IT Queries: Computer problems answered

How do you copy your list of contacts and notes from Outlook onto a memory stick so that they are portable?

Microsoft have a tool to automatically backup your personal folders. This is a free download from Microsoft. The advantage with backing up the entire personal folder is this saves all your contacts, calendar and notes along with your emails.

Outlook data isn’t particularly portable as you have to manually open the PST data file on each computer you use and many don’t have the right version of Outlook, if they have it all. We’d recommend keeping the contacts and notes on a cloud based service such as Google’s Gmail or Microsoft’s Live service.

I run Windows Vista Home Basic. Around June, I could no longer view my emails using Web Access for Outlook. All toolbars and folder trees were visible but the main area to view the list of emails in any folder is empty with the statement across the top saying – There are no items to view. Using my desktop, I don’t have a problem. Seems to be a change to my laptop in recent months. Our IT dept is unable to suggest a fix after many hours of review. Can you make a suggestion?

The obvious problem is a security patch or update to your system has blocked something on the laptop. You may want to ask your IT department to have a look at the security settings on your system and add your organisation’s server address to the “whitelists”, the list of sites trusted by your laptop’s security programs.

It may also be that your server address has somehow got onto a blocked list in your program settings. If you are using Internet Explorer on Windows Vista, follow these instructions from Microsoft on how to resolve the problem.

You many also want to try another web browser, although  Outlook Web Access works best on Internet Explorer.

Hi, I need to reinstall my Win XP OS to get rid of all the junk I’ve accumulated;  I’ve burnt a DVD with my documents on it, but will my emails be there as well ?  if not, how do I preserve them ?

Your emails probably won’t be in My Documents unless you’ve specifically told your system to save them there.

Finding your emails on a Windows system is particularly irritating as the different programs dump them into different folders. In Outlook Express and Windows Mail the address books are also saved in a completely different location.

The best thing is to back up your entire profile, this sits in the Documents and Settings folder on your C: drive and the profile will be either your log in name or something close to it.

By backing up this entire folder, you’ll save your My Documents folder, desktop, web browser bookmarks, address books and email. Just take care that your email folder isn’t so big it won’t fit on a single DVD.

My hard drive just got replaced. I have Windows 7. We set up outlook for my e-mails. It works with my go-daddy account, no problem sending and receiving e-mails.

However, if I’m on a web site, and I decide to right click it and e-mail the web site somewhere, it wants to send it via windows live, instead of defaulting to my outlook instead. How do I get it to work and e-mail from my outlook?

The problem lies with Outlook not being your default email program. To fix this, click the Start Button and select Control Panel.

In the Control Panel screen, select Programs then Default Programs and Set Default Programs.

In the Set Your Default Programs list, highlight Microsoft Office Outlook and click the Set this program as default. Click OK and Outlook will now be the program used for all email function.

What is indexing?

Indexing is noting the names and contents of files so it’s easier to find them later. It’s like the index of a book where you can quickly look up which pages a word, name or phrase appears rather than reading the whole book.

In the computer world and on the Internet, indexing speeds up looking for things as the process of searching through millions of websites or folders for your search would be painfully slow.

On Windows computers, there is the Indexing Service which was designed by Microsoft to speed up search. Unfortunately it never really worked that well and we recommend disabling it.

Overall, Indexing is a good thing as it makes life easier for us in the Information economy. It isn’t foolproof though and if it’s poorly done it can cause problems.

Emails that I send out in Microsoft Outlook are received by others with just “Peter” in the From column of their In Box. Also, the email itself shows just “Peter + my email address at the top.

How do I change this to “Peter Kowaltzke” OR something else ??? Could you help me please.

Fixing this is relatively straightword. It’s a matter of changing the setting in the mail account. Open Outlook, choose the Tools menu and select E-mail Accounts.

In the E-mail Accounts screen choose View or change existing e-mail accounts, select your email account and click the change button.

Under User Information, change your name there. Click Next and Finish then restart Outlook for the new name to take effect.

I am running windows 7 ultimate, and installed office 2003. I use outlook for my emails, but when I connect to myInternet service provider (ISP) to retrieve messages from a Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) server, my password is not retained even though I chose to save the password. Entering the correct password again does not resolve the issue. I have tried deleting that account and redoing it, but I still have the same trouble. Also when some friends sent pictures they come in as attachments rather than on the email. I asked it they pasted onto the email or sent as attachments but they have said that they sent it pasted on the email. Is there is a setting that I must change to fix this?

This is a difficult problem as there’s a number of settings that affect how Windows and Outlook retain passwords. The first thing is to visit the Microsoft Update site and make sure both Windows and Office are updated with the latest patches and service packs. Sometimes you have to repeat the process a number of times so keep visiting the update site until you’re told there are no more critical updates.

Once you’ve fully updated your computer, reboot and see if the problem has gone away. If not, open Outlook, choose Tools from the menu bar and select options . In the Options window, select Security.

In the Security settings, select the Zone Settings box. You’ll be prompted about the fact you’re about to change security settings, click OK.

The box that will then open is the Internet Options windows. Select Local intranet and click the custom level button.

Security Settings – Local Intranet Zone will then appear. Scroll to the bottom of the list to User Authentication and tick the Automatic logon with current user name and password. Click okay until you’re back to Outlook, shut down Outlook and reboot your computer.

On rebooting, you’ll be asked for your password one more time, make sure the Remember this password box is ticked and the problem should go away.

Along the left hand side of  the Trust Center panel is a list of features, the second one will be add-ins. Click this and look for the Manage box in the bottom right hand corner. Select COM Add ins and click Go.

In the COM Add-ins box you’ll now be able to turn off  Business Contact Manager by taking the tick off everything relating to Business Contact Manager and any references to Microsoft SQL Server.

Once you’ve taken the ticks off the boxes, click okay, exit Outlook and reboot your computer.