SharePoint 2013 - Installing Adobe iFilter and the 'real' PDF icon

This was completed in a three tier (WFE, APP/RS, DB) SharePoint 2013 Farm.

1.       Logon to the server hosting Central Admin (in our case APP/RS Server)

2.       Install PDF iFilter 9.0 (64 bit) from http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025

3.       Download PDF icon picture from Adobe web site http://www.adobe.com/misc/linking.html and save as ‘pdf16.png’ to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\

4.       Modify the filename of the following entry in docIcon.xml file, which can be found at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\XML

a.       <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf16.png" />

6.       Open regedit

a.       Navigate to the following location:

b.      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office Server\15.0\Search\Setup\ContentIndexCommon\Filters\Extension

c.       Right-click > Click New > Key to create a new key for .pdf

d.      Add the following GUID in the default value {E8978DA6-047F-4E3D-9C78-CDBE46041603} including brackets.

7.       Restart Server

8.       Logon to each Web Front Server

9.       Copy PDF icon picture (pdf16.png) from APP/RS Server (directory path: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\) and copy to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\IMAGES\

10.   On Web Server, modify the filename of the following entry in docIcon.xml file, which can be found at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\TEMPLATE\XML

a.       <Mapping Key="pdf" Value="pdf16.png" />

SharePoint 2013 - removing '_layouts/15/start.aspx#' from URL's

This text appears in the URL of SharePoint 2013 Site collections as result of Minimal Download Strategy (MDS).  This feature is designed to improve performance by only rendering changes to a visited page instead of the entire thing.  In any case, if you never had performance issue with your environment in the past, you may have a desire to disable this.  Another potential reason would be a migration from SharePoint 2010 and a desire to keep URL's consistent in that migration.

The following displays the difference in the URL with MDS active and not active.

MDS active: http://site.domain.com/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/SitePages/Home.aspx

MDS deactivated:  http://site.domain.com/SitePages/Home.aspx

To deactivate MDS:

1. Browse to your site collection
2. Site settings
3. Manage Site Features
4. Scroll down to 'Minumal Download Strategy'
5. Click Deactivate

(this needs to be completed on each site collection individually)

Disclaimer - deactivating this feature may have performance implications - this was worth the risk in our case since we migrated from SP2010 and the client had a desire to keep URL's consistent.

SharePoint 2013 - SQL 2012 Reporting Services error when opening Report

When you attempt to open a report, you receive an error:



Ensure the user account has the correct role to view reports in the site

1. Site Sittings > Site Permissions > Grant Permissions

If nothing else works, change the Reporting Services Encryption Key:

1.  Open Central Admin
2. Application Management > Manage Service Applications
3. Choose Reporting Services Service Application
4. Click Manage
5. Click Key Management > Change Encryption Key
6. Click OK to begin the process
7.  Test