Category: Software

Ever since Microsoft bought Winternals two years ago, there has been a great deal of confusion about whether IT consultants are free to use the Sysinternals software utilities on their clients’ machines. The license agreement stated that the tools could only be used on “your” systems, not those owned by anyone else (including, it would [...]

I have posted a substantial update to my instructions for installing WSS 3.0 on SBS 2003 Standard. If anyone has time to double-check my work and fix any problems, I would greatly appreciate it.

You know how they say that when you’re getting surgery, you should go with a surgeon who does that particular kind of surgery all the time? It’s good advice. It’s not that other surgeons can’t do a good job. It’s just that they’re more likely to be inefficient and make mistakes. Why? Because surgery is [...]

The update is available through Windows Update (but Vista users can simply hit Start > All Programs > Windows Update instead). If you’re going to install SP1 on multiple computers in your company, you might want to download the 434 MB five-language standalone file rather than having each computer go through the Windows Update process.
Of [...]

Microsoft is now packaging Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager as a stand-alone product. I’m not smart enough to know or explain all the reasons behind this. I imagine this is in response to competitive pressure from salesforce.com, Google Apps, and other on-line products.
I thought that I would be using Outlook with BCM on a [...]

I frequently need to write instructions to people about doing something with their My Documents folders. So I start writing something like “Right-click on your My …” WHOA! It changes to “Right-click on you’re my” — that’s not what I want.
After suffering silently with this for years (it was only a few letters to type [...]

Kevin McLaughlin of CMP did just that. I said no.

David, usually when I have Outlook open my mail comes in automatically, but now I have to hit Send/Receive every time. How do I fix this?
I get asked this question at least once a month, so I figured it was worth writing up here.
If Outlook loses its connection to the Exchange server for a while, [...]

I tried to open a Microsoft Word document that I had stored in a Groove 2007 workspace. I got this instead:

Suggestions one and two were definitely not on track. Suggestion three was a bit problematic. How do I use the Open and Repair option for a document saved in Groove?
There may be a more [...]

Note: Before following any of the instructions below, think carefully about their consequences.
A client asked me this question today:
In Outlook, is there a way to change the subject line when using the outof office assistant? For instance, we have a former employee’s emailaccount that says she is no longer with our company but the [...]