Microsoft Introduces Outlook.com, New Email Service with Metro UI

We all know that Microsoft is upgrading all its services and products to match with Windows 8 Metro UI. Recently we saw it in upcoming "Office 2013" Customer Preview version and now its turn of a new announcement from Microsoft.
Microsoft has introduced a brand new email service Outlook.com. We all are aware of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express products. Microsoft Outlook is a part of Office suite and is one of the best and widely used email Desktop client for Windows. Outlook Express was a part of Windows but it was discontinued by Microsoft in Windows Vista.
Outlook.com is a new email service from Microsoft which comes with a clean interface inspired by Windows 8 Metro UI. Windows 8 also comes with a built-in Mail app which looks very similar to Outlook.com UI.
Since its a new service, chances are you'll get your desired username for your email account. If you already have a Hotmail or Live email account, you can upgrade it to new Outlook.com UI using Options menu.
Outlook.com comes with many interesting features such as integration with your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google and SkyDrive accounts.
You'll not see any annoying ads in this new email service and its UI has been optimized to provide more reading space for your emails. It uses Exchange ActiveSync which helps you in accessing your emails, calendar and people experience on your smartphone, tablet and Outlook 2013.
Following is a preview of Outlook.com UI:

How to apply?
According to Microsoft, if you're a Hotmail customer and want to upgrade to the Outlook.com preview, just click "Upgrade" in the options menu of Hotmail. Your email address, password, contacts, old email, and rules will remain unchanged, and you can send/receive email from your @hotmail.com or @msn.com or @live.com address. You'll experience it all in the new Outlook.com preview user interface. You can also add an @Outlook.com email address to your account if you want.
If you don't have a Hotmail account and using Gmail, Yahoo, or another email service, you can create a brand new email account by going to following URL:
Create New Email Account at Outlook.com

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“Click2Run Configuration Failure” when Office 2010 Starter is launched

Here’s a frustrating issue that hasn’t yet been solved by anyone at Microsoft from what I can tell. For as yet unknown reasons, occasionally some PCs exhibit an error when launching Office 2010 Starter (which is preinstalled on many new PCs). The error is worded as such:
“Click2Run Configuration Failure”
Although many solutions on the internet (even from Microsoft employees and the KB) suggest that a simple Repair install or Uninstall of Click2Run from the Programs and Features menu will correct this, executing the uninstaller actually triggers the exact same error message.
Update (June 2012): I have now been able to confirm that this problem is caused by the use of registry cleaners.  For more details on why you should never use a registry cleaner, see my blog entry here.
This error may also occur on other downloadable versions of Office 2010, but I haven’t seen it yet anywhere else. Correcting the problem with the preinstalled OEM Starter versions is tricky enough, so I decided to make that the focus of this post.
Here’s what you do to fix the problem. First, you’ll need a special Click2Run cleanup tool that has seemingly disappeared from Microsoft’s server. You can download it here:
Click2Run Cleanup Tool
Once in possession of this tool, take the following steps to correct the problem:

1. First, be sure to have a copy of the required installation files for Office 2010. Make a backup of them if you don’t have access to them elsewhere by copying the following directory to another location:
   • %PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\OEMOffice14\OStarter\en-us
2. Execute the CleanC2R.exe file from the zip archive provided above to completely remove C2R, including the virtual Q: drive containing the relevant install files.
3. Reboot the PC, then execute the CleanC2R.exe tool a second time.
4. Reboot once more, then execute the offcln.exe tool to completely remove Office 2010 Starter.
5. Reboot yet again, then navigate to the ProgramData directory containing the Office Starter installation files (they must be located in the exact directory detailed above for the installation to work properly). Run the SetupConsumerC2ROLW.exe file to install C2R once again, along with a fresh copy of Office 2010 Starter.

This should finally correct the issue. If you happen to be missing the installation files for Office 2010 Starter, you can actually find them available for download in various places. Downloading the files and installing the suite is perfectly legal as long as it was already once provided with the PC new by the OEM.
If this tip has helped you, please drop me a line and let me know!
If you’re looking for computer help in the Louisville area, look no further.  Call me today and get it done right!

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Add the Quick Launch Bar to the Taskbar in Windows 7

You should note that the new Windows 7 taskbar allows you to dock items to the taskbar, combining the features of both the normal taskbar as well as the Quick Launch. For more on this, be sure to read through our coverage of the Windows 7 beta if you haven’t already.

The above screenshot is the Windows 7 taskbar after changing back to XP/Vista mode, and adding the quick launch bar back. Looks just like Vista doesn’t it?
Adding the Quick Launch Bar Back to Windows 7
To add the toolbar back, you’ll want to right-click on an open area of the taskbar, and choose Toolbars \ New Toolbar from the menu. You should probably also unlock the taskbar at this point.

Now’s the slightly tricky part… you’ll want to paste the following path into the location bar:

%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Make sure that the location bar shows the full path, like the next screenshot, before you choose the “Select Folder” button.

You’ll immediately notice the Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar, but it’s all the way over on the right, so you’ll want to click on the dotted lines and then drag the toolbar all the way to the left (which is slightly tricky sometimes). Note that you’ll need to right-click and unlock the taskbar before you can move the toolbar.

There we go, it’s over on the left… but now you’ll want to adjust the regular taskbar toolbar to be closer to the left, so use the dotted lines to drag it over as well.

The normal Quick Launch that we’re used to doesn’t have text, so right-click on the dotted lines and uncheck “Show Text” as well as “Show Title” from the menu.

Once you’re sure it’s the way you want it, you should check the “Lock the taskbar” again.

And there you are, the quick launch bar has returned and there’s virtually no way anybody would know this is Windows 7.

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How To Pin an External Drive to the Windows 7 Taskbar

Do you have an external drive connected to your Windows 7 computer and would like to access it from the Taskbar? Here we show you a work around that will allow you to pin it to Taskbar.

Adding Drive to Windows Explorer

You would think the process would be as easy as dragging the external drive icon to the Taskbar. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. If you try to drag the external drive icon to the Taskbar, it just adds it to Windows Explorer.

Then if you right-click on the Windows Explorer icon, you’ll be able to access it from there. This might be enough for some users, but we want to add it to the Taskbar as an icon.

Steps for Pinning External Drive to Taskbar

With a quick work around we can add the drive as an icon. First what you need to do is right-click an empty area on your desktop and select New \ Text Document.

Then name the text doc whatever you want to call it and change .txt to .exe. Like in this example we’re adding the external E:\ drive, so we named it Drive E.exe then hit Enter.

After hitting Enter you will get a message asking if you’re sure you want to change the extension, click Yes.

Now you’ll have the “dummy” executable on the desktop. Right-click on it and select Pin to Taskbar.

Now you’ll have the executable icon on the Taskbar. Right-click on it, then right-click on the name of the file and select Properties.

Under the Shortcut tab change the Target to the drive letter and Start in to the drive letter as well and click OK. You can actually use this technique to add any folder to the Taskbar too. The main thing to remember is changing the Target to the correct path.

While you’re there, you might want to change the icon to something more appropriate like a hard drive icon. Or if you want to change the icon to something not included in Windows 7, check out our guide how to customize icons in Windows 7 and Vista.

And there you go! As you can see we have a more appropriate looking hard drive icon on the Taskbar…

And when we click on it, it opens up to our external USB drive so we can access its content.

Or maybe you want to have the drive open to a specific folder. Just change the Target path to the folder you want it to open in.

Then when you click the icon it will open to the directory you specified.

Although it might seem like a goofy method for simply pinning a drive or other folder to the Taskbar, the work around is effective. This will allow you to access the external drive with only one click and save a few steps in navigating to it.

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Create a Shortcut Icon or Hotkey to Turn Windows 7 / Vista Firewall On or Off

When you are troubleshooting network problems, one of the first things to do is disable the built-in Windows Firewall… but there are just way too many steps required to the firewall on and off. Can’t we make a simple shortcut icon instead?
Naturally we can, using the built-in netsh utility that is usually used on the command line to perform advanced networking functions. We’ll simply create a shortcut to it with the appropriate parameters.
Note: Always remember to turn the Firewall back on after you are done troubleshooting, especially if you use public wireless networks.
Create Shortcut Icons for Enable/Disable
Right-click on the desktop or elsewhere, and choose New \ Shortcut from the menu.

Then in the shortcut location box, you’ll add one of two commands listed below.

Disable Firewall

netsh firewall set opmode disable

Enable Firewall

netsh firewall set opmode enable

Once you’ve added the correct command, go to the next screen and give the shortcut a helpful name like “Disable Firewall”

At this point you should have a shortcut icon, but it won’t work yet without choosing to run as administrator.

Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties, and then choose the shortcut tab.

In this screen you can assign a shortcut key for this shortcut by adding it into the Shortcut key box. The most important step is to click the Advanced button, so we can choose “Run as administrator” to always run the shortcut in administrator mode.

You can also change the icon by using the Change Icon button. If you want the shortcuts to really match, you can change the “Look for icons in this file” to the following:

%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll

In that file you can find the red shield icon as well as the green one…

So now I have two shortcuts that not only look good, but are functional.

If you want to verify that the shortcuts are working, use one of them and then open Windows Firewall through the start menu, and click on the link for “Turn Windows Firewall on or off”

Then you should be able to see that the firewall is either on or off.

The same shortcuts should also work on Windows XP or Windows 7, even though the screenshots are all for Windows Vista. You don’t need to run as administrator in XP, of course.

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How to Reset Your Forgotten Windows Password the Easy Way

Forgetting your password is never any fun, but luckily there’s a really easy way to reset the password. All you need is a copy of the Windows installation disk and one simple command line trick.

Resetting Your Forgotten Windows Password

Boot off the Windows disk and select the “Repair your computer” option from the lower left-hand corner.

Follow through until you get to the option to open the Command Prompt, which you’ll want to select.

First you’ll want to type in the following command to backup the original sticky keys file:

copy c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe c:\

Then you’ll copy the command prompt executable (cmd.exe) over top of the sticky keys executable:

copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe

Now you can reboot the PC.

Resetting the Password

Once you get to the login screen, hit the Shift key 5 times, and you’ll see an administrator mode command prompt.

Now to reset the password—just type the following command, replacing the username and password with the combination you want:

net user geek MyNewPassword

That’s all there is to it. Now you can login.
Of course, you’ll probably want to put the original sethc.exe file back, which you can do by rebooting into the installation CD, opening the command prompt, and copying the c:\sethc.exe file back to c:\windows\system32\sethc.exe.

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7 Quick Fix 1.0 – Repair Tool of the Week

7 Quick Fix 1.0 – Repair Tool of the Week

7 Quick Fix is a small, freeware and portable tool designed to quickly fix common errors that may occur under Windows 7 and is able to re-enable certain parts of the system (such as Task Manager) after a virus attack.
7 Quick Fix can fix 21 common errors including Slow Shutdowns, Slow Thumbnails, Missing System Tray Icons, Missing DVD Drives and more. For the Windows XP equivalent, check out XPQuickFix.


Here is the complete list of what it can do:

• Enable Task Manager
• Enable Command Prompt
• Enable Registry Editor
• Enable Folder Options
• Reboot After Update (stops “You must restart for changes to take effect” after updates)
• Update Shutdown (prevents updates hijacking sleep button when there are updates to do)
• Show Shutdown
• Slow Thumbnail
• Restore Aero Function
• Disable IPv6
• Enable IPv6
• No DVD Drive
• Installer Crash
• Slow Menu
• Theme Changes (prevents themes changing cursors and desktop icons, but changes everything else)
• System Tray (fixes missing system tray icons after updates)
• Enable Taskbar Properties
• Taskbar Context
• Win-X Shortcuts (re-enables disabled Win-X shortcuts)
• Display Properties (re-enables)
• Control Panel (re-enables)

Screenshots:

Downloads:
Download from CNet – 463kb

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