"The Workbook cannot be oppened." in SharePoint 2013

Last Week I installed SharePoint 2013 for a customer. After installation I got the same error with the Excel Web Part as described in this Post.

I tried the proposed Solution:

$webApplication = Get-SPWebApplication "http://intranet "
$webApplication.GrantAccessToProcessIdentity("Domain\serviceAccount")

In the PowerShell-Window the Script the powershell command seemed to be executed succesfully but nothing changed. A look in the SQL Management Studio confirmed that no permissions has been granted for the Service Account. 

After a second look at the Content Database permissions I understood the problem. My Admin Account was not db_owner on the Content_Database because I was added afterward. I asked the main Administrator to execute the above Commands, and everything worked well. 

So if you add a new Administrator to the Farm-Admins, don't forget that this account will not have all permissions Granted as you think.

SharePoint 2010 Cumulative Updates installation order

Are you about to update your outdated SharePoint 2010 installation and wondering if you need to apply all Cumulative updates in release order or just the latest one? The answer is: Just the latest one. That’s why it’s called Cumulative Updates, they include all previous fixes since the last Service Pack.

More information on the technet site

Debug a Silverlight application in a SharePoint WebPart

If you want to debug a Silverlitght Application in a SharePoint Silverlight web part read this article, it's really helpfull:
How to: Use a SharePoint Project to Deploy a Silverlight Application

Central Administration prompts for password

Before you start digging for complex reasons try this one: Add the Central Administration site to the Local Intranet Sites on the Application Server, this should solves the problem in most of the cases.

Clear WebConfigModifications using powershell

While playing arround with the SPWebConfigModification Class I added some wrong entries to the web.config. These entries where added every time I activated or deactivated my feature. It seemed the WebConfigModifications of the WebApplication object had some corrupt entries. So I found this blog. David Petersen explains how to clear these WebConfigModifications using code in a console application.

This was very helpfull and solved my Problem. But instead of creating a console application I simply made a PowerShell Script. The code is basically the same but I wanted to add it here for those who are still afraid of using PoweShell. Don't be. Powershell just rocks ;)

$siteUrl = "http://yoursiteurl/";

$site = $gc | Get-SPSite -Identity $siteUrl

[Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication]$webApp = $site.WebApplication

$webApp.WebConfigModifications.Clear();

$webApp.Update();

[Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService] $service =[Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService

$service.WebConfigModifications.Clear();

$service.Update();

$service.ApplyWebConfigModifications();

Finally just be careful because this code removes all modifications not only yours. So don’t use it on productive environments.

Alternate Access Mapping not Working in a developper environment

I installed SharePoint 2010 in a virtual machine. I created a WebApplication and a SiteCollection on this WebApplication. Then I extended this WebApplication with a new host Header and a made sure that the bindings in the IIS Settings were set right. Then I created a new Zone and a new Host(A) in the VM DNS Manager. You can find a lot of blogs describing how you need to proceed for this. But the Alternate URL was still not working. And I always got the error Message: 

"Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage"

I spend a lot of time searching for the error. Finally I found what I forgot. I admit it's a dumb mistake, but I think the hint could save some time to some people around here:

Don't forget to enter the IP Address of your virtual machine as an alternate DNS Server in your Network Connection Properties:

Moving a SharePoint site Collection to another managed Path using PowerShell

I recently needed to move a Site Collection from one managed path to another. I found this blog using stsadm commands. I translated this to a PowerShell script: 

$fromUrl = "http://portal.dev/sites/TestSiteCollection"

$toUrl = "http:// portal.dev"

$backupPath = "c:\siteBackup"

Backup-SPSite $fromUrl -Path $backupPath -force

Remove-SPSite -Identity $fromUrl -Confirm:$false

Restore-SPSite -Identity $toUrl -Path $backupPath -Confirm:$false