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Tag: Useful Software

  • Enhanced search capabilities for Outlook and the Desktop

    The fact that Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google are all looking to grow (or retain) their share of the search market and to extend this to the desktop is no secret. Unfortunately for Microsoft the the next Windows release (codenamed Longhorn) is constantly being delayed and as one of its primary aims is to improve the search capabilities available natively within the operating system, this gives Google and others an opportunity to take a hold on the desktop (although Google will need to be smart in order to maintain it’s lead in the Internet search engine market – whether the launch of the rumoured Mozilla-based Google browser will help with this is yet to be seen).

    Back in July 2004, Microsoft purchased an ISV called Lookout Software. Lookout is an add-on to Microsoft Outlook that allows users to bypass the search tools provided by Microsoft and sift through e-mail, contacts and other information with keywords. The latest version of Lookout is now available from the Microsoft website and my first impressions are that it is very good, and very fast (is it only me that thinks the Lookout branding looks a bit like Google’s?).

    On a related note, Copernic, another successful player in the search market, released their Desktop Search product this month – again, my first impressions using this are good.

    Links

    Lookout and Microsoft questions and answers
    Outlook is a platform
    Rumours surround Google browser
    Google browser may be reality

  • Command line alternative to the Windows device manager

    One of the Microsoft consultants that I have been working with sent me a link to a handy tool today – devcon.exe is a command line alternative to the Windows device manager and full details (including a download link) may be found in Microsoft knowledge base article 311272.

  • Removing hidden data in Office documents

    A couple of months back, one of my clients came across an issue where they had a document which contained hidden information that they did not want to share publicly. In this instance, removing this information was proving problematic but now Microsoft have published a tool to do exactly this – the Remove Hidden Data add-in tool for Office XP and 2003.

    The Remove Hidden Data add-in is a tool which may be used to remove personal or hidden data that might not be immediately apparent the document is viewed in a Microsoft Office application. Microsoft recommend that the following notes are observed when using the tool:

    • You should only run the tool when you are ready to publish your file(s). This is because some of the data that the tool removes is used by Office for collaboration features, such as Track Changes, Comments, and Send for Review;
    • You should always save to a new file name, rather than overwrite the original file with the new document, in order to preserve a copy of the document containing the original data;
    • The Remove Hidden Data add-in does not work with Information Rights Management-protected or digitally-signed files.

  • Scripting changes to resource permissions in Windows

    Earlier today, I needed to include some registry permissions changes within a command line script that I was writing. Microsoft knowledge base article 245031 discusses a method using the regini.exe resource kit tool for Windows NT 4.0; however, for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 there is the SubInACL utility (subinacl.exe) which is far more powerful and much easier to use, enabling administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys, and services, and transfer this information from user to user, from local or global group to group, and from domain to domain.