Text in a message is interpreted as a blank attachment by Outlook Express
When you use certain versions of Microsoft’s Outlook Express email client, you may find that some messages or newsgroup postings are incorrectly interpreted as blank attachments. This happens when the message body contains invalid attachment headers or footers. There’s a workaround to the problem, which you can find out about in KB article 898124.
How to Start and Run the XP Recovery Console
The Recovery Console is a tool built into Windows XP that will allow you to repair problems when your XP computer won’t start. Here’s how to start it:
- Insert the Windows installation CD in your computer’s CD-ROM drive.
- Reboot the computer from the CD.
- At the Welcome to Setup screen, press F10 or R for Repair.
- On a dual boot system, you’re prompted to enter the number of the Windows installation that you want to log onto.
- Enter the administrator password when prompted.
You can use the Recovery Console commands to change file/folder attributes, run batch files, change the boot configuration, run chkdsk to repair disk problems, copy and delete files, disable and enable services, manage disk partitions, overwrite the boot sector, repair the Master Boot Record, format drives, and more. For a complete list of Recovery Console commands, click here.
Using the New and Improved Vista Search Feature
The new search functionality in Vista makes it far easier to find what you’re looking for, whether that’s a document, program, picture or song. For instance, if you don’t want to click through the Programs menu to find an application such as Corel PhotoPaint, just type “Corel” in the search box on the Start menu and you might see several lists: one labeled Programs with any Corel programs you have installed, one labeled Files showing any files that contain the word “Corel” and one labeled Favorites and History that list any URLs you’ve visited on the corel.com web site.
If you click Search on the Start menu and then click the Advanced Search button on the Search dialog box, you can set very specific search parameters, including the types of finds you want to search (email, documents, pictures, music, contacts, games, instant messages, and many, many more), the location(s) to search, file sizes, dates, authors, filenames, or tags. You can save your searches, too, to prevent having to conduct the same searches over again. For more info about Vista search, click here.
Uninstalling Vista from a dual-boot configuration.
Uninstalling Vista from a dual boot machine is relatively straightforward – most of the time. Nonetheless, we recommend that you back up everything before you start. Then follow these steps:
- Put your Windows XP installation CD in the CD-ROM drive and reboot the computer (be sure the BIOS is set to boot from CD).
- Start the Recovery Console from the CD (see “How to Start the Recovery Console in XP” above).
- Run Fixboot from the Recovery Console.
- Run Fixmbr to reset the master boot record.
- Exit the Recovery Console and reboot the computer.
- Edit the boot.ini file to remove the Vista entry.
- Format the partition on which Vista was installed.
Vista RC1 is out
As you probably know, Vista build number 5600, Release Candidate 1, was posted on the Microsoft web site on September 1. This code is said to be pretty much what we’ll see in the final commercial release. We’ll be testing RC1 this week and reporting back to you on our experiences. Meanwhile, Amazon posted the availability dates of Vista and Office 2007 as January 30, 2007, although Microsoft has not confirmed those dates. You can read more here.
Deb Shinder, MVP