Computer Tutorials

Setting up send and receive groups in Outlook 2007 can be useful for a number of reasons, the main one that comes to mind is download limits and connection speed. For example if you are using a dial up connection and only want to skim your emails you can only download headers or emails that do not exceed a specific size. If you feel that this could help you then follow the steps below and I’ll show you what to do.

1. Open Outlook 2007.

2. Click Tools

3. Select Send/Receive

4. Select Send/Receive Settings

5. Click Define Send/Receive Groups

6. In the Send/Receive Groups window you are now displayed with Click New…

7. Give the group we are going to create a meaningful name (Such as “Headers Only” ) this is really dependent upon what you plan to do with the group. I’m going to explain your options below.

8. Now you are displayed with the Send/Receive Settings – (Chosen Name) window.

9. On the left hand side you will see all your mail accounts including RSS accounts.

Now I’m going to explain your options:

• To add an account to the group: Select the account on the left, and check the box at the top entitled Include the selected account in this group. If you wish to remove the account from the group uncheck this box.

• You can edit the Account properties if you wish, by clicking Account properties… in the top left the only reason you might want to edit these settings is to leave a copy of the email on your server. Account properties -> Advanced Tab -> Check the box that says Leave a copy of the message on the server.

• Under Folder Options you will see two check boxes where you can choose to either Send Mail Items or Receive mail items, check the box as appropriate (for example you might just wish to send an email you have saved but don’t have the time or even want to download any new messages of the server).

• Under Account Options on the lower half of the screen you will see 4 options displayed

1. Download Headers Only: (this is ideal if you don’t have a lot of bandwidth or a slow connection speed)

2. Download Complete Item Including Attachments: (if you want to download everything)

3. Download only headers for items larger than: (This could be useful if you have a slow connection, you want all your emails but don’t want to spend hours waiting for a huge attachment to download)

4. This is where you will select the max size in KB of emails that you will accept for download (anything above the size will not be downloaded)

Now that you have selected the accounts you wish to add into this group and have selected the options that you require Click Ok.

Now you are back in the Send/Receive Groups window and have a few more options that you may wish you change (you will need to highlight the account you wish to change while selecting the options) I’ll cover them below :

• Include this group in Send/Receive (F9): If you wish to action this group every time F9 is pressed then keep it selected however if you wish to only Send/Receive at specific times then uncheck the box.

• Schedule an automatic send/receive every (X Minutes): You can change the number of minutes that Outlook waits before automatically Sending and Receiving again useful if you want to check your emails every 30 minutes/ hour.

• Perform an automatic Send/Receive when exiting: Very useful if you have wrote an email and forgot to send it out and close the program (can save you so much stress if the email was important).

These Next two only apply when Outlook 2007 is Working Offline:
• Include this group in Send/Receive (F9): See above
• Schedule an automatic Send/Receive every (X Minutes): See above

Once you have configured all the settings for your new group Click Close.

There is one more step I would like to point out before I finish this tutorial, if you wish to manually Send/Receive this group Click Tools -> Send/Receive -> Click the group you want to action.

I hope this has been easy to understand, if you feel that I have missed anything out or are confused please leave a comment below. Happy E-Mailing

Adam Nugent

Maybe you have disabled automatic updates and are now worried about your computer not being up to date and vulnerable. Or you’ve just not seen anything pop up about updates in a long time, either way I’m going to show you how to quickly check for updates to ensure that you are up to date.

Click on the Start button (Vista Logo, bottom left).

Select All Programs.

Click Windows Update (usually at the bottom of the window items on the list)

Click on Check for Updates (this can be found in the main window, and on the left)

Now Windows Vista will take a few moments to check the Microsoft servers for updates, If not are found there you are currently up to date with your updates.

If Windows Update finds updates that you have not yet downloaded/installed then follow the steps below:

Click Install Updates.

Vista will now download and then install the update (you may be asked for permission, if so agree).

Once all the updates are installed you may be required to restart your computer for settings to take effect or for the install to complete, if you are requested to restart I would advise that you do so.

That covers checking for windows updates, now that you are at this point in the tutorial (The End) you should have established that your computer is up to date, if it wasn’t at the start, it should be now. Note that this was only checking for windows vista updates if you have other programs not connected to Microsoft you receive updates for these you will have to go to the manufactures website.

Adam Nugent

***UPDATE***
This issue has now been resolved, There was recently a change in security with my web host that shot my code dead in the water, this has been fixed now and everything is well.. On a side note though they may want to inform customers of changes like this (That can affect them!) so we can resolve the issues quicker :).
I can now breath again without chest pains!!
***UPDATE***

If you have been to the main part of this website today then you will notice that there is no navigation and no ad’s showing!. I know the ad’s not showing is not going to be an issue for you (but it is for me).

What will be an issue for you is navigating my site because all the pages use includes and for some random reason they are not loading, I’m pretty sure its something to do with my host because last night i was experiencing memory issues for the php on the blog.

The blog resolved its self after a while, what I’m getting at here is that I don’t know when this is going to be resolved! For some reason I’ve not received any response from my hosting provider, for either the blog issue last night or the php issue today.

I’m very annoyed at the moment and stressing WAY to much about this, like i said the ad’s wouldn’t be an issue for you but for me its the only money i get! and there not displaying, and you as the reader of my site will find it difficult to find the pages you need with out the search function and the navigation links. (Everything seams fine of the blog though, let me know if you see anything that’s not!).

All issues are on the Main site www.adamsdvds.co.uk and HOPEFULLY they will be resolved very soon.

Sorry for any inconvenience this is causing you
I will of course let you know when anything changes.

Adam Nugent

As we all know junk mail (spam) these days is a very serious and annoying problem for every person that uses and email account of any kind. We are getting better all the time in creating software that can detect such mails and block them, however there is always going to be some that get though and this is where your Junk Mail Filter comes in. You can help configure your Junk Mail Filter to keep out that annoying spam.

Open Outlook 2007

Click Tools

Click Options…

You are now displayed with the Options window, in the Preferences tab (where you should be by default) Click Junk E-mail…

Now I’m going to take you though each tab on the Junk E-mail Options window starting with the Options tab.

Options Tab
On the top half of this tab you will have four levels of protection for Junk Mail they are displayed below:

1. No Automatic Filtering: This is the least protection that you can set on Outlook 2007, This means that all emails received will be classes as safe and sent to your inbox (unless you have otherwise told Outlook to send specific emails to the junk mail folder).

2. Low: This is not much better than the above as only the most blatant junk emails will be sent to your junk folder. (Again if you have an email on the blocked senders list, they will be sent to your junk mail folder either way).

3. High: This will catch most junk mail that comes in but can also class emails that are not junk as spam and send them to your Junk Mail folder, therefore if you do use this setting I suggest you check your Junk Mail folder from time to time to be on the safe side. ( if there is a legitimate email in your junk, just right click the email Select Junk E-mail and then Add Sender to Safe Senders List.)

4. Safe Lists Only: This is the most intensive protection level of them all, only emails from people you have added to your Safe Senders List will be received in your Inbox everybody else will automatically be sent straight to your Junk Mail (Consider Carefully before choosing this option).

Now Below the four Levels of protection you have four Check boxes:

1. Permanently delete suspected Junk e-mail instead of moving it to the Junk E-mail folder: This is not something I would recommend you using EVER, because computers simply make mistakes and you could delete a very important email.

2. Disable Links and other functionality in phishing messages: As it says below this in the window Recommended, I will completely agree with this.

3. Warn me about suspicious domain names in email addresses: This is also good practice to keep active.

4. When sending email, postmark the message to help email clients distinguish regular email from junk email: As long as you are not sending out Bulk emails to a great number of recipients then I would leave this option checked, it’s another tool to help fight the war on spam.

Safe Senders Tab
This is just as it sounds, a list of email addresses that you refer to as SAFE. Any emails in this list will be sent to your inbox because Outlook will consider them safe.

To Add an email to the safe list:

Click Add…

Type in the Email address and click OK.

To Edit or Remove an email in the list First highlight the email you wish to remove/edit and Click either Edit… or Remove on the right.

You can also Import From File… or Export to File (A list of email Addresses you consider safe) to a File or from a file. To do this simply click either Import/Export and find the file containing the list if you are importing or choose a name for the file you are exporting.

The two Check boxes are the bottom of the Safe Senders Tab.

1. Also Trust E-mail from my contacts: If this option is check then anyone you have in your contacts even though they may not be on the list will also be considered safe and come straight though to your inbox.

2. Automatically add people I E-mail to the Safe Senders List: This is an option you need to decide for yourself depending on who you email.

Safe Recipients Tab
Similar to Safe Senders only difference is: E-Mail sent to addresses or domain Names on your Safe Recipients List will never be treated as junk e-mail

Blocked Senders Tab
Again much the same to Safe Senders (used in the same way) only this time to block email addresses. Any address that you add in here will automatically be sent to your Junk Mail folder.

International Tab
This gives you two options the first being Blocked Top-Level Domain lists… Which will block emails from specific countries/regions based on the top level domain. Basically if you wish to block emails from United Kingdom (just for example) you will check the box that says GB (United Kingdom) then click Ok.

The Second Option is Block Encodings List... This will block encodings from being sent to your Inbox, be careful which you check here, as with the above option I would only play about with these if you have reasons to do so.

That covers Junk E-mail options in Outlook 2007, I hope after reading this tutorial (Advice Article) you will configure your Outlook to receive much less spam in your inbox than before.

Adam Nugent

For the purpose of this tutorial I’m going to say that you are using All Ways On mode because this is what I use on my Laptop for a few reasons, you should be able to decide what you need for yourself while following the steps in the tutorial below.

Click on Start (Windows Vista Logo) Bottom left

Click on Control Panel

Click Power Options

Now I’m going to explain a few things here and the rest of this tutorial is optional only, as you will want to select different options depending on how you use your computer. As I said above we are going to do this in High performance mode (Always On) but you can change the options as you see fit from here on in.

Check High Performance, and then click on Change plan settings below.

All the four drop down boxes on here if you always need your computer to be active (many for network reasons) Change them all to Never.

Click Save Changes

One more thing that you will want to change if you are using a laptop is what happens when the lid of the laptop is closed.

On the left of the Power Options window click Choose what closing the lid does.
No you will want to change the Drop down box on when I close the lid to Do Nothing.

Click Save changes

There we go your laptop will now, you have not set up the power options on your computer so that the hard drive/ monitor never turn off and are always active, be aware though that if you are using a laptop your screen will still enter the screen saver if you have on set and will also turn the screen off when you close the lid.

(The main reason I wrote this tutorial is because someone asked me if they can keep a network active while the computer is asleep, the answer to this is no. And these are the steps to stop your computer sleeping.)

Adam Nugent

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.