Do you ever need to securely and forever delete files—make them unrecoverable? I just discovered EraserDropPortable. I’ve used several programs for erasing hard drives, like Eraser, from Source Forge or Darik’s Boot And Nuke. But for getting rid of files and folders, I didn’t have anything.
EraserDrop Portable was developed by John Hiller (he developed a Firefox Portable App), and is part of a suite of portable apps. So this app can be downloaded to a memory stick and used from machine to machine, or you can install to your local drive and use it from there.
What It Does
It securely erases files and folders. Just drag and drop to the icon you’ll see on your desktop after installation. Then you choose what method of erasing you want it to perform – from a 1-pass to Gutman. You’ll get a message when it’s finished telling you what it did and if there were any problems.
In addition to securely erasing your files and folders, you can also tell it to erase the free space on your drive. What’s free space and why would I need to erase it? Reading up on this, I’m finding that when/if you delete files by putting them in the recycle bin, they are deleted, but still recoverable. By using EraserDrop Portable’s wipe free space, this shreds and makes unrecoverable all that data previously deleted. I haven’t done this one yet, although I’m sure it’s OK as the documentation says that only free space is overwritten, not my files!
Download, Install & Start
There’s a link in the first paragraph for the download. I had some problems with the install. I clicked on the .exe and it started like all other installs start, but when it got to the directory to install to, it didn’t choose to put it in my Programs folder. Instead, I got the box below with no destination folder selected.
It took me a couple
of tries to find a folder it liked – it wouldn’t let me put it in the Program Files folder, instead, I chose a subfolder and then when the install was finished, I simply moved the folder up a level so it can be found within the Program Files folder.
The directions say to find the folder and click on the app icon to start the program. I did this a couple of times and it looked like something was starting, but I never saw anything. I went back![image[11]](http://extremevirtualsupport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/image11.png "image[11]")
and read the instructions again and it said a little icon would appear on my desktop. Well, it was there, but I really just didn’t notice it for awhile because it was so small. So look for the little icon that’s below with the red line through it. It seems to appear at the top left of any application I’m using.You can right-click on the icon and change the picture or hide it.
In my research, I found other shredding and deleting programs that do the same things. I feel good about this one because it came from Source Forge, a respected name and offers great, free, open-source software.
How To Add A Facebook Badge To Your Website
By · CommentsLast October, I wrote about how to add a Facebook Fan Page to your website. Since then, many things have changed and been updated, so I thought I’d update my post to show what Facebook has available in July of 2010.
A few months ago, Facebook changed their terminology as it relates to ‘Fan’ pages. Instead of ‘Fan’, they now say we ‘Like’ a particular page. I still prefer ‘Fan’ to ‘Like’, but we’ll work with what we have.
At any rate, Facebook has added several types of badges available to put on your website. You can see below I’ve highlighted the Page Badge and it defaulted to a page that I’m an admin for. Then, you’ll be presented with 3 options – Blogger, TypePad or Other. I use WordPress, so I clicked the ‘Other’ button and copied and pasted the code it gave me into a widget in my sidebar. It’s as simple as that. Of course, the graphic has a hyperlink where someone can click and be taken to your page. Or they can simply choose to click the ‘Like’ link and stay on your site.
Another way to add a badge is right from your Page site. You do have to be an administrator in order to get the code. Click on the ‘Edit Page’ link after you get to your Page and then look way over to the right side and all the way down the page and you’ll see the below.
To take a quick look at the other badges…The Profile Badge will show your current profile picture and a link to your Page.
The Like Badge is for choosing one of the pages you’re a ‘Fan’ of and highlighting that page with a small badge on your site.
The Photo Badge puts up to 8 photos (random) from your photo albums on your website. I’m assuming they rotate, but I don’t know for sure.
Social Plug-Ins
In addition to the above Badges, Facebook has made it easy to get a number of Social Plug-Ins to put on your website.
Looking at these Plug-Ins, it seems like there’s a lot of information that can be put out for everyone to see, so check into the help section of Facebook so you will be aware of expectation of privacy. When you first get to this site, you’ll see several links (you’ll have to click about 3 times), to get to the place where Facebook explains, in detail, what is exposed. There’s even a video you can watch.
Help Center & Other Resources
Since Facebook is always changing something, refer to their Help Center for what’s new, what they’re calling things and how to utilize it for your business or just personal use.
Do know that if you have a hosted WordPress account (you have wordpress in your url), inserting badges and plug-ins won’t work for you. I found it only works in the self-hosted wordpress.
I like Duct Tape Marketing for small businesses. They have some great resources – both free and paid. Here’s a free Video on Facebook for Small Business from Duct Tape Marketing. It’s about an hour long.
Facebook for Business from John Jantsch on Vimeo.
Windows Live Mail – Wave 4
By · CommentsWindows Hotmail, or Live Mail, is being upgraded. Although I downloaded Windows Live Essentials – Wave 4 Beta, my Live mail hasn’t changed yet. It’s being rolled out region by region. I’ve gone through a couple other mail upgrades, but I think with this one, we’ll have some real enhancements. Although I don’t have the new Live mail yet, I have some screenshots Microsoft has provided to show you what’s coming:
- Smart Screen Technology (new & improved spam filter)
- Mail sorting/viewing options
- View Office documents in your browser – and you don’t have to have Office installed
- Integrate Gmail, Yahoo Plus, AOL mail & POP mail in your Live/Hotmail account
- Contact duplicate eliminator
Smart Screen Technology (Spam Filter)
This is something I’m hoping really works. All mail I receive is verified by this Smart Screen. It’s supposed to be smart enough to figure out if an email I get is from a spam source AND if I’m thinking about opening up a particular email that’s marked as spam, it’ll tell me in a message at the top of my email. It warns that the source has been marked as ‘spammy’, and to be careful about opening it.
Have you ever told your mail client that something is not spam, but you continue to find messages from that sender in your spam folder? We’ll see if this is fixed.
One other important thing about the new spam filter – after 10 days, anything in the spam folder is automatically deleted. So when you do get the new Hotmail/Live Mail, watch and train your email diligently and be sure to check your spam folder regularly.
Mail Sorting and Viewing Options
Both Outlook and Gmail have enhanced sorting options for your mail. You can choose to view messages by conversation, or threads. Now Live Mail/Hotmail has this feature as well. Threading/conversation view was a ‘big thing’ when Gmail first came out, so adding this feature was a smart move for Microsoft.
View Office Documents In Your Browser
With the new Live Mail, office documents can be opened and viewed without having to open Office on your computer. This is because of the new Microsoft Web Apps recently rolled out. Simply click on the icon and the document will open up in your browser. What I was reading didn’t say, but I’m assuming that you could revise and save the document to your Office Docs in the clouds if you choose to.
Enhanced Picture Sharing Via Live/Hotmail -
Sending and sharing pictures will be easier and more elegant with the new mail. When uploading photos, do remember to set your permission level after each upload – the default is to share with everyone.
Integrate Gmail, Yahoo Plus Mail and POP accounts
With Live/Hotmail, you’ve had the ability to bring in all these accounts to one place for some time, but they are still promoting that. They did not mention that you can also add POP accounts into Hotmail/Live Mail. Here’s an article I wrote that tells how this works. It should be noted that you must have the Yahoo Plus mail in order to import it into Hotmail/Live Mail. The free Yahoo mail does not import.
Manage Your Contacts
A great feature of Live/Hotmail is the ability to clean up your contact list. Perhaps you have imported contacts from other mail accounts or sources and you have multiples of some people. Simply click on contacts and then click on the drop-down ‘Manage’ button and choose to clean up your contacts. You’ll be presented with options for all duplicates found.
This feature is in Outlook (but harder to manage). I didn’t see it in either Gmail or Yahoo mail. I know Plaxo offers it, but it is a paid service there.
Summary
I think there’s a lot to look forward to when we all get the new Mail. I like the interface much better than Gmail, having the easy access to my photos, documents and Microsoft Web Apps is very useful for me. One thing about Hotmail on the web are the large, annoying ads that are on my home page. When they flash and change, it’s even more annoying. I’m considering upgrading to the $20/year premium mail where I won’t have to see those. Yahoo’s ads are rather bothersome too. I think Gmail has the least offensive ads and they are smaller.
Windows Live Messenger-Wave 4
By · CommentsMicrosoft is rolling out Wave 4 of Windows Live Essentials and Windows Messenger is one of the components.
I’ve read that Messenger is the top IM client in the world – used even more than Facebook chat. This is probably because its been around longer than Facebook. I don’t chat a whole lot, but from what I was reading, I saw it had the capability of bringing in updates from all your friends from Facebook, Twitter, etc. all in one place.
Starting today (June 24), Microsoft released its Wave 4 of Windows Live Essentials. Included in this is a new and improved Messenger. Above is what the new Messenger IM interface looks like. Not pictured was a warning from Messenger to not send anyone credit card, pin or other sensitive information (that’s good).
Some of the features
- video chat in hi def
- voice chat
- watch a slide show together, share pictures in real time (pictures can be from your hard drive, or an on-line photo album
- explore links together
- organize your contacts into groups and make yourself visible or invisible to certain groups of people
- see when your friends add a status update, new pictures, a blog posting to their social sites (to do this you have to walk through a few steps while in Messenger to connect to your Facebook or MySpace account(s)
- tabs at the top for each person you’re chatting with – this did work
The download of the new Messenger took awhile. This is because if you have any other Live components on your computer, the download manager automatically updates those along with your download of Messenger. This is annoying because it took longer and it didn’t give me the choice of whether or not I wanted to upgrade my other services.
So I finally got the installation finished and started Messenger. Yes, there are ways to customize how Messenger looks and there are new emoticons you can get. You can make groups and favorites to keep the people you most want to be in touch with on top.
One of the ‘big things’ with the new Messenger is the social stream feature. Your windows live contacts’ social commenting in Facebook, Twitter and other services will appear in your Messenger (they scroll by). I tried connecting with Facebook and put my credentials in a couple of times, but the service wasn’t working at the time – oh well, first day bugs.
When I went through some of my contacts and thought it would be nice to add them into my ‘social stream’, I found I had to send them an invitation – even though I’m already their ‘friend’ on Facebook or follow them on Twitter, I have to send a request – again – not happy about that, but it protects their privacy. I also found that Windows Live knew who of my contacts, were Windows Live members and it gave me that group to contact first.
As you’re going through the steps to get set up, you’ll be directed to a page where you can set multiple privacy settings. Take the time to do this, you can always go back later and revise them.
You can take the time to make your profile very open by putting the details in to show your friends your Facebook updates, Twitter updates, your blog postings and many other social sites. This way, when you are a friend with someone else on Messenger, they’ll be able to see all your updates in one place.
There are still the ads that show up in Messenger – some of which are loud and annoying, Then some ads are way off target. So you have to decide whether it’s worth using Messenger or not.
I do like the new look of Messenger better than the old one. The HD video chat feature and the picture and link sharing features are nice to have too. The social part is OK, but you do have to get people you’ve already ‘friended’ another chance to friend you again before you can start seeing their updates.
Microsoft Office Web Apps – Free
By · CommentsMicrosoft Office Web Apps, a free, web-based suite of Office applications is now available. Not coincidentally, Microsoft Office 2010 was also released this week (June 15, 2010). In this article, we’ll look at what all you get, how to get it and why you might want to use it.
What are Web Apps? Microsoft has made available, for free, an on-line version of Word, Excel PowerPoint and OneNote. All you need to get this is a Windows Live ID. If you have a Hotmail or Live email account, or if you are already using some of Microsoft’s Live Essentials (photo gallery, messenger, movie maker), then you have a Live ID. Follow this link and get started.
The Microsoft Web Apps aren’t the full-fledged Microsoft desktop applications, but you can do your basic editing in a familiar web interface. If you open up a document in your SkyDrive, you can decide to do more detailed editing on your desktop with one click. This article will tell you what you can edit/change/do with web apps vs. the desktop application. For example, in the Excel web app, you can not highlight a cell and move it, you have to do a cut and paste function.
Benefit of Using Web Apps – SkyDrive (free cloud storage)
But let’s back up a bit and talk about SkyDrive – what’s this? Think of the Microsoft SkyDrive as your storage in the clouds, a kind of external hard drive. Below is a snapshot of my Office SkyDrive. This section contains only my Office documents. There is another section of the SkyDrive that contains my photo albums and other things. Microsoft gives an extremely generous 25GB of storage per account.
A great 
reason to sign up for Web Apps is the ability you’ll get to share your documents or folders with groups, just a few people, everyone, or just you. You can see in my folder list that I have a folder I share. The sharing feature is wonderful for using for work, clubs, groups or for family. You can share documents, photos or videos with people. You can put controls on sharing and let people only view your stuff, or you can let them have editing privileges. There is a history of who viewed/changed anything and also a place for people to leave comments on documents, i.e. changes, questions, instructions. Instead of emailing documents to yourself or someone else, put it in SkyDrive and only have one document instead of wondering if what you have is the last revision of your document! If you want to work on something at home from the office, put it in your SkyDrive folder and access it from home.
How Does It All Work?
So you have a Windows Live ID and you have documents on your computer you want to put in your SkyDrive. How do you get them from one place to the other?
I have an example below of one of my documents I’m saving to my SkyDrive. In this example, I’m using Office 2010, but I want to point out that Web Apps works with Office 2003 and 2007 as well. If you have Office 2003, your screen may look different from this one. When you’re ready, click the File>Save and then look for something referring to SkyDrive or Web. With 2010, you would click ‘Save to Web’, and then select the folder you want to put it in and the software does the rest.
To access your documents put in SkyDrive, simply go to office.live.com and log in with your Windows ID. Then you’ll see the below–click on ‘Office’ to be taken to your SkyDrive.
So now you see the document you put in SkyDrive and then you decide you want to add more documents. Using SkyDrive for a backup is a great idea. It’s smart to have 3 copies of each document/photo/presentation. One on your hard drive, one in the clouds (SkyDrive), and one on an external drive.
Microsoft first prompts you to select a folder to put the docs in, or to create a new folder. Then you’ll see the screen below. You can either open a windows explorer window and select multiple documents and drag them over, or you can click the ‘select documents from your computer’ hyperlink and add them that way. If you want to back up an entire folder, open the folder, select all the documents and click to start the upload or drag them over. Depending on the number and your connection speed, it might take a few minutes. At this time there isn’t a way to add a folder to SkyDrive.
After you’ve put some documents in your SkyDrive, take a look around at your options. You’ll be able to share them, download them back to your computer, open for editing either on the web or on your computer, rename or delete.
If you’re thinking of getting Microsoft Office 2010, you can download a free trial. Here’s where you can read about what’s new in Office 2010 and compare features with Office 2007 & 2003.
Many believe Microsoft released the free Web Apps to compete with Google Apps and it’s most likely true. If you’re an experienced Office user, you probably found Google Apps interface and features lacking. If you’ve ever opened a Microsoft Office document with a table or header/footer or other specific formatting in Google Apps, you quickly realized your formatting either disappeared or looked different than it did previously. Two different platforms and Google trumped your formatting with its own. Although Microsoft Web Apps is not meant for intense editing, it will display and retain your document’s formatting.
Features & Comparisons With Google Docs
- Web Apps allow docs up to 50MG to be uploaded — Google has a smaller size limit
- With Web Apps, your document formatting is preserved when viewing and editing in Web Apps. In Google, the nice formatting, pictures, etc. don’t show up
- If you upload a PowerPoint presentation with animation and transition effects into Google Docs, then realize the effects are not showing up and you decide to download the presentation back to your computer to edit, the transition and animation effects are lost forever
- Google doesn’t support the .pptx format which Office 2007 & 2010 uses
- Documents can be downloaded as a zip file with Office Web Apps
- Printing is not available from Office Web Apps. I saw that there is a print feature in Google Docs, but it never did go to my printer
Give Microsoft Web Apps a spin and see what you think. Even if you find yourself not using the editing features, using the SkyDrive as a backup source will give you peace of mind.
Goog-411 Get Free Directory Listing
By · CommentsPreviously posted in 2007, a great and free service.
Google Voice Local Search was launched a few months ago. It is available only in the U.S. and is a free way to get information on local business listings.
Program 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) into both your home and cell phones for future reference. When you call, an automated voice will answer. Give him your city and state and then you can ask for either a specific business listing or a category, i.e. florists. He will give you the top eight results, asking you to either speak or punch in the number of the one you’re looking for. Then you’ll receive the address of the business and the option to either be connected to the business or have the info texted to your cell phone.
I tried it on a speaker phone and the system heard everything I said the first time. Don’t you find it frustrating to have to repeat yourself to a machine? Give it a go, I think you’ll find it convenient…and best of all – free!
Run Windows XP Virtually from Windows 7
By · CommentsThis week, I was finally able to install a virtual machine running XP inside my Windows 7 OS. I say finally because I had been trying to accomplish this for close to a year now. I first tried it when I was running Vista and using Microsoft’s free VM (virtual machine) software. 
When Windows 7 came along in October 2009, I heard about the ability to install a virtual PC and run XP in it. I was disappointed to find out that it was available for those running Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate or Professional. When I got Professional, I was crushed again when I found out it had HAV (hardware-assisted virtualization) requirements that my machine could not meet.
Fast forward to this Spring when Microsoft made Hardware virtualization support (HAV) no longer a requirement. So that means if anyone is running Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate or Professional, it’s possible to get your computer configured with Virtual PC + XP Professional for free!
I think Microsoft realized the previous requirements left too many users unable to utilize XP Mode. That meant that there were users out there who would NOT upgrade to Windows 7 because they had some legacy software that was holding them back.
I was interested in XP Mode because I have client work that can only be completed by using Windows XP, but I didn’t know that before I upgraded to Windows 7. Luckily, I have a Dell netbook with XP on it, so I could continue with my client. But I’d rather do that work on my production machine.
Next, I want to walk through the steps to get Windows Virtual PC & XP Mode on your machine.
Steps To Install Windows Virtual PC & Windows XP Mode
- Have a PC running Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate or Professional edition.
- Download and install the three pieces of software in the order designated (below). This takes quite awhile – I’m talking about hours. This is because you’re installing a new operating system inside another operating system. Even though you get XP with SP 3 on it, there are still many more updates that will need to be installed. Don’t forget to install security software. Might as well use Microsoft Security Essentials – it’s free and lightweight.
Two steps, but budget a lot of time to do this. For me, it took probably 6 hours, but I wasn’t babysitting my computer – I’d come back every once in awhile and do the next thing and walk away again. I also shut down everything else and just put all my machine’s resources on the downloading and installing process.
When it finished with all the updates, I started it up and everything worked! I was able to do my tasks that I had been doing on the Dell netbook on my production machine, so I was very happy.
Here's my machine-I'm running XP inside of Windows 7-Cool!
The purpose of this article is really to let you know that the hardware requirements have been eliminated and now it’s much easier to use this software and have the ability to install and run your XP programs from within Windows 7.
USB Support & 1-Click Launch
Some really cool things they’ve added are the below. We’re not covering that here, but read about these improvements. I’ve heard more technical people talk about that perhaps with the USB support, it might mean that there will be hardware support for our old XP peripherals. That could help a lot of people who have printers that are in great condition, but can’t find a driver in Windows 7.
More Resources – check here for more comprehensive coverage of Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP.
If you’ve tried this, let me know how your experience went.
Facebook Privacy-Changes for May, 2010
By · CommentsIt’s been a turbulent couple of weeks for Facebook and its young founder, 26-year old
Mark Zuckerberg. He and the Facebook policy makers have been under fire for the latest round of so called ‘privacy changes’ that were made in April.
The more controversial changes included an ‘instant personalization’ feature that defaulted to opting people in to connecting their personal information with third party developers. When this came out, there were only three companies in place to suck in all that data – Yelp, Pandora and Facebook docs. The other big change was that developers (of Facebook applications) would no longer purge data daily from their servers, instead, they could permanently keep the data,
The severe criticism apparently caught the clueless folks at Facebook by surprise and since then, they’ve been rethinking and rehashing what to do to address people’s concerns. Wednesday, May 26, they had yet another press conference to announce yet another update which has been pushed out to users. Have you seen the below yet when logging into FB?
Here are some interesting stories floating around I thought I’d share:
- ‘Quit Facebook Day’, which is set for Monday, May 31st
- A project being developed to replace Facebook by some New York University students called ‘The Diaspora Project’. This is an open-source project depending on donations right now.
- Zuckerberg mistakenly exposed over 290 personal pictures to the world and how a large number of chat conversations (including some of Zuckerman’s), were accidentally revealed to the world.
- Prominent internet broadcaster, Leo LaPorte deletes his Facebook account on one of his shows and shares with his listeners that he believes, ‘Facebook is evil’.
Surveys have shown that the trust approval rating for Facebook has been declining for some time. People are distrustful because of ‘software glitches’, and default privacy settings that reveal too much information by default.
So, how is the every day Facebook patron dealing with all of this? Are you thinking of closing your Facebook account? Some may wish to do that and if you do, they say all your account information will be permanently deleted – but not for two weeks – just in case you want to come back.
I’ve not considered deleting my account. Instead, I’ve chosen to put very little in my profile, so you won’t see my favorite tv shows, books, hobbies, etc. I do have a number of albums uploaded, but have the appropriate sharing levels set on them. Most of the people I’m friends with on Facebook I actually know or have a tie with that is meaningful to me. I don’t have hundreds of friends which means what I post doesn’t have that big an audience and I’ve ratcheted back what will appear where.
New Facebook Privacy Settings as of May 27, 2010
In Zuckerberg’s Press Conference and in his blog (there’s a link to it as you read through your new privacy settings), Zuckerberg promises this will be the last privacy update ‘for a long period of time’. So let’s take a look…
All these settings are located on one page
Info accessible through your friends – This one always bothered me as it was out of my control. Before, friends who used various applications or games exposed me to third party application developers. So even though I didn’t play the stupid games, my information (little as it is), was still at risk. Now I have unchecked all the boxes in this area. Hope it works.
Game and application activity – this means who can see my activity with games and application dashboards. This setting can be tweaked to ‘everyone’, ‘friends of friends’, ‘friends’, or ‘custom’.
Reassurance that applications don't get our data
Instant personalization – instead of burying this somewhere, it’s front and center. I checked and the setting I previously chose was preserved – as they said it should be.
Public search – this lets you visually check how your profile looks to the general public. This is nice as people may not realize something is exposed. Now you can take a quick look and then make changes if necessary.
Once you’ve made a change in your settings, it should stay that way, even if Facebook updates their privacy settings again.
It seems that there are fewer ‘granular’ settings, although they said they were still in there – I found a ‘customize settings’ hyperlink that is located on the ‘Choose Your Privacy Settings’ page that I clicked and looked at, but it didn’t seem quite the same as what I’d seen before.
I like these changes, I’ve checked them again and hope I don’t have to revisit them for awhile. I think we all have ‘Facebook Privacy Fatigue’, and are ready to get our settings put in and be able to use and enjoy Facebook now.
What do you think of the Facebook changes – like or dislike?
I was able to download and install the final version of Microsoft Office 2010 earlier this week. I’ve been reading reviews of both Office 2010 and the Microsoft web apps, yet to be release
d. I wanted to see Outlook 2010 as it now has the ‘ribbon’ interface, the ‘social’ aspect and a built in screen clipper.
This week, I want to talk about OSC (Outlook Social Connector), and the Screen Clipper.
Outlook 2010 Social Connector (Linked In & My Space)
I was very interested to see how Outlook was going to integrate with Linked In. After installing Outlook 2010, I went to the download area and downloaded the connector. Before running/installing, I exited Outlook. Next, I reopened Outlook and I connected my Outlook to my Linked In account (see screenshot below). I’m only interested in Linked In, although My Space is available right now. They will be adding Facebook and others later, but no dates have been posted.
You’ll see the ‘My Site’ right above. I haven’t figured this one out yet!
After you’re connected with your Linked In account, check the settings. Mine defaulted to the ‘update without prompting’, and I left it at that. You can also choose how long you want updates to show in Outlook.
So after you’re set up, then you’ll need to adjust your Outlook ‘view’ settings. I have mine set so I have a reading pane over on the right. With this view, you can then expand the window (see below), to show what comes up in the social connector part as you scroll through your emails.
Besides getting any Linked In updates from your contact, Outlook 2010 will pull in all emails and appointments you’ve had with your contact. You can even click on a little paperclip and have it sort all your emails from someone by attachment. If I set my view where it does not have a right or left reading pane, then I don’t see the below ‘social and email’ windows.
I also noticed that I had a new category in my contacts that was labeled, ‘LinkedIn’. When I scrolled through this list, I saw that all my Linked In contacts were put in here. If my ‘connection’ had a picture on Linked In, it was in here too. I’m still waiting for the pictures to appear in my Outlook. I read this can take about a day to show up. I’m not sure why I need another set of contacts and wonder if this will mess something else up. When I add Facebook in later – will I get another set of contacts? Hope we get some input on this.
Benefits of Using Outlook 2010 and the ‘Social Connector’
- Your contacts updates will sync seamlessly with LinkedIn, so if a colleague changes jobs or email, it’s taken care of.
- If there’s someone you receive emails from regularly, but aren’t connected via Linked In, check the ‘connect’ box while you’re in your Outlook and a request will be sent.
- As you scroll through your in-box, it’s nice to have all emails, status updates & appointments from a person all collected and organized neatly for you.
- If you want more Linked In information on your contact, just one click from Outlook will take you to Linked In.
- Privacy settings (taken from msdn blog – the design of the OSC is such that your privacy and permissions settings on each of the networks you use are represented and respected within this experience. For example, if your profile photo and job title are publicly listed on a given network, then OSC users will see your photo and job title when receiving an e-mail from you (if they use that same network). Similarly, if you choose to restrict profile access on a given network, the OSC will respect that privacy. The goal of the OSC is not to create another social network or set of privacy settings for you to manage, but rather to bring the networks you already value and use to the Outlook experience.
Caution: Read the Outlook Blog Comments – I scrolled through the comments and saw quite a few people had problems with the installation and use of the beta connector (released Feb. 2010). The Connector still is a beta product and I’d use caution before installing on your production machine.
Outlook 2010 Screen Clipper
If you enjoy the Microsoft Snipping Tool, you’ll really appreciate the Screenshot Clipper automatically built in
to Outlook 2010.
I sometimes send screenshots via email from Facebook to my sister who is not on Facebook. With the built-in clipper, all I have to do is click on the “insert’ tab and then click on the ‘Screenshot’ drop down. This is where it gets a little tricky if you want to capture part of a screen. If you want to capture a picture and some text, then you will first have to have the window up and not minimized. So, after you click the ‘screenshot’, then click on the ‘screenclip’ button at the bottom of the popup. The maximized window will then appear, it will appear to ‘frost over’ and then a tool will appear to cut out what you want. It’s then inserted into your email.
If you want to capture an entire screen and you have multiple browsers or office programs open, you’ll see a list from which to choose. Simply navigate to and click on that window and the entire screen will be inserted into your email. Your captures can then be adjusted and you can even use the nifty built-in picture tools to add effects, borders, etc. to your snip.
