So I was going to use the normal route of sending a file to a colleague today.  Normally I either attach a file to an Outlook E-Mail or use the Windows context menu (Right-Click) to send the file as an e-mail attachment.  I went with the context menu route today and found a feature I am not used to seeing… Skype!

Needless to say my colleague was also on Skype.  Once I clicked on the Skype option it opened the normal Skype window where I could select the contact to send the file to.

Once I selected the contact it sent a normal File Transfer Request via Skype to my contact.

Pretty easy, and cool!

-Brent

As computers and specifically video cards and displays get better there is one common complaint amongst users.  It’s the standard “It’s too small! I can’t read the screen!”  I personally run two 1920x1200 Acer displays and my laptop has a built-in display running the same resolution.  On the 24” Acer monitors that resolution isn’t bad at all, however on a smaller portable 17” Laptop screen things get a bit interesting.

What most folks do is simply decrease their screen resolution to make things bigger.  However, the drawback here is that the video card and displays themselves don’t always support smaller formats well or at all so things tend to look disproportionate or out of focus, creating even more complaints.  Here is a simple solution, built in to Windows, that helps with this problem while still using the higher, crisper, and cleaner resolutions:

1.      Open the screen resolution window (Right-Click on the Desktop for the context menu)

2.      Select the option at the bottom called “Make text and other items larger or smaller”

3.      From here you can now change the default sizing of the screen.  Essentially this increases how text, buttons and Windows objects appear on the screen.

I really like this solution, specifically because it does make certain buttons a bit larger.  Having the larger minimize, maximize and close buttons is helpful.  This is also a great procedure to use if you are dealing with a tablet or touchscreen interface running Windows as some of the built-in buttons are a bit small, especially for those of us with larger fingers!

Hope this helps someone!

-Brent

I found this article today published on Beta News: http://betanews.com/2011/09/26/are-apple-products-really-more-secure/

It’s a pretty interesting read.  As most know Apple products are not virus-free, however they have nowhere near the same amount of viruses, worms and Trojans than have been created for the PC.  The simple explanation of this is that PCs are simply sold more often than Apple computers.  However, the author has cited an increasing trend in the sale of Apple computers and more importantly Apple devices like the iPhone.  He suggests that the iPhone provides the larger target for the bad guys as those sales are through the roof.  I would also argue that Android is also in the crosshairs, especially with a product whose source code can be found online.

Thoughts on the matter?

Brent

As I am sure many IT Pros have done before, users have gotten new computers or been moved around, and with them their personal files move as well.  One of the most “fun” is all e-mail related content.  Outlook, the mail client for many companies, does not provide a real easy way to backup all Outlook related files.  Most recently I needed to backup a users nickname file.  If you are not familiar with this file, it is the file that populates the “To”, “CC”, “BCC” fields with commonly used addresses and people.  It is used in combination with the contacts folder to populate the drop down list.  The problem with many users is that they rely on this drop down list rather than entering a contacts information into the Contact folder, and therefore when you move the PST file you loose those entries in the drop down list.  During my research on the topic I found the following article on Experts Exchange:

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Office_Productivity/Groupware/Outlook/Q_23106296.html

NOTE: You have to scroll all the way down to see the actual responses on Experts Exchange

As it turns out the nickname file “*.NK2” is found right along side the PST files.  However as some will discover it is not an easy file to find.  I recommend setting the following Folder View Options:

1. Show Hidden Files and Folders
2. Show Extensions
3. Show Hidden Operating System Files

The last item did the trick for me with Windows Vista Ultimate.  It may be different in XP, but I did not test this process with XP.  The only thing I dislike about this file, other than the fact that it is hidden and not built into the PST is that its is a binary file so there is no easy way to edit or review the contents, say delete a bad entry.  I know there are tools to remove bad entries and a Google search can reveal those.  For those of you (including me) that are upset with the contents not being integrated with the PST let me offer this one view point; In Outlook 2007 you can have multiple PST files, ideally for different email accounts, so how can Outlook figure out which nicknames to relate to which PST file?  You could argue that only store the nicknames that mail is sent to from the sending email account.  In other words, if you send a message to Bill Gates from Mail Account A then store Bill Gates in PST File A, and not PST File B.

I would be curious if anyone else has similar problems or findings with Outlook file backup and recovery.

-Brent

I previously posted how to backup the auto-complete list in Outlook by using the NickName file.  I ran into a much more common problem today where old entries in the nickname file are no longer valid and caused me to send messages to the wrong people or old addresses.  I did a quick Google search and came up with a few helpful bits of information.  The first of which is a handy utility that will let you modify the contents of the nickname file and in my case remove the old address.

1. NirSoft’s NK2View – Freeware http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/outlook_nk2_autocomplete.html.  They also have a lot of other handy little utilities for Outlook management and other systems.
2. When adding new addresses the best way to do it is actually create a contact entry in the PST file, but as many people know contact email addresses do not always appear in the drop down list.  Still best practice says to add a new contact.
3. ALWAYS backup the nickname file (read Part 1) because if the file gets corrupted your out of luck!

Good Luck!

-Brent

If you have ever been to an airport, hotel or other public place that offers Wi-Fi service you may have also noticed that some require you to pay for access and others just require you to register.  Depending on your business this can be a good thing as it provides a source for extra revenue, or maybe just more insight into your visitors and how they access the hotspot.  On the other hand it does provide a little bit more security so you don’t end up with leaches on the network.

There are many vendors of systems and access points to provide this type of service, however I stumbled across a Microsoft document that provides information to setup and configure this type of service using existing Windows based servers.  It specifically targets Windows 2003 and Windows XP, but I am sure that is an updated version for 2008 and Vista.  On the other hand it is important to note that it does not contain any information about supporting Apple or Linux based machines.  Even if this solution does not work for you it may be worth the time to read just to understand some concepts and background on how a system to handle this could be implemented.

So without further ado the document can be found here.  If you have used this system or something similar please post your experience and comment on the system as I would be curious how it worked out for you.

-Brent