Recalling an Email

If you're in an Exchange environment (work, school, etc.) meaning your mail server is an Exchange server, when you try to recall a message you'll get an email in return that either your recall was successful or it wasn't (the recipient already opened it). 

If you're a home user and your mail server is hosted by an ISP or webmail (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.), then recalling a message won't work. 

In order to recall a message, if you have a Microsoft Exchange mail serever, you must do it directly from the sent email. You'll find the selection under Other Options. 

If you are connected to any other type of mail server, this option won't work. Outlook is an excellent product, and as a Microsoft product works best when connected to a Microsoft Exchange server and you'll have access to all the functions. including both Message Recall and even Recovering Deleted Items. 

If you're a home user, Outlook is still an excellent product but will lose some degree of functionality as a result. 

Introducing Windows 10

Here's a quick rundown:

- Return of the Start menu. After being inexplicably removed from Windows 8, the Start menu is back, and includes a new personalizable space for favorite apps, programs and websites.

- Apps in windows. With Windows 10, Microsoft has standardized the format for apps from the Windows Store and regular desktop programs. Both now run in traditional windows that can be resized and minimized from the bar at the top.

 - Multiple desktops. A feature Mac users have enjoyed for years: the ability to create and swap between different desktops.

- A soup-ed Snap. The "Snap" feature, which allows users to work on multiple apps at once from the same screen, has been redesigned with a new quadrant layout to allow for up to four programs at once.

- New Task view button. A new button on the task bar takes you straight to a single screen that displays all your open apps and files (the old Alt + Tab trick).

 Microsoft will allow business customers to choose specific Windows features to upgrade one at a time, rather than being forced to transition all at once from an older version.

Microsoft says Windows 10 "will run across the broadest range of devices ever," from consumer products like PCs, tablets, Xboxes and phones to enterprise data centers and "Internet of Things" connected devices. There will be just a single app store for all these formats, and Microsoft says it will be possible for developers to write an application once and then deploy it across device types.

  

   

CCMA Album of the Year Nominations

"All Kinds of Crazy" Nominated for CCMA "Album of the Year"

Saskatoon, SK July 21, 2014:  Codie Prevost's album "All Kinds of Crazy" has been a huge success since being independently released March 1, 2014. It debuted at #6 on the ITunes Canada Country Albums Chart, is nominated for "Country Recording Of The Year" at the 2014 Western Canadian Music Awards, and is now nominated for "Album Of The Year" at the 2014 Canadian Country Music Association Awards. 

 Prevost says he couldn't be more thrilled: "A lot of hard work goes into making an album and when it's finally finished you release it hoping people will like it and respond to it. As an artist the reaction to "All Kinds Of Crazy" has been overwhelming. I have my fans, my team, and my family to share these moments with and this wouldn't be possible without them" exclaimed Prevost.

Other nominees in the "Album Of The Year" category include Dean Brody with "Crop Circles"; Brett Kissel with "Started with a Song"; Tim Hicks with "Throwdown"; and Dallas Smith with "Tippin' Point EP". This makes Prevost the only independent artist to be nominated in this category.

The CCMA Awards Show will be held at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta on September 7, 2014.  Tickets for the event are available at ccma.org. 

To listen to the album "All Kinds Of Crazy" follow the links below:

Canada : https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/all-kinds-of-crazy/id793510161

USA : https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/all-kinds-of-crazy/id793510161

Press Release Written By: Blake Melin

For Media Inquires Contact: Al Leblanc

email: al@codieprevost.com

Phone: (306)862-6919

I blogged about Codie Prevost's All Kinds of Crazy album earlier this year, which is one even non-country fans should give a listen to. His vocals are wonderful and his performances strong and honest. He is personable, friendly, approachable. He is a winning combination of performer, writer, and person. I urge you to check out the links to listen to him or even check out his YouTube channel.  

The link to my blog about All Kinds of Crazy by Codie Prevost: 

http://kathleenorlandoutlookmvp.blogspot.ca/2014/02/codie-prevost-all-kinds-of-crazy-music.html?spref=tw  

How to Ask a Question So You Get the Help You Need

Before asking a technical question by e-mail, or in a newsgroup, or on a website chat board, do the following:

1. Try to find an answer by searching the archives of the forum you plan to post to.
2. Try to find an answer by searching the Web.
3. Try to find an answer by reading the manual.
4. Try to find an answer by reading a FAQ.
5. Try to find an answer by inspection or experimentation.
6. Try to find an answer by asking a skilled friend.

Be sensitive in choosing where you ask your question. You are likely to be ignored, or written off as a loser, if you:

• post your question to a forum where it's off topic
• post a very elementary question to a forum where advanced technical questions are expected, or vice-versa
• cross-post to too many different newsgroups
• post a personal e-mail to somebody who is neither an acquaintance of yours nor personally responsible for solving your problem

The first step, therefore, is to find the right forum. Again, Google and other Web-searching methods are your friend. Use them to find the project webpage most closely associated with the hardware or software giving you difficulties. Usually it will have links to a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list, and to project mailing lists and their archives. These mailing lists are the final places to go for help, if your own efforts (including reading those FAQs you found) do not find you a solution. The project page may also describe a bug-reporting procedure, or have a link to one; if so, follow it.

On mailing lists, newsgroups or Web forums, the subject header is your golden opportunity to attract qualified experts' attention in around 50 characters or fewer. Don't waste it on babble like “Please help me” (let alone “PLEASE HELP ME!!!!”; messages with subjects like that get discarded by reflex). Don't try to impress us with the depth of your anguish; use the space for a super-concise problem description instead.
One good convention for subject headers, used by many tech support organizations, is “object - deviation”. The “object” part specifies what thing or group of things is having a problem, and the “deviation”part describes the deviation from expected behavior.

Stupid:

HELP! Video doesn't work properly on my laptop!

Smart:

X.org 6.8.1 misshapen mouse cursor, Fooware MV1005 vid. chipset

Smarter:

X.org 6.8.1 mouse cursor on Fooware MV1005 vid. chipset - is misshapen

More generally, imagine looking at the index of an archive of questions, with just the subject lines showing. Make your subject line reflect your question well enough that the next guy searching the archive with a question similar to yours will be able to follow the thread to an answer rather than posting the question again.

Out of courtesy, do not hijack someone else's thread. Start your own. You may think you have the same problem but you might not. Keep your question separate from others. 

Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language

We've found by experience that people who are careless and sloppy writers are usually also careless and sloppy at thinking and coding (often enough to bet on, anyway). Answering questions for careless and sloppy thinkers is not rewarding; we'd rather spend our time elsewhere.
So expressing your question clearly and well is important. If you can't be bothered to do that, we can't be bothered to pay attention. Spend the extra effort to polish your language. It doesn't have to be stiff or formal — in fact, hacker culture values informal, slangy and humorous language used with precision. But it has to be precise; there has to be some indication that you're thinking and paying attention.
Spell, punctuate, and capitalize correctly. Don't confuse “its” with “it's”, “loose” with “lose”, or “discrete” with “discreet”. Don't TYPE IN ALL CAPS; this is read as shouting and considered rude.

If you are asking questions in a forum that does not use your native language, you will get a limited amount of slack for spelling and grammar errors — but no extra slack at all for laziness (and yes, we can usually spot that difference). Also, unless you know what your respondent's languages are, write in English. Busy hackers tend to simply flush questions in languages they don't understand, and English is the working language of the Internet. By writing in English you minimize your chances that your question will be discarded unread.
If you are writing in English but it is a second language for you, it is good form to alert potential respondents to potential language difficulties and options for getting around them. Examples:

• English is not my native language; please excuse typing errors.
• If you speak $LANGUAGE, please email/PM me; I may need assistance translating my question.
• I am familiar with the technical terms, but some slang expressions and idioms are difficult for me.
• I've posted my question in $LANGUAGE and English. I'll be glad to translate responses, if you only use one or the other.

Be precise and informative about your problem

• Describe the symptoms of your problem or bug carefully and clearly.
• Describe the environment in which it occurs (machine, OS, application, whatever). Provide your vendor's distribution and release level (e.g.: “Fedora Core 7”, “Slackware 9.1”, Windows 7 Home or Windows 7 Professional, etc.).
• Describe the research you did to try and understand the problem before you asked the question.
• Describe the diagnostic steps you took to try and pin down the problem yourself before you asked the question.
• Describe any possibly relevant recent changes in your computer or software configuration.
• If at all possible, provide a way to reproduce the problem in a controlled environment.

Do the best you can to anticipate the questions the person answering will ask, and answer them in advance in your request for help. Don't ignore their questions, don't make them go back and forth with questions to try and figure out your problem. 

If you are asked a direct question, don't ignore it. Please give a concise answer. People are very quick to dump a question when they don't get straight answers. 

Remember to describe your problem with details, try to anticipate any questions, be clear and concise, spelling counts, and use good manners. 

Distribution List Size Limits - Microsoft Exchange with Outlook

There is a limit (29 KB) to how large a distribution list stored on the server can be.

Distribution lists are saved lists of email addresses for use when sending a message to a

number of recipients. Generally, personal distribution lists will be stored in your personal Contacts list on the Microsoft Exchange server.

The limit for distribution lists stored on the server, is based on the size of the individual

contacts, not the number of contacts. Each distribution list can not exceed 29KB. This

limit applies whether the members of the distribution list are selected from your Contacts

folder, entered as full email addresses, or selected directly from the Global Address list

(GAL). Any single distribution list cannot exceed 29KB.

If you use very basic information for each contact (for example, only the name and the email address), your distribution list limit may be as high as 125 to 130 contacts.

If you have additional information on each contact (address, phone/fax numbers, birthdates, etc.), your distribution list limit may be significantly lowered.  

 

Codie Prevost - All Kinds of Crazy, a Music Review

All Kinds of Crazy – Codie Prevost

Codie Prevost (pronounced PRE-vo) is an up and coming Canadian artist whose earnest style and strong vocals do credit to the music he has chosen to record. There is honesty to his voice and music that is uniquely Canadian, and he is on fire with his latest CD. It may well transition him from “up and coming” to HE’S HERE! 

All Kinds of Crazy is Codie Prevost’s fourth album. It’s an excellent follow-up to last year’s Get Loud which was a really fun album laden with both strong individual talent and the promise of future possibilities.

There are 8 tracks to All Kinds of Crazy, each one better than the one that came before. From the smooth and dreamy tones of “Someday” to the warm, enveloping hug that is “Melting into You” to the toe-tapping and lively notes of the title song “All Kinds of Crazy”, there is listening pleasure to be had for every country music fan as well as for those who are brand new to genre. “Someday” may well be his signature song, as “The Dance” is for Garth Brooks. 

Codie delivers an album that truly showcases his talent and love of country music. He writes and sings with ease and confidence, a surety born of his proclivity for this style of music. What this means to you and I is that this album is an offering that you will want to have in your CD player or iPod to listen to all the time. The only way it could possibly be better is to listen to it in his mother Veronica's bar in his hometown!

If you ever get the chance to see him live, don’t miss out! He is fun, personable, interactive, and exudes great energy. He will have you singing along with him and jumping up to dance, clap, and stomp your feet. A concert with Codie Prevost is one you won’t soon forget.  

In 2010 Codie won an award for Best Country Song from the Independent Music Awards and was also nominated for the Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award. During a span from 2011 to 2013, Codie won awards at the Saskatchewan Country Music Association including Entertainer of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. Codie was nominated for the Canadian Country Music Awards Rising Star in both 2011 and 2012.  

This past year has been a huge one for Codie. He has played concerts with the likes of fun group Florida Georgia Line, the most yummy Joe Nichols, and uber-talented Big and Rich, and even began a tour with fellow artist Stephen Maguire called “Imagine No Bullying.” During this tour Codie Prevost, Stephen, and the Canadian Red Cross went from school to school playing music and speaking to the masses in an attempt to bring bullying to an end.

He is a full-bodied beer in a sea of light beer offerings, or to keep in context with his latest CD, he’ll be your whiskey! He is a solid person and musician, who remains humble and true to his roots to this day.

You can listen to him and purchase single tracks on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/album/someday-single/id804353543

https://itunes.apple.com/album/last-night-all-day-single/id527967935  

 

Or better yet, go to his website to purchase the signed CD’s in their entirety!

http://www.codieprevost.com/product-category/music/

Listen to a sampling of his music both new and old on his website by listening to the Player: 

http://www.codieprevost.com/ 

 

While you’re there, don’t forget your Codie Prevost hoodie or as they call them in Saskatchewan where Codie hails from – a bunny hug:

http://www.codieprevost.com/product/bunny-hug/

You can catch Codie Prevost on Twitter, particularly on Tuesday nights where he takes the opportunity to talk and respond to his fans: Codie Prevost Music

OR

Facebook:Codie Prevost

OR

Catch some of his videos on YouTube: Codie Prevost YouTube Channel

Outlook Send and Receive Issues

Whenever you have problems sending or receiving mail with Microsoft Outlook, there are basic troubleshooting steps to take.

I will cover both Outlook crashes as well as Outlook send/receive errors.

Note: If you are getting send/receive errors instead of crashes, see the guide; Send/Receive errors

If Outlook crashes when you try to send and/or receive, here are the first steps you should take:

Disable virus scanner integration

This is really where you need to start. If you still have a virus scanner installed which integrates itself with Outlook, disable this integration and try again. Turning off your virus scanner will not disable its integration components, what this means is that turning off your antivirus will not stop it from interfering with Outlook. Check the documentation of your virus scanner carefully to see how to properly disable its mail integration. It may be as simple as disabling the email scanning service, or it may be more complicated than that.
You can also opt to uninstall your virus scanner completely to make sure it cannot interfere while testing. Be cautious though, some brands of antivirus do not uninstall as gracefully as others (Symantec/Norton is an excellent example and requires a utility that you need to download from their website to complete the uninstall). Afterwards you can install it again without the mail scanning features or use Microsoft Security Essentials instead.
Contrary to common beliefs, you are still fully protected if your virus scanner does not integrate with Outlook. The real time scanner will catch everything it's updated for so please make sure that your application is kept up to date at all times. Also see; Disable virus scanner integration?

Reset send/receive settings

Outlook keeps the send/receive settings in an srs-file. If this file ends up corrupted, the send/receive will crash. To reset your send/receive settings, all you have to do is renaming the srs-file to .old when Outlook is closed. You can find the file in the following location;

• Windows 7 and Windows Vista
  C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Outlook\
• Windows XP
  C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\

Note 1: The file is called <profilename>.srs where <profilename> stands for the name of your Outlook Mail Profile. By default this is called Outlook so the file would then be called outlook.srs and you would rename it to outlook.old or outlook.srs_old.
Note 2: Resetting the srs-file won't delete any mail accounts you've configured in Outlook. It only resets information such as how often Outlook checks the server for new mail.
Note 3: You must enable the view in Windows Explorer so that you can a) see file extensions for known file types, and b) Show hidden files and folders. Tools > Folder Options > View.

NOTE: As of March 2014, I will no longer support Windows XP as it has been end-of-lifed by Microsoft, and in March they will no longer release updates, hotfixes, security patches, etc. for this old operating system.

Pst-file corruption and size

If your pst-file is corrupted, then writing new data to it could crash Outlook as well. To scan your pst-file for errors you can use the Inbox Repair Tool (scanpst.exe).
If the pst-file is reaching the 2GB (usually around 1.6 - 1.8 GB) and you are using an ANSI formatted pst-file, you are reaching the limit of the pst-file. You must then start with a new pst-file. If you are in ANSI format and are using Outlook 2003 or later, you can convert your pst-file to a Unicode formatted pst-file.

Corrupt message on mail server

If the message on your mail server to be downloaded is not what Outlook expected, depending on the message corruption, Outlook could crash. To fix this, simply logon to your mailbox via the web interface provided by your ISP or company and take a look at the messages that still need to be downloaded. If the send/receive crash is caused by a corrupt message, it often is not hard to detect which message it is; often it is caused by a spam message.
Delete the corrupt message from the web based mailbox and try the send/receive function in Outlook again.
Note: Some web mailboxes require you to delete the message twice to really get rid of it. For instance, if your ISP is using H-Sphere Horde Mail, look for the “Purge Deleted” option.

Recreate the mail profile

If Outlook still crashes when you send/receive, the issue might be your actual mail profile. To verify this, you can recreate your mail profile.

Further troubleshooting

Still nothing? Further details about your crash and Outlook environment is needed. Look in the Event Viewer to locate Outlook’s error log. Then post this crash log including additional information about your environment (such as version of Outlook, version of Windows and type of mail account) in one of the Outlook Forums.

Microsoft Outlook PST Backup to Network

For home users, backing up your Microsoft PST (personal folders) is not an issue. Backing up Outlook for a home user was covered in this blog: Outlook Data Backups

What people may not have read, at the bottom, and it may not have been clear enough is there is a solution for those users who are on a network.

I'll make it simple and to the point:



Microsoft has never supported the use of a PST from a networked drive, and with good reason.

Outlook requires constant read/write access to the PST. The slightest interruption will cause corruption or issues with Outlook.

What you're doing is not supported.

What I've done for my users is written a very simple script that they can execute when they close Outlook that copies their PST file(s) to their personal drive on the network:

COPY %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook\*.pst u:data\outlook /y 

NOTE: This batch file backs up the PST to the user's U drive, which is clearly written. It can be any drive/folder you wish, you just have to change what I have written: u:data/outlook. The rest of the batch file stays the same, including the /y at the end. If your user does this at least weekly, they should suffer little in the way of major data loss in the event of corruption, hard drive crash, etc. 

Save the script as a batch file on the C drive. Make a shortcut. Change the icon to the MSN butterfly. Rename it to OUTLOOK BACKUP. My users love this. 

If you don't have a policy set against the use of the Windows Scheduler, you can implement that to automatically back up the PST file to the desired location on the network.  

Good luck! As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.