Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)
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Robert Martin | December 2012 | Enterprise Articles Microsoft
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a programming language built into Microsoft Office applications. As you improve your skills in any application from the Office System, you will eventually realize that although Microsoft Office applications offer a large number of tools, they do not offer everything you need to perform your daily chores. Such chores may include creating a corporate custom-format, a custom function that calculates commission payments, and so on.
Thus, VBA works as a gap-filler; in other words, its main purpose is to ensure that you can do whatever you need to do in your job.
In this article by Robert Martin, author of Excel Programming with VBA Starter,you will get to know a bit about VBA, its basic features, what you can do with it, and how you can put it to work with a view to facilitating your daily work, by automating common tasks.
Read Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in fullAdding a security role
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Ahmed Mohamed Rafik Moustafa | December 2012 | Cookbooks Enterprise Articles Microsoft
In this article by Ahmed Mohamed Rafik Moustafa, the author of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Security How-To, we will learn about securing our Dynamics AX 2012 environment with simple and practical steps.
Read Adding a security role in fullDeploying Applications and Software Updates on Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager
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Brian Mason Greg Ramsey | September 2012 | Cookbooks Enterprise Articles Microsoft
In this article by Greg Ramsey, co-author of Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Administration Cookbook, we'll cover:
- Creating applications and deployment types
- Managing Software Center and Application Catalogue
- Preparing for software updates
- Creating and monitoring software updates
- Leveraging Automatic Deployment Rules (ADRs)
- Reducing collection dependencies with conditional rules and global conditions
- Deploying custom updates
- Converting classic packages to applications
- Creating and deploying Virtual Applications (App-V)
- Superseding applications
- Monitoring content and deployment status
Client-Side Endpoint Protection Tasks in Microsoft SCEP 2012
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Andrew Plue | October 2012 | Enterprise Articles Microsoft
In this article by Andrew Plue, author of Microsoft System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection Cookbook, we will cover:
- Locating and interrupting client-side SCEP logs
- Performing manual definition updates and checking definition version
- Manually editing local SCEP policy using the user interface
- Utilizing MpCmdRun.exe
Read Client-Side Endpoint Protection Tasks in Microsoft SCEP 2012 in full
Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Modules and Cmdlets
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Adam Driscoll | September 2012 | Microsoft
Microsoft Windows PowerShell 3.0 First Look will ensure that you have a great overview of the numerous new features and changes found in the most recent version of the language. Through simple examples and succinct chapters, this book will quickly bring readers up to speed with need to know information about the newest version of PowerShell.
In this article by Adam Driscoll, author of Microsoft Windows PowerShell 3.0 First Look, we'll see:
- A selection of new cmdlets found in the core PowerShell modules
- A selection of new modules and cmdlets found in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012
XNA 4-3D:Getting the battle-tanks into game world
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Kurt Jaegers | September 2012 | Beginner's Guides Enterprise Articles Microsoft Open Source
In this article, the author of XNA 4 3D Game Development by Example Beginner's Guide, Kurt Jaegers will cover all that is necessary to get battle tanks into the game and placed in the game world. This can be accomplished by performing the following:
- Adding models to our game's content project and loading them into the game
- Drawing the tank model to the screen
- Animating the various components of the tank model
- Matching the elevation of the tank to its position on the generated terrain
- Adding a second tank and positioning both tanks appropriately on the map
Overview of FIM 2010 R2
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Kent Nordström | September 2012 | Enterprise Articles Microsoft
Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 (FIM 2010 R2) is not one product, but a family of products working together to mitigate the challenges regarding Identity Management.
Microsoft's Forefront Identity Manager simplifies enterprise Identity Management for end users by automating admin tasks and integrating the infrastructure of an enterprise with strong authentication systems.
In this article by Kent Nordström, author of Microsoft Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 Handbook, we will get an overview of FIM 2010 R2.
In this article, we will cover:
- The history of FIM 2010 R2
- FIM Synchronization Service (FIM Sync)
- FIM Service
- FIM Portal
- FIM Reporting
- FIM Certificate Management (FIM CM)
- Licensing
Read Overview of FIM 2010 R2 in full
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Performance Tuning: Implementing Physical Database Structure
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Bihag Thaker Ritesh Shah | July 2012 | Cookbooks Enterprise Articles Microsoft
Your database performance heavily depends on how you have physically placed your database objects and how you have configured your disk subsystem. Designing the physical layout of your database correctly is the key factor to improve the performance of your database queries and thus the performance of your database. However, the correct decision on a physical design structure of the database depends on the available hardware resources that you might have. This includes the number of processors, RAM, and storage resources, such as how many ,disks or RAID controllers you might have in your database environment. The best thing while designing physical layout of the database is to have multiple physical disks for your database. If you configure your database in such a way that it spreads across multiple disks, it can benefit from parallel I/O operations.
The following are some of the decisions that influence your database performance:
- Where do you place data files?
- Where do you place log files?
- Where do you place large objects?
- Where do you place indexes?
- Where do you place the tempdb database?
You can control the physical location of database objects within the database by using files and filegroups.
In this article by Ritesh Shah and Bihag Thaker, co-authors of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Performance Tuning Cookbook, we will learn how to best design the physical structure of the database on your disk subsystem when you have enough available hardware resources, such as multiple processors and multiple physical disks.
Read Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Performance Tuning: Implementing Physical Database Structure in fullBuilding a Site Directory with SharePoint Search
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Mike Oryszak | July 2012 | Microsoft
A common challenge for many SharePoint users is finding sites with content that is relevant to them. It is pretty common to find environments with hundreds if not thousands of sites. In past versions of the product, there was a Site Directory feature that was available, but it was essentially just a SharePoint list which required manual entry and significant maintenance, which ultimately made it a pretty unreliable and ineffective solution.
In this article by Mike Oryszak, author of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Business Application Blueprints, will provide some alternative solutions for addressing these challenges, starting with an overview of some key concepts on how to leverage SharePoint Search to provide an optimized experience, making it easier for users to search and discover relevant sites. In addition to the conceptual overview, the following configurations and custom solutions will be covered:
- Sites Search Scope
- Site Directory page
- Relevant sites Web Part
Read Building a Site Directory with SharePoint Search in full
Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development: Receiving Player Input
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Luke Drumm | July 2012 | Cookbooks Microsoft
One of the key aspects that separates a computer game from that of, for example, a movie, is its interactive nature and its ability to be influenced by the player to achieve a different outcome each and every time.
In this article by Luke Drumm,author of Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development Cookbook, we will examine some different ways of capturing the player's intent that may not be immediately obvious or trivial to implement when we first set ourselves the challenge.
Read Microsoft XNA 4.0 Game Development: Receiving Player Input in full
