Category: Microsoft Tips

We often get calls from customers saying that they have worked on an attachment in Outlook and saved it but are not able to find it again.  This is because Outlook saves attachments to a temporary folder on your computer which is hidden.

We also get calls saying that Outlook is running very slowly or that they are unable to open certain attachments within Outlook.  This is normally down to the fact that the Outlook temporary folder has a lot of files within in and needs clearing out.

To find the location of the Outlook Temporary folder you need to do the following;

Open the Windows registry using regedit.exe and then browse to the following location depending on the version of office you have;

Outlook 2000 HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office9.0 Outlook Security
Outlook 2002/XP HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office10.0 Outlook Security
Outlook 2003 HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office11.0 Outlook Security
Outlook 2007 HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office12.0 Outlook Security
Outlook 2010 HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft Office14.0 Outlook Security

Once there you need to open the value called OutlookSecureTempFolder to find the folder location.

The easiest way to browse to this folder is to simply copy this path and paste it into either into start and run (in Windows XP) or start and search (in Vista or Windows 7.)

Now that you can access this folder you can either get the attachments your need or delete the content to clear out the folder.

We often receive calls saying that users emails addresses are wrong, or spelt incorrectly and they keep showing up in Outlook; it usually turns out to be just the auto prompt feature of Outlook remembering an old invalid address, here is a short video on how to delete it:-

1) start typing the first few letters of the address you think is wrong

2) use the up and down keys on the keyboard to highlight the entry you want to delete

3) press the “delete” key on your keyboard…

4) DONE: you will not see that address in the list anymore!

If you want to change the Windows Live ID that you used to access features like Xbox LIVE, Marketplace and Zune Pass from your Windows® Phone 7, you’ll need to perform reset your phone. 

Other email accounts, including additional Windows Live accounts, and Exchange accounts can be removed without resetting your phone.

WARNING: Resetting your phone will erase all your personal content, including apps that you purchased and downloaded, and will restore the factory settings.  You may not be able to transfer purchased content to a different Windows Live ID.

If you are sure you need to change the Windows Live ID for your phone, go to Settings then to About and press “reset your phone”

This issue occurs after you perform a RESTORE of a System Image Backup. I just know that every time you perform a Restore of a System Image, some data will be written inside the System Reserved volume . This data, will not be deleted after the restore.

The Solution:

You have to “clean” the system reserved data …in the USN Journal. Follow the steps bellow to clean this reserved area, you can then perform another image backup.

1- Start>Run>diskmgmt.msc

2- Right click on the System Reserved volume ( or partition ) and give it a letter.

3- Start>Run>cmd

4- Fsutil usn queryjournal Z:

5- fsutil usn deletejournal /N /D Z:

6- Create the System Image Backup again

7- Repeat the steps 1 and 2 and REMOVE the letter from the System Reserved.

This will give you 30~40Mb of space inside the System Reserved partition, you can now use the System Image Backup.

The ReadyBoost feature in Windows 7 is an easy way to speed up your PC; it works by using any kind of high speed portable flash mass storage system as a cache (for example a memory stick or SD Card.)  It is not the same as adding more physical RAM to your PC but can make an improvement to the overall speed of it.  Please note that the media needs to be high speed with an access time of 1 ms or less.

To set it up, simply insert the mass storage device.  This should bring up the autoplay window and from here you can select speed up my system.

In the options screen you can choose to dedicate the device for use with ReadyBoost or you can specify how much space to use.

Once done ReadyBoost will automatically configure the cache for you.

To stop using ReadyBoost you can simply remove the device from your PC.

Windows 7 has been out for a while now, but there is still millions with no intentions of upgrading from XP, here are my thoughts:-

Reasons to Stay with XP and Not Upgrade to Windows 7

1) You can’t actually upgrade from XP to Windows 7, so we are talking wiping the whole machine and starting again, that means copying all your settings, files, and re-installing all the software you use, so of which may not work now. There is actually ways of doing it, but in reality its not worth the hassle.

2) Most things have changed, just a bit to make it annoying, all the locations for all the things you know how to do in XP have changed, Control Panel, Settings, Wireless Settings, all the stuff you need to use, has all been moved and changed slightly.

3) XP works! You have been using it for how many years and has it let you down, do you actually need any of the extra features that Win 7 brings?

4) Windows XP is cheap, or cheaper, spend your money on a large hard drive, a new back drive, or some more memory?

5) Its still Windows, although it may look a bit dated XP, Windows 7 is essentially the same thing.

Reasons to Upgrade to Windows 7

1) It supports newer hardware; 64 bit operating systems are a reality with Windows 7, which mainly means you can have more than 3.5gb of RAM in use, something that is not really a viable option with Windows XP, for me this is the key reason i would upgrade, to have a machine with 6,8,10 GB of memory.

2) We all asked for the features, Windows 7 has fixed hundreds of little things that annoyed us or let us down in XP to make things just a little easier (once you know how to use them!)

3) Drivers and Devices, most of them work “out of the box” in with Win7, got a new printer, scanner or old camera, just plug it in, you have a decent chance that it will just work right away, no messing around.

4) Windows 7 has a better interface, no doubt it looks more snazzy and modern, although remember all that fancy scrolling and fading uses up your processor, memory and graphic resources.

5) HDTV and media, if you want to use it to watch HD movies and TV content, or have your PC connected to a TV screen,, upgrading to Windows 7 is a must, in my opinion.

As for me, well I have both, i am writing this on my trusty old XP machine, but have a Windows 7 box next to it which is used sometimes, I haven’t quite got round to spending the time i need to migrate everything over to Windows 7.

How to stream music from your computer to your Xbox 360

You can use Windows Media Player media sharing to stream music over your network to your Xbox 360 console.  For this to work you need Windows XP SP3 or higher and Windows Media Player 11.

Step 1: Enable media sharing in Windows Media Player 11

1. In Windows Media Player 11, click the arrow below the Library tab, and then click Media Sharing.
2. In the Media Sharing dialog box, select the Share my media check box, and then click OK.
3. In the list below the Share my media to check box, click your Xbox 360, click Allow, and then click OK.

Step 2: Play shared music on Xbox 360

Now that you have added your console you can now stream music to it.

1. Using your Xbox 360 controller, select media.
2. Select music.
3. Select Computer.
4. On the Windows-based PC screen, select yes and then continue.
5. After a while your computer should appear.
6. Select your computer and the shared media name.
7. Now you can choose what music you want and play it on your console.

I needed a batch command to delete some backup files older than 7 days earlier, here is a simple batch command to do it, should work on any version of windows, you will need to download the forefiles.exe file and put it in folder you are running that batch file from first…

To delete files older than 5 days:-

Forfiles.exe -p c:backup -s -m *.* -d -5 -c “cmd /c del /q @path”

This will delete all files in the c:backup directory older than 5 days. To test it first, use this:

Forfiles.exe -p c:backup -s -m *.* -d -5 -c “Cmd /C Echo 0x22@Path@File0x22”