If you don’t know what I mean by “Auto complete” it is the feature in Outlook that finishes what you are typing. For example, when I am about to type out an address in the “To” field of an email it will show me a list of matches as I type:

Unfortuantely these addresses are not saved on the server - even when you are only using exchange as your primary email source. Why is this bad? Because a large number of users consider their auto complete an official address book.

It is surprising the number of times I have completed an upgrade of a network and suddenly get calls that all of the address books are missing. This is after I have painstakingly exported all of the old address books and moved them over properly. When I sit down with the user to see what they mean…it is simply the auto-complete that is no longer working for them.

This happened so much that I needed to find an way to backup and restore this data. After running the filemon utility from Sysinternals I discovered that outlook stores this data in a single file

The file is placed in the users profile folder under “Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook”, and always has the extension .NK2. The name of the file matches the outlook profile name.

So we can see in the above folder listing that there are a few files in this folder. We are interested in the NK2 files. Notice that there are only two. If we open up our outlook profiles in the control panel we can see that they match up to their respective names:

The trick to the restore is to make sure Outlook is closed, copy over the old NK2 file, and replace the current NK2 with the one with all of the data in it.

So lets imagine we are moving to a new machine. The old machine has an Outlook profile named Exchange. We find Exchange.nk2, copy it over to this machine.

Now we have Exchange.NK2 from the old computer. It contains all of our autocomplete data. We need Outlook to see this. We determine the name of the current profile on the new machine. In this case it is “Outlook”. If we drill down to the users current NK2 folder we find an Outlook.NK2.

Make sure Outlook is closed. Delete Outlook.NK2, and copy in Exchange.NK2 and rename it Outlook.NK2. Now when you launch Outlook it will use the restored autocomplete data when typing out email addresses.

Keep in mind that this procedure is mildly complicated and it is easy to make a mistake. A few things to note about this process:

-Please make sure you backup all of your NK2 files before making any changes.

-A New profile will not have a corresponding NK2 file until you have opened Outlook once and typed out an email address at least once for the current profile.

-If there have been multiple profiles in the past with the same name then a new NK2 file will be created each time. Outlook handles this by adding a number to the end. This means you may find systems where the profile is named “Exchange”, and there are NK2 files named Exchange.NK2, Exchange-2.NK2, and Exchange-3.NK2. You need to do a little investigative work to find the right one. Look at the date and time stamp to see what has the most recent update.

Finally you need to make sure you can view hidden files and folders if you want to drill down to that folder where the NK2 files are located. This can be done by opening any folder in windows, click on the tools menu, then options…scroll down and make sure the option is selected to “Show Hidden Files and Folders”

Now if we can convince users to actually use their address book…then everything would be perfect :)

• Microsoft gives test version of Vista to federal regulators
  Those changes that Microsoft needs to make to satisfy anti-trust demands are being tested by the feds and we'll probably see them in SP1 next year.
  (tags: SP1 Anti-Trust )
• Vista Bug Costs Users In Swedish Town Their Internet
  Lund, Sweden refuses to work around a Vista bug, so people who live there must choose between Vista and internet access.
  (tags: PR )
• Competition: Win a Vista Lanyard!
  Be the envy of all your colleagues when you turn up to meetings with this fantastic Windows Vista Lanyard! It'll be the perfect way to keep your ID badge and/or ReadyBoost USB Pen handy wherever and whenever you need it!
  (tags: Giveaway )

An evolved version of the Application Verifier is available as a free download courtesy of the Redmond company. As of the first day in September, Microsoft has made available version 3.4 of Application verifier with full support for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. According to the description of the tool, Application Verifier is designed to integrate seamlessly with x86, x64 and IA64 platforms. The tool offers an extra layer for the runtime verification of unmanaged code, on top of the basic application testing associated with the development process. Microsoft in fact boasted that the tool is capable of identifying even the most subtle of programming errors, including problems with heaps, handles and locks.

“Application Verifier is a runtime verification tool for unmanaged code that assists in quickly finding subtle programming errors that can be extremely difficult to identify with normal application testing,” revealed the Microsoft description. (more…)

application testing, application verifier, heaps, ia64, microsoft, programming errors, redmond company, seamlessly, Software, verification, vista, Windows, windows server, windows xp, x86

One of my many favorite Dilbert cartoons is also one of the
earlier ones.
It’s the first strip reprinted in this article . It may not actually have happened, but I was told that
that one project many years ago replaced its lead manager.
While noteworthy, Read More……(read more)

I’ve never been a big fan of computer books because if it’s in a book, it’s probably on the interweb. But relying on this ‘internet’ might not be as reliable as Senator Ted Stevens explains, the internet is made up of tubes and those tubes can be clogged. I’ll spare you the rest of the Senator’s scientific explanation, but basically it’s probably a good idea to still buy books.

Speaking of books, Steve Sinchak’s latest masterpiece is “Hacking Windows Vista“. The book tells a story about a young man by the name of “Windows Vista”. The youngest sibling of the Windows family, Vista is much improved than his older brother, Eks-Pee, but he is still far from perfect.

In the first act, the story begins with Vista looking to change his appearance, especially his interface. Vista becomes a frequent in several plastic surgeries including the “Registry” and “Control Panel”. In the second act Vista is off to tone up his fitness for improved performance. He is able to achieve a few gains by turning off some unnecessary organs. In the third and last act, Vista is feeling a little insecure from the school bullies. He identifies his weaknesses and hires several protection services including “Defender”.

In all seriousness, “Hacking Windows Vista” is a great all-in-one collection of most Windows Vista tweaks known to date. It’s very easy to read and follow with clear instructions illustrated by bundles of screenshots. The variety of tweaks include the most basic like hiding icons in the task tray to the more advanced modifying resource files for the sidebar background.

I must admit though by having come across dozens of tweaking and hacking sites including Steve’s own TweakVista.com, this book didn’t contain much that hasn’t been documented before. So if you think you know all the tweaks out there, you’re probably right. This book is more catered towards the user who likes the idea of tinkering with his Windows with some confidence - not “this tweak may render your system inoperable”.

Due to an error, I’ve received two review copies of the book from Wiley Publishings. I tried reading two books at a time but that didn’t work out very well, so I’m going to give both away.