If the warning above annoys you as much as it does me whenever you open an attachment in Office 2007, here’s how to get rid of it.

The Problem

Microsoft has understandably made security a cornerstone of its recent software releases. Each time you attempt to open a possibly malicious attachment in Outlook 2007, a warning dialogue box like the one above appears. It presents an always-checked, always-grayed-out box that reads: ‘Always ask before opening this type of file’.

Because Word, Excel, PDF and other document types can contain malicious code, you should, as the box warns, only open attachments from trustworthy sources. But, if you have a modern Anti-Virus program such as AVG or Microsoft’s Security Essentials (both of which are free), attachments in your emails should already be checked for malicious code. When this is the case, this warning dialogue box is an unnecessary interruption that becomes increasingly annoying if, like me, you receive emails with attachments many times a day.

The Solution in  Windows 7

Warning: You should only do this if you have anti-virus software installed on your computer that checks for, and quarantines, all emails that contain attachments with malicious code. And, as the warning says, you should never open attachments from anyone that you don’t know and trust! 

OK, you’ve been duly warned. Here’s how to do it:

• Close Outlook 2007 before you start
• Click the Windows ‘Start’ Button
• Click ‘All Programs’
• Right Click on ‘Microsoft Office Outlook 2007’ in the “Microsoft Office’ folder (as shown below)
• Click on the Properties option

• Click the ‘Compatibility’ Tab (shown below)
• Check the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ box
• Click the ‘Apply’ button

• Restart Outlook 2007
• You will get the following ‘User Account Control Warning’

• Click ‘Yes’  -  Don’t worry, you won’t have to do this every time you start Outlook
• Open an email with the attachment type (eg: .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pdf) you want to open in the future without this warning
• Click on the attachment
• You’ll get the same warning message as before, but, as you can see below, this time the ‘Always ask before opening this type of file‘ checkbox will not be grayed out
• Uncheck the box and open the attachment

• Open other emails with each of the attachment types that you do not wish to receive this message for in the future (eg: xls, xlsx, doc, docx, pdf, ppt)
• Similarly uncheck the ‘Always ask before opening this type of file‘ check box for each document type and open them.

From then on, you will no longer get the warning message when opening each of these types of attachments from within Outlook 2007 emails.

But, we are not quite finished. If you stopped here, you’d get the User Account Control Warning above every time you started Outlook 2007. To stop this from happening :

• Close Office 2007 once again
• Redo the first six steps above, but this time
• Uncheck the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ box under the Compatibility Tab in the Office 2007 Properties box.
• Click ‘Apply’

From then on Office will remember your attachment-type warning preferences without giving you the UAC warning every time you start Office 2007.

Enjoy!

The Solution in Vista

I found the answer below in this MSOutlook.info post. I have not tested this answer personally, but this post twigged me onto finding the solution in Windows 7 (above) so I’m pretty certain it will work:

1. Close Outlook
2. Right click on the shortcut you use to launch Outlook 2007
3. Choose Run as Administrator
4. Press Continue or provide the logon credentials for an Administrator
5. Restart Outlook
6. Open an email with the attachment of the type you want to be able to access without the annoying warning message
7. Deselect the option “Always ask before opening this type of file”
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 with emails containing each of the various attachment types you wish to be able to access without the warning message
9. Close Outlook
10. Restart Outlook as normal (not in administrator mode)

From then on, you will no longer get the warning message when opening each of these types of attachments from within Outlook 2007 emails.

I had installed Apache server three years also and made only a few changes to its configuration files since. Being a bit rusty, I searched for an online ‘how-to’ upgrade guide. The only guide I found was Evaria.com’s upgrade tutorial here. It was helpful but a little bit for my tastes. I followed that tutorial and took notes along the way. This post fleshes out the details a bit further.

Note: This post describes my upgrade from Apache version 2.0.54 to the latest version 2.2.10 (as of December 1, 2008). If you are upgrading from a different version, you’ll need to make adjustments to the instructions below to reflect your specific circumstance. If needed, you can view my server specs at the end of this post for.

Before you Begin

• Gather Your Info: Information on the latest version of Apache HTTP Server can be found  here. 
• Download the Package: Before de-installing your current version, be sure have the latest version at the ready. You can download it from one of the mirror sites linked into here.  I downloaded this ‘Win32 Binary without crypto (no mod_ssl)’ .msi installation file was: 

        apache_2.2.10-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi
  

• Upgrade Info: Basic upgrade information can be found here. Unfortunately, I could not find step-by-step upgrade instructions on the apache.org site -  hence this post.

• Needed PHP DLL: If your site uses PHP (all Wordpress.org sites), for the upgrade to work you must first have installed a recent version of PHP. Before proceeding, make certain the following .dll is available in your php directory:

       php5apache2_2.dll
  
  You’ll need it (see below). If it is not there, you’ll need to upgrade your PHP installation before upgrading to Apache 2.2.10. The latest PHP version 5.2.6 is available here).

• Create Restore Point: I strongly suggest creating a Windows XP restore point so you can recover back to your status if something goes wrong:
  • Start
  • All Programs
  • Accessories
  • System Tools
  • System Restore
  • Create a Restore Point
• Backup Your Prior Apache Installation: It’s always better to be safe than sorry. In my case I backed up everything in my old install directory, which was here:

       c:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2

  If you install the upgrade into a different directory (which I recommend – see installation instructions below) this step may not be necessary since an installation into another directory doesn’t delete or overwrite any of the old files during the upgrade process.

Removing Apache 2.0.54

It may not be necessary to completely de-install your old installation before installing the newest version. However that’s what they did in the avaria upgrade tutorial, so that’s what I did. Your on your own if you want to leave the old version installed (at a minimum you’ll need to remove the old one as an XP Service I should think).

• Stop Apache: Stop the currently running Apache server:
  
  • Click on the Apache icon in the system tray to start the “Apache Service Monitor”
  • Click the ‘Stop’ button.
• Uninstall The Current Version:
  • Start
  • Control Panel
  • Add/Remove Programs
  • Find and remove the currently installed Apache application
• Remove the prior Apache2 Service from Your Registry:
  • Start
  • Run
  • Regedit
  • Navigate to and delete all keys and subkeys from:
    

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/Apache2

    In my case this was not automatically removed by the un-install process.

• Reboot your Computer: When your computer restarts Apache should not be running. The Apache icon should no longer appear in the system tray.

• Check Services: Check to be sure the old Apache service is no longer listed as an installed XP Service:
  • Start
  • Control Panel
  • Performance and Maintenance (only if you use Category view)
  • Administrative Tools
  • Services

If it is not there, you can move on and install the new version. If Apache is still listed as a Service, go back and make sure it was completely uninstalled and removed from the registry.

Installing Apache 2.2.10

• Run the Installation .msi File: Run the Apache installation .msi file that you downoladed above. Accept the Apache License and configure as follows:
  • Network Domain: 127.0.0.1
  • Sever Name: 127.0.0.1
  • Administrator’s Email Address: Add whatever email address you want to use here. Make one up if you want. I did. I don’t know what this is for.
  • Install for: check ‘for All Users, on Port 80, as a Service — Recommended’
  • Setup Type: Typical
  • Install Directory: Pick whatever you wish. The default is:

         C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2

    I chose C:\Apache

    Note: Choose anything other than the directory where your prior version was installed – those files are all still there in case you need to recover.

That’s it. The install is done.

• Test: At this point, before editing the config files or copying your htdocs files over, accessing your website through a browser should yield a triumphant: ‘It Works!’ If this doesn’t work straight away you may need to reboot first.
• Copy htdocs Directory: Copy the entire contents of the htdocs directory (and all its subdirectories) from your old install location to your new. The htdocs directory contains all your actual html web pages, PHP files, scripts, .htaccess files etc. In my case I copied all the files in:

       C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\

  to

     C:\Apache\htdocs\

  This may be the end of your installation if you are running a simple site.

• Edit Config/ini Files: For more complex setups you’ll probably need to edit your httpd.conf file and, if you are running PHP, you may need to update your php.ini file.  See sections below.

Editing the Apache ‘httpd.conf’ File

The rather limited Apache 2.2 upgrade instructions (here) suggest that you can use the same httpd.conf file if you are upgrading from version 2.0 or later. This is probably true if you installed Apache into the same directory as your old install. I chose not to do this for two reasons:

1. I installed the upgrade in a different directory and didn’t want to have to go through the old httpd.conf file and edit all the directory references in the file; and
2. I wanted whatever efficiencies  the new and much shorter v 2.2 ‘simplified’ httpd.conf file could give me.

If you use the new file as I did, you’ll need to make whatever customizations to that configuration file that you made to your old httpd.conf file. My suggestion is that you open your old httpd.conf file beside your new httpd.conf file and go through them line by line to make sure you carry over all the needed customizations.

In my case, the customizations I needed to make to my new http.conf file were as follows:

• mod_rewrite: I uncommented out the following line:

  LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

  This is critical for Wordpress and most other PHP-based site. 

• PHP LoadModule: Add the following line to your LoadModule section:
       LoadModule php5_module C:/<path>/php5apache2_2.dll

  where <path> is the path to your php directory containing that .dll file. See the ‘Before you Begin’ section above.

• AllowOverride: For reason’s specific to my site (including Wordpress redirect needs) my AllowOverride directive is customized as follows:

       AllowOverride limit indexes Fileinfo

• AddType:  In order for PHP to work with Apache, the following additional AddType directives are needed:

       AddType application/x-httpd-php .php. phtml
       AddType application/x-php-source .phps

       PHPIniDir “C:/<path>”  

  where <path> is the path to your php directory.

• Virtual Hosts: In Apache 2.2, the entire Part 3 of the httpd.conf file (the part where virtual hosts are set up) was removed. This is fine if you run only one domain/website on your server. I currently run four domains/websites on my server. I appended the entirety of Part 3 from my prior httpd.conf file to the end of the new httpd.conf file. It worked without any changes.

  Note: Part 3 of the old httpd.conf file is now contained in the \extra\httpd-vhosts.conf file. It can be copied into your httpd.conf file and edited as necessary if you don’t want to copy the info over from your old .conf file.

Editing PHP ‘php.ini’ File

Since Apache is now installed in a different directory, one last change is required in the php.ini file:

• doc_root: The doc_root line needs to be changed to reflect the location of your new Apache installation. In my case I changed it to:

       doc_root = C:\Apache\htdocs

  from the previous:

       doc_root = C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs

Note: Of course, if installed the new Apache in the old Apache directory, you won’t need to make this change.

Cleanup

• Deleting Old Files: Once you are certain that everything is up and running, and your htdocs directory has been successfully moved (or copied) from the old installation directory to the new, you can delete all the Apache files and directories in the old Apache directory structure – especially if you have made a backup. But, I strongly recommend leaving the old files in place for a couple weeks until you are absolutely certain everything is running with your new setup. Should you need to recover to your old installation, you’ll want the old directory still in place if you use the Windows restore point you set.

My Server Specs

For your reference, here’s what my server specs where at the time of this upgrade:

• Apache Upgrade from v. 2.0.54 to 2.2.10: This post described my upgrade from Apache version 2.0.54 to the latest (as of December 1, 2008) version 2.2.10.
• Windows XP SP3: I run a bare-bones version of Windows XP, Service Pack 3.
• PHP v. 5.2.3:  Not the latest version. The latest is v. 5.2.6. The next time I upgrade PHP I’ll write a similar post.
• MySQL v. 4.0.15:  Also, not the latest version. The latest is v. 5.1. Version 6 in is alpha. I plan to upgrade to version v. 6.0 once it is  in general release.
• WordPress 2.6.1: All my blogs run on WordPress 2.6.1. I will be updating to version 2.7 as soon as its out (expected any day now).
• Cheap Dell: This is all running in my home office on the cheapest Dell PC I could purchase a few years ago for about $600.

Microsoft’s free PC Advisor (download here) falls into the ‘does no harm and just might help’ category. I would recommend it to friends and family who find their computer is having problems. Hey, it can’t hurt.

I downloaded it (here) and installed it all of my Vista 64 and XP machines. I run a pretty tight ship so I wasn’t expecting much. As you can see from the pictures below, it recommended I take certain actions to speed up my PC, clean things up, update software etc.

I opted to let it do many of recommended actions (click the ‘fix it’ button to take action) but not others. For example, I let it remove temporary cache files but didn’t let it enable UAC or turn on the software firewall, each of which I had deliberately disabled.

Ironically, the best recommendation it made for my XP laptop was to remind me that the abysmal Adobe Acrobat bloatware was still installed. It recommended an update. Having previously moved to the much lighter, faster, terrific and free pdf reader Foxit Reader, I removed Acrobat completely.

How to Use PC Advisor

• Create a System Restore Point: As a rule I always create a system restore point before downloading/installing any new software so that I can recover to my previous state if something goes wrong.
• Download the PC Advisor: You can download PC Advisor by clicking here.
• Install and Run
• Choose the PC Checkup Option: Your computer will be scanned as shown below (click picture for larger view).

PC Advisor Performing a Checkup
(click for larger view)

• View the Report & Take Action: You’ll get a list of suggested actions. Clicking on any item opens up a more detailed description and provides the “Fix It” button for you to click if you want the software to take the suggested action.

PC Advisor Results / ‘Fix It’ Screen
(click for larger view)

• Adjust the Settings: The default installation setting loads PC Advisor whenever your PC starts. That could be good for people that frequently have problems and want constant scanning. I prefer to run scans periodically rather than constantly running and chewing up cycles. To adjust the utility’s settings, right click on it’s icon in the task bar, then left click on the “Microsoft PC Advisor Settings” option to open the settings screen shown below.

PC Advisor Settings Screen
(click for larger view)

Adjust the settings to your preference and click ‘Apply’.

I hope you find the utility useful.

How I long for the old days of DOS commands. It was so easy in those days to rename groups of files. X-Tree was (and still is) my all time favourite Swiss-army knife utility for the PC for this kind of thing. Though the developers tried, X-Tree never made the move from DOS to Windows successfully.

The Problem – Cryptic Digital Camera File Names

The most common need for file renaming these days is to properly name digital photos. My Cannon Elf creates thousands of .jpg files that look like this: IMG_1894.jpg. What the heck is that? I want to rename groups of photos by the event they depict (eg: Dad’s 77th Birthday 1.jpg).  While there are ways of renaming groups of files in Windows Explorer (see here for example) the method is painful and error prone – I screwed up many a photo file name using this method.

The Easy and Free Solution – Ante Renamer

Along comes the free utility, Ant Renamer – available for download here. In seconds it can rename dozens/hundreds of IMG_### files, for example, to appropriate names reflecting the occasion they represent. It works in both Vista and Windows XP.

While not a terribly user friendly program, but it is quite functional. You can, of course, rename groups of files, entire directories or groups of files in directories and subdirectories. There are several other renaming options that, among other things, allow you to:

• Change extensions
• Replace character strings within file names by others
• Insert character strings into file names
• Move characters
• Delete characters
• Enumeration
• Name creation with mp3’s Tag (ID v1.1)
• Name creation with file’s last modified date and time
• Random names creation
• Case change (uppercase, lowercase, first letter of each word in uppercase, …)
• Take names from a list/file

Demo – Star Wars Force Unleashed Pictures

Below I demonstrate an example of my most common use – digital picture renaming. 

I took more than 100 pictures while reviewing Star Wars the Force Unleashed (review coming soon). As you can see,  ended up with a directory full of pictures named IMB_1882.jpg through to IMB_2015.jpg:

Next I started Ant Renamer and dragged and dropped the directory where I had copied those pictures (N:\WP\video games\Star Wars Force Unleashed) onto the open Ant Renamer window.

Note: In Vista or XP, left click on the desired directory in the directory tree. Then hold and drag the directory onto the running Ant Renamer window. You can drag and drop entire directories as I did, or just a group of files from a directory, whatever you want.  Or you can open specific files or directories of files using Ant Renamer’s “Add files” or “Add folders” buttons (see picture below).

Here’s what the result will look like:

When all the files/directories that you want to rename are in the Ant Renamer window (see picture below):

• click on the ‘ actions’ button
• select the action you want – in this case I selected ‘string replacement’ (there are many other renaming options on the left as you can see)
• type in the string you want replaced (in this example ‘IMG_’)
• type in what you want it replaced with (in this example ‘Star Wars – Force Unleashed’); and then
• click on the “Go” button (circled in green below)

And poof, seconds later here’s how my renamed pictures looked in Windows Explorer:

Easy Peasy

Another Use

I have thousands of WordPerfect files I want to open in Word that require me to add the .wp extension first. When I do this manually Vista warns me each time that changing the file name extension could result big problems– Argh!! I know! Leave me alone Vista! Ant Renamer made a project that would have taken me days to complete, take just a few seconds.

Every time I set up a new PC (whether for myself or for friends and family), I spend hours removing the inevitable crapware. This is such an endemic problem that there are third party crapware removal tools like The PC Decrapifier available to assist with the problem. Most new PCs come with the CPU-cycle-sucking McAffee or Norton anti-virus software which also needs to be removed but which can’t be fully removed without registry editing skills (I recommend the free version of AVG). To make things worse, with most every peripheral my family and friends purchase, they inevitably install the crapware that comes with it, which almost never needs to be installed for the peripheral to function. Most of these ridiculously unnecessary programs sit in the system tray, always turned on, never needed,  constantly sucking more and more life out of their poor XP or Vista OSs.

When I look back on my recent Mac Mini and iMac setup experiences, it was a delight turning them on and not having to deal with crapware – not having to deal with system performance degradation from the unnecessary use of system cycles – not having to uninstall anything. That’s how a users first experience with a computer should be.

Another aspect of this PC-specific problem is especially acute with laptops. While XP and Vista have their own power saving settings, most every laptop manufacturer overrides these controls with their own proprietary power controls, not to mention all kinds of proprietary software and drivers that are purportedly needed to run proprietary laptop-specific devices like finger scanners, blue-tooth and WiFi radios, integrated pointing devices etc. I never know how to handle these.  They override the underlying OS functionality in unknown ways. I never quite know which of this stuff is necessary and which is crapware. So my laptops are always left untuned to some degree with needless OEM crapware gumming up the works. And I’m never sure what will happen to these specialized laptop apps (the ones that are actually needed) if I were to upgrade the underlying OS – so I never do.

This makes me think that my next laptop might just be an Apple product.

Paul mentioned that through its ‘Vista Velocity’ (discussed a bit by Paul here) program, Microsoft is now actively working with OEM’s to make sure they are using proper drivers, that the OS is installed on new machines for optimum performance etc. I’ll believe it when I see.

There’s no denying it, Apple’s end to end control of hardware and software gives it a consumer-satisfaction leg-up.

See this article where Ballmer addresses this issue.

From the launch of Windows XP in October of 2001 until two days ago I have been frustrated by the fact that, unlike every version of Windows, Windows Explorer could not be set to open in ‘folders view’ (pictured on the left above) by default. Instead the default view has been the wholly useless and very frustrating ‘common tasks view’ pictured on the right above. Fortunately Windows Explorer in Vista doesn’t saddle the user with the same issue.

I must have clicked on the “Folders” button (circled in red in the right picture above) many thousands of times over the last 7.5 years to get Windows Explorer to show me the directory tree in ‘folders view’ (the left pain in the left picture above). I had searched for a solution to this at least a dozen times in the intervening years. I finally found an easy solution.

The Solution

With Windows Explorer open in the toolbar:

• left click ‘Tools’
• left click ‘Folder Options…’

to open the ‘Folders Options’ windows depicted below.

In the ‘Folders Options’ window:

• left click on the ‘File Types’ tab
• left click on the ‘(NONE) Folder’ file type
• left click on the ‘Advanced’ button

all as pictured above, to open the ‘Edit File Type’ window depicted below.

In the ‘Edit File Type’ window:

• left click the ‘open’ action to select it
• left click the ‘Set Default’ button
• left click the ‘OK’ button

Voila! From now on, Windows Explorer will open in ‘Folder View’.

[Update: As others have pointed out in the comments below, selecting "explore" rather than "open" solves the problem for them.  One or the other should work.]