To Change the seperator icon after "My Site" and "My Links" in the top right corner of SharePoint HomePage

Since the existing seperator pipe icon('') immediatly after "My Site" and "My Links" is incorporated in "MySite" feature, it can't be directly pointed/changed to some other image, by using SharePoint Designer. For this we need to create a new feature and use this feature instead of existing feature. Please follow the steps mentioned below for that.

1) Copy the new image to SharePoint "Images" folder (i.e "C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\IMAGES")

2) Create a new feature in FEATURES folder:

• Go to FEATURES folder (i.e. "C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES").
• Copy the existing "MySite" feature.(Select "MySite" folder) and paste it there.
• Name the feature as "NewMySite" by renaming the copied folder.
• It will contain two xml files namely "Feature.xml" and "
  MySiteFeatureElements.xml".

3) Modify "Feature.xml" file:

• Open the "Feature.xml" in Visual Studio IDE.
• Create a GUID and replace the Feature Id in the xml with the new GUID.

(To generate GUID, go to the folder "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools" and click on "guidgen.exe" and copy the GUID generated. If you want to have shortcut for generating GUID in the Visual Studio IDE, open Visual Studio IDE. Click on "Tools", then "External tools". In the Dialog window, add the following.

Title : Create &GUID

Command: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\guidgen.exe

Initial Directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\Tools\

Then, click on "OK". Next time Go to "Tools" and click on "Create GUID" to generate new GUID.

• Replace the "Farm" with "Web" for "Scope" attribute.
• Replace "TRUE" with "FALSE" for "Hidden" attribute.
• Save the "Feature.xml" file.

4) Modify "MySiteFeatureElements.xml" file

• In the xml file, modify the "Sequence" value from 100 to less value (like 90) for each of the three controls.
• Create new user controls in CONTROLTEMPLATES folder to be pointed in this xml file.
• Go to CONTROLTEMPLATES folder i.e. "C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES"
• Copy "MySiteLink.ascx" file and paste it and rename it to "NewMySiteLink.ascx".
• In "newMySiteLink.ascx" file, comment/remove the two lines and insert an image which points to the new image in _layouts folder like:

• Similary copy "MyLinks.ascx" file and paste it & rename it to "NewMyLinks.ascx".
• Edit the file and comment/remove line and insert new line for image as above.
• Save the both files
• Replace the "ControlSrc" urls with the new ascx files created in the above steps as follows:

• Save the file.

5) Modify the scope in master page file:

Since the default scope of the SharePoint Delegate controls "GlobalSiteLink1" and "GlobalSiteLink2" is "Farm", we don't want to affect these changes in entire farm level, we need to change it to "Web" scope. For that open SharePoint Designer. Open your default master page and change the scope of "GlobalSiteLink1" and "GlobalSiteLink2" Delegate controls to "Web" level.

Web" runat="server"/>

Web" runat="server"/>

6) Install Feature:

• Open Command Prompt and change the directory to "C:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\BIN".
• Execute the installfeature command as follows

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN>stsadm -o installfeature -filename NewMySite\Feature.xml -force

7) Activate the Feature to your Site collection:

• Execute the activatefeature command as follows.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN>stsadm -o activatefeature -filename NewMySite\Feature.xml -url http://idc-dk-is:44510/sites/TestSite

8) Reset IIS

9) Open your web site and check the change in the seperator image.

Site Restore Problem

When I try to restore a site collection using "stsadm -o retore" command it is giving the following error.
"Your backup is from a different version of Windows SharePoint Services and cannot be restored to a server running the current version. The backup file should be restored to a server with version '12.0.0.6318' or later."

I figured out that my SharePoint version is '12.0.0.6300' (Go to any SharePoint site in the system.Click on Site Settings. It will display the version number as attached in screen shot") The solution is to upgrade my SharePoint to version 12.0.0.6318. I found the link for downlod in the following url:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=256CE3C3-6A42-4953-8E1B-E0BF27FD465B&displaylang=en

Download it and install. Now the site restore should work.

Site Administration problem after restoring backup of another person's site collection

When you create a new site collection and restore site collection created by another person, it will restore and replace the site collection administartors from that site. To replace it with your name, go to SharePoint Central administration and click on Site Collection Administartors in Application Managemnt. type your account name as primary administrator and click ok. Now you can go to the site collection and modify all settings.