Hands-On tek Turns 14!

By João Ferreira Jan 10, 2026 Events 2 Comments

What do these two boxes have in common? One says FrontPage 98, the other says SharePoint 2001. At first glance, they look like relics from a different eras, but they share a story that shaped my career.

Today, Hands-On tek turns 14 years old. Fourteen years ago, I was sitting in a master class about Android development, when I decided to start a blog. I had no idea that decision would lead me here. Every year, I’ve marked this anniversary by telling stories about the blog or about myself. This year, I want to take you even further back, before the blog, before my career, back to when I was 12.

That’s when I built my first website. The tool? Microsoft FrontPage. I still remember the excitement of dragging and dropping elements, feeling like I was creating something magical. That project sparked a curiosity that never left me.

Fast forward to today: SharePoint is celebrating its 25th anniversary this March and I recently saw a timeline of its history, and guess what was at the very beginning? FrontPage! Microsoft acquired it in the 90s, and its DNA became part of SharePoint foundation. Suddenly, it hit me, my journey started with the same technology that would later define my professional life.

Now for the fun fact: if you’ve been with SharePoint for a long time the changes are that you have crossed paths with the _vti_ directories. Here’s the story behind that name: VTI stands for Vermeer Technologies Inc., the company that created FrontPage before Microsoft acquired it. These have been around since the FrontPage days. They used store metadata, configuration, and service api endpoints.

Here’s where it gets personal: the first customization I ever built for SharePoint was a simple mega menu with icons, with the information stored in a list. And guess what? Back then, I used the classic /_vti_bin/Lists.asmx endpoint to interact with the list. This was SOAP-based, and it felt like magic at the time. Funny enough, we’ve gone from SOAP to REST and now to Microsoft Graph, but if you try to hit /_vti_bin/Lists.asmx on any modern SharePoint site, it still works!

As we approach this big milestone for SharePoint, I want to share two gems of its history with you, published by Jeff Teper and Joel Oleson. They’re worth a read if you love seeing how far SharePoint has come.

So here I am, 14 years into blogging, and without realizing it, I’ve come full circle. From a kid tinkering with FrontPage to a career built around SharePoint.

Thanks for being part of this journey. Here’s to the next chapter!