How to get SharePoint 2007 to run under Windows 7?

Ever wanted to know How to get SharePoint 2007 to run under Windows 7?, Well you’ve come to the right place.

This solution should work with both 32Bit and 64Bit versions, but you’ll be pleased to know its fully tested to work with Windows 7 64bit RTM.

Ok let’s get started.

You’ll need:

  • Your Original SharePoint 2007 with SP1 Install media. If you’ve got an MSDN subscription download the ISO and mount it.
  • SharePoint 2007 SP2 (either 32bit or 64Bit), can be found here (from Microsoft)
  • A setup helper application , located here
  • A database (I would go with SQL Server 2008, or get an express 64bit edition)
  • IIS Running

Overview:

To get SharePoint running on Windows 7 is not that difficult. We need to slipstream the original installation media with SP2 (because Win 7 won’t install prior versions). Then we’ll fire up the setup helper app, browse to the slipstreamed setup, select the setup.exe and it will now bypass the OS check. Once this is done we can install MOSS. After MOSS is installed, we will install a database. After this, we will run the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard, provide the database instance, and MOSS should install nicely.

Step 1 : Mount your install media, or insert the DVD (remember this is MOSS with SP1) or for example (en_office_sharepoint_server_2007_standard_and_enterprise_edition_with_service_pack_1_x86_x64_dvd_x14-40187.iso)

Step 2: Copy the setup folder on the disk either the 32bit or 64bit folder to a local drive on your PC (for example: c:\MOSS2007)

Step 3: Download SharePoint 2007 SP2 can be found here (from Microsoft)

Step 4: Extract SP2 – and place extracted files in the updates folder of the copied original install media (for example c:\moss2007\updates)

This can be done… by doing this… (here is a 64bit example)

officeserver2007sp2-kb953334-x64-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract:c:\moss007\updates

or

officeserver2007sp2-kb953334-x64-fullfile-en-us.exe /extract

If you don’t provide a path, you’ll get prompted to browse for one.

Step 5: Turn windows features on, make sure you have all of the following enabled:

Capture

Step 6: Install SQL Server 2008 You decide on a version.

Step 7: Now the fun part… install MOSS using the setup helper application and it should go through without any problems at all….

Good luck – and have fun…..

And if you need more help just ask šŸ™‚

Extending Feature Receiver Events

This article will teach you how to extend a feature receiver to add more events to the default, somewhat limited event model.

Whats the problem with the current Feature Receiver Event Model?

The Feature Receiver event model provided by Microsoft is too limited, it lacks some very important events, the 4 events it does support are:

  • FeatureInstalled
  • FeatureUninstalling
  • FeatureActivated
  • FeatureDeactivating

So what’s missing?

Most noticably whats missing is a FeatureOnError event, since this would also be too generic, ideally we need support for FeatureOnActivatingError, Ā and anymore you can think of. This is because a feature runs through the CAML feature definition while activating, and out of the box, there is no way to catch an error during the activation.

Another important event thats missing is FeatureOnBeforeActivate – this is because you might want to do some prechecks before running through the feature element manifests, so the eventĀ FeatureActivated fires after the element manifests have been loaded.

There is one very easy way to add these events, and whats nice about this method is if you know how to code a feature you will have no problems understanding the code.

The theory is (a) to change your current features visibibility to hidden, then (b) create another feature which will be responsible for the activation of your first feature.

Code listed below:

<code to follow>