Nothing is more frustrating than having something work on one computer, then not working on another... Some of this is to be expected, especially when upgrading Operating Systems, but with server based products, you expect most clients to act the same way. They are, after all, connecting to a program on another computer.
My frustration was the Explorer View in SharePoint. This view is a great tool for uploading lots and lots of files to a document library. It is also a great tool to show users that are used to having their documents on a file share. This view gives them a nice warm fuzzy that things aren't changing that much for them.
What I found was that in Windows XP IE 8, I could open the Explorer View just fine, however when I walked over to my Windows 7 IE 8 box, no dice. What the...
What I found was this. Microsoft changed how they handled various functions that are allowed to access to the Operating System. WebDAV being just one such function. It is important to note that SharePoint has its own WebDAV functions separate from IIS' WebDAV. More on that later.
In Windows 7 the WebDAV Redirecter Service must be turned on in order for SharePoint WebDAV to have access to Windows Explorer. If the service is not on, you either get an error saying that your browser doesn't support Explorer View, or, most frustrating of all, nothing happens. Flip on the Web Client Service, and you should be good to go.
Yeah, I realize that the service name is Web Client Service, and that the process is called WebDAV Redirecter. I don't know why. Microsoft is funny like that.
So, say you are setting up your server for a new SharePoint implementation, and you want to use the Explorer View for your document libraries. What do you do? Ignore WebDAV. Seriously. On both IIS 6 and IIS 7/7.5 servers, do not enable or install the WebDAV features. Windows 2003 will work regardless of it being enabled, but installing it on Windows Server 2008 will break Explorer View. So it is just good practice to leave WebDAV off of the box entirely. Why enable something that has to be patched, updated, and monitored if you are not using it?
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