Alex Scoble's IT Notes - An Information Technology Blog

Add Outlook 2003 Desktop Icon

Used to the behavior of the Outlook desktop icon from versions previous to 2003? Where you could right click on the icon and select Properties in order to change mail server settings and profile settings.

By default, Outlook 2003 no longer creates this icon on the desktop, but makes you use the icon created in the Start Menu instead.

Here's how to create the icon on your desktop (click here for original Microsoft Office Article):

To re-create the Outlook desktop icon

1. On the Add/Remove Registry Entries page in the Custom Installation Wizard or the Custom Maintenance Wizard, click Add.
2. On the Add/Modify Registry Entry page, complete the fields to create a new registry key:
   • Root: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   • Data type: REG_SZ
   • Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}
3. Select the Create empty key check box.
4. Click OK.

Office 2003 SP2 Now Available

Saw the announcement today on Greg Hughes' blog that MS Office 2003 SP2 is now available.

You can click here to go directly to the download page on Microsoft.

Alternatively, you can use Microsoft Update or Office Update to get the download.

Thanks Greg for the news and links.

Further info and links can be found here at the Lazy Admin.

Remotely install SNMP Service to XP clients?

Been trying to figure out some centralized network admin solutions to configure systems remotely.

First, I've been trying to figure out how to remotely turn on the Wake-On-Lan (WOL) functionality on our Dell systems. Would like to turn this on so I can better manage systems using VNCScan (going to have to blog about this some other day). Been trying to use Dell's OpenManage software, but without much success so far. Documentation isn't the greatest and I've run into some permission problems...

Which brings me to problem two. In order to properly connect with Dell's OpenManage IT Admin software, all our XP clients need SNMP Service installed. Problem is, I'd like to do this remotely if possible.

Just haven't found a good economical (you can read that as free) solution to do either of these things. So if you know of any good ways to remotely turn on WOL or install SNMP Service on XP, drop me a line.

An ITManager original post: Using ICE with BES

Perhaps you've seen the emails that went around after the London bombings regarding using an In Case of Emergency (ICE) contact on your cell phone.

Here's a good post on the subject of ICE numbers from Ferris research.

But what about if you administer an organization running Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES)? Most of us who do lock down all Blackberries connected to the server by default. In other words, the device locks and requires a password to be entered after a certain amount of time.

So most likely, if you are in a disaster and an emergency worker finds your Blackberry, it will be locked up. What then?

Go to Options and Owner Info and add the ICE number there so it appears on your locked page.

For instance, all of our BBs show:

ICE: (xxx) xxx-xxxx and (xxx) xxx-xxxx [where the first number is emergency contact and second is main work number]

Used by Alex Scoble

If found please return to:
[TZ's mailing address]

That way if you are in an accident or disaster, emergency crews can quickly notify the proper people of this fact and also get as much info about your medical history as possible, most importantly medications you are on and what you are allergic to.

Why it's hard to switch products

There are many reasons why companies, IT Managers and individuals have a hard time switching from one product to another, even if we aren't satisfied with parts of the product or support.

Last night, I posted an entry on my Computerworld blog talking about these reasons as they relate to software, but they are the same for anything really. This post was in relation to a post by Martin MC Brown, who is also a Computerworld blogger.

By the way, you can see all my Computerworld posts (I post there daily) at http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/scoble

Two new posts on my Computerworld blog

Two more posts have been put up on my Computerworld blog.

Click here to read about improving your company or firm by promoting better customer service.

This link will take you to a post on how to use "regular expressions" to do more advanced find and replace operations in MS Word.

Cheat sheets coming out our sockets and ports!

Need a cheat sheet? Click here to go to a blog that has listed tons of them for you.

Covering everything from MS Office to AS400.

Cookies aren't spyware

Yeah, it's not time to start burning your beds and acting like crazy chickens.

No the world isn't infected with malware and cookies are not spyware.

Click here to read more on my Computerworld blog on the subject of malware, cookies and lazy journalism.