Opening Outlook 2003 Emails prompts HTML Download

I'm not sure if this is related to Firefox, but I had a firefox user who started to get a prompt to download a HTML each time she tried to open a mail message.

It transipred that it had something to do with the "Microsoft Outlook Social Connector". To disable this try the following;

1. Open Outlook in safe mode (click on the shortcut while you hold down Ctrl key)
2. Check you can open mail fine.
3. If you can go to File/Options/Add-ins.
4. Make sure tha the Manage: on the bottom is set to COM Add-ins, then click Go....
5. Deselect "Microsoft Outlook Social Connector"
6. Restart Outlook normally and all should be well. 

Migrate NK2 File to Outlook 2010

There may be instances where you have someone using Outlook 2003 or 2007 and you are upgrading to Outlook 2010. The NK2 no longer gets used and the cache is held on the server. Please follow the procedure below. This is migrating a user from Windows XP and Outlook 2003 to Windows 7 and Outlook 2010.

Location of NK2 File on original machine

C:\Documents and Settings\[User Profile]\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\Outlook.nk2
(or whatever the profile is called.nk2)
Restore it to the new machine
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook

Then click on Start and type
Outlook.exe /import
This should open up Outlook and import the NK2 onto the server

Outlook 2010 Search Function Stops

Sometimes a users search function in Outlook 2010 stops working. When they try and search for something it comes up with "No Matched Found" This can occur if the PST file has some corruption. You can either run the PST file through SCANPST.EXE (search for this, it comes with office) or re-build the indexing.

1. Click the windows icon and in the "search program and files" bar type Indexing Options.
2. Click on "Indexing Options" in the results.
3. Click on "Microsoft Outlook" and click on "Advanced"
4. Then click "Rebuild" and then "OK"

This will start the rebuild process. Depending on the mailbox, this can take a number of days. Keep testing the function and you should start seeing up pick up mail from certain folders.

Sharepoint Error after applying KB2493987 & KB2553018

We applied these updates on our own server before we went around applying updates to our customer boxes. Just as well. After apllying these particular updates we found that the companyweb no longer wanted to work.
After looking around the net this was a common problem. This seems to occur to Windows 2008 SBS servers 64Bit and if you used the move wizard to move the Sharepoint directory. Basically the move doesn't replicate to correct permissions on the new destination directory as highlighted here;
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/smallbusinessserver/thread/955fbf8b-42a8-4266-aa3a-650d655f11f4

Howerver, i didn't want to ring Microsoft becuase I got better things to do. The fix wasn't very clear but I did manage to find it. You basically do the following on the server;
  

1. Open the Services snap-in and Restart the Windows Internal Database service.
2. Run the following command from an elevated command prompt (if the command fails, note the error and run the command again, in some occasions due to some timing considerations, it might have to be run multiple times before it works, we would suggest trying it 2 or 3 times).
3. C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\12\BIN\psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force  
4. The command may take a long time to run. If it completes successfully, SharePoint Central Admin and Companyweb should work (confirm IIS services are running, bindings are correct, etc.)
5. After the psconfig completes, check the following: If SharePoint Central Admin works but Companyweb does not, check the bindings for the web site in IIS, we’ve seen some cases where they are missing.

The above was taken from the following if it doesn't work, you may need to do more;

http://blogs.technet.com/b/sbs/archive/2010/06/18/companyweb-and-sharepoint-central-admin-not-accessible-after-installing-kb983444.aspx

I have declined the updates on all servers and am waiting for Microsoft to come up with something. If not then we might need to install the updates and then run the psconfig command.
I have had a similar problem when installing SharePoint 2010 SP1 updates on a SBS 2011 server where it stopped NTBackup working (Psconfig post install).
So in future we will take great care installing anything to do with SharePoint.

Exchange 2010 Mail Import

I have had my first go at importing mail into Exchange 2010. After exporting all the mailboxes manually using the PST export from Outlook, as ExMerge didn't work, i thought that it would be a simple process of using the new Microsoft Shell cmdlets. After creating a share out of the directory which holds the PST files, all I had to do was to run the following command;

New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox aliasname -FilePath \\server\folder\ailiasname.pst
(please note the Filepath is dependant on where you hold the .pst file)

However, when I ran the command, it seemed to work and then fail. The message complained that it failed after there were too many errors in the file. Its true this customer had mail problems in the past but I thought that as long as the exported .pst file finished exoprting without errors, the imprt shoudl be fine.
Even after I used the scanpst.exe tool which did find errors, it still failed. In the end to get round the issue I had to use the following extra switches.

New-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox aliasname -FilePath \\server\folder\ailiasname.pst -AcceptLargeDataLoss -BadItemLimit unlimited

The unlimited option of the -BadItemLimit is optional and can be replaced with a number. I used 150 until I just went for unlimited to get the mail in. You will recieve a warning just after you press enter which states that you could lose data in the import becuase this is not the done way.
I was not comfortable in firing multiple import requests, so I would run one import and then run the following command to see when the import completes;

Get-MailboxImportRequest -Mailbox aliasname

Turn your PC or Laptop into a NAS

One thing you can do with your old PC or laptop is turn it into a NAS


• Download the FreeNAS ISO Image and burn it onto a CD
• Insert the CD in your laptop and then restart and boot your PC from the CD
• Install FreeNAS
• Remember the IP address that'll pop up after FreeNAS is installed
• Jump over to another computer on the same network and punch in the IP address on a browser
• Login with username: admin password: freenas
• Setup the proper disks for sharing and user computers for accessing

Improving Google Searches

Ideally, a simple Google search will give you exactly the results you need. When it doesn't, here are the best ways to tweak your web searches to help you get relevant results.
We all (or, well, most of us) love Google but it may not be the best search tool for everything. While the following information will concentrate heavily on Google, we'll also be looking at other search engines and options that might suit you better for certain tasks. If you're not getting the results you want from Google, in some cases another search engine may be the best fix.

Creating an Effective Search Query

As much as Google (and other search engines) may try, they don't speak English or any other human language. If you ask a search engine a specific question, it's probably not going to yield the best results. Fortunately, there are some tricks you can learn to form a really good Google query and end up with more relevant results.

Don't Use Words You Don't Need

Don't search for full sentences or ask full questions. Search for the keywords in what you're looking for. Google will just ignore certain words it knows are common and irrelevant, but this may not be the case with all search engines; either way, you'll save yourself some typing time. Just leave out anything you don't need. For example "dimensions and weight of the 2010 macbook air" works just fine as "dimensions weight 2010 macbook air."

Use the AROUND() Operator

By default, Google searches for your search terms everywhere in the page and they don't necessarily have to be near each other. This is annoying when you're searching for something and you end up with an article about Billy Idol that later mentions his song White Wedding (it happens all the time, right?). Of course you can put "white teeth" in quotations and make sure that phrase shows up in the article, but then you're restricted to that ordering of the words. Think of all the teeth whitening articles you'll miss because of the arrangement of the words. That's where the AROUND() operator comes in. It'll let you search for things like teeth AROUND(2) white to make sure both words are near each other but not necessarily next to each other or in a specific order. The number you give to AROUND specifies the proximity. A lower number means the words need to be closer together and a higher number means they can be farther apart.

Eliminate Terms You Don't Want and Force Terms You Do

Want to eliminate something from your results? Use a hyphen in front of any terms you don't want to show up. For example, defrost pipes -ehow will remove any eHow results from your search query. If you want to make sure a word appears in every result, just put a plus sign in front of it. (Thanks for the tip, simcdee!)
You can search for different options by using the OR operator. For example, if you wanted a blue or black hat, you could search for hat (black OR blue). This search query will ensure you end up getting results about hats, but allow those results to vary between hats of the black or blue variety. (Thanks for the tip, wjglenn!)

Search Titles Only

Do you only need to search for page titles and ignore the actual text on the page? In Google you can do this by prepending your query with allintitle:. When searching on Bing or Yahoo!, you can do the same thing simple by using title:.

Search for a File

Maybe you're not looking for a web page at all, but instead a specific kind of file. You can easily restrict your search to a file type by typing filetype:extension in front of your search terms. For example, if you were searching for a PowerPoint file you'd use filetype:ppt.

Conduct Site-Specific Searches

Sometimes you're looking for an article you know you saw on, say, Lifehacker, but you can't remember what it's called. Maybe said site has, uh, a less-than-perfect search mechanism and you turn to your favorite search engine to help you find it. Adding site: in front of the site's URL (e.g. site:lifehacker.com) will force Google, Bing, and Yahoo! to return only search results from that specific domain. For example, if you know you were looking for an article about manipulation and you know you saw it on lifehacker, you could search for site:lifehacker.com manipulate and you'll find some relevant, Lifehacker-specific results.
The more specific you can be with your query, the fewer results you'll have to sift through. Assuming the queries you give to Google, or any search engine, are accurate to what you want this should work in your favor and help you find what you're looking for more easily.

Getting Quick, Specific Answers

Most search engines will try to provide you with answers when you ask it specific questions or provide it with data it can detect based on a given format. Ask Google or Bing "what time is it in Los Angeles?" and you'll be provided with LA's local time. If you simply ask Google "what time is it?" and your IP address is providing an approximate (but accurate enough) location, you'll get your local time. This is just one of many types of data you can enter into Google to get answers without the need to track down a special tool in your search results. For more Google options, check out our top 10 obscure Google search tricks.
While both Bing and Google can offer lots of quick results, Duck Duck Go is a search engine designed to give you quick answers without the need to even look at your search results. Here are a few examples:

• Using age can give you the age of someone prominent. For example, searching for "age of Obama" will provide you with Barack Obama's age.
• Want to know how many calories are in two eggs? Search for calories in 2 eggs. In fact, calories in will yield calorie counts for basic foods.
• Want to know how much something weighs? Use weight. For example, weight of an apple.
• Need a random number? Type in rand plus the range. For example, rand 1 100.
• Want to search Wikipedia? Just type WIkipedia and your search terms and you'll be given an abstract from Wikipedia in addition to your search results. Here's an example for Lifehacker.

These are just a few examples of searches you can conduct with DuckDuckGo to get quick information without actually visiting another web site. Here are several more. In addition to DuckDuckGo, WolframAlpha (which DuckDuckGo utilizes to get information in certain cases) is an excellent tool for getting quick answers to specific kinds of questions. The downside is that it won't provide you with actual search results as well, but we've discovered some pretty neat things you can ask it.

Turn Frequent, Repetitive Searches into RSS Feeds

If you search for the same thing often (e.g. yourself, maybe?), you can turn that search into an RSS feed and get notified of new results. This will prevent you from combing through results to find new additions or doing a bunch of extra work to find new results that don't turn up so easily. Google lets you turn searches into RSS feeds using Google Alerts. Bing lets you create search result RSS feeds as well by just adding &format=rss to the end of your search's URL.