Category Archives: Windows Software

Any of the Windows operating systems and other software not specifically named.

SME Server 8.0 Outlook email external connection imaps

I had the need to setup Outlook to connect to an SME Server 8.0 recently and at first glance it seemed easy enough but it did not work as expected.

The primary issue appears to be that Outlook does not like to play with the SME Server SSL or Ports without being shown the way.

The end result is a step by step guide that I have published over at the WrenMaxwell Knowledgebase complete with screenshots of each step.

I suspect that this may well apply to other self-hosted servers beyond SME Server and kept the text generic for that purpose, but if you are trying to get your SME Server to work then the first thing to do is make sure that the imaps and smtps ports are open on the firewall and on the SME server.

The only other thing that needs doing is aligning the server name with the external hostname and the self-issued SSL certificate.

It was interesting that setting up a couple of portable devices, an iPhone, iPad, and Android all worked with the SME Server connection without any specific settings being required, the server was just accepted and worked from the get-go.  Microsoft Outlook, however, seems to raise barriers.

I did reference this Microsoft article KB286197 as a preliminary to this process and found it lacking for the options of secure SSL connections and certainly it has the basics but insufficient detail to guide an appropriate outcome for an SME Server connection.

The SME documentation over at contribs.org is also lacking a bit of input and I might try to help out there if I can make some time.

Internet Explorer 8 on XP Adding Google as Default Search Provider

Updated March 2014: http://howden.net.au/thowden/2014/03/internet-explorer-and-google-search-provider-australia/

With the updates to Internet Explorer through version 9 and 10 one of the things that Microsoft has apparently lost is the ability of IE8 users to add Google through the default options.

Searching the web will provide all manner of advice on installing Google as a Search Provider using the Manage Search Providers option which leads to the Manage Add-ons page and a link to Find More Search Providers…  which opens up http://www.iegallery.com/en-au/addons?callback=true&featuretype=2

The link used to provide a number of options including Google as a Search Provider and an option to manually Create Your Own Search Provider, but this is no longer the case. In fact the list of search providers includes 2 options for Bing (why?) and eBay Australia Search option. Now conspiracy theories aside, it is apparent that Microsoft will not actively promote Google but it is pretty damn obvious that they have made it damn near impossible to add Google.

So I have an older computer with XP on it and I am not about to upgrade and I persisted with searching through the 3 year old forums and finally found a direct link to a page.

http://www.iegallery.com/en-US/Addons/Details/813

And for as long as this Microsoft page is active the install of Google as a search provider is resolved.  But finding that page through any of the normal processes just does not work.

Finding large files or folders on a drive

My Toshiba Ultrabook has a 128G SSD drive and it is kinda small. I’ve just gone through the process of some clean up to remove unused apps and archive data files.

In the process I tried a number of free “Large File Finder” type applications and there are two that I really like.

The first is WinDirStat which provides a neat graphical view as well as a file list.

The other is from Extensoft called Free Disk Analyzer.

I’ve prepared two simple screenshots showing each one after I used them on my drive when it was over-crowded. Since then I’ve done a clean up.

I think the visual aid of WinDirStat is helpful, but I am a simple lists type user (changing the default Windows view to Details list is normal, and using Linux ls -la, is my default setting) and I think Free Disk Analyzer is my first go-to tool.

 

Right Click, command prompts, batch files and all that jazz…..

Right clicking a folder or file in Windows Explorer presents a context menu which can be modified by programs or the user. I read a lot of posts on how to remove or disable items in the right click menu but not how to add an item.

This started with wanting to generate a list of files in a directory as a text file. This led me to a number of options including a how to on this with a right click menu option to launch it at the Elder Geek site.

This is the content of my filelisting.bat:
cd %1
dir /a /b /-p /o:gen >List_Files.txt
start notepad List_Files.txt

But this actually does not work as described. The action of right clicking on a directory generates a file list ok, but only of the contents of the containing directory not the selected directory. In other words it does not drill into the selected directory.

There is also an issue with Windows XP being different to Windows 7 as the end user interface to add items to the right click menu has been removed in Windows 7.

A lot of links recommend http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shell_menu_new.html which I downloaded but I could not see or read how to Create a new Item with the tools only how to remove or disable options.

So I resorted to editing the registry directly and read a number of articles on how this could be done. The one at Tech Recipes was helpful.

The Microsoft listing of environment variables is a useful reference.

Eventually I wound up at Microsoft Support Article 321379 “How to add the Print Directory feature for folders in Windows XP, in Windows Vista, or in Windows 7” which is referenced by many other sites but not explained by any that I looked at.

The registry entries as described by Microsoft I reviewed as follows:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

Must appear as the first line or the file will not be recognised as a registry merge file.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryShell]
@=”none”

This is simply setting up the container key in the registry. In my case it already existed from something else I had installed.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryShellCreate_File_Listing]
@=”Create File List”

This is the text that will appear in the right click menu when the context is a Directory.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDirectoryshellCreate_File_Listingcommand]
@=”filelisting.bat “%1″”

This is the command that will be executed when the right click menu item is selected (clicked on).

These three by themselves provide the facility that I needed so I did not create the rest of the entries. I’ve included them here for completeness and one day might get around to understanding what they do.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSOFTWAREClassesDirectory]
“BrowserFlags”=dword:00000008

Not sure what this does……

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSOFTWAREClassesDirectoryshellCreate_File_Listing]
@=”Create File List”

This appears to repeat the previous menu name option. Removing the registry entry above and adding this one by itself does not display in the context menu. It might be redundant or might relate to the per-user class registration process described by Microsoft.

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSOFTWAREClassesDirectoryshellCreate_File_Listingcommand]
@=”filelisting.bat “%1″”

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsShellAttachmentExecute{0002DF01-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]
@=””

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTSOFTWAREClassesDirectory]
“EditFlags”=”000001d2”

So now I had a working command structure in the right click context menu. But I could not work out how to get it to work unless I placed the filelisting.bat file in the c:windows directory. I tried using the full path to the file in my usersdocumentsbin directory which is where I store my .bat files and similar stuff (mainly so I can backup my specials and move them to a new PC easily) but no matter what I tried it refused to work unless the file was in the c:windows directory, so that is where it is.

Once the file would launch I could demonstrate that I now had the child directory parameter being passed to the bat file and I could generate the file list within the selected directory rather than it’s parent.

Other sites I referenced included:

  • http://commandwindows.com/batchfiles-iterating.htm
  • http://spreadsheetpage.com/index.php/tip/getting_a_list_of_file_names/
  • http://www.ericphelps.com/batch/lists/filelist.htm
  • http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/90764-45-calling-batch-file-context-menu-_multiple_-param
  • http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/232/right-click-to-open-a-command-prompt/
  • http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/cmd.mspx?mfr=true