How to Repair a Corrupted MS Outlook File

1. Click Start
2. Go to Run
3. Type C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\scanpst.exe and the repair window will appear or you can use the search to let the computer find it for you and double click scanpst.exe once you see it.
4. Click browse and locate the outlook.pst file, if you dont know where the outlook.pst file is:
   4.1. Open MS Outlook
   4.2. Click on tools
   4.3. Click on account settings
   4.4. Click on data files tab
   4.5. Double click on the personal folders, another window will appear
   4.6. Highlight the full path excluding the "outlook.pst file" (e.g. C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\) and press Ctrl + C
   4.7. Go back to the MS Outlook repair window
5. On the "enter the name of the file you want to scan:" paste the full path you got from MS Outlook data file tab by pressing Ctrl + V
6. Click start button
7. Put a check on "make backup of scanned file before repairing"
8. Click Ok

Data Theft

Data theft is now a major issue regardless whether in small or large scale organizations. So long as you have important data you can be a victim.

Data theft can be in any form. Since the emerging use of flash drive (a.k.a. thumb drive and flash disk) it has now become the medium to copy the data.  Because it is small you can easily hide it in the pocket. Anybody can be a data thief it can be somebody within your organization or somebody who is breaking into your premises.

To prevent data theft you must instigate of blocking the access to USB ports. There are two ways of doing that.

1. You can insert a specially designed lock onto the USB port.   This type of lock comes with a key that fits only for that USB port lock.  It has another type of lock that holds the USB cable (i.e. keyboard, mouse, printer, scanner, etc.) to prevent the unauthorized people from removing the cable and insert with a flash drive.  If you prefer to use this method of sealing the usb ports you have to buy a lock for each port. You will find more information about this on this website http://us.kensington.com/html/17084.html .

2. Install a USB port lock software that will deny an access to the USB ports.  Each time a flash drive is inserted it will ask for a password.  Just don't forget the password because if you do you might end up formatting your computer to be able to use the USB ports again. If you want to know more about this lock.... http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,77358-order,4-c,security/description.html

Either of the two methods can give an assurance of sealing the USB ports.  It is only a matter of choosing which is more convenient for you.

I am not in anyway connected with Kensington and uHook.

You might also like:

How to Manually Eject a DVD/CD Drive

Do you have a DVD/CD that is stucked on the cd tray of your desktop computer and you wish you could take it out?

You need to “shut down" your computer and “unplug” its power cable from the outlet before you do this.  All you need is a small paper clip.  You need to straighten the other end of that paper clip to make it somewhat like the number nine shape.  In front of your DVD/CD drive you will find a small hole that fits only a small object same as the size of the tip of the paper clip.   This small hole is usually located near the eject button. You have to put in the straightened end of the paper clip inside that small hole and keep on pushing it with slight pressure.  Your  main goal here is to find the gear that is responsible for opening the tray so you don’t need to apply too much pressure otherwise you might permanently damage your DVD/CD drive.  Once you get a chance to hit the gear, the tray will open up a bit as you push the paper clip. Keep on pushing the gear gently until the tray has fully ejected. 

DNS

Have you heard of the DNS? Did you know that if there is no DNS we would have to memorize a lot of numbers better known as ip address before we can open a website?  People use the URL or Universal Resource Locator in finding a website and machines use ip address in finding a website. URL is a user-friendly name e.g. www.mywebsite.com. DNS or Domain Name System is responsible for translating the URL to ip address.  Ip address is the method use by machines to refer to one another. Like for instance if you open on the browser this ip address 209.85.227.106 it will open www.google.com.  However, we don’t do   that we just type the URL and let the DNS do the search of ip address.  DNS is helping us out not to memorize ip address.  It is easier to recall the name google than recall its ip address.

A Simple Tip on How to Save on Ink or Toner

Basically, all the printers have the print quality option and by default the quality is in Normal mode. If you do not need a good quality printing you can have Draft as your default quality. If you will need a fine quality then just change it to Normal or Best. This is the instruction on how to do this:

1. Right click on the name of the printer
2. Click Properties
3. Click General tab
4. Click Printing Preference
5. On the Print Quality drop down list select “Draft”

In some printers you might not find “Draft” it may be “Econo Mode” or any similar term denoting how you can save on your ink or toner.

Remote Shutdown

One of the annoying practices of some employees is negligence of not shutting down their computer when they are leaving the office especially on weekend or just before holiday. If you are the one in charge of the network administration you might have encountered this once in a while. If you are “certain” that an employee has left the office already and he/she did not turn off the computer, did you know that you can remotely shut it down? You need to have an administrator priviledge so you can perform this task. I just want to warn you not to do this unless necessary because there is no way to recover unsaved documents and if windows happen to be updating at that moment might just create more trouble on the computer.

1.Click Start or Windows Logo
2.Click Run and type cmd
3.On the command prompt type shutdown /s /m \\[the name of computer] you can also use /f to force any open application to close without warning
e.g. shutdown /s /f /m \\computer10

Laptop Battery

Laptops are designed for people who are always on the move. Laptop users carry with them their documents just like a brief case and they communicate with their family or colleagues while travelling. They just sit in one corner and continue doing their work. While on the road it will be useless without a battery but what if we are at home or in the office. Do we need to remove the battery before we plug it in to the outlet?

Before we go any further, the average life span of the battery is only about two years. Whether we have used it or not it is going to come to its end. Some people have the notion that if they remove the battery it will extend the battery life. Using the laptop without battery may just cause further damage when power failure occurs. The most probable hardware that will be hit is the hard drive because it spins rapidly while reading and writing onto the media.

Having said that scenario I would prefer to keep the battery because it add protection to the laptop itself in case of sudden power failure. It is also awkward if you have that big empty slot right at the bottom of your laptop.

Internet Explorer Vs. Firefox

 This is not the first time that you are going to see this subject matter comparing these two big name of browsers. Some people may still have this on their mind. Which of these two is superior than the other is it Firefox or Internet Explorer (IE for short)?

It is safe to say that in the corporate world it is dominated by IE due to the fact that most of the corporations buy branded computers. Branded computers “normally” come with pre-installed Windows as their operating system. So the users just prefer to use whatever there is on their computer. The other reason is, in the corporate world the non-IT employees have restricted access on their computer so they cannot install any software. On the other hand, most home users have the freedom to install any software they want on their computer. Regardless whether they buy branded or not. That is why you will notice in some forums that most of the people posting comments or questions are home users. Home users prefer to use Firefox because it’s customizable and there are tons of free add-ons. You can dress it up the way you want it.

Both Firefox and IE are put to the test by malware attacks and both of them came out with patches to counter those attacks. It is a common knowledge also that IE is more susceptible to most of those attacks. That is why it is the one that came out with more security updates than Firefox. The other security issues are the keylogger and password revealer. There are some keyloggers and password revealers that do not affect Firefox at all. As we all know, Firefox is an opensource they have volunteer programmers all over the globe collaborating to make it a better and safer browser. That gives Firefox the lead over IE because the number can be greater to that of IE’s programmers. Apart from that the fruit of labor of volunteers outshine the output of hired personnel because they do it on their free will. Though some people might say that since those are volunteers and Firefox team might not know them personally they can embed some form of malicious codes. Yes, that can be true but due to the fact that Firefox is an opensource the Firefox team can review the codes if they indeed do such thing.

When it comes to speed, it cannot be attributed on the browser alone because you have to consider the bandwidth of your internet, the speed of the CPU, the RPM of the hard drive and the amount of RAM. Browser takes space as well on the hard drive and on the RAM aside from the other applications running on your system, windows files, antivirus, antispyware, firewall, and so on. The more applications are open, the fewer space is left on the RAM for it to hold other information. The bandwidth of your internet plays a big role as well on how the browser behaves. The higher the bandwidth the faster the browser opens a page.

There is a glitch that makes Firefox a bit unstable, you might have encountered this already. If you close Firefox and re-open it a message will come out saying that Firefox is still running. If that message doesn’t go away then you will be forced to end Firefox on the Task Manager. That glitch is noticeable on Firefox and I never experienced that on IE.

Having said all of that, the users are the one who will decide which they prefer most. If you do online transactions you might want to consider which browser offers better security. If you are just going from one website to another you can choose IE because there are some websites that works better with IE than Firefox.

Net Send

Did you know that Windows has a built-in messaging feature where you can send a message to other computers within your network...how to do that it's simple. You will need an administrator priviledge before you can do this. By default this feature is disabled in Windows so you need to enable it on your computer and to the computer where you will be sending a message.

To enable the messenger:
1. Click Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click Administrative Tools
5. Click Services and look for Messenger
6. On the drop downlist of "Startup type" select "Automatic"
7. Click Start
8. Click Apply
9. Click OK

To send a message, please open the command prompt.
1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type cmd
4. The command prompt will pop up (this is the black screen)
5. Start typing your message in this format
NET SEND [THE NAME OF COMPUTER WHERE YOU WILL SEND THE MESSAGE] [YOUR MESSAGE IN DOUBLE QUOTE] e.g. NET SEND COMPUTER10 "Hello the meeting will start in 5 minutes"

You will find this useful if you are just sending a short message to one of your colleagues who is far from your table.

Parental Control

The internet is a vast source of information that we can use for school research, communication, skill enhancement, job hunting, profit, and so on  but we cannot deny the fact that it is also a source of many wrong doings and unwanted activities. If you are a parent and you are worried about what your kids are browsing on the internet.  You can have a control on their internet use.  There are some parental control software that you can get at a reasonable price. Alternatively, if you have a router that has the capability of blocking by keywords you can also use this to prevent the kids from viewing websites not suitable for them. You as a parent of course has to password protect the router so that you alone can change the setting.

Either of these two methods you as a parent can have a control on your kids’ internet browsing.  You just have to select which one that applies to your need.  However, the disadvantage of the router is only for the laptop because that web content filter only works within your network. On the other hand since the parental control software is installed on the computer even if you connect the computer to another network it will always filter the internet.

You might also like: