Archive for May, 2010

Quick Fix: DeskI Query Panel Appears Invisible / Off Screen

For the last couple of weeks I’ve had an extremely unusual problem in Business Objects Desktop Intelligence (DeskI), whenever I went to edit a Data Provider nothing would happen.  Initially it looked like DeskI had hung but hitting escape returned me back into the report, I figured that because the Query Panel is modal it must be launching but for some reason I couldn’t see it. 

After a little bit of searching I managed to find the solution on the excellent BOB Forum (original post here) and I just had to reproduce it since I found it quite tough to find but hats off to Marek Chladny who came up with the solution – if you’re ever in the UK let me know and I’ll buy you a beer! 

1. Go to Edit Data Provider. 
2. Press Alt + Space
3. Press M
4. Use the arrows to move the Query Panel back onto the screen. 

Marek mentions that this only works if the Query Panel isn’t maximised, also I assume that since this uses standard Windows keyboard shortcuts it might work for any other application where you have a similar issue.  As for how it came about, I have no idea – it may be something to do with occasionally using a single-screen PC to remote-desktop into my dual-screen desktop.

How to Identify your SQL Server Version and Edition

I was just updating the Software Asset Register at my company and to do so I had to look at all of the SQL Servers in the business and find out the version and importantly the edition (Standard vs. Enterprise).   

I’d always used:  SELECT @@VERSION but I came across a Microsoft article showing an alternative:  How to Identify your SQL Server Version and Edition that shows another method using the SERVERPROPERTY() function.  As an example, I used the following: 

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(‘MachineName’)    AS MachineName,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘ServerName’)     AS ServerName,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘ProductVersion’) AS Version,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘ProductLevel’)   AS Level,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘Edition’)        AS Edition,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘IsClustered’)    AS IsClustered,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘Collation’)      AS DefaultCollation,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘LicenseType’)    AS LicenseType,
       SERVERPROPERTY(‘NumLicenses’)    AS NumLicenses 

You can read more about the possibilities of that on the MSDN SERVERPROPERTY() page.