fix and repair

Useful series of steps and software for deleted files and other data loss scenarios.

Put the Ultimate Boot CD on a USB key

If I get time, I'd like to expand on this idea.

Outlook will not open or save attached pictures (.jpeg or .jpg)

We have come across a couple of instances recently where emailed pictures (.jpg and .jpeg) can not be opened in Outlook and just present the recipient with a white box with a red cross and the message that a preview could not be generated. The same result is given when the attachment is saved to the desktop (or other folder) and attempted to be viewed.  If the email is accessed via webmail (OWA) the email and picture are displayed without a problem.

While there are other suggestions on how to rectify the problem the quickest and easiest that has presented itself so far is to check for the Security Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 (KB945432) and remove it.

  1. Close Outlook
  2. Open Control Panel
  3. Select Add/Remove Programs
  4. Check the box next to Show updates
  5. Scroll down and look for Security Update for Outlook 2003 (KB945432): OUTLOOK
  6. Select Remove

This will fix the problem but I am unsure as to any other effects this will have at this time, the security update seems to have been released 11th March 2008. Microsoft Release Information

Printing in red from Adobe Acrobat PDF's

We seem to be seeing a bug in Adobe Acrobat 8.1.2 where printing a PDF from within Acrobat Reader prints out with red backgrounds on images with certain documents, it may be in conjuction with HP printers. But we've only seen 3 cases in various offices so it's hard to be certain of that at the moment.

There doesn't seem to be a fix that we've found at the moment, so we recommend as a temporary solution until it is fixed by Adobe is to either downgrade to an earlier version or to use an alternative PDF viewer.

I recommend the FoxIt PDF Reader as it is free, works well and is fast and solves this problem for the people that have come across it.

Can't cut and paste or "Cannot empty the clipboard" in Excel

Seems rdpclip.exe misbehaves occasionally, preventing use of the "copy" function (via Ctrl+C or menu) in Windows or Office 2003

The temporary solution seems to be to kill the rdpclip.exe process. To do this go to the Start button and click Run. Then type

taskkill /F /IM rdpclip.exe

There is a hotfix for Windows 2003 server to prevent this, but in this instance there was no connection to a Win 2003 server, it was a Windows XP computer that was acting as the server being connected to.

Latest Global Address Book (OAB) not showing correctly in Outlook

After updates to the Exchange contacts, client reported not being able to see the updated version.  All contacts are shown correctly when accessing webmail but not from within Outlook.

Outlook 2003 was in this instance configured to use the Exchange mailbox in cached mode, the OAB had not replicated to the local machine after 24 hours, so I followed the instructions in the Microsoft KnowledgeBase Article: Administering the offline address book in Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007

To Force Outlook to update it's OAB (Global Address List)

  • On the Tools menu, point to Send/Receive, and then click Download Address Book.
  • Exit Outlook and then restart it. After Outlook starts, the offline address book download will start one to five minutes later.

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