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Sam Lester - SQL Server & BI Premier Field Engineer

Enabling Preview Features in Power BI Desktop

As the Power BI Desktop team releases monthly updates, some new features are released as "Preview...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/28/2016

Power BI - What Version of Power BI Desktop am I Running?

Power BI Desktop gets updated each month, packed with new functionality. When you encounter an issue...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/22/2016

Power BI “Send a Frown” Makes Me Smile! :)

If you encounter a product bug when working with Power BI Desktop, leverage the “Send a Frown”...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/19/2016

Power BI Desktop .PBIX file fails to open with error “ZIP archive contains unsupported data structures”

Today’s blog entry comes from the investigative work of my outstanding SharePoint PFE colleague,...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/18/2016

My Experience Completing the Microsoft Professional Program Certificate in Data Science

My Experience Completing the Microsoft Professional Program Certificate in Data Science Earlier this...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/13/2016

Power BI Desktop - Installing 32-bit vs. 64-bit Power BI Desktop Application

In a recent forum post at www.powerbi.com, a user asked how to locate the 32-bit Power BI Desktop...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/07/2016

Power BI - Custom Shape Map fails with non-Latin1 characters

Power BI - The Shape Map visual fails if a custom map contains non-Latin1 characters with the...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/05/2016

Power BI - Comparing Date Selection Visuals - Slicer vs Timeline

Power BI - Comparing Date Selection Visuals - Slicer vs. Timeline With the recent October 2016 Power...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/01/2016

Power BI fails with "Windows Platform FIPS validated cryptographic algorithms" error due to FIPS Algorithm Policy

Loading a Power BI report fails with error "This implementation is not part of the Windows Platform...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 10/25/2016

Installing Power BI Desktop through SCCM

Installing Power BI Desktop through SCCM Over the past few months, my enterprise customers have been...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 09/30/2016

Happy First Birthday to Power BI!

Happy Birthday to Power BI! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An_8wf4RwBw&feature=youtu.be Today...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 07/24/2016

Create your personalized Twitter Analytics Dashboard in Power BI in 10 minutes!

Create your own personalized Twitter Analytics Dashboard in Power BI When I do Tweet the most? What...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 07/06/2016

Power BI - Which data center hosts my data? Where is my data stored?

Power BI - Which data center currently hosts my data? Where is my data stored now? I was recently...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 06/29/2016

Power BI - Using Web Page Data Sources and "Publish to Web" to build and embed your personalized dashboard

Power BI - Using web pages as a Power BI data source to build your personalized MSDN/TechNet and...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 06/19/2016

So long AdventureWorks, we'll miss you! (And hello Wide World Importers!)

So long AdventureWorks, we'll miss you! It's the end of an era for the SQL Server sample database...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 06/13/2016

Refreshing KPIs in SSRS 2016

Refreshing KPIs in SSRS 2016   The introduction of KPIs in SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 gives...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 04/25/2016

Power BI and SSRS 2016 in an On-Premises Environment

Power BI and SQL Server Reporting Services 2016 in an entirely On-Premises Environment Jan. 17, 2017...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 04/18/2016

Querying SCCM - Finding Manufacturer Counts and Percentages

Lately I've been doing a lot of work with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012 in terms...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 04/18/2016

Discovering SQL Server 2005 Instances by Querying System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM)

SQL Server 2005 extended support will end on April 12, 2016. After this date, Microsoft will no...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 03/11/2016

Auditing the usage of “EXECUTE AS” in a database

A question was recently asked in the MSDN Transact-SQL Forum about detecting the usage of...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 01/23/2016

Sorting MSDN Forums threads by number of page views

After answering questions in the MSDN forums for the past 10 years, I was curious about which of the...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 01/15/2016

Connecting SQL Server Profiler to Power BI Desktop

Connecting SQL Server Profiler to your Power BI Desktop Analysis Services Instance One of my...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 12/12/2015

Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2 - Logon restricted to members of Local Administrators group

Within one of the SQL Server environments that I support, we recently experienced a Windows Server...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/04/2015

SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 Unattended Setup Error - "The specified value 'Upgrade' is invalid"

SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 Unattended Setup Error - "The specified value 'Upgrade' is invalid" I...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 05/26/2015

TechNet Guru Awards - December 2013

The TechNet Guru Awards celebrate the technical articles on TechNet, contributed from valued wiki...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 01/21/2014

TechNet Guru Awards - November 2013

The TechNet Guru Awards celebrate the technical articles on TechNet, contributed from valued wiki...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 01/21/2014

TechNet Guru Awards - September 2013

The TechNet Guru Awards celebrate the technical articles on TechNet, contributed from valued wiki...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 10/21/2013

TechNet Guru Awards - August 2013

The TechNet Guru Awards celebrate the technical articles on TechNet, contributed from valued wiki...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 10/21/2013

EOMONTH() Equivalent in SQL Server 2008 R2 and below

SQL Server 2012 introduced several new system functions pertaining to the date and time data types....

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 09/23/2013

TechNet Guru Competition – Show off your SQL Server skills!

Over the past few months, I've had the opportunity to help judge a great new online competition on...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 08/21/2013

SSMA for Oracle - Error: No columns were returned from the database for table 'Foo'

Error: SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle fails to load columns with error "Loading columns...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 07/17/2013

SQL Server 2012 Discovery Report - Determining what SQL Server Components are Installed

How can I determine which SQL Server features and versions are on my computer? This continues to be...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 06/13/2013

Bulk Database Migration from On-Premise SQL Server to SQL Azure - Step 1: Bulk .bacpac Export

I recently had a task to perform a bulk migration of hundreds of databases to Windows Azure SQL...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 12/08/2012

TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way - Finding a Person's Current Age Based on Birth Date

Introduction: As part of the blog series TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way, today's topic will cover a...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 11/30/2012

TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way - Parsing Tips and Tricks - Returning Digits after the Decimal Point

Introduction: As part of the blog series TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way, today we will tackle a numeric...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 10/23/2012

TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way - Finding the Longest Repeated Substring

Introduction: As part of the blog series TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way, today's topic will cover a common...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 10/10/2012

TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way - Finding the percentage of NULL values for each column in a table

Introduction: As part of the blog series TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way, today's topic will cover a...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 09/22/2012

TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way - Finding the MAX Value from Multiple Columns

Introduction: As part of the blog series TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way, today's topic will cover a...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 09/10/2012

TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way - Text to Speech

Introduction: As part of the blog series TSQL - Solve it YOUR Way, I will present a topic recently...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 08/28/2012

TSQL - Pick Your Path, Choose Your Destiny, Solve it YOUR Way!

For many years, I have been an active contributor to the MSDN Forums, including one of my favorite...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 08/25/2012

Finding the Correct Version of the AdventureWorks SQL Server Sample Database

The AdventureWorks database is a fictitious company database that has existed since SQL Server 2005...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 08/23/2012

Creating Complex Test Databases - Using Excel to convert a raw list of text into viable T-SQL syntax

As part of my series on creating databases with interesting characteristics for testing purposes, I...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 08/12/2012

Creating Complex Test Databases - Creating a Table with more than 1,024 Columns

As part of my series on creating databases with interesting characteristics for testing purposes,...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 08/08/2012

Creating Complex Test Databases - Request for Ideas

Over the past week, I've written a few entries regarding complex databases with interesting...

Author: Samuel Lester - MSFT Date: 08/07/2012

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