Failed to initialize the AppDomain:ReportManager_MSSQLSERVER_0

q: Today the customer began receiving an HTTP 500 error when trying to access their SQL Server Reporting website.  /reports   The Server had the following error in the Application Log: Event 1223 / ASP.NET 2.0.50727.

Failed to initialize the AppDomain:ReportManager_MSSQLSERVER_0
Exception: System.SystemException
Message: Failed to create AppDomain.
StackTrace:    at System.Web.Hosting.ApplicationManager.CreateAppDomainWithHostingEnvironment(String appId, IApplicationHost appHost, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters)
   at System.Web.Hosting.ApplicationManager.CreateAppDomainWithHostingEnvironmentAndReportErrors(String appId, IApplicationHost appHost, HostingEnvironmentParameters hostingParameters)
InnerException: System.OutOfMemoryException
Message: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.

a: A quick fix that seemed to work without affecting anything else on the box was to recycle the "DefaultAppPool" Application Pool within IIS.  After that the site loaded & reports were able to run.

Free Internal Office Instant Message (IM) Server

q: Today the customer was looking for a free internal application to allow their employees to chat over IM with each other but not their friends or services.

a: The Answer is OpenFire -  http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/index.jsp  We've been very impressed with the features of the product so far.  We installed Openfire on a rarely used workstation.  Then installed Spark (the IM Client) on everyone's workstations across two offices and now they can all chat.

• UPDATE: We discovered SparkWeb - this is a small collection of files that can be thrown in an IIS Virtual Directory to grant users access to the Chat Server without having to install the client.
• UPDATE: Today we discovered OpenFire simply uses the Jabber protocol and if 5223 is allowed through the FW you can use IM Clients like Digsby to connect to the OpenFire Server from outside of the firewall.

Insufficient Permissions CRM 4.0

q: When a user attempts to log into CRM 4.0 they see a pop-up screen that says:

Insufficient Permissions
The logged-on user does not have the appropriate security permissions to view these records or perform the specific action.
Try this action again.  If the problem continues, check the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Community for solutions or contact your organization's Microsoft Dynamics CRM Administrator. Finally, you can contact Microsoft Support.

Event code: 3005
Event message: An unhandled exception has occurred.
Event time: 6/11/2012 10:44:11 AM
Event time (UTC): 6/11/2012 3:44:11 PM
Event ID: d51325f549494c7b94f67ec11beb34e7
Event sequence: 583
Event occurrence: 10
Event detail code: 0  

a: We discovered this was the easiest solution:

1. Log into CRM as a "System Administrator"
2. Edit the account in question 
3. Grant them the "System Administrator" Role
4. Have them log into the application (it will work).
5. Then remove the "System Administrator" Role 
6. Have them log back into the system and it should work this time.

Can I delete c:\windows\winsxs

q: We discovered a folder under windows that is taking up 12GB c:\windows\winsxs can we delete it?
a: The generally accepted answer is NO.  However, we discovered a command that should free up some space within it.

1. Open a Command-Line prompt with elevated privileges  (CMD - Run as administrator)
2. From the default path of c:\windows\system32> run the following command
3. dism /online /cleanup-image /spsuperseded
4. We ran this on two Windows 7 computers and the c:\windows\winsxs folder was reduced by 4-7GB

NOTE: Obviously you'll want to make sure you never need to uninstall the most recent service pack, as well as have a current backup of your system.  Here's a link to an article about it.

UPDATE: If the device is Server 2008 R2 DISM works great, if the Server 2008 is Pre-R2 you'll have to run c:\windows\system32\compcln.exe.  This command reduced a 15GB winsxs folder to 13GB.