Fixing rsAccessDenied on Vista / Windows 7

When I upgraded myself from Windows XP to Windows 7 a while ago, I had to install all my developer tools again. I use SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 on my development machine and it installed fine. All the prerequisites were installed correctly and everything seemed to be installed correctly.

I went to the usual http://localhost/Reports and got an rsAccessDenied error on the page. Thinking that maybe it was an issue with localhost I tried http://<machinename>/Reports and still the same error.

Now at this stage I was a bit stumped. My gut instinct was telling me that Windows 7 UAC was the issue here and that some communication between the browser and the Reporting Server was at fault. So I ran the browser as an administrator and viola it worked.

I found this Microsoft Knowledge Base article which details how to install Reporting Services on Vista but it should be ok for Windows 7 and SQL Server 2008 SP1

The same issue also reared its head when I tried to publish reports to the server. Again the fix was to run the Visual Studio IDE as an Administrator.

In Windows 7 you can set the properties for this on the executable itself.

Right click on the devenv.exe file (not the XML settings file) and click properties

Click Compatibility and the select “Run the program as an administrator” option.

Using this method will allow you to double click the solution files (.sln) and automatically run the program as an administrator

You can see the dialog to the left (click to enlarge)

Windows 7 Released Today!

Well Windows 7 is finally released to general public. Happy days

Well there is not a lot to say as the press are all over it and the rest of the blogosphere, except well done to the Windows Engineering team. You guys did a great job.

 

 

So in the vein of Windows 7 - 7 little touches to personalise your Win 7 experience.

1. Some free official Windows 7 themes
2. If you have dual screen monitors and want to use a fairly large picture as your background on both screens. Its easy!
   • Just on your desktop background set it to tiled
   •  
3. Microsoft Security Essentials to secure your PC
4. Change your Start menu shut down option
   • Right click on the Windows button and click properties
   • 
   • Change your power button action to which one suits you
5. Share with the HomeGroup feature
6. Play with Aero Shake
7. Finally watch with Windows Media Centre

Windows 7 90-Day Evaluation VHD released

Planning to test Windows 7 but don’t fancy installing it. Microsoft have released a pre configured virtual hard disk (VHD) that can be used in a virtualization system such as Hyper V

Overview

The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd.
This download helps you evaluate the new features of Windows 7, Windows 7 has better ways to find and manage files—like Jump Lists and improved taskbar previews—to help you speed through everyday tasks. It's designed for faster and more reliable performance, so your PC just works the way you want it to. With 64-bit support, you can take full advantage of the latest powerful PCs. And great features like HomeGroup, Windows Media Center, and Windows Touch make new things possible. For more information about Windows 7, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/.
This is a preconfigured virtual machine set contained within the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, or the R2 versions of these products is required to use this virtual machine. Please refer to the system requirements section for more details.

More info about the Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program

You can download the VHD from here

How to install PerformancePoint Server 2007 on Vista/Windows 7

As part of some work for a client, I have been doing some coding against PerformancePoint Server 2007. This has mainly been done on my VM but I prefer to do a lot of my development work on my main machine.

Currently I have MOSS 2007 running on it and I wanted to install PerformancePoint Server 2007 on it. Specifically the Planning Server setup.

Problem is that it complains that you are not running Windows2003 SP1 in a non domain environment.

To get around this use the following command line

msiexec /i PPLSrv.msi SKIPREQCHECK=1

This will remove the check for the installer and allow you to install on Vista.

To install the updates just change the command line to

msiexec /update PPLSrv.msp SKIPREQCHECK=1

You can use this for the other MSP files as well if required

Update: 21-11-2009

Following on from the comments here is a screen comparison if you use the command line above

And without

You will notice that the next button is enabled to allow you to do the install.