Moving the database location for Dynamics CRM Outlook Client

When you install the Outlook client for Microsoft Dynamics CRM version 4 it asks you if you want to make it "Offline capable".

If you choose yes it will create a SQL Server Express edition database in the following folder in windows XP.

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\MSCRM\Data

If you work for a large company and the IT dept has implemented roaming profiles for your domain login account its is likely that they have set a limit on the disk space that you can store on your desktop and "Application Data" folders. If so I feel your pain, my limit is currently 50MB which is minuscule and when you go over that limit you can no longer logoff until you clear down the space.

When I first sync the outlook client with CRM it creates a database file called MSCRM_MSDE.mdf which is approximately 40MB in the MSCRM\data folder mentioned above.

I first thought there may be some registry entries that I could change to point these files elsewhere but alas no.

If you want to move this file elsewhere then follow these steps:

• Shutdown Outlook
• Open SQL Server Management Studio (if you don't have this there is a free express edition available)
• Connect to the database by using your machine name with \CRM appended to it (i.e. LAPTOP1\CRM)
• Browse to the database name and click "Detach"
• 
• You can then move the files elsewhere anywhere on the file system outside your profile locations i.e. c:\files\outlook crm\
• Then right click the MSCRM_MSDE database and reattach in the new location.

When CRM starts up it will be blissfully unaware of the new location of the database files and you will have all your profile space available again.

MWG Atom Life phone on the Three 3G network

I have been using Windows Mobile based phones
for a good few years now. My first was a Compaq iPaq and then an i-mate JAM all of which ran Windows Mobile 2003 SE.

I picked up one of these Mobile Wireless Group (MWG) Atom Life phones. First of all for the features it provides at €230 ex VAT its a bargain. I paid around €500 for the iMate JAM when it first came out. Windows mobile 6 is a BIG difference to windows 2003 but still not as slick as the iPhone which i got to play with for a while. This is the same phone as the o2 atom life. The headphones have an o2 logo on them and there is a MWG sticker covering the o2 logo on the front of the phone.

Everything I had trouble with on WM2003 "just works" now with Windows Mobile 6. Some nice new features too like calling contacts via Bluetooth headsets by setting a voice recording for the contact (very handy in the car) etc.

It has 3G connection coverage using the HSDPA network which can potentially provide 3 Mbps data transfer but I suspect in reality its much less. I have no real stats on this yet

Anyway, I dumped my pay monthly o2 contract and signed up with 3 Ireland to try and reduce my bill. Its early days but my experiences so far are :

1. 3 do not support any windows mobile devices on their network so your out of luck getting network setting for it.
   
2. WiFi access is simple and easy to setup, detects the network, enter security key and then your connected. Usual battery drain applies. I have noticed some problems reconnecting to the WiFi network in work after the device has gone into standby.
   
3. By setting up a network connection for the "Celular line (GPRS)" called "3ireland.ie" it allows data access to the HSDPA network. This provides
   
   1. Windows Live Messenger access (free)
      
   2. Skype access (although the device or connection is too slow to properly talk even when connected via WiFi) (free)
      
   3. Web browsing (data charges apply)
      
   4. POP3 and IMAP email support (data charges apply)
      
   5. Exchange and Hotmail access (data charges apply)
      
4. Vodafone and o2 have the push email access and charge €20 per month with it. As a result they block people that are not signed up to it from connecting to POP/IMAP servers directly to download their email the old fashioned way. I assumed that connecting to POP and IMAP servers would be blocked on Three but there are no such restrictions so I have mine scheduled to connect every 5 minutes which is close enough to instant.
   
5. Live Messenger IM's come in the same way SMS messages do which is cool and gives a consistence approach and standard interface.
   
6. Battery life with "everything on" is not great, need to charge nightly if connected to 3G network all day, otherwise you can get 3 days before charging.
   
7. Three have a website accessible for free called "Planet 3", this has downloads of TV shows, none of these work with windows mobile, you get a message saying that "This service is not available on your device. Please use your 3 handset to access this service".
   
8. You can get access to the My 3 section of planet 3 by using the following URL on your device http://mobile.3ireland.ie/837_sc I tried lots of different URLs for different devices found on the internet but this is the only one that worked
   
   1. This allows you to "check my usage" in terms of flexiunits uses so far this month
      
   2. View your price plans and change roaming settings
      
   3. Buy Add-ons for your price plan
      
   4. Other handy stuff…
      
9. I'm missing the iMate/HTC phone pad input method. I tried to install the Resco Keyboard but after a reset the device failed to boot and required a Hard reset and wipe of all the data. I tried this a few times with no success.
   
   1. What I was really missing was the keypad T9 predictive text input that was available as a HTC application on the JAM, turns out other people think it's the best way to input using a touchscreen device too. Here is a good overview of the different types of input options under windows mobile. He comes to the same conclusion I did, the T9 input panel is the best.
      
   2. You can get a customised version of this from those dedicated people at xda-developers.com
      
      
      
      

      
      

I will post other comments as I experience them, including phone bills.

Update: 3 Ireland have just added their 1^st windows mobile device the HTC Tytn II so perhaps some of their online services will start to become compatible with windows mobile devices.

Windows Mobile 6.1 support:

This phone comes with windows mobile 6 but there is a newer upgrade to version 6.1 which has some nice new features including a windows messenger like threaded message view for SMS's

There does not appear to be any official ROM upgrade for this yet on the MWG site but there are some unofficial builds from XDA-Developers.com if you fancy risking your phone with them.

Update on 4GB RAM upgrade

In a previous post I described how contrary to Sony's spec I managed to upgrade to 4GB of RAM on a Sony Vaio AR 21s.

A small but annoying issue. Vista still thinks that there is 2GB of RAM every time to put it to "sleep"/"Hibernation". This gets tricky when it tries to put 3.1GB of memory available to windows into a 2GB disk hiberfile.sys file. The hard drive does not like this and I ended up having a system that wouldn't boot and had to be repaired using the Vista recovery tool from the Vista DVD.

Running the "Disk Cleanup wizard" on this laptop and choosing to delete the hibernation file forces Vista to recreate it after a reboot or two.

I know this blog is starting to become the "Craig's problems with his laptop blog" but I want to try and help anyone else going though similar difficulties. That is one of the main reasons I post here, to try and solve tricky problems that defy rational explanation in software development and IT.

I promise to move onto other topics soon…

The Long Road to 1080p with Vista on Sony Vaio AR Laptop

Please excuse the following post, I'm going on a rant here….

You buy a laptop with HD bluray drive and a HDMI port, then buy a HDTV with HDMI but can you get them to work ? Oh dear god no, not if you are running Vista. I upgraded my laptop from XP to Vista and that's when the problems started. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't go back to XP but the time I have wasted on this has been huge.

When I got my AR 21s laptop it has windows XP on it, everything worked, proper drivers, cool. This was the best laptop that Sony sell on October 2006, and the newer Sony AR series are still the best equipped today, you'd think they would provide A grade support. So they provide 1 set of Vista drivers after Vista ship which only partially work, a nice 1^st step, but after they have released a few newer models in the AR series the driver support stops for the older models. Its like they stopped testing driver releases from their equipment manufacturers like NVIDIA etc.

For example the latest graphics drivers for Vista don't support 1080p HD output through the HDMI port. I was about to repartition and reinstall XP to get this back so I could enjoy the bluray discs I bought when a random search brought back this Club VAIO community article.

It tells of how to install NVidia 158.43 beta drivers but it seems NVIDIA has forgotten about this 7600 GT graphics card so you have to edit the nv_disp.inf file to put in your own hardware IDs to get the drivers to install. The article kindly supplies the necessary file edited for you. This was great and after 4 reboots I have 1080p on my HDTV. Only problem is that whenever I launch the WinDVD BluRay player I get a blue screen of death (BSOD) in the nv4_mini.sys file.

Well I got it working finally, there is a newer beta driver called 158.45 which I could not find on the NVIDIA site. I got them from SoftPedia. I had to figure out what the edits were (using WinDiff) and insert the lines myself in 2 places (shown in bold)

[NVIDIA.Mfg.NTx86.6.0]

%NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0191.1% = nv_NV3x, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0191

%NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0193.1% = nv_NV3x, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0193

%NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0194.1% = nv_NV3x, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0194

%NVIDIA_G73.DEV_0399.1% = nv_NV3x, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0399

%NVIDIA_G84.DEV_0400.1% = nv_NV3x, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0400

%NVIDIA_G84.DEV_0402.1% = nv_NV3x, PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0402

And

; Localizable Strings

NVIDIA = "NVIDIA"

NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0191.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX"

NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0193.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS"

NVIDIA_G80.DEV_0194.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra"

NVIDIA_G73.DEV_0399.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 GT"

NVIDIA_G84.DEV_0400.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS"

NVIDIA_G84.DEV_0402.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT"

NVIDIA_G86.DEV_0421.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT"

NVIDIA_G86.DEV_0422.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS"

NVIDIA_G86.DEV_0423.1 = "NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS"

This is to tell the NVIDIA setup program that the 7600 GT hardware applies to this installation. If anyone wants the edited nv_disp.inf file please let me know.

Now I finally have 1080p appearing on my HDTV, it looks cool. I played Casino Royale movie on it briefly. However I can't hear it because the sound does not go through the HDMI cable (even though its supposed to support it) and I can't use the remote control because Vista recognises the Infrared port but doesn't seem to accept any signs in media centre or WinDVD. Its getting ridiculous at this stage.