This was my first experience using the Automated SharePoint 2010 Powershell-based installation script from CodePlex, the AutoSPInstaller available at http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/ (Special thanks to Brian Lalancette and Andrew Woodward and anyone else that uses, documents, comments, or blogs about it.  Really great tool for managing the install, even a multi-server farm.

So, I used the AutoSPInstallerInput.XML configuration file, verified my account info, checked database names, and let it rip.  Worked like a champ.  Went through to test everything… Sites were responding, My Sites worked, looked good.  Then I tried to search.

Search wasn’t quite working.  I went to the Search Application Topology, all that I had were the Admin component and the Databases. There was no Crawl Component configured, and there was no Index Partition.  Shame on me… I didn’t actually configure the Crawl or Index Partition as part of the script.

Easy enough to fix, right. I figured I would just use the web interface to manually create a new Crawl Component.   When you create a new component, a status message appears for ‘pending creation’. So, I created a new Crawl Component and then clicked ‘Apply Topology Changes’.

No luck. Failed. Received an error message that SharePoint could not configure a Crawl Component because there were an incorrect number of indexes. The SharePoint search topology only supports from 1 to 256 indexes.  I currently had zero.

So I had to go create an Index first, right? Wrong. Couldn’t create an Query Component because there was no Crawl Component configured.  Regardless of where I started, I couldn’t create the components because they were dependent on each other?

What’s the answer? You must create all components and databases at the same time. Each will show ‘pending creation’ or ‘pending deletion’ depending upon your actions. Apply Topology Changes will then appropriately configure the necessary Search Application Components.

Another lesson learned.

If you are trying to learn SharePoint, even getting started can be a little intimidating.  SharePoint information is available in many forms: books, blogs, discussion boards, conferences, events, webinars, and more. With so much information available for free, where do you start?

Start with a book. There are many free resources out there, but many of them are out of context for someone just coming to SharePoint. A book is usually pretty concise and comprehensive.  You can keep it with you, highlight it, make notes, and have it readily accessible.  It can be a physical book or Kindle version.  It does not matter.  There are so many books to choose from that it doesn’t even matter which book you start with. Pick one. Buy one. Borrow one. Steal one. Please don’t actually steal one. You’ll find that the SharePoint community is a very engaging community of people that will gladly lend or give you a book if you ask for one.

If you are looking for a great intro book, I highly recommend Sue Hanley’s latest book, Essential SharePoint 2010. It’s extremely well written, easy to understand, and provides a great introduction to SharePoint.

Even when starting with a book (or class or guessing your way through it), I would still recommend the following basic approach to learning SharePoint:

1. Learn the SharePoint terminology. It is important to understand the basic terminology with any platform, but it is critical to understand the building blocks of SharePoint. You need to know what a List is in SharePoint. You need a lot more keywords: Farm, Web Application, Site, Site Collection, Library, List, Workflow, Activity, Alert, Item, and much more.  You do not need to remember all of the specific details or become an expert yet, but you do need to understand the terminology and the boundaries of SharePoint.
2. Learn the SharePoint browser interface. Before you become an Admin or Developer, you should learn what you can do with the SharePoint browser interface.  Learn Site Settings, List Settings, and Permissions. You can create sites, lists, libraries, workflow, alerts, and build entire applications using nothing but the browser interface. Before you begin supporting SharePoint from an administrative level or writing any code, you need to learn what can be accomplished from the browser interface. I have worked with more than one developer that wrote code to perform something that SharePoint did out of the box!
3. Learn SharePoint Designer. Oh, bother! SharePoint Designer is not to be trusted! I’ve heard it before, but the reality is that you need to use the appropriate tool for the job. SharePoint Designer 2010 is an incredibly powerful tool.  It’s used for applying designs and styles, but I personally don’t even do that (I’m not a designer and don’t claim to be). I use SharePoint Designer to create and manage Lists and Libraries. I use SharePoint Designer to make use of external data (using BCS and External Lists). I use it for creating and managing workflow, and I use it for creating XSLT List View Web Parts. You can build entire applicaitons by configuring SharePoint using SharePoint Designer – without writing code.  Very powerful.
4. Learn about third-party SharePoint products. In most organizations (not all), I stress the importance of minimizing the amount of custom application development that you support. I feel that it is important to exhaust all other alternatives before you begin writing custom code. This includes leveraging third-party tools and applications. Within the vast SharePoint world, there are hundreds of web parts, applications, tools, and solutions that you can purchase. If you are learning SharePoint, you should become familiar with some of these tools and what they do. If nothing else, it will help you understand how others have attacked building applications. It may also shed some light on some of SharePoint’s weaknesses (or at least what some of these vendors think those weaknesses are).
5. Developers: Only after the previous steps should you Learn Visual Studio and .NET in the context of SharePoint. Last (but definitely not least), go to Visual Studio and/or PowerShell. If you are already a .NET developer, you may be inclined to start here. Don’t! Learn the SharePoint basics before you start writing code.
   If you are new to .NET, then you still need to follow this prescription: Learn SharePoint before you learn how to write custom code in SharePoint. If you are new to .NET, you will need to learn .NET and more specifically ASP.NET. There are thousands of resources available for this as well, and it depends upon your preferred learning method. There are books, classes, blogs, webinars, and online virtual classrooms. Pick a method that works for you (on your schedule and within your budget).

• Integrated community content in the Access Application Part Gallery.
  
  I assume that this means it will allow us, the “community”, to contribute new Application parts to be used in building Access applications.  This will be very powerful – especially for those folks that use Access as an interface to SharePoint for Access Power Users.
• Better alignment between Project Server and SharePoint Server browser support.
  Browser Support is good.
  
• Office Web Applications Support for Chrome
  Even more Browser Support is even better.
  
• Internet Explorer 9 “Native” support for Office Web Applications and SharePoint.
  Finally! Browser support for their own browser. Left hand, meet right hand.
• Improved backup / restore functionality for SharePoint Server
  Good news for Admins – especially for admins that don’t have the luxury of using some of the third-party backup and restore tools.
• Project Professional now synchronizes scheduled tasks with SharePoint task lists.
  I’m a huge fan of Project.  Better synchronization of Project with SharePoint without the need for Project server is a big win.

That’s not all, there are other features highlighted on the blog post.

As far as the Project Server 2010 updates included in Service Pack 1, there are some notes on the Microsoft Project product team blog post early this morning.

My favorite is again Browser Support.

• With Project Server 2010 SP1, Project Web App pages needed by team members to submit task status and timesheets are supported on FireFox, Safari, and Chrome.

1. Social Network.  The world is now social.  I know, in reality the world has always been social.  The entire Internet is based upon the concept of social.  Being social is the new black.  Status updates, tags, notes, following, being followed – it’s all in SharePoint 2010 out of the box.  Users can tag and make notes everywhere – on docs, wikis, blogs, CMS pages, videos, pictures.  Everywhere.  Organizations have spent a ton of money in the last 4 years custom building these tools in a variety of platforms.
   
2. Business Connectivity Services (BCS).  BCS allows you to connect to external data sources.  Easily.  If you are connecting to an external SQL database it really could not be easier.  With SharePoint Designer 2010, you can map to an external data source, map an External Content Type to the data and use the intuitive SharePoint list interface on your external data.  Even better, this functionality exists in the free version of SharePoint – SharePoint Foundation 2010.
3. SharePoint Designer 2010.  SharePoint Designer 2010 is free. With a completely reinvented user interface, this is now an extremely powerful tool in your SharePoint arsenal and not a tool to shy away from.  From creating external data sources and managing the UI to creating data views and reusable workflows (see Sean Bordner’s post), SharePoint Designer 2010 is my tool of choice for leveraging the power of SharePoint.  SharePoint Designer 2010 works with all versions SharePoint 2010, from Foundation up.
4. Ribbon toolbar.  The overhaul performed on the SharePoint UI is great.  I’ve heard nothing but great reviews from end users.  People are used to working with Microsoft Office, and the familiar ribbon toolbar decreases the learning curve tremendously.  Good on ya.
5. Search.  Search refinements, improved people search, and FAST Search for SharePoint – all great things.  Of course, FAST search is amazing, but it adds a little cost and complexity and requires additional hardware to run.  Search refinements are probably the most requested customization on the previous SharePoint search tools.  With these capabilities now available out of the box, it’s really a full feature search tool that can (and maybe should) be used on solutions across the enterprise – internally and externally.  SharePoint Search Server Express 2010 provides much of this functionality for absolutely free. You can plug this into your existing web site technology and completely revamp your search with modern functionality and flair quite easily.

In Part 1, we walked through a generic install.  Once you have the Search Server 2010 Express up and running, it is extremely simple to configure a new content source.  If you are jumping directly from the vanilla install, you should see a screen that will link you directly to the Search Administration page.

If you are just jumping in to Central Admin, the link path that you’ll need to get to the Search Administration page is under Application Management, click on Manage Service Applications, and then click on Search Service Application.  While the concept of Service Applications is beyond the scope of this particular post, know that in larger environments (such as SharePoint 2010) you can run multiple Search Service Applications.

In the left nav, under Crawling, click Content Sources.  You will be linked to Manage Content Sources page.  You can use this page to add, edit, or delete content sources, and to manage crawls.

Before we go any further, what is a Content Source?  For that matter, what is Content?  In the context of Microsoft SharePoint and Search Servers, Content is any item that can be indexed.  This can be HTML,a Web page, a Microsoft Office Word document, a text file, a PDF file, business data, or even an e-mail message.  Content lives somewhere, such as a Web site, file share, a Notes database, a SQL database, or SharePoint site.  A Content Source specifies the settings that define what content should be indexed and on what schedule it should be crawled.

You should notice on the Manage Content Sources page that there is at least one Content Source already defined: Local SharePoint sites.  Using the wizard to manage the install that we followed in Part 1, all local SharePoint sites are already defined as a Content Source. 

In order to create a new Content Source (such as our external site), click the New Content Source at the top.  You will see the Add Content Source Page:

Content Source Name – A title that you are giving as a reference to manage this Content Source.

Content Source Type – Type of Content that you will be crawling.  This is an important setting because it instructs the crawler on not only the type of content that will be located there, but also how to actually communicate with the Content Source.  For example, communicating with a File Share utilizes a completely different protocol than communicating with a web site.  The default types of Content Sources supported listed here.  Note that I said ‘default’.  You can work with vendors or write your own custom interface to crawl and index content types not specified out of the box.  Also note that if you select different types, the Crawl Settings change to specify different details for the specific type of Content Source you are specifying.

• SharePoint Sites
• Web Sites
• File Share
• Exchange Public Folders
• Line of Business Data
• Custom Repository

Start Addresses – the URLs the search system should start crawling.  For SharePoint sites and Web sites, these are traditional URLs.  For File Shares, these will be UNC paths that are accessible from the server.  You can supply more than one Start Address for a Content Source.  If, for example, I wanted to include a single Content Source to manage various SusQtech websites that I am crawling, I could add http://www.susqtech.com/, http://www.sharepointacademy.org, http://www.sharepointconference.org, and http://www.thesug.org.  I can then manage all of these URLs as a single Content Source.  I could also opt to create multiple Content Sources so that I can manage each of the crawl schedules and details independently.

Crawl Settings – used to specify the behavior of crawling for this Content Source.

Crawl Schedules – used to schedule the crawls for this Content Source. This allows you to configure 2 different crawl schedules: full and incremental.  Why would you ever want an incremental instead of a full?  Incremental crawls are supposed to only crawl content modified since the last crawl and thus take less bandwidth, server memory, and CPU cycles.  I typically configure these schedules with a Full crawl on the off hours on the weekend and Incremental crawls every night during the week.  Keep in mind that you may need more frequent incremental crawls – such as every hour for your public facing website if you are continuously adding new content. 

Content Source Priority – normal or high.  The crawler will prioritize ‘high’ items when you have multiple content sources that must be crawled.

Start Full Crawl – a checkbox to start a full crawl immediately.

YouTube made it easy to understand for everyone.  Upload a video from a camera and share it with the world for free.  Simple enough, but with the association industry there are usually more strings attached.  Who can upload videos?  Which videos are branded?  Which videos require membership for access?  Which videos can be purchased independently or in addition to membership?

In today’s associations, video upload and distribution is largely a business discussion – not a technology discussion.  The technology is available.  I can watch any NetFlix movie on my iPad anytime I want.  It is easy.  The business objectives of who, how, when, where, and why members, volunteers, and the public get to upload or view videos is often decision by committee.  That’s the complicated part.

As far as the technology goes, SharePoint 2010 has video streaming using Silverlight right out of the box.  Out of the box means that it requires no further configuration of any kind to get it to work!  If you are running SharePoint 2010, you can add a Media Web Part and then choose a video or upload a new video.

So who can upload videos?  Anyone that you want to grant access to upload videos.  Who can watch videos?  Anyone that you want to grant rights to the videos.  A custom authentication provider can even provide roles based upon commerce purchases, committees, groups, board members, and so on.  This means that a transaction can associate a user with the appropriate rights to watch a video.  This role can be associated with the user immediately upon purchase and could last an hour, a day, a week, or forever. 

SharePoint 2010 video streaming is very, very good.  It is easy to upload a video.  It is easy to drop the video web part on any page and embed video directly on the page.  However, some organizations provide a tremendous amount of video distribution and want it all private, controlled, and want detailed analytics on it – specifically how to MONETIZE the video services.  Microsoft has you covered as well with IIS Media Services.   IIS Media Services (in its third generation) gives you unprecedented control over your media serving capabilities.  The good news is that these services can be used with your SharePoint environment.  With all of this video, all you have to worry about now is that you have the bandwidth to support your extremely popular site!

Here are some details about the capabilities available with IIS Media Services.

 Bit Rate Throttling – The Bit Rate Throttling module has compelling features for media and data delivery. For many scenarios, this feature will reduce bandwidth costs while increasing per-server capacity for concurrent download connections.

 Live Smooth Streaming – Live Smooth Streaming enables adaptive streaming of live events to Silverlight clients. Using HTTP to deliver live events takes advantage of the scale of existing HTTP networks and keeps content close to the end user and makes true HD (720p+) a reality for live Web broadcasts as well as drastically increasing live event availability.

 Smooth Streaming – Smooth Streaming enables adaptive streaming of media to Silverlight clients over HTTP. Smooth Streaming provides a high-quality viewing experience that scales massively on content distribution networks making true HD media experiences (720p+) a reality.

 Smooth Streaming Client – The IIS Smooth Streaming Client Development Kit allows you to build rich Silverlight user experiences that take full advantage of IIS live and on-demand Smooth Streaming capabilities.

 Web Playlists – Web Playlists is an IIS 7.0 Extension that provides developers and hosters unprecedented control of how media content is delivered to users. Personalize content, prevent ad skipping, and monetize your assets.

While the in-scope/out-of-scope topic has had books written on the subject, something I find that will deserve more and more attention as implementation tools and frameworks grow (like SharePoint) is the concept of configuration vs development.  For example, Microsoft details very clearly that they will ‘assist in developing workflows’, yet creating workflows in Visual Studio is out of scope.  I think that what they are trying to clarify is that they will help configure workflows in SharePoint designer.  If you ask a Developer if using SharePoint Designer is considered development – most will laugh.  It can be used to help develop a solution, but they will explain that this is not developing workflows – this is configuration.  Wikipedia (the only place to get the straight dope) explains that “The term software development is often used to refer to the activity of computer programming, which is the process of writing and maintaining the source code, whereas the broader sense of the term includes all that is involved between the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the software.”

Using SharePoint Designer is clearly not writing and maintaining source code, so I suppose that Advisory Services is choosing to use the broader sense of the term…

Included with scope

• Assist in planning business logic for workflows.
• Assist planning list structure, content types, and site columns.
• Assist in developing workflows.
• Assist with debugging existing workflow logic.
• Assist in helping customer understand workflow capabilities in SharePoint Designer 2007  or in SharePoint Designer 2010.
• Assist planning migration options.Assist choosing the best workflow technology for a scenario.

Out of scope

• Create workflows in Visual Studio.
• Manually migrate list workflows in SharePoint Designer 2007 or in SharePoint Designer 2010.
• Create customer actions.
• Implement custom actions.
• Debug custom actions.

Microsoft Advisory Services is an hourly fee-based, consultative support option that provides proactive support beyond your break-fix product maintenance needs. This is a remote, phone-based support option that includes working with the same technician for assistance with issues like product migration, code review, or new program development. This service is typically used for shorter engagements, and is designed for developers and IT professionals who do not require the traditional onsite consulting or sustained account management services that are available from other Microsoft support options. This article also provides some self-help resources for this scenario.

Snippets quoted from KB2283286

For additional information on Microsoft Advisory Services, including on how to engage, refer to this Microsoft web page:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=AdvisoryService

So what is the best practice related to document libraries with regards to folders?  Do you use folders or not?  Here is my prescriptive guidance…

Using folders is such a great concept that the idea largely hasn’t changed since the advent of paper.  In fact, even Multics utilized the concept of folders in the early 1960s.  The idea of using folders is simple – store related content items close together to make them easier to find when you need them.  In fact, I use folders all the time at home.  I have a an entire file folder cabinet that I use to store papers in their relevant folders.  I have folders for bills, folders for tax info, folders for warranty information, etc.  I use these folders out of necessity because the content that I store in them is physical – not digital.

Folders have persevered through nearly all versions of computing devices from websites to mobile devices.   Does it make sense to keep doing something just because that’s the way we’ve always done it?  Folders may be easy to understand and explain, but is it really the best use of technology?

I don’t think so.  I think folders are an antiquated way of storing and retrieving content, and I’m not alone in this.  Google agrees with me.  Yes, the multi-billion dollar organization has a singular hive mind – and this massive mind agrees with me.  Don’t believe me?  Gmail doesn’t have folders.  Gmail has labels.

Labels, tags, keywords or metadata are terms that people use interchangeably.  Labels can be applied to any piece of content to help describe the content item.  Most things you purchase have labels: food, clothing, autos, computers, and even mobile devices.  they all come with attached labels.  Labels can also be attached to content.  For example, if I upload a video to share of my child swimming and title it, “John’s kids at the beach”, you have no idea from the title alone that it is a video about a 7 year old child learning to swim to a floating dock.    This is where adding labels to help describe the video can help.  I will likely add labels with my child’s name, and then some very specific labels, such as Learning, Dock, Ocean City, MD, Swimming, etc.  This enables me to go back and find videos at a later date based on a variety of sorting.  I could easily find all videos with that particular child.  I could easily find all videos marked as Ocean City.  I could easily find all videos that were specifically about Summer 2010.  These labels will also help other people locate the information that they are seeking.

Can you do this with folders?  What folders would you create?  If I create a folder for each child, then there is no way to group by activities.  If I create a folder for each type of activity, then there is no way to group by child.  A major difference between folders and labels is that each piece of content can only exist in a single folder but can be marked with many labels.

SharePoint supports both folders and labels (though in SharePoint labels are called metadata and columns).  So which should you use?  I think the answer is clear: use metadata.  Though they are definitely not mutually exclusive, here are some other good reasons to use metadata INSTEAD of folders.

1. Metadata can be used to create views.  Sure, views can be created within a folder as well.  But views cannot span 2 folders.
2. Metadata can be a required property.  In SharePoint, you cannot dictate which folder items get stored in.  You can dictate that uploaded content will be classified by as many properties as you see fit.
3. Folders do not give you ‘counts’ of how many items they contain until you open them.  With metadata, you can easily see counts in grouping, views, etc.
4. Any single content item can have as many pieces of metadata as you wish, thus being shown in as many views.  However, content cannot exist in multiple folders.
5. In SharePoint, folders make unnecessarily long and complicated URLs (and don’t forget the URL length is still limited).
6. Updating a single column to change the metadata of an item is easy.  Moving content from one folder to another requires more thought.
7. Navigating through a folder hierarchy can only be efficient to the people that know the entire folder hierarchy.  After about 2 weeks, this is no one.
8. SharePoint 2010 allows you to modify the navigation to leverage metadata and content types.  You do not have to utilize the giant collapsible tree of folders that is inherent within Windows Explorer.

Of course, you will still run into folders in SharePoint.  In fact, SharePoint 2010 has many new enhancements around using folders.  Plus, folders are comfortable.  Some people will mention view limits in SharePoint as a reason for folders.  SharePoint 2010 throttling makes this argument go away.  Some people will still stand by organization.  Other people will say that security is a reason to use folders.  While it’s true that you can put security on a Folder (and thus the items within the folder), managing security at the subfolder level is both time consuming and a management headache.  It is much easier to manage security at the library/list/site level, as typical best practices would prescribe.  I mean, you have item level security too, but who wants to manage security at the item level?  This is an exception and not the rule.

Am I saying that I avoid folders where possible?  Yes.  Am I saying that there is no place for folders?  No.  Folders can still be an effective tool if used correctly.  Are folders and metadata mutually exclusive?  Of course not!  Even if you elect to use folders, you should still use an effective metadata structure.

Please wield this powerful folder weapon wisely…

1. What are the key functional improvements in SharePoint 2010?
2. What are the immediate and practical benefits of upgrading to 2010?
3. What are the strategies, costs, and risks of upgrading?

Join me for a FREE workshop to find out everything you need to know about SharePoint 2010.  This is not a SharePoint marketing presentation – I don’t work for Microsoft.  This is a SharePoint overview with a detailed demo of SharePoint 2010′s new features.  I’ll also be providing critical insights learned since we have already been implementing and launched solutions on SharePoint 2010.  Breakfast will be served (did I mention that this is FREE?), questions will be answered, and I will help you find out exactly what you need to know to make an informed decision about whether SharePoint 2010 is right for you.

Please note that space is limited and registrations will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis.

When you first launch the SharePoint Foundation 2010 installer, you are presented with a dialog to help you with a little guidance and links to the install guide, upgrade guide, and the hardware and software requirements.  Assuming that everything is ready to go, you can install the software prerequisites.

Once the prerequisites are installed, then you can click Install SharePoint Foundation.

It is important to note the type of installation that you are performing.

Stand-alone will install all components on this single computer.  Stand-alone will also automatically install and configure an instance of SQL Server Express 2008.  This is a very simple installation process, but has some limitations.

A Stand-alone installation configures a single computer with all the necessary files and settings to create a fully functioning SharePoint implementation, including Web server, application server, and database.   SQL Server Express 2008 is installed and configured to provide data storage capability.   SQL Server Express is based on the Microsoft SQL Server architecture, but it has the following limitations:

• Lack of enterprise features support.
• Limited to one CPU.
• One gigabyte (GB) memory limit for the buffer pool.
• Databases have a 4 GB maximum size.
• SQL Server Express will not support a server farm configuration or a multi-processor computer.

In addition to the SQL Server Express limitations, the inherit SharePoint Foundation Stand-alone configuration limitation is that you cannot add servers to create a SharePoint farm.  If you need to add another WFE later – you won’t be able to.  If you anticipate the need to scale up to a larger or more robust installation, choose the Complete option.

You can perform a stand-alone installation either by selecting Stand-alone on this screen or by clicking Standalone on the previous screen. The difference is that by clicking Stand-alone on this screen, you can choose the installation path. After this screen, both options follow the same steps and result in the same outcome.

If you choose the Complete install, SharePoint Foundation 2010 will install all components. You can add additional servers to form a SharePoint farm, including load balanced WFE servers.  The Complete option installs a Web server and configures the computer to provide application server functionality.   The SharePoint Foundation 2010 Complete install option does not provide database functionality.   You must provide connectivity and credentials settings to connect to an existing SQL Server instance.   It is important to note that you can download and use SQL Server Express 2008 for free.  You can even install it on the same computer.  Although SQL Server can be installed on this same computer, it is recommended that you install SQL Server on a separate computer.

There are other install options.  You can also install SharePoint Foundation 2010 for a front-end Web server rather than Complete, but you must use the command line to do so.

If you receive an error message or encounter a problem, visit The Microsoft Office 2010 Setup Resource Center for troubleshooting information and how to contact Microsoft Product Support.

If you do not change the default installation directory, the default installation directory is located at:  C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\Data

I typically recommend leaving the installation directory in the default location.  While some IT shops have standard operating procedures that all installations must be on non-OS drives (D Drive), I’ve found it easier to troubleshoot new environments if I don’t have to hunt around for files.  The next SharePoint consultant that you bring in will immediately first look in the Hive (typically the default install directory) for SharePoint related info.

After you select the path, the installation wizard will begin a progress bar as it installs the environment.

After the successful installation, you will be prompted to run the SharePoint Configuration Wizard.  Typically, you can leave the check box selected and immediately run the configuration wizard.  There are instances where you may want to delay running the configuration wizard.  If you are planning to run the Office Web Apps (which will run on SharePoint Foundation 2010), it is easier to install the necessary files at this point (after SharePoint install but prior to running the configuration wizard).  If you first run the SharePoint Configuration Wizard, then you will be configuration the Office Web Applications via PowerShell scripts.

If you opted for a SharePoint Foundation 2010 Stand-alone Server install, then the SharePoint 2010 Products Configuration Wizard will immediately begin the ten step configuration process.

If you opted for an option other than a stand-alone server install, then you will be prompted to either Connect to an existing Server Farm or Create a new Server Farm.  You will then be prompted to supply database connection credentials with appropriate permissions on the SQL instance that you will be using.

That’s it!  After you’ve let the wizard run through, you should automatically be directed to a default SharePoint Foundation 2010 site that looks a lot like the screen below.