Friday, April 24, 2009

Outlook Question

I have a customer who, like me, uses Outlook for his e-mail. Note that I said Outlook and not Outlook Express. These are two different Microsoft products.

Outlook Express, known as Windows Mail in Vista, is a freebie that is an integrated part of the operating system. Outlook on the other hand, is a product that is a part of Microsoft's Office package, or at least some versions of Office.

The customer wanted to know how to back up his e-mail and even more importantly, his address book.

He was pleasantly surprised when I told him that in Outlook all of his e-mail and all of his contacts (address book) are kept within one file. I told him the name of the file (outlook.pst) and told him where to find it. He followed my directions, found the file, and copied it to his flash drive.

Backup of all e-mail and address book done in one, simple quick step!! If you have Outlook and don't back up this file and need some help, just write me.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

An Offer I Couldn’t Refuse

I received this e-mail yesterday:

"Tom,

I'd like to provide you with a complimentary SUPERAntiSpyware Professional Edition license for your use and evaluation. Our software was launched 6 years ago and we currently protect over 15 million PCs worldwide. If you can provide me with an email address, I'll send along a complimentary license.

Thank you for your time!"


You readers know that I really like, have liked, the free version of SuperAntispyware, and that I recommend it for your use. The one feature of the Professional (paid) version that attracted me is the scheduling of scans. So I did go ahead and reply to the note and I did indeed get a return with a complimentary license code. I downloaded and installed it and ran my first automatic scan last night long after I was asleep.

I'll let you know how this goes.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Hats Off to the US Navy


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CCleaner’s Registry Feature

I have never recommended, and I am NOT recommending now, the Registry feature of CCleaner. Registry Cleaning is not for the inexperienced, so beware and don't say you weren't warned about this.

CCleaner's Cleaner feature does an excellent job of cleaning your hard drive of unnecessary files, but I have never extensively tested their Registry feature. I therefore cannot recommend it to you. I use a registry cleaner program in my PCDoc business that is much more comprehensive and tested (by me) in many uses. Registry cleaning is something that is not recommended for the casual user, so be careful.

The Piriform company's CCleaner Cleaner feature does an excellent job of cleaning, but I am just not sure about their registry cleaning feature, so I suggest you leave that for the pros.

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