How to delete the wrong key - upgrade Windows 7 premium to ultimate

Problem:

When I tried to upgrade from Premium to Ultimate using Windows Upgrade Anywhere, I entered a wrong key. After that, the UI does not allow me to re-enter the key anymore. It is back to Premium for each restart.

Solution: 

Edit the regedit:

HKey_Current_User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsAnytimeUpgrade

You will find the wrong key there and delete the ProductKey REG_SZ

This is no such a thing for table collation

Read Darrel Gibson's DBA book recently. On p.12, at the bottom under Step 14, it says that we can change the collation on individual databases,tables, and columns.

Well, I know how to change collation for a server, database or a column. But not sure for a table. Googled. Found this page:

http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=77212

It appears there are different points: (1) cannot do collation for table as stated by Kristen. (2) can change it through table design as in sherrymgm

I tried the 2nd one. The 1st screen shot below is deceptive. It seems that you can change the collation for the table, as you coming to this screen by right-clicking the table. No! it's not for the table, it is for a particular column! Secondly, when you try to save the change (even though it is actually for a column), you will see the 2nd screen shot. You cannot save the change! You have to drop and re-create the table. Even so (dropping and re-creating), you are not defining collation for the table. It is actually for column(s). 


So two thoughts on this issue:

(1) Concur with Kristen, no such a thing for table collation
(2) Poor GUI from MS on this issue. If the change cannot be saved, SSMS should prevent it from the very beginning, rather than disappointing the user at the last step.

P.S. Is "Column Collation" a better option than "Collation" on the SSMS GUI in this scenario?


The Crazy ODBC driver for MySQL finally works

Problem:

Working on the tip below on different ODBC drivers and MySQL programs:

http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2613/export-data-from-mysql-to-sql-server/

But keeping get an error complaining mismatch between architecture and application.

Finally, I figured it out.

Solution:

1. Install the 32-bit MySQL 5.5 (not 64-bit!)
2. Be sure to include the 32-bit ODBC driver 5.1.1. Do not use the 64-bit driver!
3. Use the 5.1.1 32-bit driver for ODBC driver, not the latest 5.2.

SSIS Package Validation Errors related to Default Language Code



For some reason, the columns are related to two language codes: 936 and 1252. Still do not know how this happens. Win 7's locale is English. The SQL Server server and database collations are Latin. The language code for all of the DB destinations in the solution is 1252. Do not know where 936 (Microsoft's character encoding for simplified Chinese) comes from?

But anyway, if I change the OLE DB destination codepage to 936. The package works.

Installing TFS on Win 7 Laptop

Finally, stand-alone TFS works on my Win 7 laptop. Now I can play with the source control functionality.

VS 2012 + VS2012 Team Explorer + TFS 2012

They key is to configure TSF including Build Configuration.

I got an error when creating a team project on complaining the server connection if 'Build Configuration' is not done.

Unfortunately, the trial version only works for 90 days.