HowTo-Outlook

    Office 2003 SP3 Released! (18 Sep, 2007)

Today Office 2003 SP3 got released. In true Office tradition you can expect this to be the final Service Pack that we’ll see for Office 2003 (but I’m sure we’ll see some additional Hotfixes though). You can download Service Pack 3 here or of course use Microsoft Update or Office Update.

I’ve also updated the guide on how to create an Office 2003 CD (or installation point) with Service Pack 3 slipstreamed into it.

View: Slipstream Office 2003 to SP3

    HowTo: Send Word Document As Email (05 May, 2007)

In previous versions of Word (pre-Office 2007) you had the ability to send the contents of your current document as the contents of your email. In Word 2007 you only have the option to send it as an attachment.

This guide will explain how you can recreate that functionality with a macro.

View: Send Word Document As Email

    Updated FAQ: Message stuck in Outbox (3 Apr, 2007)

I’ve updated the original article with information on how to delete a message stuck in the Outbox by using the Microsoft MDBVU32.EXE tool.

With 4 methods provided, you may contact me directly if you still can’t get it out after trying all methods

View: Updated FAQ: Message stuck in Outbox

    New Outlook Feature implemented: Cancels Meetings Ahead of Time (31 Mar, 2007)

Update 3 Apr, 2007; I hope you all had a great April Fool’s Day

Most of you know already that as a Microsoft MVP I know more about the development of the next version of Outlook (currently named Outlook 14). Most of the time I cannot share any of that information before Microsoft publicly announces it or when they clear me from the NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) I had to sign with them. This usually means that we are not allowed to talk about new features in the BETA up till days before the BETA is opened to the public. There are some exceptions like with Office 2007 (then still named Office 12) we were allowed to tell pre-BETA that you would have the option to save your documents in pdf-format. Unfortunately this feature didn’t apply to Outlook so we couldn’t share anything exciting yet. This time it is different and the scoop for Office 14 is exclusive to Outlook!

Two and a half weeks ago, during the MVP Summit, we were shown a great tool from Microsoft Research which adds intelligent resource planning (like for meeting rooms) which predicts the likelihood a meeting will actually take place!

In-line with the new marketing style of Microsoft to put new features in real-life environments by showing entertaining videos we were also shown a video. Although I cannot share the video we were allowed to share the scenario of it;

Clogged conference rooms and calendars open up as useless meetings are weeded out. Conference room traffic is at a six-year low.

“I didn’t think we needed a meeting anyway,” said manager Karen Lohman when she received a cancellation notice for her own meeting.

This didn’t happen by serendipity or premonition or even her own doing, but rather by a new feature built into the next version of Microsoft Outlook that automatically knows which meetings won?t happen based on the behavior of the organizer and participants.

“We saw last minute meeting cancellations happening again and again and decided we could create an algorithm that predicts ahead of time what meetings are necessary and which ones are not,” said Outlook developer Sara Hobblenobber.

Outlook uses criteria such as multiple reschedules by meeting organizer, lack of an agenda, and use of terms like “hash,” “re-hash,” “hash out,” “consensus,” “brainstorm,” and “team building” in the description field to auto-categorize a meeting as unnecessary.

Other features built into the meeting invite response buttons can predict the odds that a meeting will or will not happen.

For example, studying patterns of respondents who use the “Tentative” reply helps gauge the likelihood that they will actually attend. Research shows a parent with young kids will almost certainly never attend a 4 p.m. Friday meeting, while a young developer with an active nightlife has about zero chance of making an 8 a.m. meeting, even if their GM is the organizer.

With her calendar now wide open, Karen Lohman will have to get back to actual work.
“This is just the first step to really getting inside the head of the user,” said Hobblenobber. “Eventually, whole responses to e-mails can be composed with only a few actions.”

Future versions of Outlook might enable a built-in camera and microphone to analyze users’ thoughts and voice patterns. Verbal and nonverbal cues from e-mail recipients, such as muttering ?not this guy again? or making shifty eye movements after receiving e-mail from the boss could generate one of dozens of different automated responses to meeting invites.

“The auto-replies will save you the awkward task of saying “no” when your boss schedules a useless meeting. They’ll say the things you’re thinking and make them more authoritative,” said Hobblenobber.

The current beta version of the product has drawn rave reviews. In buildings where it was tested, conference room availability is up 84 percent.

“I needed to book a meeting on just two days notice. Normally I wouldn?t even try, but I actually found three rooms to choose from,” said Shante Bellows, a senior procurement manager.

As for Lohman, her workdays are quite different now. “I don’t know what to do with myself,” she says. “Most of the time on my calendar is now freed up. I guess I should get to work.”

    Delete a stuck Read Receipt (30 Mar, 2007)

Seeing messages being send without something in the Outbox? This could be a stuck read receipt.

View: Delete a stuck Read Receipt

    OutlookTools 2.1: 64-bit compatible! (28 Mar, 2007)

OutlookTools is a support and advanced settings tool for Microsoft Office Outlook. It gives you easy access to Outlook settings and data folders and allows you to change settings that are normally only possible through the registry.

New in this release

• added: 64-bit Support! For Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows Vista
• added: on tab Startup Switches: Copy Command to Clipboard
• added: on tab Clear MRU: Remove MRU for “Include, Business Card” in Outlook 2007
• added: on tab Blocked Attachments: Level1Add regkey detection

Main Program Features

• Easy access to Outlook settings and data folders
• Easy access to troubleshooting tools
• Start Outlook with a startup switch
• Clear the Most Recently Used lists
• Make the New Mail Alert stay up for longer than 30 seconds
• Unblock attachments
• Hides options not available for your Outlook version

OutlookTools is completely free!

Download: OutlookTools

    PDF Previewers (28 Mar, 2007)

Use one of these PDF Preview Handlers to be able to view PDF attachments in the Outlook 2007 Reading Pane.

Download: Adobe PDF Preview Handler
Download: Foxit PDF Preview Handler

    Fixing Outlook after a Vista upgrade (05 Feb, 2007)

After you’ve upgraded your Windows version to Windows Vista you could have issues with getting Outlook to run properly while it worked perfectly before the upgrade. This guide explains some troubleshooting methods to get Outlook working properly again and to some extend also applies to any application that isn’t working anymore after a Windows Vista Upgrade.

It will also describe how you can do a clean installation of Windows Vista even when you only have an upgrade version!

View: Fixing Outlook after a Vista upgrade

    FAQ: Outlook 2007 and Word HTML (02 Feb, 2007)

If you work in IT or if you have been closely following the release of Outlook 2007 you’ve probably heard already that Outlook 2007 will use Word as the engine to display HTML-formatted emails. There has been quite some fuss about this and actually it is still going on. So what is this really all about? Well, to put it short; because it breaks some stuff… But really, trust me, it’s not completely a bad thing that it does so.

This guide will tell you the good, the bad and the ugly on Outlook 2007 and using Word as the HTML rendering engine. This informational faq also contains a work around for some of the issues.

View: FAQ: Outlook 2007 and Word HTML

    HowTo: Open Message in Internet Browser (02 Feb, 2007)

Outlook 2007 uses Word as the HTML rendering engine which could end up in a malformed display of the email message. In short; The Word HTML rendering engine doesn’t provide support for things like gif and flash animations, advanced css formatting and HTML accessibility.

This guide explains how you can render the message in a browser of your choice like Internet Explorer or Firefox by a click of a button.

View: HowTo: Open Message in Internet Browser

    HowTo: Signing your own macros with SelfCert.exe (02 Feb, 2007)

When you create a macro and are running Outlook with the default security settings you are not able to run the macro unless you either tamper with the default security settings or sign your own code with a digital certificate. Since it is not very common to have your own digital certificate you probably set your macro security to a lower level to be able to run your macro. There is no need for that; you can sign your own macros with SelfCert.exe so there is no more need to lower your security settings.

View: HowTo: Signing your own macros with SelfCert.exe

    HowTo: Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format (updated!) (02 Feb, 2007)

You've probably come across this at least once; You receive a nicely HTML formatted message with embedded pictures so the sender can tell the story with the pictures and when you try to save the pictures you can only save them as a bmp-file. Or; you receive a fun e-mail with an animated gif-file and when you try to save it you can only save or copy it as a bmp-file which will of course break the animation.

This How To article explains how you can save the embedded pictures in their original file format.

New features include;

• You’ll be prompted to select a folder to store the attachments in
• Attachments are stored with a date and time stamp so nothing gets overwritten
• Works on the selected item so no need to open the message first anymore

View: HowTo: Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format (updated!)

    Windows Desktop Search 3.0 RTW for Windows XP (27 Oct, 2006)

Windows Desktop Search 3.0 is the technology which enables instant search on your computer. It helps you to find, preview, and use your documents, e-mail, music, photos, and other items. The search engine in Windows Desktop Search 3.0 is a Windows service that is also used by applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and OneNote 2007 to index application content and deliver instant results when searching within that application. Windows Desktop Search 3.0 provides fast indexing, improved performance, and improved file type support.

Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 RTW for Windows XP
Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 RTW for Windows XP x64 Edition
Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 RTW for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition
Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 RTW for Windows Server 2003

    Microsoft Junk E-mail Reporting Tool version 1.0 for Microsoft Office Outlook (27 Oct, 2006)

The Junk E-mail Reporting Tool submits e-mail to Microsoft when you explicitly choose to do so. If you receive a junk e-mail and want to report it to us for analysis, first select the e-mail in Outlook and then click the junk e-mail button on your tool bar. You will see a pop-up window asking whether you want to report the selected e-mail to Microsoft and its affiliates. When you click Yes to confirm that youd like to report the selected e-mail as junk e-mail, the junk e-mail will be deleted from your Inbox and sent to FrontBridge, a Microsoft company, for analysis to help us improve the effectiveness of our junk e-mail filtering technologies.

Download: Microsoft Junk E-mail Reporting Tool version 1.0 for Microsoft Office Outlook

    Beta 2 Technical Refresh Available Tomorrow (13 Sep, 2006)

This morning, we announced that starting tomorrow (Thursday, Septemeber 14) you’ll be able to download the Beta 2 Technical Refresh build of Office 2007 (build 4407.1005).

Some of the more significant improvements to the user interface in Beta 2 Technical Refresh:

• Improved support for the minimized Ribbon
• Visual redesign of the “Northwest” corner of the programs
• Double-click the Office Button to close the window
• Silver color scheme
• Redesign of the PowerPoint Home tab
• Improvements to default styles for all objects (pictures, tables, charts, SmartArt, headers, footers, etc.)
• Quick Customize Menu
• New product icons
• Usability improvements to the Office menu
• Send button in the form in Outlook
• Over 1000 changes (most minor) to the content of the Ribbon

View: Beta 2 Technical Refresh Available Tomorrow

    OutlookTools (01 Sep, 2006)

OutlookTools is a support and advanced settings tool for Microsoft Office Outlook. It gives you easy access to Outlook settings and data folders and allows you to change settings that are normally only possible through the registry.

Main Program Features

• Easy access to Outlook settings and data folders
• Easy access to troubleshooting tools
• Start Outlook with a startup switch
• Clear the Most Recently Used lists
• Make the New Mail Alert stay up for longer than 30 seconds
• Unblock attachments
• Hides options not available for your Outlook version

OutlookTools is completely free!

Download: OutlookTools

    Clear the Most Recently Used lists (01 Sep, 2006)

For certain actions Outlook holds a list of recently used items so you have quicker access to them. In some case you want to clear this list.

View: Clear the Most Recently Used lists

    Schedule a Recurring E-mail (01 Sep, 2006)

If you are sending the same e-mails on a recurring basis like daily, weekly, monthly etc… to send for instance a reminder or an update report as attachment you may want to automate that. Outlook doesn’t natively have this feature but with some code or add-in it can be done.

View: Schedule a Recurring E-mail

    Outlook 2007 Sample: Ribbon Extensibility Add-In (27 Aug, 2006)

The Outlook 2007 RibbonX Add-In is a learning tool that will help you understand how to customize the Ribbon for Outlook Inspector windows. It provides coverage of the following important new areas:

• How legacy command bar customizations appear in an Outlook Inspector window
• How to implement the Office.IRibbonExtensibility interface in an Outlook add-in
• Providing Ribbon markup for Ribbon customization depending on the RibbonID string passed in the GetCustomUI callback
• Using the IRibbonControl.Context object to find an instance of an Inspector object
• Changing the state of Ribbon controls depending on the PropertyChange event for an Outlook item.

Download: Outlook 2007 Sample: Ribbon Extensibility Add-In

    Outlook 2007 Add-Ins: RulesAddin, TravelAgencyAddin, and PrepareMeAddin (27 Aug, 2006)

The Outlook 2007 Sample Add-Ins are a learning tool that will help you understand some of the important new features in the Outlook 2007 object model. They provide coverage of the following important new areas:

• Using the Rules object model, which allows you to programmatically create or access most rules supported by the Outlook Rules Wizard (Rules sample)
• Implementing a form region for an Outlook contact item (Travel Agency sample)
• Adding a custom task pane to an Outlook AppointmentItem (Prepare Me sample)

Download: Outlook 2007 Add-Ins: RulesAddin, TravelAgencyAddin, and PrepareMeAddin

    Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Release Notes (27 Aug, 2006)

This download contains a standalone version of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Release Notes.

Download: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Release Notes

    Video: Demonstration of the Scheduling Assistant (25 Aug, 2006)

Paul Tischhauser demonstrates the “Scheduling Assistant” feature in Outlook 2007 that is enabled with Exchange 2007.

View: Video: Demonstration of the Scheduling Assistant

    Top Exchange 2003 Recipient Problems and how they’re fixed in Exchange 2007 (25 Aug, 2006)

In Exchange 2007, recipient management is incorporated into the Exchange Management Console and Exchange Management Shell based on Windows PowerShell technology. Shell based management for these recipients allows us to overcome several current challenges of Exchange 2003.

There are a couple of key challenges in Exchange 2003 that we have specifically addressed with the Exchange 2007 recipient management model:

• Poor separation between Windows Active Directory administrators and Exchange administrators
• Split permissions model hard to implement, not available out of the box
• Automating user management and provisioning is difficult
• Recipient Update Service is a black box and not deterministic

Read the article to see how they have addressed these challenges.

View: Top Exchange 2003 Recipient Problems and how they’re fixed in Exchange 2007

    Microsoft winds back Office ribbon (25 Aug, 2006)

Microsoft has modified its new interface for Office 2007 after complaints from beta testers that the ‘ribbon’ system took up too much space on screen. Office 2007 has ditched the traditional drop-down menu approach of most Windows applications in favour of the ribbon, which displays functions in new categories such as Home, Insert and Mailing in a strip across the top of the screen.

Microsoft says the new interface makes it easier for users to access the wide range of features in applications such as Word, Excel and Access.

However, in the next technical refresh of the Office 2007 beta, users can set the ribbon to automatically minimise whenever it is not being used, effectively making the ribbon headings look like traditional menus. (Windows has long offered a similar auto-hide option for the taskbar.)

View: Microsoft winds back Office ribbon

    Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 (25 Aug, 2006)

This update should also get rid of a printing bug when printing HTML formatted e-mails from Outlook.

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) Release Candidate 1 (RC1) has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability. End user improvements include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more.

View: Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1
Download: Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 for Windows XP SP2
Download: Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 for Windows Server 2003 SP1
Download: Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 (Windows x64 Editions)
Download: Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Uninstall Toolkit

    Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Beta 2 (25 Aug, 2006)

Windows Desktop Search 3.0 (WDS) enables fast search on your computer using indexing technology. It helps you to find your documents, email, music, photos and other items. The search engine in Windows Desktop Search 3.0 is a Windows service that is also used by applications such as Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Office OneNote 2007 to index application content and deliver instant results when searching within an application. This release is an update to the Beta Engine Preview release of Windows Desktop Search 3.0. The most noticeable improvements include full Desktop Search UI, 64-bit support, and better performance. The installation process will automatically upgrade 2.5 and higher versions of Windows Desktop Search. Earlier versions of Windows Desktop Search should be uninstalled from Add/Remove Programs before this version is installed.

Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Beta 2 for Windows XP
Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Beta 2 for Windows XP x64 Edition
Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Beta 2 for Windows Server 2003
Download: Windows Desktop Search 3.0 Beta 2 for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

     Duplicate E-mails (July 22)

It’s probably one of the most annoying things; receiving the same e-mail multiple times. Actually I’m not talking about a single e-mail but basically all your e-mails and not just twice bot LOTS of times. This article discusses the most common configurations which lead to e-mail duplication and how to prevent them from happening again.

View: Duplicate E-mails

     Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format (updated) (June 13)

I’ve updated the original article with instructions on how to save the pictures to another folder than your Desktop.

View: Save Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format (updated)

     Outlook 12 BETA 2 Known Issues List (June 13)

Interested in running Outlook 12 BETA 2? Make sure you are aware of the known issues before installing!

This certainly isn’t meant as a sneer to everyone having their way with the latest and greatest but you’ll have to remember that this is BETA software. You could come accross these bugs and possibly some more as well. Don’t use it in (critical) production environments (test environments only!) and keep in mind that many of your add-ins won’t work (contact the vendor of the add-ins to verify if they consider themself Outlook 12 compatible already) and could lead to issues if you don’t deactivate them (Tools-> Trust Center-> Add-Ins). As always; make sure you keep backups of your data. Not only of during the BETA but also from before installing just in case you’ll need to do a disaster recovery.

Looking forward to continue discussing this new version with you in the newsgroups!

View: Outlook 12 BETA 2 Known Issues List

     Where did that feature go? (June 13)

Sadly no Outlook version of this tool but still very handy considering that so many people are running the BETA of Office 12. The tool shows the 2003 menus of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. When you use this menu it will tell you where you can find it in the Ribbon. “Sadly” this tool doesn’t work the other way around as I’m finding so many options with the Ribbon I never knew that they existed for versions already (kinda embarrasing). The Ribbon takes a little bit of getting used to but I find myself using much more options and I really am creating better documents because of it!

Word 2003 to 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide
Excel 2003 to 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide
PowerPoint 2003 to 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide

     Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 Available for Download (May 23)

Evaluate the next release of Microsoft Office products for testing and planning purposes with 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2. The beta release contains all the functionality of the regular release, but is not the final product.

Download: Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2

     Adding Sound and Scrolling Text (workaround) (April 24)

I’ve previously described the proper and built-in method to add a background sound or scrolling text into an Outlook message here. However since Windows XP SP2 this method is no longer supported as SP2 disables the ActiveX component (because of security issues) that controls this functionality. Since there is no fix announced to revive this feature for any version of Office and running Windows XP without SP2 also isn’t a real option I wrote this workaround which describes a safe method to insert sound and/or scrolling text to an e-mail.

View: Adding Sound and Scrolling Text (workaround)

     Sorting Outgoing E-mails (April 24)

When you use rules to sort your outgoing e-mails into folders you’ll notice that you can actually only “move a copy” to that folder. This rule is quite unclear and actualy contradicts itself; does it move or does it copy? Well it copies and when you use the rule by default you’ll end up with duplicates which is probably not what you want; you want it to move! This is still possible but it involves modifying another options and carefully craft your e-mail rules.

View: Sorting Outgoing E-mails

     Finally! Holiday! (Apr 8)

For all you people mailing me whether I’ve abandoned my site; thanks for your concern and no, I’ve definitely not abandoned my site. I just got buried in a lot of work for uni and didn’t really have the time to finish and test my new articles fully to feel comfortable posting it. But now; just finished my exams, had a great time at a party last night (you know who you are and I’ve got two weeks of Holiday! So I’ll finally be able to finish the articles and release them to the web. Amongst them is a much requested workaround for not being able to add background music to your mails anymore after installing Windows XP SP2.

So stay tuned and subscribe to the RSS feed to receive a notice of the new articles when they get posted!

     Added FAQ: Reset Unread Mail Count on Login Screen (Dec 28)

On the Windows XP login screen you can easily see how many unread mail you still have in your inbox. This number can be wrong sometimes. This could happen for all sorts of reasons but the most common I come across is that someone else uses MSN Messenger on my machine. The number of his/her unread e-mails then gets added to my unread mail. When you click on the unread mail count on the login screen you can see how many unread mails each logged account has. While resetting the unread mail count is easy (with the TweakUI Windows XP PowerToy) you might want to prevent it from ever happening again.

View: Reset Unread Mail Count on Login Screen

     Added FAQ: CRC Errors on pst-file (Nov 20)

CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) errors are indicating errors with a specific file and in lot of cases with your harddisk. It doesn’t indicate a problem with Outlook itself but a problem with the place on the harddisk where your pst-file is located. When this occurs after you have just copied the pst-file (on disk, from network, from CD, by download) you should first verify that the original source still works and try to copy it again. If this has happed “all of a sudden” like in that it still worked yesterday the issue can be either software based or hardware based. See the full article on how to solve these software or hardware based issues.

View: CRC Errors on pst-file

    Microsoft Releases Technical Beta of Office 12 (Nov 20)

Microsoft Corp. today announced the technical beta release of the new Office system, code-named Office 12. The technical beta is available only to nominated customers and partners worldwide and is an important step toward general availability scheduled for the second half of 2006.

Microsoft Office 12 is designed to help improve information workers productivity through a new results-oriented user interface, powerful graphics and diagramming engines, and advanced task and information management tools. In addition, through broader investments in enhancing business intelligence, collaboration and enterprise content management capabilities within Office 12, there are new solutions to help customers control content, streamline business processes, collaborate across organizational boundaries and make more-informed decisions.

Office 12 will redefine the Office experience, said Chris Capossela, corporate vice president of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft. The next version of Office is the most significant release in more than 10 years and includes new technologies designed to allow information workers to drive greater business success. Now, after many years of research and development, were eager to put the software to the test and solicit technical feedback from select customers and partners.

View full press release: Microsoft Releases Technical Beta of Office 12
View: Office 12 Preview Website

    Active Sync 4.1 (Nov 20)

ActiveSync 4.1 is the latest sync software release for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices.

Microsoft ActiveSync provides a great synchronization experience with Windows-based PCs and Microsoft Outlook right out of the box. ActiveSync acts as the gateway between your Windows-based PC and Windows Mobile-based device, enabling the transfer of Outlook information, Office documents, pictures, music, videos and applications from your desktop to your device. In addition to synchronizing with a desktop PC, ActiveSync can synchronize directly with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 so that you can keep your e-mail, Calendar, Notes, and Contacts updated wirelessly when youre away from your PC.

New features include:

• New partnership wizard makes syncing easier
• Faster transfer of data files including media
• Ability to sync photos assigned to contacts from Outlook on the desktop

ActiveSync 4.1 supports PC sync via USB cable, Bluetooth, or infrared connection.

Download: Active Sync 4.1

     Added FAQ: Interface Not Registered (Oct 11)

Yesterday I answered a question in the newsgroups regarding the error "Interface Not Registered". When I checked the post for follow up I saw a lot of responses from others saying that they had this problem as well and that the solution I provided solved their issue. Because of this “popular demand” I promised to put it on my site.

View: FAQ: Interface Not Registered

     Site Redesign (Oct 9)

As you’ve might have noticed; I’ve made some layout changes to Howto-Outlook. Besides some technical improvements the site should now give a more relaxed look and feel and an improved navigation. The HowTo, FAQ and Other sections are now categorized as well in order to more easily find what you’re looking for. I also noticed that the About section was heavily autdated so I gave that an update too. The site now also has RSS support for newly posted articles. If you’re not familiar with RSS just take a look in the Services section for an explanation on that and suggestions for newreaders.

I hope you like the changes!

     Updated: Guide to slipstream Service Pack 2 with the CD installation source (Sep 28)

When you slipstream Service Pack 2 into your Office 2003 installation point, Office 2003 will be installed at Service Pack 2 level saving you the trouble of applying it afterwards. All you need is Office 2003 Service Pack 2 and the installation CD of Office 2003.

View: Slipstream Office 2003 to SP2

     Office 2003 Service Pack 2 (Sep 27)

Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 contains significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements. Some of the fixes included with SP2 have been previously released as separate updates. This service pack combines them into one update.

Download: Office 2003 Service Pack 2
Download: OneNote 2003 Service Pack 2
Download: Visio 2003 Service Pack 2
Download: Project Server 2003 Service Pack 2
Download: Windows SharePoint Services 2003 Service Pack 2
Download: Office 2003 Service Pack 2 for Proofing Tools
Download: Outlook Live 2003 Service Pack 2
Download: Project 2003 Service Pack 2
Download: Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB904631)

     Update for Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter (Aug 24)

This update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail.

Download: Update for Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter (KB902953)

     Book Release! Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 (Aug 21)

Last Friday I celebrated my first book release: Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003. I co-authored it together with Sue Mosher who is another Outlook MVP, Charlie Pulfer and David Hooker.

     Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Community Technology Preview (Aug 21)

The software included in this Exchange Server 2003 SP2 CTP download is intended for evaluation and deployment planning purposes only, and not for production use. CTP releases of any product will not display the stability of a shipped Microsoft product. You may encounter problems with Exchange Server 2003 SP2 that could possibly result in a loss or destruction of data. Some of the mobility features contained in this CTP download are not yet available for testing, pending availability of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. This build is available only in English.

Important: This release is not intended for production environments and should only be used in a test lab environment.

Download: Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Community Technology Preview

     Back from vacation, new Navigation design and new Search functionality! (Aug 10)

Right after TechEd 2005 I could enjoy my vacation! What did I do? Riding across the borders of The Netherlands on my bicycle! We (my girlfriend and I) started in Spijkenisse and went through Veere, Middelburg, Woensdrecht, Tilburg, Eindhoven, Venlo, Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and a lot more places to Emmen. Not familiar with places in The Netherlands press here to see a map. Unfortunately because of weather conditions we did not finish the tour (still 400km out of about 1200km to go) so we will sure go back someday and finish the top and coast part.

Now that I’m back from vacation I’m completely refreshed and I immediately started site development again. The first results are posted live as of today;

• a (new) logo
• redesigned navigation
• native search (no more Google!)

Still under development;

• RSS feed for HowTo-Outlook Articles
• RSS feed for Front Page News
• Blogging software (I’m still editing htm-files in FrontPage!)
• some layout changes
• Links to relevant sites section

I’ve also got some other ideas but I still like to keep those a secret! Once done a lot of content will have been added!

I’m currently in my last month at my current job. Next month I’ll start college again. I can’t believe that graduating for my Bachelor of Engineering has already been 3½ years ago! After some years of real world experience I thought it was time to finish what I started so for the next 2 years I’ll be pursuing a Master of Science for ICT in Business!

Changes, changes, changes… yep, vacation really recharged my battery! I hope you like it!

     New 8″ Motion Tablet released (July 7)

This week I’m at TechEd in Amsterdam and I’m at the Ask The Expert booth for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. On Tuesday while standing at the booth a guy from Motion already came over telling us he had something nice for us and that we had to stop by the next day. Wednesday I had hands-on experience with the new Tablet and it is really cool having a full featured Tablet PC this small! Well it got introduced to the public this afternoon so I can now tell you about it and even show you some pictures. The machine has a 1.2GHz Intel Centrino processor and comes standard with 512MB of RAM but this can be extended up to 1.5GB. It has an 8" screen with a 800 by 600 resolution. It is a slate model meaning no keyboard attached but can be connected either via BlueTooth or docking station. A funny fact; the Tablet is that small that there wasn’t even room for the spring mechanism to shoot out the pen like it’s 12" bigger (but still small!) brother. Instead it has a clicking mechanism to keep the pen locked in place when not used.

If you are at TechEd; step by and try out the new Tablet yourself! We have one on display and to play with!

View: New tablet (back right) next to others
View: Lying on its bigger brother
View: Compared to its bigger brother
View: The Tablet in full! The cord on the pen just prevents it from being stolen

     Added HowTo: Setting Outlook Group Policies (July 5)

When you are in an Active Directory network environment you can set Outlook policies to enforce settings on your users. If you are a home users you might want to set policies on what your children can and cannot do in Outlook.

Policies. Sounds difficult? Follow the instructions in this article and you can’t go wrong!

     Added FAQ: Error opening attachments / Cleaning out the Temporary Outlook Files folder (July 5)

When opening an attachment directly from within Outlook you could get an error message saying that it can’t create the file and to that you need check the permissions on the folder you want to save it in. In most cases the permissions on the folder isn’t the issue but the fact that the folder is "full". When you open an attachment directly from within Outlook it will first save a copy to a subfolder of the Temporary Internet Files folder. Cleaning out the folder will solve the issue.

View the article how you can find this folder and clean it either by browsing to it or by using OutlookTools

     Added FAQ: Reading Pane not available in Drafts folder (July 5)

For some strange reason there the Reading Pane is not available for the Drafts folder in Outlook 2003. If you really need to have a Reading Pane in the Drafts folder you can create a Search Folder to workaround the issue.

View the article for the workaround

     Added FAQ: New Profile (July 5)

In some cases it is recommended or needed to create a new/additional mail profile. These situations could be;

• corrupt mail profile (needed)
• upgraded/downgraded to another version of Outlook (recommended and in some cases needed)
• changed mail account/ISP (recommended)
• need to connect to separate Exchange servers (needed)
• specific need to separate accounts (needed)
• testing (recommended)

View the article to see the steps on how to recreate your profile

     Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB894384) (May 14)

This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail.

Download: Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB894384)

    Update for the MSN Outlook Connector (May 14)

The MSN Outlook Connector has been updated. The connector can only be used with a paid subscription to to Hotmail.

Download: MSN Outlook Connector standalone (English)

    Gates: New MS Office Coming in 2006 (May 14)

Tuesday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates shined some light on the arrival of Office 12. According to Gates, the Longhorn Office release will meet Microsoft’s self-imposed development schedule and will ship some time in 2006. Until Tuesday, Microsoft was cautious about committing itself to any timeframe for Office 12.

The announcement confirms the timeline reported by Microsoft Watch, made in November 2004, stating Office 12 is pegged to be released to manufacturing by May 22, 2006 and will have a "street availability" of July 17.

View full article: Gates: New MS Office Coming in 2006

    Xbox Theme for Microsoft Outlook Web Access (May 14)

It has been away for a while but it’s back now! Quite nice but you must have/be a nice Exchange admin to get it/set it up for your users

The files in this ZIP archive make up the optional files and custom Outlook Web Access theme that are described in the article "Creating and Deploying Outlook Web Access Themes." This article is available on the Development page of the Exchange Server TechCenter at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.microsoft.com%2Ffwlink%2F%3Flinkid%3D43575&na=44&p=0&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=aeca9fe8-e8fc-455a-9d65-468d194e866b&genscs=.

Download: Xbox Theme for Outlook Web Access

    ActiveSync 4.0 (May 14)

To coincide with the release of Windows Mobile 5.0, Microsoft have developed a new version of ActiveSync. Users can now sync Media files using WMP10 and AS4.

The following has been added:

• Improved USB support
• View Exchange Server Synchronization status on your PC
• Synchronization of pictures in Contacts on your mobile device with Outlook
• Easier to identify friendly device names
• Synchronization over a Bluetooth connection with your PC
• Integration with Windows Media Player 10
• Enhanced user interface and enhanced new partnership wizard
• More robust synchronization with Outlook
• Configure synchronization settings prior to first synchronization, including custom synchronization settings

Download: ActiveSync 4.0 (currently English only)

     QuickMail 1.0.1 (April 21)

In some cases starting QuickMail could give the error "Cast from string to type Integer is not valid". This has now been fixed. Follow the link below to update QuickMail if you encountered this error.

View: QuickMail product page

     Actual Contacts for Outlook (April 21)

MAPILab team is glad to present a new add-in for Microsoft Outlook – Actual Contacts.

Get the powerful tool for your address book management! Actual Contacts is intended for:

• updating your contacts;

• collecting any additional contact’s information (age, occupation, hobby, etc);

• creating simple surveys for getting necessary information;

• updating your contact information in address books of your respondents through VCard.

View: Actual Contacts for Outlook (also holds a link to a 30 day functional trial)
Don’t forget! If you decide to order use “4PM76A8” to get a discount

     Free Download! QuickMail (April 19)

Are you an e-mail fanatic and need to be able to create new Outlook items without loosing precious time by going to Outlook first? Then QuickMail is the tool for you.

With QuickMail you can create new Outlook items from anywhere in Windows with a single click!

See the products page for screenshots and the download link.

     Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (April 19)

Configuration, rule and help updates for the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer 2.0.

Download: Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

     Microsoft Exchange Server User Monitor (April 19)

Use the Microsoft Exchange Server User Monitor to gather real-time data to better understand current client usage patterns, and to plan for future work. Administrators can view several items, including IP addresses used by clients, versions and modes of Microsoft Office Outlook, and resources such as CPU usage, server-side processor latency, and total latency for network and processing with Outlook 2003 version MAPI.

Download: Microsoft Exchange Server User Monitor

     New Microsoft Exchange due out in 2006 (April 19)

The next version of Microsoft’s Exchange Server–software used to manage e-mail, contact lists and calendars–will arrive in 2006, according to a company executive.

Andy Lees, corporate vice president of marketing for Microsoft’s server and tools business, revealed the ship date Tuesday. Previously, the Redmond, Wash.-based software company had said the software would arrive in 2006 or 2007. The software, currently called Exchange Server 12, will incorporate new features to handle voice mail and faxes.

Exchange Server 12 will support both the 64-bit extensions and the dual-core technology, according to Lees’ presentation.

Other server software coming in 2006 and supporting the new processor features will be Commerce Server 2006, Host Integration Server 2006, BizTalk Server 2006 and a new of version 2 of Virtual Server. Microsoft Operations Manager also will support the new processor features in 2006.

Read full article: New Microsoft Exchange due out in 2006

     Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB892236) (Mar 9)

This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in March 2005.

Download: Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB892236)

     Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide (Mar 9)

This guide is designed to provide you with essential information about how to harden your Exchange Server 2003 environment. In addition to practical, hands-on configuration recommendations, this guide includes strategies for combating spam, viruses, and other external threats to your Exchange 2003 messaging system. Important: Since the previous version of this guide was released, the following new topics have been added and are available only online:
• Running Exchange Server 2003 Clusters in a Security-Hardened Environment
• How to Run Exchange Server 2003 Clusters in a Security-Hardened Environment

Download: Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide

     Sender ID Framework Demonstrates Positive Results for E-Mail Authentication (Mar 9)

Microsoft Corp. today released initial results gathered from its implementation of the Sender ID Framework (SIDF), an e-mail authentication technology protocol that helps address the problem of domain spoofing (a tactic commonly used in spam and phishing scams) by verifying the domain name from which e-mail is sent.

Based on more than two months of deployment on the MSN® Hotmail® Web-based e-mail service and data gathered from hundreds of thousands of customers participating in the Hotmail Feedback Loop program, Microsoft has validated that the use of SIDF to check incoming e-mail enhances spam filtering and helps better protect customers’ inboxes from spam while helping ensure that legitimate e-mail gets through.

View full article: Sender ID Framework Demonstrates Positive Results for E-Mail Authentication
View: Send ID homepage
Download: Sender ID Overview
Download: Sender ID- Tips for Creating Your SPF Record

     ActiveSync 3.8 available in more languages (Mar 3)

Microsoft ActiveSync 3.8 is the latest synchronization software for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones. ActiveSync 3.8 contains a set of security enhancements that provide a more secure syncing experience with a Windows PC

Download your localized version: ActiveSync 3.8

     And here are some Exchange 12 answers! (Mar 3)

Question #1: Lots of people asked about the 32k rules limitation: “As someone else mentioned how about improvements to server side rules (32k limit)”, “Since I ask this every time I talk to Microsoft developers :), any news on when will the 32k server side rule limitation be resolved”.

Answer #1: I’m happy that I get to be the one to tell you that the 32k rules limit is gone… It’s now 64k! Just kidding!! We are still determining what the default will be (there’s a tradeoff in performance of course, the more processing you ask the server to do on inbound mail, so we want to choose a smart default), but the administrator will be able to change the limit.

Question #2: I’d like to see a unified messaging function in E12 (facsimile, voice,…).

Answer #2: UM is absolutely an area we are investing in, as you can see from some of the articles about it, such as this one from eWeek. If you call me at Microsoft today and leave me a voicemail, it gets routed to my inbox using only Microsoft technology.

View full article: And here are some Exchange 12 answers!

     Exchange 12 To Ride a Faster JET (Mar 3)

Microsoft’s long silence on Exchange is over. In January, Microsoft publicly laid out plans for the next release of Exchange. Microsoft is calling the next version “Exchange 12” or “E12.” The code-names emphasize the close ties to the next version of Office, code-named “Office 12.”

For years the company has been toying with the idea of taking the data store from SQL Server and porting it to Exchange, replacing the JET storage engine that the messaging server currently uses. The effort was code-named “Kodiak,” a vaguely defined future version of Exchange that would use the new data store. The design goal reflected a wider, long-standing effort within Microsoft to standardize the data store across major products. Microsoft had ambitious plans to use the SQL Server storage engine in the next version of Windows, code-named “Longhorn,” and Exchange. Cracks in that plan emerged in June, when Microsoft said Kodiak was off the table. A few months later, unified storage, known as WinFS, was pulled from Longhorn, too.

The JET storage engine will power Exchange 12 just as it did Exchange 2000 and Exchange Server 2003. A Microsoft spokesperson downplayed the technological role in JET’s survival. “The decision to ship the next version of Exchange with JET was based on many factors, but the primary reason was customers. Staying with JET will mean customers will not be faced with the migration work associated with moving to a new store.”

View full article: Exchange 12 To Ride a Faster JET

     Creating a Permanent New Mail Desktop Alert in Outlook 2003 (Feb 24)

I thought it was one of the most excessive options in previous versions of Outlook and I was happy to see it got a huge functional and cosmetic overhaul in Outlook 2003. Strangely enough it is now one of the most criticised options as well; the New Mail Desktop Alert.

Fortunately the criticism is mainly based on only 2 things;

• “It only works on the Inbox folder”

• “It cannot be configured to stay longer than 30 seconds; I WANT IT TO STAY PERMANENT!”

Yes, I said “fortunately” as both issues can be solved. The article comes with a free tool to easily calculate for you how long the New Mail Desktop Alert will stay.

View: Creating a Permanent New Mail Desktop Alert in Outlook 2003
Download: OutlookTools

    New MAPILab Addins! (Feb 14)

The Add-Ins section has been updated with some new MAPILab add-ins. While most add-ins are for Outlook some add-ins will enhance Exchange Server functionality.

• MAPILab Toolbox

• HTML Email Archiver

• E-mail Follow-Up

• Print Tools for Outlook

• Save Mailing List

• Advanced Security for Outlook

• Exchange- Mail Storage Guard

• Exchange- Native POP3 Connector

• Exchange- MAPILab Rules for Exchange

As a visitor of www.howto-outlook.com you can get all add-ins from MAPILab with a discount by using “4PM76A8” as the coupon code.

For more add-ins see the Add-Ins section. Expect some new add-ins listings soon!

    Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (Feb 14)

This download contains the latest ExBPA.Config.xml and ExBPA.chm files. Use this package to update your existing installation of the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer. NOTE: If Internet connectivity is available, the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer will attempt to automatically update itself from the Internet. Where updates are being applied automatically, there is no need to download the Web Update Pack.

Download: Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

    Exchange 2000 Server Online Help File Archive (Feb 14)

Welcome to the Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server online documentation archive. This documentation is designed to assist you in day-to-day administration of Exchange 2000 Server.

Each section contains a How To… book and a Concepts book. The How To… book consists of procedural information to help you accomplish individual tasks. The Concepts book provides the background information necessary to understand what each component does and why you want to perform specific tasks.

Download: Exchange 2000 Server Online Help File Archive

    Security Update for Exchange 2000 (KB890066) (Feb 14)

A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to run programs and access data on a computer running Microsoft® Exchange Server 2000. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. To be protected against this problem, it is necessary to install this update on Microsoft Exchange 2000 servers.

Download: Security Update for Exchange 2000 (KB890066)

    Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB891067) (Feb 14)

This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in February 2005.

Download: Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB891067)

    Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 883652) (Feb 14)

This update resolves problems that were found in Exchange 2003 since Exchange 2003 SP1 was released. Click the More Information About This Download link in the Related Resources section for a list of the fixes that are included in this update.

Download: Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 883652)

    Filter Update for Exchange Intelligent Message Filter (Feb 14)

This update to the Intelligent Message Filter SmartScreen™ filter contains updated spam characteristics that improve the ability of Intelligent Message Filter to block unsolicited commercial e-mail messages, also known as spam. You must have Intelligent Message Filter installed to install this update.

Download: Filter Update for Exchange Intelligent Message Filter

     Added FAQ: MSN Outlook Connector Disabled (Jan 31)

To start with; I’m a big fan of the MSN Outlook Connector. Aside from allowing you to connect to your mail folders it also allows you to connect to your Calendar and Contacts folder on Hotmail. The best feature I think is that it allows you to drag & drop messages from your local folders (pst-file) or Exchange mailbox to a Hotmail folder.

But enough of that; somehow I managed to get it broken and all I was left with was this message on startup of Outlook;
The Outlook Connector menu and status bar have been disabled by the Office Safe Mode. Please contact Support (http://support.msn.com) to enable this.

Enabling it again is nothing to call MSN support for; it’s just a simple registry value that needs to be changed.

View: MSN Outlook Connector Disabled

     Features of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector (Jan 27)

With Microsoft Office Outlook Live (MOOL) you can use the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector to connect to your 2GB Hotmail mailbox. To find out what extra functionality the connector brings to your Hotmail account in Outlook see the KB article below.

View: MSKB 892455: Features of the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector

     Added FAQ: AutoArchive not Working (Jan 26)

With the first month on the new year ending it might be about time to archive all the old mail from last year. When you are working in a network you might also have a mail administrator nagging about it for a month already! So when you finally come around to start archiving your mail you’ll notice… it’s not working!!!

The new FAQ article is all about how Archive and AutoArchive works and getting it back to work again in case it fails.

View: AutoArchive not Working

     Updated Articles (Jan 26)

Some articles have been updated or extended. In the coming weeks all articles will be reviewed and get a review date at the bottom of the page so you can be sure you’re looking at current information. Some articles that have been updated are;
Search from the Address Bar
Getting the News button in Outlook 2003

     Microsoft Office Outlook Live (Jan 20)

With Outlook Live, you get a copy of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 for Subscription Services so you can keep your MSN e-mail, calendar, contacts and tasks automatically synchronized with Outlook, and access them anytime—even when you’re not connected to the Internet. With 2 GB of online storage, virtually unlimited offline storage (depending on your hard drive space), patented spam filters and advanced virus protection, your e-mail is better protected and more accessible.

View: Microsoft Office Outlook Live and special promotional offer

     Microsoft Preps for Exchange ‘E12’ (Jan 20)

Next major Exchange update is still a year or two away. Before then, expect more Web tools and Service Pack 2.

After canceling a minor version of Exchange Server that was expected this year, Microsoft is now focused on making the next major version, code-named “E12,” a deliverable in the 2006-2007 timeframe.

E12 will include 64-bit support; new Web services programming interfaces; improved scripting and security; improved search functionality; and more e-mail/voice-mail/fax integration, according to company officials. The new release also will add better support for mobile devices, improvements in Office Web Access functionality; and better integrated meeting-scheduling capabilities, officials added.

View full article: Microsoft Preps for Exchange ‘E12’

     Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (Jan 13)

This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail.

Download: Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter

     Microsoft ActiveSync 3.8 (Jan 13)

Microsoft ActiveSync 3.8 is the latest synchronization software for Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones.

Download: Microsoft ActiveSync 3.8

     Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Integration API Reference (Dec 16)

Welcome to the Microsoft® Office Outlook 2003 Integration API Reference. This reference contains conceptual overviews and reference topics to guide you in developing solutions based on the Outlook 2003 Integration APIs.

Publish date of this reference: December 2004 (version 2003)

This documentation contains reference materials for the Outlook 2003 Integration APIs, including the Account Management API, the Connection State API, the Free/Busy API, the MAPI-MIME Conversion API, and the Store API.

Download: Outlook 2003 Integration API Reference

     Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide (Dec 16)

This guide was last reviewed July 2004; there were no changes to the content. This guide walks you through the process of hardening your Exchange 2003 environment, including configuration recommendations and strategies for combating external threats.

Download: Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide

     Exchange SDK Documentation and Samples December 2004 (Dec 16)

The documentation and samples assist developers in building applications for Exchange Server.

Download: Exchange 2003 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2004
Download: Exchange 2000 SDK Documentation and Samples December 2004

     Office 2003 Tablet PC Update: Improved Ink Recognition (Dec 16)

For the lucky ones who own a Tablet PC (whoohoo!)

With this update you will experience improved ink recogition when using Microsoft Office 2003 on your Tablet PC.

Download: Office 2003 Tablet PC Update: Improved Ink Recognition

     Microsoft Introduces MSN Toolbar Suite Beta With Desktop Search (Dec 14)

Microsoft Corp. today introduced a beta version of its new MSN® Toolbar Suite, with breakthrough desktop search functionality that helps consumers quickly find virtually any type of document, media file or e-mail message on their Windows®-based personal computer. Now consumers don’t have to spend valuable time sifting through an enormous amount of information; instead, they can quickly find precisely what they need. The integrated suite of tools streamlines the process of finding and acting on information from PCs by combining the ease of a Web search with the richness and power of the PC environment.

The free suite of MSN search tools, available now in the United States at http://beta.toolbar.msn.com, is the latest development in a comprehensive MSN Search service that helps consumers more quickly find precisely what they are looking for and gives them more control over their search experience. The new MSN Toolbar Suite includes an updated version of the popular MSN Toolbar for Microsoft® Internet Explorer and new toolbars that are conveniently accessible through Windows and Microsoft Office Outlook®. The new toolbars include the MSN Deskbar for the Windows desktop, MSN Toolbar for Microsoft Office Outlook and MSN Toolbar for Microsoft Windows Explorer.

View: Microsoft Introduces MSN Toolbar Suite Beta With Desktop Search

     Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 883522) (Dec 6)

This update resolves problems that were found in the SMTP of Exchange 2003 since Exchange 2003 SP1 was released. Click the More Information About This Download link in the Related Resources section for a list of the fixes that are included in this update.

Download: Update for Exchange 2003 (KB 883522)

     Exchange Server 2003 Operations Checklists (Dec 6)

The Exchange Server 2003 Operations Checklists provide guidelines for IT professionals to do disaster recovery tasks, and to perform the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance tasks required to keep your Exchange server performing optimally. Use these checklists as is, or adapt them to suit your company’s specific needs.

Download: Exchange Server 2003 Operations Checklists

     Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide (Dec 6)

This guide provides recommendations and best practices for deploying and managing offline address books with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003. Whether you are deploying a new Exchange Server 2003 messaging system or upgrading from a previous Exchange version, this guide gives you best practice recommendations, including recommendations on how to optimize offline address book usage in a variety of scenarios. In addition, this guide addresses the most common issues that you may encounter when using offline address books.

Download: Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide

     Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration (Dec 6)

The Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration helps you accelerate the design, planning, and deployment of Exchange Server 2003 messaging systems deployed as upgrades to, or replacements for, your existing Exchange Server 5.5 or Exchange 2000 Server messaging systems. Business agility and efficiency depend on messaging systems deployed by organizational IT operations; to deliver the required functionality, IT operations themselves must be able to quickly adapt to changing business requirements, then implement secure, efficient solutions to meet these requirements. These solutions require not only great technologies, but also efficient and effective operations with all application and system services driven by mature processes and delivered to the business at an acceptable cost.

Download: Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration

     Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (Dec 6)

The Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer programmatically collects settings and values from data repositories such as Active Directory, registry, metabase and performance monitor. Once collected, a set of comprehensive ‘best practice’ rules are applied to the topology.
Administrators running this tool will get a detailed report listing the recommendations that can be made to the environment to achieve greater performance, scalability and uptime.

Download: Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

     Office 2003 Add-in: Microsoft Outlook SMS Add-in (MOSA) (Dec 6)

This download will enable you to send SMS text messages through most GSM mobile phones connected to your PC using Outlook 2003.

You can enter your SMS text within a Outlook-type entry form and have it sent to your mobile phone for delivery through your mobile phone network service. There is no requirement to install third-party software or to subscribe to additional mobile network services if your mobile phone can be connected to your PC. This is typically via an infrared connection, Bluetooth technology, or a USB/serial cable.

The SMS messages can be saved as a draft, grouped, and forwarded like standard Outlook 2003 e-mail.

Download: Office 2003 Add-in: Microsoft Outlook SMS Add-in (MOSA)

     New Poll! (Oct 31)

Alright, I have been away from my own site for a while for various reasons but I’m back now! To start with; a new poll and the announcement of a new sponsor (see post below). The results of the old poll can be found here. Thanks to all who voted!

The new poll is; What is your primary connection type in Outlook? If for instance your default account at home is a POP3 account and at work an Exchange account feel free to vote both at home and at work.

For the ones questioning why I keep these polls; 1) to find out what to focus on when writing for my website. 2) just for my own fun and for anyone else’s who has always wondered these things

     New Sponsor; Bells and Whistles for Outlook (Oct 31)

I’m proud to announce a new sponsor for my website; DSDevelopment. They offer a discount for their great add-in Bells and Whistles for Outlook. This add-in adds lots of options to Outlook like;

• automatically add greeting and name of sender when replying

• always reply in HTML (or a different format of your choice)

• add date and/or time stamp

• always BCC

• auto mail merge each BCC

• blank subject alert

• Auto-confirm Outlook warning messages

• and many more…

To get a discount when ordering simply type in “394D7208” as the discount code when asked to do so. Please note that the discount code gets changed every month but I’ll post the latest code always in my Add-ins section.

View: Bells and Whistles for Outlook

     Spam volume keeps rising (Sept 2)

Spam has accounted for 38 percent of the 31 billion e-mails sent each day in North America in 2004, up from 24 percent in 2002, the market researcher said. Improved content filtering and antispam tools will help fight the problem, as will the growing use of alternative communications means, such as video conferencing and instant messaging software.

The ever-increasing intrusion by spam is forcing users and IT staff to spend extra time and energy to identify and delete such spurious e-mail, which can be entry points for viruses, worms and offensive content.

E-mail is still the most preferred form of communication–business or otherwise–over the Internet. According to IDC, the volume of e-mail sent annually worldwide exceeded 1 exabyte , or 1 billion gigabytes, for the first time last year.

View full article: Spam volume keeps rising

     Email management is growing concern (Sept 2)

Inefficient email management poses a huge threat to organisational effectiveness, according to analysts at the Butler Group. Information stored in emails makes up an increasingly large proportion of a business’s ‘knowledge capital’ even though it is not available to support decision-making.

Courts increasingly require emails to be produced as evidence in litigation, which only increases the amount of data to be stored. It is vital that businesses develop effective email management systems, including archiving key messages and allowing them to be retrieved as required, says Butler Group’s report published this week.

‘Email management must not be treated as a technology problem,’ says the report.

View full article: Email management is growing concern

     FrontPage 2003, 2002, and 2000 Add-in Version 2: bCentral Commerce Manager (Sept 2)

This add-in provides you with all the tools you need to create, update, and manage a fully-powered e-commerce Web site. After you install the add-in, all you need to do is sign up for a Microsoft bCentral™ Commerce Manager account, create a product catalog, run the E-commerce Wizard, and customize your Web site to suit your needs.

Download: FrontPage 2003, 2002, and 2000 Add-in Version 2: bCentral Commerce Manager

     InfoPath 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK) (Sept 2)

The Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK) is designed for solution providers (SPs), value-added resellers (VARs), and other developers who are interested in developing solutions with InfoPath 2003 and InfoPath 2003 Service Pack 1.

The InfoPath SDK includes documentation and samples that demonstrate development techniques for customizing and implementing InfoPath features, including integration with Microsoft Office Access 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft BizTalk Server, Microsoft SQL Server, XML Web Services, Component Object Model (COM) components, and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO).

Download: InfoPath 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK)

     Visio 2003 Sample: 20 Sample Diagrams (Sept 2)

This download includes 20 sample Visio 2003 diagrams related to support and sales demos.

Download: Visio 2003 Sample: 20 Sample Diagrams

     Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Security Group Guide (Sept 2)

This book documents the activities that are available to users who belong to the Portolio Managers, Project Managers, Resource Managers, Team Leads, Team Members, and Executives security groups in Project Server 2003. Depending on the security group to which they are assigned, users can work with Project Server features by using Project Web Access, Project Professional, or both applications. This book provides detailed information about how to use Project Web Access and Project Professional to work with Project Server data and to perform project management–related tasks.

Download: Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Security Group Guide

     Access 2003 Add-in: Source Code Control (Sept 2)

This download contains the Access 2003 source code control add-in for communicating between both Microsoft Office Access 2003 Service Pack (SP) 1 and a source code control application (like Visual Source Safe 6.0). While you work with Access 2003, the add-in steps in at various points and lets you do things like add, check out, or check in Microsoft Access objects into the source code control project. Source code control integration with Microsoft Access is very similar to source code control integration with Visual Basic.

Download: Access 2003 Add-in: Source Code Control

     Office 2003 Tool: Smart Tag Developer Tools (Sept 2)

The Smart Tag Explorer and Smart Tag Recognize Tester are a set of utilities intended to aid the smart tag developer in quickly building efficient, stable, and robust smart tags for a variety of applications.

The Smart Tag Explorer provides you with a visual interface for browsing information related to smart tags on your development workstation and on targeted platforms within your enterprise.

Loading and unloading a host application constantly during the smart tag development process can be time-consuming. The Recognize Tester simplifies this challenge by allowing the smart tag developer to test the Recognize and Recognize2 method under development without the need of a host application being loaded. This can reduce the time and complexity of smart tag development.

Download: Office 2003 Tool: Smart Tag Developer Tools

     Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Sales for Outlook 1.2 Feature Pack (Aug 26)

Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook (the Outlook client) is the integrated Microsoft Outlook client for Microsoft Business Solutions CRM that enables access to the same data as the Microsoft CRM Web application. Additionally, the client application also includes offline functionality. This update adds features and performance enhancements.

Download: Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Sales for Outlook 1.2 Feature Pack

     Free Offer! Remind Me Attachments (Aug 25)

This promotion offer will last until September 30th! Ricardo Silva another Outlook MVP from Portugal offers this add-in free of charge to all users who fill the form on the site listed below.

This is a Microsoft Outlook COM Add-in.

Sometimes when you send a message you forget to attach a file, although you mentioned in your email that you are sending a file.

The receiver of your message could be an important client and that would be awkward for you.

This add-in will automatically remind you that you wrote “attachment” – or any other keyword you select – before you really send the message scanning each outgoing email. You will have then the opportunity to attach a file to your outgoing message.

This add-in is easy to work with, is inside Outlook, and has an extremely simple user interface.

Get your free copy by using the promo code OUTMVPS001: Remind Me Attachments

     Microsoft Renovates Office Suite as a Web Service (Aug 25)

To most of the computer-using world, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Office is the familiar workhorse of the desktop, a collection of software for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
But for Microsoft, which is starting to see its growth slow, reinventing that suite of old reliables including Word, Excel and PowerPoint has become nothing less than a key to its future.

“Office defines business productivity,” Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, told financial analysts in July. “The productivity area is probably the most important franchise that we have.”
With that focus, Microsoft is now pursuing a strategy to transform Office from a bundle of programs on personal computers into a family of software that can put Microsoft’s technology deeper into the operations of corporate data centers.

View full article: Microsoft Renovates Office Suite as a Web Service

     DNA technique protects against ‘evil’ emails (Aug 25)

A technique originally designed to analyse DNA sequences is the latest weapon in the war against spam. An algorithm named Chung-Kwei (after a feng-shui talisman that protects the home against evil spirits) can catch nearly 97 per cent of spam.

Chung-Kwei is based on the Teiresias algorithm, developed by the bioinformatics research group at IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center in New York, US. Teiresias was designed to search different DNA and amino acid sequences for recurring patterns, which often indicate genetic structures that have an important role.

Instead of chains of characters representing DNA sequences, the research group fed the algorithm 65,000 examples of known spam. Each email was treated as a long, DNA-like chain of characters. Teiresias identified six million recurring patterns in this collection, such as “Viagra”.

Each pattern represented a common sequence of letters and numbers that had appeared in more than one unsolicited message. The researchers then ran a collection of known non-spam (dubbed “ham”) through the same process, and removed the patterns that occurred in both groups.

View full article: DNA technique protects against ‘evil’ emails

     Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework 1.0 – Hotfix Page (Aug 25)

In Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework Server 1.0 there is a bug that prevents the sequential execution of operation instances that call an assembly when the location is specified as a URL in the port such as http://server/assembly.dll. The first operation instance call is successful, but subsequent operation instance calls fail. This does not impact operation instances whose path in the port is specified with a UNC path. This hotfix fixes this bug.

Download: Microsoft Office Information Bridge Framework 1.0 – Hotfix Page

     Working with the Exchange Server 2003 Store (Aug 25)

The Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 store is a storage platform that provides a single repository in which you can manage multiple types of unstructured information. A single Exchange topology may include store components (mailbox stores and public folder stores) that reside on multiple servers.
Because of the inherent complexity and flexibility of the store components, the store can be one of the most difficult parts of Exchange Server 2003 to administer. This guide provides in-depth information to make administration and troubleshooting tasks easier for you to perform.
This guide builds on the basic concepts presented in the Exchange Server 2003 Administration Guide. It examines several features of the store in depth, such as the way in which public folders replicate, how free/busy folders work, and how offline address books work. This information includes detailed explanations of how these features work, and guidance for using them effectively.

Download: Working with the Exchange Server 2003 Store

     Office 2003 SP1 ADMs, OPAs, and Explain Text Update (Aug 25)

To support changes to Office 2003 SP1, additions and corrections to policies for administrative support of Office in corporate settings using Active Directory and Group Policy. This update includes explain text in the form of two Excel workbooks that describe the basic intent of the policies listed in the various ADM and OPA files.

Download: Office 2003 SP1 Support Files Update

     Troubleshooting: Microsoft Outlook Backup Addin not Available (Aug 18)

The Personal Folders Backup download creates backup copies of your .PST files at regular intervals, in Outlook 2000 and later versions, making it easy to keep all of your Outlook folders safely backed up.

In some cases after you install it the backup add-in the option File-> Backup… isn’t available and doesn’t appear to be installed. An attempt to reinstall the product however indicates that it has already been installed and the add-in also shows up in Control Panel-> Add/Remove Software.

This is often true when you have upgraded your Outlook version, updated the backup add-in or installed the backup add-in logged on as a different user. For troubleshooting steps click the link below.

FAQ: Microsoft Outlook Backup Addin not Available

     Office 2003 SP1 Language Packs (Aug 18)

Project Server 2003 Service Pack 1 for Multilingual User Interface Pack
Project Server 2003 Service Pack 1 for Multilingual User Interface Pack provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack.

Visio 2003 Service Pack 1 for Multilingual User Interface Pack
Visio 2003 Service Pack 1 for Multilingual User Interface Pack provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office Visio 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack.

Office 2003 Service Pack 1 for Language Interface Pack
Office 2003 Service Pack 1 for Language Interface Pack provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office 2003 Language Interface Pack.

Office 2003 Service Pack 1 for Proofing Tools
Office 2003 Service Pack 1 for Proofing Tools provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office 2003 Proofing Tools.

     Reduce permissions to operate Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook client (Aug 18)

Reduce the permissions to operate the Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook client version 1.2

Download: Reduce permissions to operate Microsoft CRM Sales for Outlook client

     Update Rollup for Exchange 2000 (KB870540) (Aug 18)

This Update Rollup resolves problems that were found in Exchange 2000 since Exchange 2000 SP3 was released. Click the More Information About This Download link in the Related Resources section for a list of the fixes that are included in this Update Rollup.

Download: Update Rollup for Exchange 2000 (KB870540)

     Microsoft touts ‘Sender ID’ to fight spam, scams (Aug 15)

Microsoft on Thursday is holding a summit with members of the E-Mail Service Provider Coalition to address the use of Sender ID technology as a standard to fight spam and phishing.

The software giant said it would gather more than 80 members of the ESPC coalition at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters to discuss using Sender ID as a way to ensure that e-mail originates from the Internet domain it claims to come from. Fighting the annoyance of spam and the dangers of fraud activity such as “phishing” is among the top concerns of Internet users and the companies that serve them.

Sender ID validates the server Internet Protocol address of the sender to assure an e-mail recipient that a message claiming to be from a credit card company actually is. The technology relies on Microsoft’s Caller ID for E-Mail technology and the Sender Policy Framework, authored by Meng Weng Wong, chief technology officer at Pobox.com.

The Internet Engineering Task Force is currently evaluating Sender ID as an industry standard for e-mail authentication. Thursday’s meeting will look at what Sender ID can do to control unwanted e-mail and at the challenges the technology will bring to legitimate users of e-mail.

View: Microsoft touts ‘Sender ID’ to fight spam, scams