Having recently upgraded most of the computers at work with MS Office 2010, the only option we had was to also upgrade the Salesforce to Outlook add-in. On some of the machines the updated add-in from Salesforce worked well, but on others it would not sync. Looking through the sync log I found the following error:

Sfdc.Outlook.OLPropertiesInvalidException: Unhandled outlook property type non-Unicode PST found

This problem happens when the Outlook data file (PST) is old and have not been upgraded during MS Office installation. The fix is simple.

1. Create a new Outlook data file (this will create a new set of local folders)
2. Import the data from the old data file to the new one (to find out where the old data file is, go back to step one and select “View file location”)
3. Set the new data folder to default (same place as in step 1)
4. Restart Outlook
5. If import was correct you can remove the old data file so you do not have duplicated content showing on your Outlook panel.
6. Go through the ‘Salesforce to Outlook’ settings and make sure to select the newly created set of local folders.

Disclaimer: These steps worked very well for me and are shared as advice only, the author accepts no responsability for loss of data. Make sure you have backups of your data file in case something goes wrong.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, non-unicode PST, Office 2012, Outlook 2012, Outlook data file, Salesforce, Salesforce to Outlook

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I kept getting “out of space” warnings on a  server 2003 at work , backups were failing and updates were reporting error.

From my online research I see that  many systems Admins are now having the same problem with a Windows server 2003 installation in a 25GB partition, which was the default guidance from Microsoft.

I  looked into some partitioning software to make use of my large D: partition, but was wisely warned away from doing it as it may cause future problems if you need for some reason to restore your server.

As a Linux Admin I am very familiar with the concept of Symbolic Links, which has been around for a long time. On Linux the command LN is all you  need.

Well, to my heart’s content Microsoft does have a very useful, and yet not well publicised, command line tool called LINKD.exe, which is part of the Windows server 2003 Resource Kit.

Please note that a symbolic link is not the same as a Windows shortcut file, which is a regular file. The windows shortcut may be created on any file system (such as the earlier FAT32), and is not transparent to applications. SymLink is transparent to applications making it great for clearing space on your drive, without compromising file structure.

My example scenario.

• Drive C:\ free space 2Mb
• Drive D:\ free space 200GB
• Identified a large folder to move to D:\ -  (Drive C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\AMSP\BackupAmsp -  size 6.5GB)
• Moved the large folder to D:\  (I created a folder called “moved from C” and saved the large folder inside it)
• Installed Windows server 2003 Resource Kit  (also to Drive D:\Program Files\RKTOOLS)
• Opened Command Line (START\RUN\CMD), navigated to D:\Program Files\RKTOOLS
• Run command: linkd “C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\AMSP\BackupAmsp”  “D:\moved from C\BackupAmsp”
• Done.

Disclaimer: I used Symbolic Link on a non system critical folder. If you plan to use this on a system critical folder, do at your own risk.

Technorati Tags: Command line, low space on hard drive, Microsoft, NTFS, partition, partition magic, Partitioning, Server 2003, symbolic link, symlink, system drive, system volume

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I was getting the following installation errors while attempting to install Java on a client’s laptop.

Error 1334. The file ‘patchjre.exe’ cannot be installed because the file cannot be found in cabinet file ‘Data1.cab’.

Error 1723. There is a problem with this Windows installer package.

Both errors can occur while installing Java and similar errors can occur while installing or uninstalling any other software. This is caused by an error during the uninstall process which corrupts the registry.

Microsoft has a very nice tool for fixing installation problems which is part of its Fix it Center Online (currently in Beta).

To fix this error go to http://support.microsoft.com/mats/Program_Install_and_Uninstall

• Run the application
• Select option “Recommended (find and fix)”
• Select Uninstall Program
• Select program from list and click next

If you have more than one programme giving you trouble, run this same procedure for each one of them.

Technorati Tags: error 1334, error 1723, Fix it center, it support, Java, Microsoft, registy fix, uninstall softtware, Windows 7

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Microsoft Research Street slide View managed to do what Google’s Street View failed to do.. oops “is missing”. After watching the video my only comment was, wow this is so unMicrosoft, this is cool.  Microsoft Research has not yet announced if and when it will be making it to the Bing Maps, or any Microsoft products. But for now you can see a quick demo of how it works.

Technorati Tags: Bing, Google maps, Microsoft, Street Slide View, street view

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As a Linux user and Open Source enthusiast I always want to see people moving away from the proprietary stuff and into the Open Source world, but sometimes it’s easier to keep them where they are (stuck to Windows), specially when it comes to gaming. I am not a gamer, and would rather spend my time on other more fulfilling tasks like testing a ClearOS installation, but when it comes to helping people migrate from Windows to Linux, there’s always that dreaded question  “Will my games work?”  The answer could easily be “yes very well, better than before!”  but in reality a majority of the games won’t. Why? The proprietary monster that is Microsoft has allured programmers, graphic card manufacturers and the common citizen into the idea that DirectX is the best, and it could not e further from the truth. While DirectX only runs on Windows, OpenGL offers equal or better results and runs on every platform. 

But don’t let me talk to you about this, as I said I am not a gamer, let those who know what they are talking about tell you. This great article will help you understand Why should you use OpenGL and not DirectX (Wolfire Blog), and you may also enjoy reading this article Commercial Gaming coming to Linux?  from the Linux Magazine.

Technorati Tags: DirectX, Gaming, Linux, Mac, Microsoft, OpenGL, Windows, Xbox

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Microsoft has dominated the small enterprise market with its out of the box feature rich SBS (Small Business Server). Linux has always trailed behind it and although most of the technology to rival Microsoft has been in place, it has always been a mammoth task to setup a server from scratch  to do that.  ClearOS came to fill in this gap.

“ClearOS is a powerful network and gateway server designed for small organizations and distributed environments.  Though ClearOS comes with an extensive list of features  and integrated services, the solution is easy to configure thanks to the intuitive web-based interface.” (extracted from Clear Foundation website)
 
Take a look at how ClearOS’ features match the MS SBS:

Microsoft SBS Centralized Authentication (Active Directory) Mail, calendaring and instant messaging (Exchange) Webserver (IIS) Firewall (ISA) Content management system (Sharepoint) Antivirus (Forefront) Database (MS-SQL Premium version only) Remote Desktop Services Virtual Private Network (VPN)

ClearOS Linux Centralized Authentication (LDAP) Primary Domain Controller (Samba) File and Print Services (Samba and CUPS) Mail (SMTP, POP, IMAP, Webmail) Calendaring (Kolab groupware) Webserver (Apache) Firewall plus intrusion protection (iptables, Snort) Antimalware (Clam Antivirus, Antiphishing, Antispyware) Antispam (Spamassassin) Database (MySQL) Virtual Private Network (IPSec, OpenVPN, PPTP) Web Proxy (Squid)

The Linux Magazine published an in depth article comparing and explaining this “new” Linux distro. 

Technorati Tags: Active Directory, Apache, ClearOS, CUPS, File sharing, gateway server, LDAP, Linux, Microsoft, network server, Samba, SBS, Server, Small Busines Server, Snort

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Once again Microsoft is showing it’s dirty claws.  According to a report in the Financial Times (also mentioned in the KPMRS Blog), Microsoft is planing to offer to pay publishers to remove their content from Google in an attempt to make its search engine Bing (no link on purpose) the #1 search engine.

According to the FT, one website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan “puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them”.  – extracted

I cannot believe the greedy minds in the media industry are already thinking about embracing it. Again Microsoft has gotten it all wrong, will they ever learn? Attitudes like this will only promote two things, firstly the dissemination of online content theft, were people will republish full content of paid websites to drive traffic to their sites/blogs and secondly it will take away the choice that users now have of using any search engine they like.  This is so “un-internet”!

I agree with the comment on the KPMRS blog  by blogger Greg (null pointer) who said:

“How about instead of Microsoft spending millions to make their search results appear (artificially) better than Google’s, they spend that same money to create better search algorithms? That’s real competition!” – extracted

Technorati Tags: Bing, Google, Microsoft, newspapers, search engine

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As usual this post is a self help note, but as it’s public I hope it helps someone else. If you want to open .eps or .ps files with GIMP on Windows you will need to install Ghostscript (download it from http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/). After successful installation you will need to create an environment variable called GS_PROG on Windows. To do this just follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the ‘My Computer‘ Icon and select properties
2. Click on the advanced tab
3. Click on Environment Variable button
4. Under either User variables or System variables click on “New”
5. Set Variable name : GS_PROG
6. Set Variable path: C:\Progam Files\gs\gs864w32\bin\gswin32.exe   – this is where yous gswin32.exe resides, make sure you type the correct path.

Click “OK” for everything and then open GIMP, you should now be able to open .eps and .ps files

Extra information: .EPS/PostScript (.PS) is a  file that may contain 2D vector graphics, bitmap images, and text; includes an embedded preview image in bitmap format; often used for transferring image data between different operating systems. Adobe Illustrator, Acrobat, Photoshop or CorelDraw are the kind of programs that normally use/open these files.

Technorati Tags: .eps, Environment variable, Ghostscript, GIMP, GS_PROG, Microsoft, postscript, Windows

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Microsoft has released its latest security bulletins covering 31 security vulnerabilities. In a total of 10 bulletins 5 turned out as critical, the highest security rating by Microsoft.  See details below:

(extracted from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-jun.mspx)

MS08-018 (Critical): Fixes two privately reported vulnerabilities in implementations of Active Directory on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Windows Server 2003, and Active Directory Application Mode (ADAM) when installed on Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003. The more severe vulnerability could allow remote code execution.  It is rated Critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, and rated Important for supported versions of Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003.

MS09-019 (Critical): Patches seven privately reported vulnerabilities and one publicly disclosed vulnerability in Internet Explorer. The more severe of the vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Affects IE 5.01, IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8 running on all supported editions of Windows.

MS09-020 (Important): Fixes one publicly disclosed vulnerability and one privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). The vulnerabilities could allow elevation of privilege if an attacker sent a specially crafted HTTP request to a Web site that requires authentication. These vulnerabilities allow an attacker to bypass the IIS configuration that specifies which type of authentication is allowed, but not the file system-based access control list (ACL) check that verifies whether a file is accessible by a given user.  Affects all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

MS09-021(Critical): Patches seven privately reported vulnerabilities that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Microsoft Excel file that includes a malformed record object. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system.  It affects Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, Excel 2007, Office 2004 for Mac, and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac; Open XML File Format Converter for Mac; and all supported versions of Microsoft Office Excel Viewer and Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack.

MS09-022 (Critical): Covers three privately reported vulnerabilities in Windows Print Spooler. The most severe vulnerability could allow remote code execution if an affected server received a specially crafted RPC request.  It applies to Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

MS09-023 (Moderate): Patches a privately reported vulnerability in Windows Search. The vulnerability could allow information disclosure if a user performs a search that returns a specially crafted file as the first result or if the user previews a specially crafted file from the search results.

This security update is rated Moderate for Windows Search installed on all supported editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

MS09-024 (Critical): Fixes a privately reported vulnerability in the Microsoft Works converters. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Works file. Affects Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003 with the Microsoft Works 6–9 File Converter,  Word 2007 Service Pack 1, Microsoft Works 8.5 and Microsoft Works 9.

MS09-025 (Important): Covers two publicly disclosed and two privately reported vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel that could allow elevation of privilege. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could execute arbitrary code and take complete control of an affected system. The vulnerabilities could not be exploited remotely or by anonymous users. Affects Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

MS09-026 (Important): Patches a publicly disclosed vulnerability in the Windows remote procedure call (RPC) facility where the RPC Marshalling Engine does not update its internal state appropriately. The vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code and take complete control of an affected system.  Rated Important for all supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008.

MS09-027 (Critical): Covers two privately reported vulnerabilities that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Microsoft Word file. Rated Critical for all supported editions of Microsoft Office Word 2000. For all supported editions of Microsoft Office Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2007, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac, and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, and all supported versions of Open XML File Format Converter for Mac, Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack, and Microsoft Office Word Viewers, this security update is rated Important.

Technorati Tags: Internet Explorer, Microsoft, MS Office, patches, Security bulletin, Vulnerabilities, Windows 7

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The Release Candidate for Windows 7 is now available to the public. Their servers have been struggling to deal with the demand of downloads according to the ZDnet website. There has been a lot of talk about Windows 7 being the OS that will release Microsoft of the embarrassment of Vista, it’s said to look like Vista but less annoying to use. Well, now you can judge by yourself, download it from…

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx or

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx?ITPID=mscomsc

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista, Windows 7 RC

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Microsoft plans to release today the “final” version of Internet Explorer 8. It won’t be added to Windows update yet but the curious IE user will be able to download it from the official IE website once it’s been released. Officials have said that there are only a few changes between the (RC) version and this release. 

IE 8 will be included in Windows 7 as a removable option later this year, but before then I am sure several patches will be released. 

Technorati Tags: browser, IE 8, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Windows

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Microsoft has released the security patch for Internet Explorer for all supported Operating Systems. This is an emergency patch as reports of a new secrity hole was found on IE 7.   Microsoft says in its official security bulletin:

“This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, and Internet Explorer 7…”

Read in full: Microsoft Secure Bulletin ms08-078

Technorati Tags: Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Security News

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