How to host json file on Azure Website

Recently our project team developed an application and we intended to host it using an Azure Website, due to its convenience, price and easy of use. It worked well in the local drive and in the local web server..so if we just copy the site to another place it should work, right?

Wrong, if the other site is an Azure Website. If you do, you will note that all accesses to the JSON file will result in a 404 error.

The Problem

To make short a long story, that's because Azure Websites have a few MIME file types blocked by default and .json is one of them. And for the record, .svg is another one. 

The Fix

Luckily all Azure Websites are really IIS servers running on .Net. If you have some basic knowledge of IIS and .Net you know that we can control these security things via web.config. And that is what you need to do: Place a web.config file that tells IIS to allow the file extension.

To save you the trouble, here's the code to allow json and .svg to be served on Azure Website:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <staticContent>
            <mimeMap fileExtension=".json" mimeType="application/json" />
     </staticContent>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>

Just save this as a web.config and copy to the root folder of your application.

I hope this little trick saved you lots of time!

Cheers,
by Edge Pereira

Do What You Love

Don’t Let Failures Stop You

Working with CSS (sigh..)

By Edge Pereira

How to Upgrade SharePoint 2013 Trial to Licensed

If you are using a trial version of SharePoint Server 2013 and want to upgrade to a licensed product edition, you can purchase a license and perform the upgrade on the SharePoint Central Administration itself. Below are the steps to upgrade from trial to licensed.

If you have a trial you will see the following options in Central Admin.

 

Just click it and type the serial key you just purchased and SharePoint will take care of the rest. The whole licensing process should take just a couple of minutes. Suffice to say the server must be connected to the internet.

  

by Edge Pereira

How to Get a Random Value Variable on Command Prompt

Here’s a nice trick to get a random value on command prompt: Use the macro %random%

This is pretty useful to setup values not to be known, like for example to set the Administrator password to a unknown value.

net user administrator edge%random%pereira

by Edge Pereira

How to Call Administrator Command Prompt at the Windows Login Screen

Quick Summary: We are going to learn how to hack Windows 8 and get administrator rights to anyone without knowing the login information. This was my solution during a hackaton that happened here in Australia some time ago and I decided to share with you guys.

If you’re really in a hurry, here’s how it works…

Before the solution, a quick chit-chat…

The debugger process takes very high execution precedency in Windows. As a matter of fact, the debugger actually is running at the moment in your windows background and you never realised that.

If you’ve been around long enough to remember the old MS-DOS days, back then there was an application called SideKick. SideKick was executed at the computer boot and then stayed there hibernating. Then when the used pressed Ctrl+Alt, it magically appeared in the screen. It was awesome! Best thing ever! You could call this application from anywhere. It was done because during the initial execution, SideKick placed itself between the keyboard pressing command and the actual call in the CPU. It was a “man in the middle” kind of application, for the good.

That’s the same principle here, and to prove the point that the debugger is always running on Windows we will do this cool experiment in 3 Steps:

1) Open RegEdit and find the Registry Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options

2) Create a new string key called DisplaySwitch.exe. In this key set Name: Debugger, Data:cmd.exe

3) Lock your windows and press WindowsKey+P

Amazing hey! You’re calling the Command Prompt from your windows login screen. How about that for a power show-off with your infrastructure friends

The Explanation

The Debugger process is always running and intercepting all the calls made on windows, even during the login screen, and checking against the list defined in that registry key we talked about at the beginning. Now we only had to find an application, a service or anything that can be executed and send the instruction to the debugger to execute something else for us. That’s where the DisplaySwitch.exe comes into play.

DisplaySwitch.exe is executed when we press WindowsKey+P to allow us to select multiple monitors. The registry entry says “If the DisplaySwitch.exe gets called, call the Debugger instead and pass the parameter cmd.exe”. We are intercepting the keyboard call and making it execute the command prompt. Neat hey!

by Edge Pereira

032789_NSASecretListener - NSA Secret Listener Service in Windows

I was debugging some services in one of my Azure servers when I came around the command sc which allows to communicate with the Windows Service Control Manager. My problem required me to retrieve the SID for my local SQL Server Service. To make a short a long story, I ended up playing around with the service names and IDs, such as the command below.

C:\>sc showsid trustedinstaller

Why I started doing this? for nothing. Sheer curiosity, fishing for something new to learn. Then I came across this service called “NSA Secret Listener”.

C:\>sc showsid 032789_NSASecretListener

Note that it has a hardcoded numeric value at the beginning, which I believe it was put there on purpose just so it does not become so obvious..but again why use the NSA name on it and why this prefix?

Obviously we can see that the service has the status: Inactive; however I am curious to see the reasoning behind it.

Another point: If I run the command to get the display description, it shows that the service does not exists. “Security by obscurity” maybe?




Anyone has any hints? I would love to know the ins-and-outs of it.

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How Boot in Safe Mode on Windows 8

Back in the days when our Windows was slow or crashing we used to press F8 during boot and it would take us to something called “Safe Mode”, which is the minimum set of programs loaded just enough for windows to function. But if you try to do this in Windows 8, it does not work. There is no access to Safe Mode pressing F8. So, how to do it?

Just type “msconfig” in the start menu and when you get to this screen choose these options.

Additionally, by doing this, it allows you to perform a selective boot where you can disable which services should or shouldn’t be started.

Also it is great for PowerShell with enough power to do remote access to someone else’s computer, since you can’t remotely press F8 on other machines.

by Edge Pereira

Fixing Windows 8.1 Update 1 error 0x80070490

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is out with a whole bunch of new features that absolutely enhance your productivity and address (more) items which were not so well received by traditional desktop users. During the update process, however, quite a few people are experiencing an error described as "Windows Update Error 80070490”. I've experienced this problem as well and below are the steps I took to get it working on my machine:

Check for Corrupted Installations

There is a tool called Deployment Image Servicing and Management (aka DISM), this guy will do a complete check on your system for inconsistencies of patches, versions etc. Call the command prompt as administrator and type the following command to perform the check:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

Stabilize the Patch Level

In the same command prompt window, type the following command to stabilize the current patch level of your system based on the issues found:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Run the Troubleshooting

Now that we have a “stable” system, in your Start menu type "Troubleshooting" and select the following option.
This will take you to the Control Panel screen where you can launch the “analyzer and auto-fix troubleshooter”. Follow the prompts. If you're asked to run as Administrator, choose that option.




Now that the issues found are fixed and any inconsistency issues with security updates are resolved. Restart your machine and launch the Windows Update again. In my case it worked perfectly and I've got my Update 1 running on my Windows 8.1

How do I Know if I am Running Windows 8.1 Update 1 ?

If all goes well, in your Start menu you should you should see 2 new icons besides your username: Power and Search. If you can see them, congratulations you've got the Update 1 running.
.
I hope this info comes handy for you and saves you some of your precious time.
By Edge Pereira

SharePoint Online: Sideloading of apps is not enabled on this site.

If you are deploying a solution to SharePoint Online, at some point you will likely come across the following error: Error occurred in deployment step 'Install app for SharePoint': Sideloading of apps is not enabled on this site.

So...In short, you will not be able to deploy any solution from Visual Studio to SharePoint Online/Office 365 without enabling Sideloading first. I will show you how to fix this and then explain later, so you don’t waste any time looking for the answer. After all, I believe you came here to find the fix first

2-Steps Solution:
1) Download and install SharePoint Online Management Shell 
2) Execute the script below. (Note that the Sideloading Feature ID is harcoded in SharePoint, as are many other OOTB features)

#CODE STARTS HERE
$programFiles = [environment]::getfolderpath("programfiles")
add-type -Path $programFiles'\SharePoint Online Management Shell\Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll'
Write-Host 'Ready to enable Sideloading'
$siteurl = Read-Host 'Site Url'
$username = Read-Host "User Name"
$password = Read-Host -AsSecureString 'Password'
 
$outfilepath = $siteurl -replace ':', '_' -replace '/', '_'
 
try
{
    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext]$cc = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteurl)
    [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials]$spocreds = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($username, $password)
    $cc.Credentials = $spocreds
    $site = $cc.Site;

    $sideLoadingGuid = new-object System.Guid "AE3A1339-61F5-4f8f-81A7-ABD2DA956A7D"
    $site.Features.Add($sideLoadingGuid, $true, [Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.FeatureDefinitionScope]::None);
     
    $cc.ExecuteQuery();
     
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Green 'SideLoading feature enabled on site' $siteurl
    #Activate the Developer Site feature
}
catch
{ 
    Write-Host -ForegroundColor Red 'Error encountered when trying to enable SideLoading feature' $siteurl, ':' $Error[0].ToString();
}

#CODE ENDS HERE

In your SPO Management Shell enter the url of the site you want to deploy the solution, the administrator username and the password. The powershell will take care of the rest.

Now off you go. You’re ready to deploy solutions from your Visual Studio straight into Office 365. You can also get a more elaborate code in the MSDN Code Solution Repository.

by Edge Pereira