Computer Tutorials

If you have used Windows XP a great deal in the past and have now upgraded to Windows Vista then you will notice that the Run Command is missing from the start menu. Now there has always been an easier way to bring up the Run Command window up by holding down the Windows Key and pressing the letter R on your keyboard, but for those of you that still which to be able to bring just the Run Command from the start menu follow the tutorial below and all will be well again.

1. Right Click on the Start menu (Windows Vista Logo) in the bottom Left, You can also just click on the task bar.

2. Select Properties.

You will now be displayed with the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.

3. Select the Start Menu Tab (you should be there all ready).

4. Start Menu should be checked, click the Customize button to the right.

5. Scroll down the list until you find Run Command, Check that box.

6. Click Ok

7. Click Apply

8. Click Ok

Now if you bring up your start menu you will now see Run… on the bottom right, another Vista problem solved. Very short and sweet I thought but straight to the point.

Adam Nugent

This account is one huge security flaw when it comes to windows operating systems and removing this account is no easy task, In Windows Vista it’s easy to disable the account however if you’re not happy with just disabling the account there is more you can do.

You can set a password for this account which will make it much more secure then it was before and doing so is very easy as I’ll show you below. You are not able to set a password for the guest account in user accounts! Blame Microsoft not me

(We are going to use the Command Prompt to set a password)

Click Start (Vista Logo) ->All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt
Or
Hold down the windows Key pres R and then type in Cmd and press enter

Now we have a Command Prompt open.

The rest is very simple you are going to enter net user guest and your chosen password after that.

net user guest password

Just change password with your actual password and press enter.

It’s really that simple, now if you want to check that the guest is really now password protected just to and look in user accounts:

Start (Vista Logo) -> Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Manage Another Account

If your guest account is turned off, to see that it is now password protected you’ll have to turn it on for a moment, and you will see under guest account it says Password Protected.

Hope this Helped you

Adam Nugent

Have you ever sent an email a quite a few people at once, maybe an important message and had some silly person select the Reply to All function, sending unwanted emails to all the people on the list? Well I’ve got the solution to this problem, I’m going to show you how to disable the Reply to All function in Outlook 2007 to stop this unwanted annoyance.

Below you will be walked though how to create a custom form where the Reply to All function is removed.

1. Open Outlook 2007.

2. Click Tools.

3. Select Forms.

4. Click Design a Form.

5. In the Design Form window Highlight Message and Click Open.

6. Where you see the tabs (Message, P.2, P.3) Select the Actions Tab.

7. Under Action Name Select the Reply to All Field then Click Properties at the bottom.

8. In the Form Action Properties window uncheck the Enabled box in the top right.

9. Click Ok.

10. Now again where you see (Message, P.2, P.3) select the Properties Tab.

11. On the right you will see two check boxes you need to check the box that says Send Form Definition with Item.

12. You will be displayed with a warning that this is not recommended practice, in our case however it is good practice so ignore this and Click Ok.

13. At the top of the window in the Developer tab Select Publish and Click Publish Form As.

14. In the Publish Form As window that has just appeared ensure that the Look In drop down box is displaying Personal Forms Library, if it’s not displaying this please change it so that it is.

15. In the Display Name: Field name your new form with a name that is meaningful to you, Reply To All Disabled or something along them lines.

16. In the Form Name: Field repeat the name with NO spaces, For example ReplyToAllDisabled.

17. Click Publish

18. Now back on the Form window Click the Microsoft Office button at the top left (The Circle) and Click Close.

19. If you are asked to save changes, assuming you’ve not changed anything else Click Yes.

You have now created a Form that you can use when you need to send out an email and has the Reply To All Function Disabled.

How To Use the Reply To All Disabled Form:

1. Open Outlook 2007

2. Click Tools

3. Select Forms

4. Click Choose a Form

5. In the Choose Form window the Look in: should be Personal Forms Library, if not change it so that it is.

6. Now select the Reply To All Disabled Form that you saved earlier and Click Open.

7. Send your Email in the usual way from here on.

Something you might want to note here is that once again with most of the advanced functions in Outlook they will only work if you are sending to other clients such as Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird. If you send this email to a web based provider such as Gmail, Msn, Yahoo and they are using the Web Based interface to read there emails they will still have the function to Reply to All

I hope this will save you a lot of unwanted stress in the future when you have to send out an email to a big list of contacts.

Adam Nugent

If you require that that an Expiration date be assigned to an email that has a time critical purpose, This tutorial will show you how to do just that. Once the email has past its expiration date it will be displayed with a strike (line) though it showing that the email has expired, however the email can still be opened and read but the person will understand that the time frame has expired.

Open Outlook 2007.

Start creating your email (Click New).

Write your email as you would in the usual way, but don’t send it just yet.

Click on the Options tab at the top.

In the More Options on the right click the little arrow to expand Message Options.

Check the box that says Expires After:

Now set the date and time you would like the email to expire on.

Once you are done Click Close to close the message options.

If you have finished your email Click Send.

On the off chance that you have set the expiration date for a date that has already pasted you will be warned about this and ask if you still want to send the message, If you did this on purpose click Yes, if this was a mistake go back and change the date then send.

You might also want to be aware that options like this will only be visible if someone is using an email client such as Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird. If you send an email with options like this to a web based email account such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo they will see the email in the usual way with no expiration date visible. Keep that in mind when using such features.

I hope this was easy for you to follow and helped you use Outlook 2007 in a more professional way

Adam Nugent

This tutorial will show you how to create a Silver membership on Xbox Live from scratch, a few questions are answered before hand:

Do I need Windows Live ID?
Yes, but you can create one in the process (see tutorial).

Does my Xbox need to have Internet?
Yes.

Do I need a Hard Drive or Memory Unit?
Yes, either will do.

I have a gold account using a credit card how do I get back to silver?
Phone Xbox and have them remove the credit card.

If you have Xbox Live Gold using the Gold subscription cards, once your time has run out your account will revert back to Silver automatically.

Lets begin the tutorial, set up your Xbox make sure there is a memory device in place and that is has Internet access.

OK, Starting on the Xbox Live blade of the dashboard go down and select Join Xbox Live.
A side window will pop out, again select Join Xbox Live.

You may be asked here to exit your session, if you are select Yes.

Welcome to Xbox Live screen should appear Select Continue.

Enter a Gamertag (a name you will be known as online, nickname) once you have entered one press Start.
Xbox will now check if that name is in use on either Xbox Live, Windows Live and Zune, if its all ready in use will have to create a different name and repeat until successful or use the Show More Gamertags.

Once you have found a name that is available you will be sent do the windows live ID screen, if you all ready have a Windows Live ID you will select Yes, I do if however you don’t then you can select No, Create one and follow the instructions.
For this tutorials sake we are selecting Yes, I do.

Now you will be required to enter your E-mail address and password for that account, Once you are done select sign in.
If there is a problem you will be asked to repeat the process until the email and password are correct.

Terms of use and privacy statement, Read it then select Accept if you agree, you cannot continue with out selecting Accept.

Now you will be asked to select a membership option for this account, and as the title of this tutorial says we are going to select Xbox Live Silver Membership £0.00, You will then be asked if you are sure you only want silver Select Keep Silver.

At this point you may be eligible for a Free Trial Membership of 1 month to Xbox Live Gold.. Not sure if everyone gets this however I did at this point. I selected Continue

Now you are asked for your Address, enter the details and select Next.

You are now asked to pic a Gamer Picture.. (this can be changed a later date if you decide to).

Select your Gaming Zone, one of four choices Recreation, Pro, Family or Underground.

Xbox Marketing asks you if you would like to receive information on updates, demos etc. I’m not going to tell you which one to pic here that’s your choice. Then you are also asked if you would like to share your information with third party partners of xbox, I would say select No here but again its your choice.

Your Xbox Live account is now being created, if you did not get the option for a free 1 month then once you Select Done you will have a silver account, however for those of you that had the 1 month option you can now go and play some online games.

* Browse the Xbox Live Marketplace
* Access Xbox Live Marketplace downloads and Xbox Live Arcade games (You will still need to pay for the content if its not free)
* Create Gamertags and Gamer Profiles
* Use voice and text messaging
* Download new levels for games
* Watch (but not play) multiplayer online gaming
* Have dates associated with your achievements if you where signed in when you achieved them.

That’s about it for this tutorial, I’m going to go play some Halo 3 now as always any questions feel free to comment below.

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) is a tool designed by Microsoft for IT professionals, Usually for small to medium sized businesses however it can be used by anyone to check they have the latest security in place on your system and not just that, it will alert you to any misconfigurations and give you guidance. If you would like to read more about this tool before downloading then start here.

This tutorial is for you if you want to make sure that your computer is completely up to date with all the security features that are available, or maybe if your just slightly paranoid with computers

At the time of writing this post Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer is on Version 2.1, Which supports the following systems:
Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2008
Windows Vista
Windows XP

There are both x32 and x64 editions of the program, you should note however on the download page that x64 is as you guessed it for 64 bit but the other option you have is x86 don’t be confused by this x86 is for x32 bit systems. Which is most cases is the one you will require as a home user, if you don’t understand this and are unsure which you have then it’s no doubt going to be x86 for you.

Once you download and install the program you going to want to run it, so here’s a quick run over what you should do:

For the sake of this tutorial we are just going to be scanning your computer, if you are more experienced then go ahead and play on your own now

Open Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer 2.1 (there should be a shortcut icon on your desktop).

Click Scan a computer.

Now leave all the boxes as they are and Click Start Scan.
The program my download updates here before it continues ( it can take a while ).

Once the scan is completed you will be displayed with Report details for the computer you scanned, what we are more interested in here is downloading whats missing and making our computers more secure.

Now that you have scanned your computer and it’s displaying the results to your in the table, what you need to pay close attention to is Result field in the table, in this table you will want to click on the little blue link that says Result Details.

This will open a new window and give you download links to the updates you are missing for that program, if you look to the right you’ll seed a download field displaying images of little drives with red arrows above them. To download the update simply click on these images and your download will start.

I’m sure you understand what to do from here, download all the updates that you are missing and install them on your system once you have done this scan again and you’ll be safe in the knowledge that your computer is up to date will all the latest security updates.

Some of the results that you are given will not be for updates they will be for things such as the Guest account is active on your computer and needs to be disabled to make your system more secure for items such as this you will want to Click the litte blue link that says How to correct this which will open a browser window and take you to the information you need.

I hope this has helped you keep your system more secure, if I have missed anything out or you are unsure about anything let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to solve the issue.

Adam Nugent

This might sound a little strange to you at first, why would you want to send a copy of all your emails to another address. Maybe with your work you need to send a copy of every email you send out to your boss or someone that is working on the same thing as you, then if that person where to try and contact you but you where not there or maybe there’s an issue. Well because the other person dealing with this can answer the customers questions or help them from where you left off without annoying the customer with the same stuff again.
I’m sure you could think of other reasons why you would want to do this like Records so you always have a copy, anyway let’s get onto the tutorial.

We are going to create a Rule that will send every email you send to another address of your choice.

Open Outlook 2007.

Click Tools and select Rules and Alerts.

Click New Rule.

At the bottom where it says “Start from a blank rule” highlight “Check messages after sending”

Click Next
You will be presented with a dialog box saying “This rule will be applied to every message you send. Is this correct?” I’m sure you can understand why you are asked this. Click Yes

Tick the box which says “Cc the message to people or distribution list”

In the box below “Step 2: Edit the rule description” Click People or distribution list. It will look like a URL web link, it’s not don’t worry.

Now either Select your Recipient from your contact list or type in your contact at the bottom, once you are done Click Ok

Click Next

If You are used to the rules interface of Outlook 2007 you can add Exceptions here, for example you might only want email’s containing “Order No.” To be sent to the other email but not any of the other emails you send. If you wish to use any of the exceptions then do so now, Once you are done Click Next.

Now you can Name your rule, use something descriptive like “Copy all Emails to” or something along them lines.

If you have emails already in your inbox that you wish to send then Check the box entitled (Run this rule now on messages already in “inbox”). If not then leave it uncheck

Make sure “Turn on this rule” is check and Click Next

There you have it every email you send from now on will be also sent to the email you specified unless of course you set any exceptions.

Adam Nugent

This happened to me the other day and I spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out
why I couldn’t get to account management on my xbox.

The Issue:
The credit card you use for xbox live has expired so your Xbox Live account has
been suspended which means you can no longer sign into xbox live. If you can not
sign into your account on the xbox you can not access Account management.

It’s a rather stupid error on Microsoft’s part if i do say so myself, they tell you
to sort the credit card information out but you are unable to without signing into
your account!! they really need to default your account back to a Silver account
when your credit card runs out so you can still sign in and access account
management.

Ok so how do i fix it?

Go to http://www.xbox.com/

Sign in with your Xbox live Email and Password

Once you have signed in, click on your Gamer Tag

Click on Manage Profile

Click Contact and Billing Information

Click My Billing Information

There you go from this page you can now access your credit card information, you
can now enter the details of your new card/account and have xbox live back up in no
time at all.
Once you have entered all the details of a new card your Xbox Live will be active
again and you’ll once again be able to sign in to your account and play!

I hope this helped you save some time and stress, it really had me stressing all I
wanted to do was have a few games of Halo 3.

Adam Nugent

What is an RSS Feed? RSS stands for Rich Site Summary which is really just that, a summary of a sites ever changing content mainly used on news sites and blogs (like the one you are reading now).
Its a way for a reader (you) to subscribe to a website there for keeping them update to date on the new information posted. There are a number of different ways you can subscribe to an RSS Feed, for the sake of this tutorial we are going to be using Microsoft Outlook 2007 to subscribe to an RSS Feed.

Here is how you subscribe to an RSS Feed:

1. Locate the RSS Feed link on the site you with to subscribe too.
For example if you look to the right of this page there is my side bar, the top box entitled Subscribe is where my RSS Feed is.

2. Copy the Link (Right Click, Copy Link Location)

3. Open Outlook 2007

4. Select Mail

5. Right Click RSS Feeds

6. Select Add a New RSS Feed

7. Paste the RSS link you copied earlier into the box

8. Click Add
(As always with windows security getting more and more intense you will be asked if you are sure that you would like to subscribe to this feed.)
If you are happy to proceed then click Yes

Well Done you are now subscribed to that feed and will be able to view them under the Feeds Name using your Navigation pane, You will download updated feeds when you use Send/Receive and evertime you open Outlook if will check for new content. Anyway there you have it you should now know how to set up an RSS Feed In Microsoft Outlook 2007.

The RSS Feed for this blog is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/co/yYdX

Adam Nugent

I know what you are saying right now “Isn’t Outlook part of Office 2007, why would there be another set of requirement’s other than that of the Office requirements?”

Well Microsoft Outlook is a part of Office 2007 and will work within the requirements that Office 2007 asks for however Outlook 2007 has had its own set of publicized system requirements so it is only fair that I let you know them. As you will see there is not much difference in fact the only difference that I have noticed is in the Operating System.

Minimum System Requirements for Outlook 2007
CPU – 500MHz
Memory – 256MB (Not an issue for people using Windows Vista)
Hard Disk – 1.5GB
Drive - CD-ROM
Display - 1024×768
Operating System - Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Desktop Search 3.0
Browser - Internet Explorer

Now to be honest those requirements are only going to be an issue to a very small amount of people, if you have an up to date computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista you really don’t even have to think about this.
Always remember that Minimum means just that, it will always be better to have a system that exceeds the minimum requirements to ensure smooth running all of the time.

Adam Nugent