1. SharePoint 2013
Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learned
Dennis Bottjer
SharePoint Solution Architect

2. Introductions
Dennis started his career, years ago, as a help desk
professional for an architecture firm and experienced, first
hand, the struggle of small business & technology. Through
that experience and his education in MIS at OU, he gained a
keen skill as a developer & a passion for designing business
applications. Over the course of 10 years, Dennis moved on
to work for several corporations and Fortune 500's like Bank
of America, leading teams to develop SharePoint & custom
software solutions on a much larger scale.
Today, Dennis spends the bulk of his time consulting with
ThriveFast's diverse clients. Occasionally, he'll take the night
off to attend or speak at a conference or event like
'SharePoint Saturdays' or to read a good book.
Leadership: President of the Tulsa SharePoint Interest
Group.
@DBottjer
DennisBottjer.com
Dennis.Bottjer@thrivefast.com

3. Agenda
 PowerShell
 General
 Performance

4. Where is my
STSADM?

5. SharePoint PowerShell
 Fact: Not If, When.
 Why use?
 Use ISE
 Additional Tips & Demos

6. Why Use PowerShell?
1.
2.
3.
4.
It’s repeatable, across farm and environments
Documentation
Power of .NET
Get rid of Ugly Guids (DB Names)

7. No Editor, Just Command Prompt?
Use the ISE

8. Issue: PowerShell Doesn’t Know SharePoint
Solution:
1. Use the SharePoint Management Console (PS)
2. Use Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell EA 0

9. Save Me…

10. SharePoint General
 Suite Bar Updates
 Hide the Quick Launch
 Hide the ‘Recent’ Heading
 Run Config Wizard from Command Line
 Employee Pics from AD
 Open in Windows Explorer

11. Issue: Suite Bar Text Reads “SharePoint” Instead
of Company Name
Solution:
$wa = Get-SPWebApplication “http://WebAppURL”
$wa.SuiteBarBrandingElementHtml = "IncWorx
Consulting"
$wa.Update()

12. Issue: Hide The Quick Launch With CSS
Solution:
Insert this code into a Script Editor Webpart
<style type="text/css">
#sideNavBox {DISPLAY: none}
#contentBox {MARGIN-LEFT: 0px}
</style>

13. Issue: Hide The Recent Heading
Solution:
1. Make a copy of the default master page.
2. Add a reference in your Master Page to the most recent
jQuery.min.js.
3. Next, search for the tag in your master page. Inside that
tag, place this bit of code:
$(document).ready(function() { var recentLi=
$("#ctl00_PlaceHolderLeftNavBar_QuickLaunchNavigationM
anager div ul li").filter(function(index) { return $("span span",
this)[0].innerText == "Recent"; }); if (recentLi != undefined) {
recentLi.hide(); } });

14. Issue: Running SharePoint Config Wizard GUI
Fails
Solution:
psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -wait

15. Issue: Employee Pics Stored in AD Aren’t
Showing on Profiles
Solution:
Update-SPProfilePhotoStore CreateThumbnailsForImportedPhotos 1 –
MySiteHostLocation http://my.company.com
Note: Run as Admin

16. Issue: Open in Windows Explorer Doesn’t Work
on My Server
Solution:
1. Add Desktop Feature
2. Restart Server
3. Make sure webclient Windows Service is running

17. Help, SharePoint is
Slow…

18. SharePoint Performance
 Set Search Performance Level
 Rebuild Indexes
 SQL Statistics
 Automatically Detect Settings
 Set DB Auto Growth

19. Issue: SharePoint Environment is Unbearably
Slow
Solution:
Is noderunner.exe is running and using tons of
memory?
Run: (SharePoint Management PowerShell)
Set-SPEnterpriseSearchService -PerformanceLevel
Reduced

20. Issue: SharePoint Environment is Unbearably
Slow
Solution: SharePoint does not exist without SQL
Server and SQL Server Indexes become
fragmented.
1) Establish a Maintenance Plan that rebuilds your
indexes.
2) Use T-SQL to script the Rebuilding of Indexes
Example: http://bit.ly/GSYMAW

21. Issue: SharePoint Environment is Unbearably
Slow
Solution:
1. Rebuild Indexes (See Previous Slide)
2. DO NOT Enable Auto-Create Statistics

22. Issue: Document Viewing and Uploading is Slow
Solution: In IE Disable “Automatically Detect
Settings.”
1. In Internet Explorer, Go to the upper right corner and click on the
Gear:
2. Then select Internet Options Tab, and choose the connections tab as
shown below:
3. Click LAN Settings:
4. Uncheck the first check box “Automatically detect settings” if this is
checked, and click ok on all open screens.
5. Close and Re-Open Internet Explorer.

23. Issue: SharePoint Ignores the Model DB and
Auto Growth is Enabled by Default
Solution:
1. Set autogrow to a fixed size, not percentage.
2. Set fixed size based on expected total database size.

24. SharePoint 2013
Tips, Tricks and Lessons Learned
Thank You!
Dennis Bottjer
@DBottjer
www.DennisBottjer.com
Dennis.Bottjer@thrivefast.com