Sad to be a Houston sports fan

Texans: rock bottom
Rockets: no desire to win
Astros: do I need to mention that?

Make my days CLOUD..

Changes have been made that affect the global template, Normal.dotm.....

Background: Office 2007 on Windows 7 64bit 

The message pops up at the exit of Word applicaiton 2007,

Workaround:

1. Make sure no WinWord.exe is running
2. Go to C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates, and back up and remove everything in that folder

Random Calendar Events NOT Synchronized to BlackBerry Q10 and IPhone

Issues:

• Random Outlook calendar events do not show up on mobile devices such as BlackBerry Q10 and Iphone.
• In OWA, the offended calendar events cannot display in browser either.

Environment:

• Exchange 2003 SP2 & Outlook 2007/2010
• Microsoft ActivSync

Solutions:

1. To prevent this issue occur again:
1. Check the version of EXCDO.dll in Bin directory on Exchange server. If it's older than 6.5.7653.5, download the hotfix from KB938650 and apply it.
2. Use the "Fix for me" from the same KB to add "FixRecipientTrackStatusTim" registry entry.
2. To make the offended calendar events to show up on mobile devices:

1. Follow KB969254 to set CalendarRecovery registry. The steps are reprinted here:
   
   
   a)      Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
   b)      Locate and then click the following registry subkey: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EXCDO\Parameters
   Note If the registry subkeys EXCDO and Parameters do not exist, go to step c. Otherwise, go to step e.
   c)       On the Edit menu, click Add Key, type EXCDO, and then press ENTER.
   d)      On the Edit menu, click Add Key, type Parameters, and then press ENTER.
   e)      On the Edit menu, point to New, click DWORD Value, type CalendarRecovery, and then press ENTER.
   f)       Double-click CalendarRecovery, type 1 in the Value data box, click Decimal, and then click OK.
   g)      Exit Registry Editor.
   
2. On client PC:
   
   1. Change Outlook to Non-Cached mode in Control Panel.
   2. Open Outlook, R-click Calendar and go to Properties.
   3. Copy and paste CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder in Description box in General tab.
   4. Change back to Cached mode.
   
   
   
   
3. Remove the Exchange account form the mobile device and add again. All missing calendars should show up shortly. They will be also display properly in OWA.

Missing Calendar Events on mobile device

1. Change Outlook to Non-Cached mode in Control Panel

2. Open Outlook, R-click Calendar and go to Properties

3. Copy and paste 'CleanupExpansionCachesInTheCalendarFolder' in Description box in General tab

4. Change back to Cached mode

 

Exchange Mailstore Unmounted due to low space

Symptoms:
- Log files have consumed all the space.
- NTbackup job failed to back up the mailstore.

Workarounds:
- Enable circular logging and restart mail store service
- Compressed some log files to free up 100MB space, and run NTbackup again
- Disable circular logging

Hey Users...

• Stop asking me to crack a password protected file
• Don't tell me the server is down; I tell you if the server is down or not
• Don't ask me to block your girl friend's or wife's email just because you got caught to have an affair
• Don't tell me you have resolved the issue ON YOUR OWN after all the help/information/instructions provided to you.
• Don't complain your computer is "Extremely slow" after you installed all kind of shits.

eFax vs GFI FaxMaker Online for small group

Using fax is old school now but occasionally we need it. Using cloud based fax solution is the way to go because it's paperless and not limited to the physical fax location. Moreover, it's cheaper than the cost of a land line.

We don't have many fax in and out, maybe less than 20 per month, but we still need a fax solution. So single fax number is all I need for a group of 30 users.

I have been using efax for few years but decided to switch to Gfi FaxMaker Online. Price is not the reason even though the monthly fee costs less than efax for a single number package.

The reason is mainly how can we share the single number in a group and everyone can SEND and receive fax in Outlook. Receiving fax is not an issue at all, it could be sent to a group email or the receptionist's email address then she forwards around.

However, getting everyone to send out faxes from Outlook is challenge with efax because it limits to only 5 email addresses to be able to send. To get around it, my IT guy had to add 2nd mailbox which is allowed to send in everyone's Outlook.

Gfi FaxMaker does not have this limitation. Basically you create all the user accounts with email addresses in their online console, and.....that's it. Oh yes there's an one-time setup fee, $99 for Gfi, but overall it's painless when sending faxes.

Cannot open your default e-mail folders

All of a sudden, my Outlook 2007 stopped to update mailbox even though it was connected to the Exchange server. I then created a new Outlook profile, but got 'Cannot open your default e-mail folders'. Found the solution here, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913843.

What I did is to manually create the RPC key and the dword key. Then my Outlook opened right away and started updating items.

Updated 8/7/13
This issue reoccurred again today. Checked the registry and it's good. The workaround this time was to go to email account, and remove username and re-type in, click "Check Name" again.

Updated on 9/15/14
This issue occurred on one of user's PC. He has Outlook 2007 connecting to Exchange 2003. The Outlook status was "disconnected' and no matter what I tried, even tried on a different PC, did not resolve the issues. I finally found out it's MAPI related and limitation on Exchange 2003. This article below helped me resolved the issue. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/842022

Stand-up Desk Setup

Inspired by this great post and decided to set up my own Stand-Up Desk.

Materials

• Existing IKEA LACK TV unit from living room
• IKEA Galant adjustable A-Legs x4 and 62" base frame
• 4" bolts, nuts and washers x6 from Lowes.com

Old desk Setup

Old Desk Setup

 New Stand-up desk Setup

New Stand-Up Desk (Did not bother to remove the legs from  the TV unit)

Tips: drill the holes for base frame, install the A-legs on frame, then bolt the frame to TV unit.

Missing Start Menu and all desktop item on Vista

Symptom:

• On impacted Vista machine, after logged in, the desktop is black, all desktop items, Windows Start button and tool bar are missing. Only Windows Explorer is open on the screen, and drives and others like control panel were accessible.


• Tried to launch Explorer.exe from Task Manager, but got "C:\windows\explorer.exe application not found" error. Same to all other programs such as regedit.exe or msconfig.exe. Please see this article to get rid of this error.

However, the fix did not bring the missing items back.

• Some have suggest to Kill Explorer.exe and create a new task, Explorer.exe in Task Manager. It did not work for me and it would only bring up another Windows Explorer on the screen.


• At least now I could get into the registry. Google said to check the SHELL, then I went to "HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\ and Click on Winlogon, on the right pane, found out the value of SHELL was C:\PROGRA~3\dsgsdgdsidgw.bat" which obviously a virus or non sense. I changed it to "explorer.exe" and restart. The desktop came back right away.


• Some other clean-ups needed to be done though.

Outlook 2010: The reply of Calendar invite from Secretary went to Executive instead of Secretary

Problem: Secretary has right to send invite from Executive's calendar, but all the responses come back to Executive's inbox which is not desired.

Solution: add secretary to Outlook Delegates of Executive

Sang: Got error of "The Delegates settings were not saved correctly. Unable to activate send-on-behalf-of list. You do not have sufficient permission to perform this operation on this object." while trying to add secretary to the delegates.

MS KB: following this KB, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2593557 to edit the registry has not fixed the problem. Read closely in the Cause section and found out another possible cause, The SELF object does not have the Write Personal Information right on your Active Directory user object. Corrected it and worked!!!!

UT Proforma failed due to FA

Error message when proforma i UT2012: Fixed asset data unavailable for proforma.

Solution: go to client folder in DeprData directory and delete all .L12 files.

Make Xerox Color to print in Black and white by default

We like to make Xerox DocuColor 252 to print Black and White by default on all print job.

I first went to printer IP interface, change the PS in PDL configuraiton to GrayScale in color mode. It did not achive what I wanted.

The better approach is to configure it on the driver of printer server level, and clean up the drivers on client level:

• Go Printer Properties on printer server


• Advanced tab, printing default, make necessary changes, here we set colorwise to Grayscale


• Go to Printing Preferences, change colorwise to Grayscale too


• Open a notepad on print server, print and check the preference of that printer to see if the change maintained


• On Client: Remove all printer drives for that model. then


• On Client: go to  Print Server Properties, remove that printer from Drivers tab and Ports tab


• Re-add the printer driver on client


• Open Notepad on Client and check the printer preferences

Failed to upload 30MB large file to MOSS2007

Found out it's limitation on Windows 2008 at this KB, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925083.
Then follow this article to change the "Max allowed content length" to 1GB. The issue resolved.

Doc cannot be saved in GFR

Doc was open in edit mode in GFR, but the changes were not saved.

Checked the file and found the 'save back to gfr' icon is grayed out.
Solutions:
1. Turn off UAC and reboot
2. Run GFR add in in distribution folder