Category Archives: Office

Where is the Temporary Outlook Folder *UPDATE*

I am updating this post for Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013.

The original post covering previous versions of outlook can be found here – http://blog.powerbiz.net.au/registry-hacks/where-is-the-temporary-outlook-folder/

For Outlook 2010, the registry location which shows the location of the Outlook Temporary Folder is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security.

For Outlook 2013, the registry location which shows the location of the Outlook Temporary Folder is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Security.

How to manually configure Outlook 2010 for Office 365

Sometimes, the domain hosting company is not able to properly configure autodiscover CNAME records to enable the domain to work properly with the Office 2010 auto configuration wizard. In this case, it may be necessary to manually configure Outlook 2010 to connect to the Office 365 servers.

1. Login to the Microsoft Online Services portal at https://portal.microsoftonline.com and open up the Outlook Web App.

 

2. Note down the address of the server – ie. hkprd0402.outlook.com

 

3. Open up the Add New Account wizard (From the Mail settings in the Control Panel)

4. Select Manually configure server settings or additional server types.

 

5. Select Microsoft Exchange or compatible service.

 

6. Enter the following information. The server name is the name of the Outlook Web App server, with an extra “mailbox” added in. ie. hkprd0402.outlook.com -> hkprd0402.mailbox.outlook.com.au

Put in the user’s Office 365 email address in the User Name.

DO NOT CLICK the Check Name button yet. Instead, click on the More Settings button.

 

7. Navigate to the Connection tab, check the Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP tick box and click on the Exchange Proxy Settings button.

 

8. Enter the information in as shown. Once again, use the name of the server as noted in the Outlook Web App screen.

 

9. Select OK twice, and then Click Check Name at the Add New Account screen.

 

10. A Windows Security window will appear. Type in the Office 365 credentials here.

 

11. If everything authenticates properly, the Server and Username Fields will be underlined and you can now click Next, and complete the wizard.

 

Disable Password Expiration Policy in Office365

Chaning the password regularly is a good thing to do. However, this can be quite messy at times, especially when you have a number of devices that depend on this password. It is often easier to set a long and complex password, and to set it once. In this case, you may wish to disable the password expiration policy which is set by default to 90 days.

To do this, you will need the Microsoft Online Services Module for Windows PowerShell. There is a 32bit and 64bit version. You can download them here – http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-enterprises/hh124998.aspx#BKMK_install

Once it has been installed, run the PS Command Shell and type the following commands (copy and paste).

  1. PS> $cred = get-credential
  2. Type in the Office365 Admin user. This is usually in the form of admin@[companyname].onmicrosoft.com
  3. PS> Connect-MsolService –Credential $cred
  4. PS> $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://outlook.office365.com/powershell-liveid/ -Credential $Cred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection
  5. PS> Import-PSSession $Session
  6. PS> $users = Get-MsolUser
  7. PS> foreach ($user in $users) { Set-MsolUser –UserPrincipalName $user.UserPrincipalName –PasswordNeverExpires $true }

That’s it. This will disable the password expiration policy for all users for this organisation.

To check this, type PS> get-msoluser | select displayname, passwordexpirationdate

 

Cannot open attachments in Outlook

When opening an attachment in outlook, you get an error stating that it cannot create the file or you need to check the permissions of the folder. This can happen if you often receive attachments with the same name. For example, you may receive many emails from a supplier using MYOB which sends out emails with a PDF attachment called esale.pdf.

When the attachment is opened, Outlook creates a copy of the file in a temporary folder. This is stored in the user profile, in a subfolder of the Temporary Internet Files hidden folder. The name of this folder is quite random. When another file of the same name is saved here, it is renamed filename (n).ext. And when n reached 99, you will have reached the maximum number of attachments of this name that can be saved. So, when a new file save is attempted, the error is produced.

To fix this, you need to delete the previous files saved in this folder. Locating the folder is not too difficult. A registry key controls this location.

Depending on your version of outlook, you can find the registry key as follows.

  • Outlook 97 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\Security
  • Outlook 98 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.5\Outlook\Security
  • Outlook 2000 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Security
  • Outlook 2002/XP – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Security
  • Outlook 2003 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Security
  • Outlook 2007 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\Security
  • Outlook 2010 – HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Security

The location of the folder will be found in the registry key – OutlookSecureTempFolder

  1. Open the registry key
  2. Copy the path in this key
  3. Open Windows Explorer
  4. Paste this path into the addresss bar
  5. Locate and delete all instances of the attachment file name

Word 2010 Blog Publishing

You can now type your blog post in Word 2010 and publish it directly to your blog site.

Your document will be formatted in a blog-style format. You need to give the title of the post as requested.

The first time you click on this button, you will be prompted for the details of your blog site and the login details.

Click on Register now to continue.

 

Choose your Blog site.

For Windows Live Spaces, you need to enter your space name – ie. if your blog website is http://powerbiz.spaces.live.com, then enter powerbiz as your space name, and the Secret Word is the word that was chosen when e-mail publishing was turned on in Windows Live Spaces.

For more help on this, refer to – http://office.microsoft.com/en-au/word-help/help-with-blogging-in-word-HA010164021.aspx?ver=14&app=winword.exe#BM4

Click OK to continue and the account registration will give you the thumbs up, if all is OK.

To set up your Windows Live Spaces account to enable e-mail publishing, log in to your windows live blog account, then select Options, E-Mail Publishing.

Follow the instructions to set up E-Mail publishing.

One problem with this feature is that pictures are not saved. You need to save pictures as files, and upload them to the blog site and insert them manually into the blog.

Office 2010 released

Office 2010 has been released. Information on the product and access to resources can be found at office.microsoft.com. A quick summary comparison of the 3 suite lines is as follows:
 
 
 
Additionally, there is an OEM only version of Office 2010 called Office 2010 Starter. This edition comes with reduced functionality Word and Excel 2010, and presents advertisements on screen. For more information on this – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/starter/ 
 

Office 2010 and Nicknames (.NK2)

Office 2010 no longer uses the .NK2 file to store nicknames. This is the list of names that drops down when you begin to type an email address in the TO: box. Instead, the list is stored internally as a hidden file in the inbox and is not easily accessible.
 
If you need to restore the .NK2 file from an old PC, use some tools to recover the email addresses. One tool that I have used is NK2view from www.nirsoft.net.
Copy the list into the clipboard, open a new message, and paste the lot into the TO: field. (DON’T SEND THE EMAIL! Smile). Cancel the email, and all the address will have been imported.
 
UPDATE: Microsoft now have a fix for this here – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542
 
To import .nk2 files into Outlook 2010, follow these steps:
  1. Make sure that the .nk2 file is in the following folder:
    %appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook

    Note The .nk2 file must have the same name as your current Outlook 2010 profile. By default, the profile name is “Outlook.” To check the profile name, follow these steps:

    1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
    2. Double-click Mail.
    3. In the Mail Setup dialog box, click Show Profiles.
  2. Click Start, and then click Run.
  3. In the Open box, type outlook.exe /importnk2, and then click OK. This should import the .nk2 file into the Outlook 2010 profile.Note After you import the .nk2 file, the contents of the file are merged into the existing nickname cache that is currently stored in your mailbox.

Note The .nk2 file is renamed with a .old file name extension on the first start of Outlook 2010. Therefore, if you try to re-import the .nk2 file, remove the .old file name extension.

Cannot Uninstall Office 2010 beta (Mondo)

Office 2010 has been released and in the impending rush, many are finding out that Office 2010 beta or Mondo release must be uninstalled before the RTM can be installed.
 
However, many installations are coming up with an error message “The product installation has been corrupted” and Office 2010 beta cannot be uninstalled.
 
The fix for this is to browse to the Groove.en-us folder from the original release and copy the setup.xml file to C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\OFFICE14\Office Setup Controller\Groove.en-us
 
Then, the uninstall process will work.
 

Change the location of the Outlook OST file

 

If you work offline with Outlook or use Cached Exchange Mode with Microsoft Exchange Server, you can change the location of the local Offline Folders File (.OST) to a different folder or hard drive.

Change the location where your offline files are saved

  1. Exit Outlook.
  2. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
  3. Double-click Mail, and then click E-mail Accounts.
  4. Click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
  5. Select the Microsoft Exchange Server account, and then click Change.
  6. Clear the Use Cached Exchange Mode check box.
  7. Click More Settings.
  8. Click the Advanced tab.
  9. Click Offline Folder File Settings.
  10. Click Disable Offline Use, and then click Yes in the dialog box that appears.
  11. Click Offline Folder File Settings.
  12. Click Browse, go to the location where you want to save your .ost file, and then click Open.
  13. Click OK.
  14. Select the Use Cached Exchange Mode check box.
  15. Click Next, and then click Finish.

Excel opens without displaying a workbook

When you double click on an Excel workbook (.xlsx or .xls), the following message appears.

In versions of Excel pre-2007, you could fix this by editing the Open options in the WIndows Explorer, disabling DDE and adding the “%1” at the end of the command path. This is not available in Vista. However, it is not built in to the Excel Options. Open up Excel Options.

Click , then .

Go to Advanced, then the General section and remove the check on “Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)”