Alexander’s Blog

On January 3, 2005 I wrote about Microsoft discontinuing support for adding new Hotmail accounts to Outlook Express and Outlook. In the KB article Q878462 Microsoft stated that “If you configured Outlook Express or Outlook to access your Hotmail account before DAV support was ended, you may still be able to use Outlook Express to open a free Hotmail account. However, eventually Hotmail will no longer support DAV for all free Hotmail accounts.”

Yesterday I received an e-mail from Microsoft which confirms what I wrote a couple of months ago. It states:

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Dear MSN Member,

As a thank-you for your loyalty to MSN, we’d like to offer you a 25% discount off the regular price of a year’s subscription to Outlook Live. Sign up by April 19, 2005, and you can enjoy all your first year’s benefits for just $44.95 instead of $59.95*.
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There are a couple of things in this message that need further explanation. First, if you added a Hotmail account before Microsoft discontinued the support for Hotmail, those accounts will continue to work for you as they did before. However, if you wanted to add an existing or a new Hotmail account to your Outlook or Outlook Express profile today, you will not be able to do so. The Q878462 article that I referenced indicated that your existing Hotmail account “may” work. This e-mail notice confirms that your existing Hotmail account “will” work for sure. Also, the Q878462 article doesn’t give a reason for discontinuation of support for Hotmail. This e-mail message states that it was done “in order to improve customer experience and reduce spam and junk e-mail abuse on MSN services.”

Last week I got an e-mail from a family member who wasn’t able to install a program she purchased a year ago. The software is called “Creating Keepsakes - Scrapbook Designer”. She was getting an error message “Error 1606. Could not access network location . All users\”. She went to the vendor’s Web site looking for solutions but didn’t find any, she also e-mailed them 3 times but never heard back from them. I told her of a solution that worked and I think it’s worth documenting because this error can occur under various circumstances. For example, you may encounter this error if you try to install or uninstall Norton AntiVirus 2003. Sometimes the path and location is given in the error message, which may point to several different paths, such as C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Desktop, or C:\My Documents\My Pictures.

Microsoft’s KB article 315352 mentions that this error occurs if you upgrade from Windows 98 SE or Windows Me to Windows XP, or Windows XP SP1. However, variations of this error are also known to exist when you upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows 2000. Here’s a step-by-step solution that has worked for me.

1. Click on Start, Run and then type REGEDIT.EXE to start the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders.

3. Double-click the Common Administrative Tools Value Name and set the data value to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools.

4. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders.
Notice that this path is different than the path in step 2. This is “Shell Folders”, in step 2 you went to “User Shell Folders”.

5. Double-click the Common Administrative Tools Value name and verify that the Value data is set to the
%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools.

6. Close the Registry Editor.

7. Restart your computer.

Microsoft is about to incorporate performance-based testing in all core Windows 2003 exams. Through simulated environments, IT professionals taking exams for certification will now be required to demonstrate their knowledge of products and processes they may encounter on the job. This dramatic change in the testing protocol is designed to increase the value and credibility of the MCP credential.

Microsoft wants to offer certification that helps assure MCPs are experienced and qualified to help with their IT problems. But traditional multiple choice tests don’t always do a complete job of testing IT professionals’ ability to perform practical, real-world tasks end to end. So the Microsoft Learning team has developed a new system of testing that evaluates on-the-job skills of an IT pro. Click here for Q&A on this topic.

More info…

We all know that it’s a bad idea to surf the Web on a network server. In fact, it’s not a good idea to surf the Web on any computer where you are logged on as Administrator. A lot of malware causes harm because the user browses the Web while he/she is logged on as an Administrator. Michael Howard has written a tool called “DropMyRights“, which should solve this problem. DropMyRights is a very simple application to help users who must run as an administrator run applications in a much-safer context than that of a non-administrator. It does this by taking the current user’s token, removing various privileges and SIDs from the token, and then using that token to start another process, such as Internet Explorer or Outlook. This tool works just as well with Mozilla’s Firefox, Eudora, or Lotus Notes e-mail.

Simply copy DropMyRights.exe to a folder. Then for each application you want to run in lower privilege, follow the steps described in this article.

More info…