue. They said that they get redirected to session expired page even before they actually Login….(more)

     

    How To: Programmatically access Contact Data in Windows Phone

    By Karthikeyan Anbarasan published on 01-21-2013

    In this tutorial we are going to see how to programmatically access the Contact data information in a Windows Phone application. As we know recently we have the newer version….(more)

     

    What is AutoMapper and How to map two objects using AutoMapper?

    By Kunal Chowdhury published on 01-22-2013

    AutoMapper is a mapper between two objects. It maps two different entities by transforming an input object of one type to an output object of….(more)

     

    Index of Collection Using Linq

    By Pranay Rana published on 01-22-2013

    This is small post regarding How to get the index of each element in collection. There are sometime requirement to bind list of element….(more)

     

    Responsive ASP.NET GridView With Twitter Bootstrap

    By Brij Dammani published on 01-25-2013

    If you are using Twitter Bootstrap framework, you can easily show hide elements based on characteristics of the device the site is being….(more)

     


    IT PRO

     

    SIP/2.0 503 Service Unavailable

    By Balasaheb Ilag published on 01-22-2013

    Large amount of Client are unable to login on communicator and getting above error message….(more)

     

    Windows Defender Status Manager Adds Defender System Tray Icon & Scan With Windows Defender To Context Menu

    By Ganesh Bhat published on 01-24-2013

    Windows 8 ships with an upgraded version of Windows Defender, which now includes many of the features available in Microsoft Security Essentials….(more)

     

    Virtual Directories: Exchange 2013

    By Manu Philip published on 01-25-2013

    You can manage a variety of virtual directory settings on Exchange 2013 including authentication, security, and reporting settings. I am explaining here, how you can manage the….(more)

     

    Exchange 2013: Creating and Testing Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Policies

    By Ratish Nair published on 01-23-2013

    Data loss prevention is gaining popularity and has grown to become a mandatory entity in today’s email security. Financial and legal firms cannot….(more)

     

    The promises of Content Security Policy to secure the web

    By Krishna Chaitanya published on 01-25-2013

    I have discussed at a high level the core security policy current browsers have (i.e., Same Origin Policy, SOP) and why it is insufficient to secure the modern web. As said in the post….(more)

     

     

    Office 2013

     

    Add Custom DataLabels in Chart

    By Ashish Koul published on 01-26-2013

    If you want to add your own datalabels to series in the chart.Try this macro….(more)

     

    Designing a dashboard to track Employee vacations

    By Purnachandra Duggirala published on 01-24-2013

    HR managers & department heads always ask, “So what is the vacation pattern of our employees….(more)

     

    Customize Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2013

    By Geetesh Bajaj published on 01-21-2013

    The Quick Access Toolbar, known as the QAT is the only toolbar available for customization in….(more)

     

     

     

     

  • Interview - MVP Awinish Vishwakarma

    As part of our MVP Interview series, this month India MVP team interviewed MVP Awinish Vishwakarma from India region. We asked him how did he start and his experience being an MVP. Also any best practices or tips which he would like to share with the broader MVP community.

    In his own words:

    Talking about my experience in community; initial days when I had just started participating in the Exchange community, everyday it used to be a different experience and lot of leaning by interacting with the other community members, the great contributors and the leaders. And I must say that still this hasn’t changed much. 

    Some of the exceptional qualities which I could learn from them are politeness, expertise in the subjects, thought process, dedication towards selflessly sharing knowledge & ready to go extra mile for helping other members.

    I was really excited and motivated to be a part of such community. I started writing my own blogs, participating in forums just to learn and share knowledge.  

    Those days, I wasn’t much aware of the MVP Program. One of the former MVP called me once and said he would nominate me for the award. And finally one fine morning, I received an email stating "I have been awarded as an MVP for my community contribution”.

    I can't really describe it in words the joy and happiness which I felt at that moment. It was June 2011 which is also my birth month, the award became a very special birthday gift for me.

    That Email changed my whole life. People started recognizing me as a Microsoft MVP who stands separate among masses. I feel MVPs are the exceptional leaders, tech experts, bringing change (thinking, adopting, sharing), inspiration to aspire others & overall have passion for technology who are ready to go to any level to help others.

    MVP is an honor given by Microsoft every year to the folks who believe in spreading knowledge and making others successful in their specialization areas. You can also treat it as a recognition of the hard work & selfless effort towards the community.

    To be an MVP or receive the MVP honor, the focus should be solely on acquiring & sharing quality knowledge with the others. Example, you never opt to go to school/college keeping vision only for a degree or a good job or, instead learn from different minds, interact with people from different region/communities, way to perceive or adopt the things which can be done in more efficient ways.

    The criteria for passing the knowledge torch to others can be achieved in many ways. Few examples are like sharing information by participating in hosted forums, writing quality & accurate contents on blogs, through presentation, conducting seminars/events for the community. According to me everyone who work for the community without any expectation are MVPs. To be an MVP or its part, an award shouldn’t be in mind while doing community services, but sincerity & honesty in heart to help others would automatically bring you in MVP category.

     

     

     

  • Blog Posts of the Week (13th - 19th January 2013)

    Developers


    How to work with Navigation App Template in Windows Store App with JavaScript

    By Dhananjay Kumar published on 01-16-2013

    Very first start with creating a new project and select Navigation App from project template….(more)

     

    What is new in Search Options in Visual Studio 2012

    By Karthikeyan Anbarasan published on 01-17-2013

    In this article we are going to see Enhanced Search option that is introduced in the latest release of Visual Studio 2012 IDE. In our earlier article….(more)

     

    How to Launch WP8 built-in Apps using URI Schemes?

    By Kunal Chowdhury published on 01-15-2013

    In addition to the Airplane Mode, Bluetooth, Cellular and Wi-Fi settings page, now we have few more settings page which we can now invoke from….(more)

     

    Database Change Notifications in ASP.NET using SignalR and SqlDependency

    By Brij Dammani published on 01-13-2013

    This article shows how to display real time sql server database change notification in ASP.NET using SignalR and SqlDependency….(more)


     

    IT PRO

     

    Unable to schedule meeting in Lync 2010.

    By Balu Ilag published on 01-19-2013

    Clients are unable to schedule a Microsoft Lync 2010 meeting or conference call because either client….(more)

     

    How To Use Trackpad or Touchpad Gestures In Windows 8

    By Ganesh Bhat published on 01-14-2013

    Computer users who have ever used a notebook or netbook know the basics of using a trackpad or touchpad as a pointing device….(more)

     

    Enable, Disable Disk Write Caching in Windows 7 | 8

    By Anand Khanse published on 01-15-2013

    Disk Write Caching is a feature that improves system performance by enabling write caching on the device. It is a feature, which is available….(more)

     

    Enable Internet Connection Sharing & Create a Wi-Fi hotspot in Windows 8 natively

    By Anand Khanse published on 01-16-2013

    To begin, you will have to first open command prompt as an administrator. Open the WinX menu and select Command Prompt….(more)

     

    Fix : Cannot play video in Internet Explorer / Internet explorer crashes on playing video

    By Shantanu Kaushik published on 01-17-2013

    After reading this post you will be able to fix an issue with your Internet Explorer, where Internet explorer might crash when….(more)

     

     

    Office 2013

     

    Macro to add gridlines in chart

    By Ashish Koul published on 01-19-2013

    If you want to add gridlines in chart. Try this macro….(more)

     

    Top 10 Formulas for Aspiring Analysts

    By Purnachandra Duggirala published on 01-16-2013

    If you want to become a data or business analyst then you must develop good understanding of Excel formulas….(more)

     

    Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Transparency for Shape Fills

    By Geetesh Bajaj published on 01-18-2013
    Shape fills such as solid color, gradients, pictures, and textures can have a transparency attribute that lets you reduce the opacity of a fill so that….(more)

  • Blog Posts of the Week (06th - 12th January 2013)

    Developers

     

    Developing your first Windows Phone 8 Application

    By Karthikeyan Anbarasan published on 01-09-2013

    In this article we are going to see how to develop your first Windows Phone 8 Application using the all new Visual Studio 2012 IDE. Before proceeding further….(more)

     

     

     

    IT PRO

     

    SkyDrive.com gets improved sharing, new HTML5 features & is faster & more reliable!

    By Anand Khanse published on 01-09-2012

    In our earlier posts, we have been regularly seeing the constant improvements and new feature additions to SkyDrive.com. And the new year….(more)

     

    Exchange 2013: Configuring Outlook anywhere

    By Ratish Nair published on 01-10-2013

    In Exchange 2013, Outlook Anywhere is enabled by default, because all Outlook connectivity takes place via Outlook Anywhere anyways….(more)

     

    SQL Server - Open Windows Performance Monitor with your default set of counters

    By Amit Bansal published on 01-11-2013

    Would you not like to open Performance Monitor with your set of default counters? Or wouldn’t it be nice that you have four or five different….(more)

     

    Access denied by business data connectivity in SharePoint 2013

    By Vijai Anand published on 01-12-2013

    In this blog you will see how to resolve “Access denied by business data connectivity” when accessing the external list in SharePoint 2013….(more)

     

     

     

    Office 2013

     

    To-do List with Priorities using Excel

    By Purnachandra Duggirala published on 01-07-2013

    A while ago, we published a New Year resolution template. This was a hit with our readers with thousands of you downloading it. During last week….(more)

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Blog Posts of the Week (23rd Dec'12 - 05th Jan'13)

    Developers

     
    Strongly Typed Views in MVC

    By Abhimanyu Vatsa published on 12-23-2012

    When you add a new View in MVC, you get an opportunity to create it strongly typed. In the image given below, when you check….(more)

     

    Recursive CTE in TSQL

    By Rami Vemula published on 12-23-2012

    A Common Table Expression(CTE) is a temporary resultset within the scope of the immediate SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE and CREATE VIEW statements. It is different from….(more)


    Remove Non-Alphabet Characters from a String–SQL Server

    By Madhivanan Jr published on 12-26-2012

    Suppose you have a string that contains numbers and other special characters and you want to keep only alphabets and remove all the other characters….(more)

     

    Silverlight Application with Dispatcher and asynchronous WCF service

    By Pranay Rana published on 01-03-2013

    This article is about Dispatcher that makes Silverlight application responsive. It demonstrate how Dispatcher allows to update UI of the application….(more)

     

    Creating a Pinterest Like Layout in ASP.NET

    By Brij Dammani published on 01-04-2013

    Pinterest is currently the world’s fastest growing social networking site and famous for the best functioning visual design. Do you love the look and feel….(more)

     

     

     

    IT PRO


    Steps to Move SQL Server Log Shipping Secondary Database Files

    By Jugal Shah published on 12-28-2012

    With SQL Server is it possible to move the secondary database involved with Log Shipping to a different drive without disturbing the Log Shipping….(more)

     
    FIX: Unable to update Windows Store applications on Windows 8

    By Shyam Sasindran published on 12-28-2012

    One of the newest feature of Windows 8 is the availability of Windows Store applications. By now there are tons of application available and lot of new applications….(more)

     

    How to rebuild the Tokens.dat or Activation Tokens file in Windows 7 | 8

    By Anand Khanse published on 01-01-2013

    The Tokens.dat file in the Windows operating system is a digitally signed file, which stores most of the Windows activation files. All files together have….(more)

     

    Exchange 2013 uninstallation fails with arbitration mailbox error

    By Ratish Nair published on 01-02-2013

    Before you go ahead and try the steps outlined in this article, know that arbitration mailboxes should be moved to a different server provided….(more)

     

     

     

    Office 2013

    Learn PowerPoint 2011 for Mac: Changing Fill and Border for Charts

    By Geetesh Bajaj published on 12-24-2012

    When you add new charts in PowerPoint, the default fill and border (line) that PowerPoint 2011 applies to chart elements are perfectly adequate. Still, you might want to play with….(more)

     

    Macro to Replace Markers with Custom shapes On Charts

    By Ashish Koul published on 12-25-2012

    If you want to use custom shapes instead of showing the values with markers on charts….(more)

     

    Learn PowerPoint 2010 for Windows: Custom Backgrounds for Slide Master and Layouts

    By Geetesh Bajaj published on 01-02-2013

    There are plenty of opportunities to use a less restrained background for your slides -- your choice for a slide background should complement….(more)

     

    Filtering a database by both rows and columns

    By Ashish Mathur published on 01-04-2013

    In range A1:BG2185 of this workbook, there is macro economic and demographic data for years from 1984 to 2009 (26 years) for….(more)

     

    Creating an Agenda template in Excel

    By Purnachandra Duggirala published on 01-04-2013

    When planning a meeting, an event or activity, we deal with many individual steps (each taking certain amount of time)…..(more)

     

     

  • Learning from MVPs - Soft Skills to be successful

    Recently we in MVP India community did a bit of virtual brainstorming to figure out what it takes to become an MVP. We all knew the basics such as Excellence in Technology (his/her specialization area), Participation in Community and Willingness to Give Back. But do we need to have any soft skills as well to be a successful community leader/an MVP/an Influencer?

    Absolutely!! Irrespective of whatever the name we call them, we are talking about the few leaders among us with different technical expertise and for sure there are few Soft Skills which made them successful. Let’s see if we can list down a few of them here and figure out how that particular skill help our influencers day in day out:

    Skills Comments
    Observations
    Committed or Accountable MVPs are always committed to derive and define technical excellence in their community area
    Passion for Customer (Users), Technology MVPs are Technology Enthusiast. They always think from Users point of view on how the technology or solution could help
    Open for feedback, Listening MVPs do seek feedback and also provide feedback in a respectful manner in appropriate forums
    Learn and Share Knowledge MVPs follow a continuous self-learning approach to keep themselves up-to-date with what’s happening in his/her technical area
    Do these points not sound like typical MS Core Values? Mostly I have seen people who are part of Microsoft (also known as MSFTE) live most of these values but in this case also it’s not much different. Though, MVPs are not directly associated with Microsoft, but I personally feel our MVPs are living these values. They take responsibility of driving Forums, User Groups, Local Events, Publishing Quality Blogs, Articles and Books etc. and manage all these together year after year without fail. They fight with Microsoft for product capabilities on behalf of end users. They listen to each and every feedback what is coming from end users through Forums, Blogs or in-person events. And most importantly they continuously update their knowledge and share what they learnt with others in community
    Out of Box Thinking MVPs often come up with new ideas, suggestions and thoughts which might sound unrealistic at first level but if you dig deeper, you can see the impact in a longer run.    
    Thinking out of box makes you exceptional. Working on a defined process is very simple but how many times one attempted to define a new process and work on it? That shows how much you are ready to take big challenges and how far can you think. I feel this is an essential skill of a leader.
    Collaboration MVPs do collaborate with different resources internally within Microsoft as well as outside Microsoft. MVPs are supposed to be counted as extremely collaborative
    This is a very critical area. Collaboration is not simple due to issues like distance, language, attitude, culture etc. but as an MVP, its must. A person willing to become an MVP, should work towards this area
    Time management I met a few MVPs who are participating in multiple User Groups, Writing Research Papers, Answering Forums and lot more. With their existing professional commitments, maintaining all these are really exceptional and unless one know how to manage their time, I think it’s impossible
    Everyone should learn how to work smart with multiple responsibilities and still be successful without impacting other commitments. Again must for current world to be successful
    Easy going approach This is another interesting capability what I see in most of our MVPs. They can easily gel with others, understand their issues, suggest possible solutions and end up with a positive experience
    Consistency Consistency is critical for everyone’s success. We have seen most of veteran MVPs are very consistent in terms of their contribution and commitments towards community
    Good Communication (Writing and Speaking) MVPs do influence adoption of technology. This can only happen if the person can express himself/herself properly in any forum irrespective of audience type
    Influencing We are talking about influencers and for sure they influence the key decisions like adoption, deployment and supportability. For sure MVPs are great influencers
    These are common success mantra apply to everyone. Earlier you learn, successful you are and more you follow, better you are. Some of these are either inter related or complementing other skills. Easy going approach is required in anyone who deals with different set of people day in day out. And there good communication and influencing capabilities also help. Consistency works with almost all the skills what we discussed till now and is required for success
    Problem Solving Few of our MVPs are Problem Solvers and they tend to go deeper to address the issue from the root
    Good skill to make sure we understand the issue and the address from the root
    Focused Approach Few of our MVPs follow a focused approach i.e. one at a time behavior
    It gives the possibilities of improving what we do. Can be a good skill to have

    We just learnt the top Soft Skills which our India MVP community thinks are important. We really value all the time what our MVPs spent in listing down all these points. I do think there are few other skills as well which may be beneficial. Attaching an Excel file which is listing some of them for broader community.

  • Announcing the New MVP Awardees - January 2013

     

    MVPs are independent experts and passionate about improving technology. These exceptional and highly respected individuals offer amazing contributions with great dedication. They serve their local online and offline communities and have an impact worldwide. The MVP Award recognizes exceptional technical community leaders from around the world who voluntarily share their deep, real-world knowledge about Microsoft technologies with others.

     

    We are excited to introduce the new MVP Awardees of January 2013:

    Name                                                                                                                   Technology             

    Sarabpreet Singh                                                                                                  SQL Server

    Amardeep Singh                                                                                                   SharePoint Server

    Vijai Anand R                                                                                                        SharePoint Server

    Balasaheb Ilag                                                                                                      Lync

    Kranthi Kumar Vangala                                                                                         Dynamics AX

     

    The MVP Award program recognizes community leaders every quarter. If you have been an active community contributor for the past year or you know an active community leader, please feel free to nominate using the MVP Nomination Form.

    While we don't respond to individual request for status on their MVP application, you can write to indiamvp@microsoft.com to request the information.

    If you want to know the wonderful activities of the South Asia MVPs you can also follow us at @IndiaMVP on Twitter or our page on South Asia Facebook Page.