Remotely shutdown Outlook (Another IPhone hack)

I wrote about creating an Outlook rule to help out with IPhone / Exchange push issue. One thing I realized, is that sometimes, I leave the Outlook running after I leave the office. That breaks the Exchange push to the IPhone. I wanted to be able to shutdown the Outlook remotely.

• Download PSExec from the Microsoft SysInternals suite (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553.aspx)
• Create a batchfile “ShutdownOutlook.bat with one line “c:\SysInternals\pskill Outlook.exe” (Replace c:\SysInternals\ with the path to pskill)
• Create a rule
• Process messages when they arrive
• from “Your User Name” and Subject “Shutdown Outlook”
• Start a Program “ShutdownOutlook.bat”

Now, all you have to do is send yourself and email with a subject “Shutdown Outlook” to shut down your outlook. I guess this can be used for other situations as well.

Update: Just corrected the command in the batch file. Originally had PSExec not PSKill (think one type the other)

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office,Tips,Outlook

Remotely shutdown Outlook (Another IPhone hack)

IPhone Exchange push peeves and some workarounds

I am really impressed with my IPhone. I’ve switched to it from the old Blackberry Curve and now every time I use a smart phone without touch screen, it is VERY, VERY annoying.

There are however a few peeves that I have about its functionality. One of the main ones is Exchange Push connectivity. It works great when you only have an inbox, however, with multiple mail folders and server side filtering, IPhone does not receive notifications of the email in the other folders. This is definitely an IPhone issue, since Exchange push protocol fully supports monitoring of multiple folders. A minor Outlook rule made the Synchronization work the way I want it it.

• Setup a client side rule that is applied to every email before it is processed. Mine is to display a notification box (Another Outlook issue is that if messages are moved to a folder in a server, popup notification will not be display!)

When I am in the office, my Outlook is opened, and messages get sorted into their appropriate folders. When I am out, the Outlook is generally closed. Since the client rule can not be applied, Emails will stay in the Inbox, and will be properly pushed to the IPhone. Once outlook is opened, emails will get sorted into appropriate folders.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office,Tips

IPhone Exchange push peeves and some workarounds

Grouping emails by Conversation

When reading emails in GMail, they are organized by conversation so related emails are easy to see. Follow the following steps to create the same view in outlook.

• Select View -> Arrange By -> Current View -> Define Views
• Select "Messages" and click "Copy..." button
• Rename the new view to be "Messages by Conversation
• On the new view, select "Modify...", then "Group By..."
• Select "Conversation" in the first group by drop down.
• Hit OK to apply the view

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office, Tips

Grouping emails by Conversation

Outlook and GMail (or other web based email services)

I've been using web based email for a few years and the ability to see get to your email from anywhere is great. However, there are always some things that I felt where missing. Web 2.0, AJAX enabled web email sites such as gmail, live.com, beta yahoo mail are trying to mimic the functionality of Outlook email client. Well... why use something that mimics Outlook, if you can use the original Outlook without loosing the benefits of WebMail.

GMail allows to connect Outlook via POP. Yahoo Mails provides the same functionality for its paid service, and at only $19.99 a year, it might be worth it for many people. AOL provides IMap functionality free of charge. There are plusses and minuses to both IMap and POP. POP requires Outlook to download a copy of the message to be able to read it. IMap stores messages on the server and reads each message when it needs to.

Full instructions on connecting gmail.com to your outlook are available here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13278&topic=1556

I opted to keeping my emails on the server to make sure that I have full access to my emails from the web interface

Here are a few benefits your get with sending email from your outlook

• Offline email access
• Ability to set tracking options for emails (return and delivery receipts)
• Full contacts information (GMail contacts are still very rudumentary)
• Consolidation of multiple email providers in one email client

Outlook and GMail (or other web based email services)

First experience in Office 2007 at work - Issue resolved

After a few days calls with Microsoft and submitting what seemed to be the first support incident related to Office 2007, I am up an running.

There was a problem with importing a NULL key in the old Outlook ergistry settings

The final solution was to remove (rename) the old Outlook key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook.

Update: According to the final report from MS, the problem was with the PONT_STRING key - HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\General] "PONT_STRING"=hex:33,32,2c,00 00 was the error value. Removing the key should have solved the problem as well.

First experience in Office 2007 at work - Issue resolved

First experience in Office 2007 at work

I took a plunge, and installed Office 2007 RTM on my office PC. Here's the picture of my Outlook starting up

And that's about all it does... Since this is my only office PC, if I can not get this resolved today (And MS Premium Support is already involved) - its a clean rebuild!!!

Ohh well, its a good exercise..

First experience in Office 2007 at work