Well, I don’t know about you, but I absolutely, HATE the following error message:

The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, restart Outlook

I get this when I try to access user’s shared calendars. I have this error occurring on my outlook 2003 and outlook 2007 machines, Since I am the main helpdesk person, clients like to call technical support and complain when the techs are late. The first thing I am supposed to do is check their calendar, and what do you know, I CAN’T!

Well, ranting aside, I did a little bit of research one tip is to turn off standby mode and hibernation mode. Since other apps were failing due to standby as well, I figured I would give that a go first. Granted, just closing outlook and reopening it resolves the issue, but outlook is a beast and I don’t have the energy to wait for it to open while people are yelling at me saying tech 1 is not at the location yet.

If it works, I’ll be sure to update!

The short answer is yes! I had to do this for a user and it was a real pain. Luckily there was only about 30 contacts involved, but it involved a lot of data manipulation to do it. I would of wanted to do this with a couple hundred contacts!

Step 1. Get the al alias.txt from the user directory of the said user. My alias.txt was located at c:\imail\virt_51\users\problemuser
Step 2. Put this file on problem user’s computer
Step 3. Manipulate the data. I used comma delimination to separate the name from the email address and so on.
Step 4. Import the file. In outlook click file, import/export. Follow the directions.
Step 5. Select the comma deliminiated file and search for *.*. You can get around this by actually saving the file the ext of a comma deliminated file, but I didn’t do this.
Step 5. Map the names, email, and whatever else to the proper directory. Click finish and you are done! I had some issues where the email address displayed as the name field but for the most part, I am deeming this project a success!

A client had called me up this morning and stated that his Antivirus is out of date. Of course, he has Symantec and always has issues in this regard. I proceeded to block out a couple of hours since I figured it was a virus that caused the issue. When I tried to run live update, the following error message occurred.

Error: “LU1814: LiveUpdate could not retrieve the update list”

After reading this, I figured, hey, maybe it is not a virus after all! WOOHOOOO! I proceeded to google the message which brought me to the following symantec kb article regarding this.

After skimming through that article, I determined that all those steps were retarded, so decided to go for the last one which is reinstall live update. If nothing else, web 2.0 has brought on a new meaning of reinstalling software. All you need to do is go to that website and everything got updated automatically. The first time I ran through the install, it said I had live update running in the background and needed to terminate. I killed the service and ran it again. This time it prompted me to modify, repair, or uninstall. I chose repair and ran through the install successfully.

One the install was finished, I tried to update symantec. The first time live update opened, it said it had updates for live update (I thought I just installed the most recent version…oh symantec, you slay me!) I went through those updates and finished. I went to update symantec again and this time it worked! Excellent! I kicked off a virus scan (hey, you never know) and told the client to let that run but he should be set. We will see in the upcoming days if there was a virus causing this or just some corrupt file that liveupdate did.

Below is an email provided to me about what occurs after installing SP3 for windows XP. In short, it blows up the ability to run future updates. Well, I would personally hold off on updating XP to SP3 but if you do, keep this little write up in mind….

Hi, Guys, just wanted to warn you all about a problem that I’ve now experienced on three new HP Windows XP computers:

After manually installing SP3 (or after it installs itself via automatic updates?), further updates fail to install, as well as the required automatic update list at windowsupdate.microsoft.com may not be accurate, listing updates you already have.

I’ve resolved this by some combination of these things:

1) Rename the softwaredistribution folder after issuing net stop wuauserv command, then issuing net start wuauserv command
2) Download windows update agent 3.0 and installing it with the /wuforce switch to forcefully overwrite the existing client
3) Re-registering the relevant windows update files, these can be found by googling “updates fail register dll”, i put them in a batch file and ran it:

Net Stop wuauserv
regsvr32 wuapi.dll /s
regsvr32 wups.dll /s
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll /s
regsvr32 wucltui.dll /s
regsvr32 wuweb.dll /s
regsvr32 msxml.dll /s
regsvr32 msxml2.dll /s
regsvr32 msxml3.dll /s
regsvr32 urlmon.dll /s
net start wuauserv
regsvr32 softpub.dll /s
regsvr32 initpki.dll /s
regsvr32 mssip32.dll /s
regsvr32 wintrust.dll /s
regsvr32 dssenh.dll /s
regsvr32 rsaenh.dll /s
regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll /s
regsvr32 sccbase.dll /s
regsvr32 slbcsp.dll /s
regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll /s
regsvr32 jscript.dll /s

According to Symantec, yes you can!  Look at page 100 in the manual for version 11.5.  For those lazy readers, here is the cut out text.

Configuring remote printing
If the host user has configured your printer information in pcAnywhere, you can
print a file that is located on the host computer to a printer at your location
during a remote control session. As you run programs on the host computer, you
can select your printer from the list of installed printers. If the host user has not
configured remote printing, you can print files to the default printer for the host
computer.
When adding a printer, the host user must have the correct drivers for the
remote computer. Symantec pcAnywhere prompts you for the location of the
printer, what port to use, and other configuration information.
To configure remote printing
1 In the pcAnywhere Manager window, on the Edit menu, click Preferences.
2 In the pcAnywhere Options window, on the Remote Printing tab, click Add
Printer.
To find this tab, click the left and right arrows in the pcAnywhere Options
window to scroll through the tabs.
3 Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the information for the printer
on the remote computer.
If the printer that the remote computer uses is not listed, you must install
the drivers first, and then repeat this procedure.
4 Click OK.

So, I got a call this morning about a user that wants to setup outlook to have public folder display in the calendar view in outlook.  You know, so when you click on calendar, it shows your calendar and the calendar of the public folder.  I was quick to answer that this was not possible, but it seems that another user had configured their outlook to do this.  Baffled, I looked at the configuration and saw the result.

IT IS POSSIBLE!

Now, I tweaked my outlook far and wide to see how I can configure this.  I finally figured it out and here are the directions….

Go to the Go Tab

Click Folder List

Go to Public Folders

Right click on Public folder Calendar

Click Add to Favorites

You will now be able to access the calendar in the calendar view.

It is that simple! Looks like you learn something new every day!

Solution/Answer: On the blackberry device
Go to messages
Go to options
Go to Email Reconciliation
Modify the Delete On to either Mailbox & Handheld or Prompt.

Prompt will ask you if you want to remove the email from outlook.

I had to provide these directions to someone that wants to do this.  I personally think that having this enabled is a bad idea.  On the bb, it is way too easy to delete complete days of information with only a few taps of the button.  Dangerous for any user with butter fingers.

I finally got sick of the damn touchpad on my laptop automatically clicking stuff without my finger even being on the button, so after hunting on Google for phrases like “auto click,” “random click” and “phantom clicking,” I finally figured it out. Synaptics touchpads have a tap-mode “feature” for auto-clicking whenever you tap the touchpad. It’s so sensitive that it’s triggered by casual movement of the mouse. I’d find myself randomly opening up links and selecting half a page of text.

I’ve been able to deduce from various Google hits that there’s an option to turn this off somewhere in Windows’ control panel.

But, like most things in Linux, it takes a little bit more effort.

1. As root (either by logging in as root, or with sudo), open up /etc/X11/xorg.conf with your text editor of choice.

2. Find the section labeled: Section “InputDevice” and within that section, look for Option “MaxTapTime” “180″

That option may have a different time; if so, change it to “0″, and if it’s not there at all, then add it like this: Option “MaxTapTime” “0″

Note: I’m using the synaptics driver (identified by Driver “synaptics”). I don’t know how or even if it’ll work with other drivers.

3. Save the file, and restart X either by logging out the same way you normally do, or by simultaneously hitting Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.

Now you should no longer be able to select things by tapping repeatedly on the touchpad!

One cause for this error is when the authentication setting on the ExchWeb\bin directory is Integrated Windows Authentication. To change this setting, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Internet Information Services Manager, and open the properties for the ExchWeb\bin directory.
2. On the Directory Security tab, click the Edit button under Authentication And Access Control.
3. Deselect the Integrated Windows Authentication check box, click OK, and click OK again to close the dialog box.

Spelling checker should now function.

Considering I am not the exchange admin, I cannot test this theory as of yet.  I will try to do this on my home computer and see if I get the same resolve.  The tech note stated that this error occurs on computers outside of AD (check) and works fine on computers within AD (check)  I just need to verify this is the case since I cannot check the exchange settings….

I did this for a user and received an error when I tried to create a personal folder.  I don’t remember what the error was, but it had something with unknown in it.  Sorry for being vague.  I then found the following on a forum but didn’t quite work for me…

Rename MSMAPI32.DLL found at \Program Files\Common Files\System\MSMAPI\ to MSMAPI32.BAK. Perform a detect/repair of Office 2003 via add/remove programs. The reason I’m asking you to do the above is because it is a known issue that this file doesn’t get removed when uninstalling Office/Outlook 2007 and isn’t compatible with the previous versions of Outlook.

So I modified this a little bit more.  I renamed the 1033 folder under MSMAPI to 1033.bak.  I then did a detect and repair and it re-created this folder with the proper configuration.

Good luck!