Alexander’s Blog

If you are unable to preview Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in Outlook 2010, make sure that the previewers are not disabled. The attachment previewers are enabled by default. Here’s how the previewers work in Outlook 2010.

First of all, make sure that the attached file that you are trying to preview in Outlook has the application installed. In other words, if you are trying to preview a Word file in an Outlook message then Microsoft Word must be installed on your computer. For security reasons, you have the option to selectively remove some or all the attachment previewers.

If you want to selectively use only certain attachment previewers in Outlook then follow these steps.

1. Click the File tab.
2. Click Options
3. Click Trust Center.

   

4. Under Microsoft Outlook Trust Center, click Trust Center Settings, and then click Attachment Handling.
5. Do one of the following:
   • To turn off all attachment previewers, click Turn off Attachment Preview.
   • To turn off a specific attachment previewer, click Attachment and Document Previewers, clear the check box for a previewer that you want to turn off, and then click OK.

   

I recently ordered an HTC EVO 4G through my telecommunication Web site. Because I am a broker for all the major wireless providers in USA, I have the luxury to pick from one of the more than 65 free phones, or get one of the high-end phones at a discount. After researching for over two months, I decided to settle on HTC EVO 4G from Sprint. I have to wait for four weeks because HTC EVO is one of the most popular smart phones in the market today and HTC can’t make them fast enough to keep up with the demand. Especially, with all the iPhone issues in the news lately, people are very interested in HTC EVO 4G. Luckily, 4G wireless network is widely available in the Seattle area.

The wait for my HTC EVO was totally worth it. I could have waited for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 smart phone but just like any other product, it will take Microsoft a while to fix all the bugs. Although everything I have heard about Windows Phone 7 is encouraging and Microsoft is supposedly going to spend 1 billion (that’s not a misprint…..that’s a billion with a B) to market Windows Phone 7 around the world. I like Windows Mobile OS but wanted to try Android for a change.

Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to synchronize your HTC EVO Contacts list to Outlook.

1. Download and install the latest version of HTC Sync here. At the time of writing, the latest version was 2.0.40 that came out on 6/16/2010. I have tested the software successfully on Windows 7 and Windows XP SP3.
2. Start the HTC Sync software from Start, All Programs, HTC, HTC Sync. You won’t be able to configure the Sync Manager until you have plugged the USB cable from your phone (micro USB connector) to the USB port on your PC.
3. On your HTC EVO you will see a screen that prompts you to choose a connection type. There are four options:
   1. Charge only
   2. HTC Sync
   3. Disk drive
   4. USB tethering
   Select HTC Sync and then tap Done.
4. You will be prompted to select a name for your phone. The default option is “My HTC Evo 4G.”
5. As soon as you are connected to your PC, you will see a third option on your HTC Sync screen on your PC called Application Installer.

   

6. Double-click the Sync Manager and then click the icon next to Settings to load the Sync Manager Settings window. Here you can configure the options to sync only the Contacts, or the Calendar, or both. You can also configure how to resolve any conflicts between the contacts on your mobile phone and the Outlook.

   

7. Configure the settings as necessary. For example, if you have multiple Contacts lists, such as one in your Inbox and one in your PST file, and you want to make sure that you keep your Mobile Contacts list separate from your Outlook Contacts list like I do, you need to specify which Contacts list you want to sync. By default, the HTC Sync will synchronize the default Contacts folder, which may be the one in the Inbox. If you only have one Contacts list and you want it to be the same on both your HTC EVO and Outlook then you have nothing to worry about. On the other hand, if you want to keep the two lists separate, like I do, then you need to be careful or else you will end up making a mess of your existing Contact list. If you have more than one Contacts list, click on the Properties button in step 6 and then clear the box Use default Contacts folder.Note: As a precaution, you should backup your Outlook Contacts list and also export your contacts list on your HTC EVO. To export HTC Contacts list go to Contacts, Menu, Import/Export, Export to SD card. If it’s the first time you are exporting the list you will be prompted to export your Contacts list to “/sdcard/pcsc_pcsc_00001.vcf”. If it’s the second time the name will be “/sdcard/pcsc_pcsc_00002.vcf”, and so on. Click OK to export the list. You can import a backed up list at a later time if necessary.
8. Click the Set Folder button and select the appropriate Contacts list.

   

9. If you don’t want to synchronize the calendar, then clear the box Synchronize this category under Categories, Calendar.
10. Usually you don’t have to modify the Conflict Policy and Silent Sync options.
11. Click Automatic Sync and select the appropriate options. I prefer a manual sync because I don’t sync my calendar, I only sync my Contacts list and it doesn’t need to be synchronized too often. If you are synchronizing your calendar then you may be interested in the automatic start of synchronization.
12. Click OK to apply the changes and close the Sync Manager window.
13. You can start the synchronization either from the Sync Manager on your PC or your mobile phone HTC EVO. I usually start the synchronization from my mobile phone.
14. You will see the synchronization process start as the data is prepared from your phone.

    

15. During the synchronization process you will see the progress as records are added (if it’s the first time) or synchronized with your Outlook.

    

16. Once the process is complete you can verify that all the Contacts were added, updated, or removed.

    

17. The Synchronization Summary report shows you all the details.

    

18. It also shows you the options that you select in the Used settings section.

    

So far I am loving HTC EVO 4G. Because there are so many things you can do on a smart phone these days, I think securing the information should be a major concern for all the mobile phone users. I hope to write about securing smart phones, especially HTC EVO in a future post.

Troubleshooting Tips

As you can see, the process of synchronization of data between your Outlook and HTC EVO is pretty straight forward. However, there a couple of things to keep in mind when you are troubleshooting.

Make sure that you configure the Sync  Manager before you start synchronization because if you accept all the defaults it will synchronize the default folder. This is not an issue if you have only one Contacts list but if you have multiple Contact lists you may experience some unpleasant surprises.

If you are unable to get your data synchronized, make sure that you select the second option “HTC Sync” in step 3 on your HTC EVO. Sometimes if you are not looking at your cell phone, the option may default to Charge only and disappear off your screen.

Visual Studio has been a developer tool for years. Microsoft recently announced that it is going to offer a version of Visual Studio called Visual Studio LightSwitch (formerly code named Kitty Hawk) that will be available as part of Visual Studio Professional, Premium, and Ultimate. LightSwitch will especially be useful for non-developers or business users that don’t know how to write code but want to create fully functional line-of-business (LOB) applications for the cloud and desktop. To me LightSwitch seems to be Visual Studio for dummies, à la FrontPage, which was a Web site editor for the beginners and non-professionals. Let’s just hope that the apps we create in LightSwitch are not as messy as the Web sites created in FrontPage.

WebMatrix vs. LightSwitch

If you recall, Microsoft announced WebMatrix Web development suite not too long ago which is meant for developers, students, and just about everyone who wants to build applications. WebMatrix (currently in beta) is everything you need to build Web sites using Windows. It includes IIS Developer Express (a development Web server), ASP.NET (a Web framework), and SQL Server Compact (an embedded database). Although both WebMatrix and LightSwitch are meant to build applications, the main difference is HTML UI (WebMatrix) vs. Silverlight UI (LightSwitch).

Availability

LightSwitch is supposed to help you quickly create professional-quality business applications, regardless of your development skills. The beta version of LightSwitch will be available on August 23, 2010 to MSDN Subscribers. Later on it will be available to the general public. A final version is expected to be released sometime next year.

If you are not a developer, check out this page on Microsoft’s Web site.

If you are a developer, check out this page on MSDN.

If you work with Dreamweaver 8 for Windows and have noticed that your FTP login settings in the Dreamweaver site definitions are lost when you close and re-open the program or after you reboot your computer. If you have an earlier version of Dreamweaver, you may not encounter this problem.

According to Adobe, there are two known causes for this.

1. The most common cause is that Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is installed on the same machine as Dreamweaver 8.
2. A less likely cause is that the following registry key is missing or is empty:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\User Shell Folders\AppData

If You Have IE7 Installed on Your Computer

If you have IE 7 installed then installing the Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater should resolve your problem in most cases. Make sure that you verify the installation of the updater. In Dreamweaver, go to Help > About Dreamweaver > and click the scrolling text to reveal the version number. It should say Dreamweaver 8.0.2. You should not have to reboot the computer after installing Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater.

If You Don’t Have IE7 Installed, or if the Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater Doesn’t Solve the Problem

If you don’t have IE7 and are experiencing the problem then install the Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Updater as described above and then perform the following steps.

Warning: Modify the registry at your own risk.

1. Launch the Registry Editor by clicking the Start button, choose Run, then type “regedit”. In the Registry Editor, navigate to this folder:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\User Shell Folders\

2. See if there is a key called AppData, as shown in the screen shot below:
   
3. Backup the Users Shell Folders registry branch as follows:
   1. Right-click the Users Shell Folders folder and select “Export”.
   2. In the “Export range” section, choose “Selected branch”.
   3. Save the .reg file to the desktop.
   4. If problems occur after editing the registry, double-clicking the .reg file will re-install that registry branch.
4. If the AppData key is missing, then perform the following steps. If the AppData key exists, then skip to Step 5.
   1. On the right side of the Registry Editor explorer pane, right-click in a blank area anywhere under the last key in the list. You should get a context menu that says “New” with a flyout menu.
   2. In the flyout menu, select “Expandable String Value” and name the new key AppData.
5. Right-click the new AppData key (or the existing one if it was already there), select Modify, and enter the following in the Value Data field: %USERPROFILE%\Application Data. If the values for the other keys in your User Shell Folders directory don’t start with %USERPROFILE%, then use the value that your other keys use. For example, if your Local Settings key has a value of u:\Local Settings, then try usingu:\Application Data.
6. Open Dreamweaver, re-enter the FTP login information for one of your sites, and see if the FTP login is now saved when you close and re-open Dreamweaver.

My students are always asking me where to get the evaluation copies of various Microsoft products. I’ve put together a list of some of the latest software evaluation downloads. My goal is to try and keep this list updated but frankly it is going to be challenging because Microsoft is known for changing the URLs without any redirection.

1. Exchange Server 2010 (120-Day Trial)
2. Forefront Server Security Management Console
3. Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010
4. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 (180-Day Trial)
5. Office Professional Plus 2010 (60-day Trial)
6. Project Professional 2010 (60-day trial)
7. SharePoint Server 2010 (180-day Trail)
8. Small Business Server 2008 (60-day trial)
9. SQL Server 2008 (180-day Trial)
10. System Center Data Protection Manager 2010 (180-day Trial)
11. System Center Essentials 2010 Beta
12. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2
13. Visio Premium 2010 (60-day trial)
14. Windows 7 Enterprise (90-day Trial)
15. Windows Home Server (30-day Trial)
16. Windows HPC Server 2008
17. Windows Server 2008 R2 Trial Software

WARNING! I should warn you that sometimes when you download a trial software you may think that you are opting out of receiving phone calls and e-mails from Microsoft but you are not. For more information read my blog post: When Microsoft Says No, It May Mean Yes.

Microsoft offers more free products to consumers than any software manufacturer I know. And I am not talking about free evaluation software, I am talking about free tools, utilities and various products and services. Besides software, Microsoft offers these free TechNet and MSDN labs. These are a series of guided, hands-on labs which can be completed in 90 minutes or less.