Configure Report Manager to open Report Builder 2.0

Recently while at a client I was discussing the differences between Report Builder 1.0 and Report Builder 2.0.  The discussion was really around will the end user actually use Report Builder and if they will should they have access to Report Builder 1.0, 2.0 or both.  I explained that Report Builder 2.0 had a lot more features than 1.0 and that if the end user is tech savy enough they should go that route.  So it was decided to go with Report Builder 2.0 but I explained that the Report Manager automatically launches Report Builder 1.0 when you click the icon for Report Builder.

To make this less confusing we needed a way to launch Report Builder 1.0 when clicking the icon.  After a little research I found a very simple way to make the switch called ClickOnce.  There are a lot of blogs that already exist about this feature but anytime I learn something new I like to write about it!  This feature was enabled in SP1 and allows to very easily switch which application is launched.  Here are the steps to needed to make the change:

1. Start the Report Manager
2. On the Home screen click Site Settings in the top right
3. In the General tab, change the Custom Report Builder launch URL to /ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application
4. Click Apply

Here are the steps to do this using a SharePoint portal (I have not been able to test this one yet).

1. On the Start menu, point to Administrative Tools and then click SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration
2. On the Central Administration page, click the Application Management tab.
3. Type /_vti_bin/ReportBuilder/ReportBuilder_2_0_0_0.application in the Custom Report Builder URL property
4. Click OK

You can revert back to Report Builder 1.0 at any time.  Just keep in mind the requirements are to install Report Builder 2.0 and SQL Server SP 1.