A customer recently asked me what the best way was to create a web part (quickly) that showed the contents of a remote file share. Well, the answer is quite simple.  Simply drop a Page Viewer web part on your page, select Folder as the source, and then enter the UNC path to the file share (for example, \\servername\fileshare).

You'll get a very slick web part on your page.  It has a couple of limitations, but it's great for a quick “file viewer“ web part.

I got a chance to review some of the SharePoint sessions that were given last week at SharePoint Connections.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

• Robert Ginsburg's Extreme Scalability for SharePoint (these are his slides from last year's TechEd)

• Mauro Cardarelli's Disaster Recovery Best Practices for SharePoint

I'll keep posting great resources like this as I find them.

I will be working the Office System area at TechEd. Drop by if you want to discuss Office 2003/2007, SharePoint, VSTO, IBF, LCS, Groove, OneNote, InfoPath, or any of the Information Worker products.

See you in Boston!

In case you're looking for release dates...

• The 2007 Office system public beta will be available to the public mid-Q2 2006.
• Release version will be available to volume licensing customers by the end of calendar year 2006.
• The consumer release will be coordinated with Windows Vista PCs and hit store shelves in January 2007.

I've recently taken a new job at Microsoft and, as such, have decided to spin up a new blog. This blog will be focused on the 2007 Microsoft Office system, which includes both client and server technologies that enable information workers to be more productive. Keep an eye on this site - I will be posting regularly on SharePoint, Office, Exchange, Live Communications Server, VSTO, and other key technologies.