Creating a permanent New Mail Desktop Alert

New Mail Alert buttonThe New Mail Desktop Alert is a handy pop-up alert for new emails. However, an often heard complaint is that it goes away too quickly.

Another often heard complaint is that it only works for the Inbox folder.

This guide explains how you can configure to display a New Mail Desktop Alert for all your mail and/or for it to remain visible for longer than 30 seconds or even not to let it go away at all until you dismiss it.

Continue reading: Creating a permanent New Mail Desktop Alert


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Export Contacts to Excel

Export to Excel buttonAlthough the Import and Export wizard allows you to export to an Excel spreadsheet, the Wizard doesn’t allow you to export all the fields and filtering the mapped fields is a cumbersome process as well.

The export to Excel option has been removed from Outlook 2013 mainly because it was still using the old xls-format instead of the new xlsx-format. You can still achieve the same by exporting to the csv-format but that can be even more cumbersome.

Fortunately there is another, more graphical (WYSIWYG), way to do this as well via the copy/paste method.

Continue reading: Export Contacts to Excel


Downgrading Outlook and backwards compatibility

There can be various reasons which will require you to downgrade to a previous version of Outlook such as the current trial/beta version expiring or compatibility issues with some needed add-ins or business software. This guide provides solutions to various problems you may encounter when trying to downgrade Outlook or when you need to remain compatible with previous versions of Outlook. Continue reading: Downgrading Outlook and backwards compatibility


Delete a stuck Read Receipt

Read Receipt buttonSeeing messages being sent or are you getting sending errors without something in the Outbox?
This could be a stuck Read Receipt.

As they are invisible in your Outbox, it is kinda tricky to delete them. You can still do this via one of the following advanced (free) support tools from Microsoft: MFCMAPI or MDBVU32.

Continue reading: Delete a stuck Read Receipt


Create your own fully customized Toolbar

Customize Toolbar buttonEver had the feeling that the option you need the most is just too far down all sorts of menus? Well then customizing the Toolbar is probably the solution for you.

This guide will explain how you can do this by means of some examples that go more advanced. Although this is mainly targeted on Outlook, note that this guide applies to practically all Office programs.

Continue reading: Create your own fully customized Toolbar


Clear the Most Recently Used lists

For certain actions, Outlook holds a list of most recently used items (MRU lists) so you have quicker access to them. In some cases you might want to clear this MRU list.

Outlook holds two different kind of MRU lists. Some are tied to the general Outlook configuration of the logged in user and others are tied to the specific mail profile Outlook has been started with.

To clear either MRU list, you can simply delete the corresponding registry key when Outlook is closed. If you are not comfortable editing the Registry yourself you can use OutlookTools instead.

Continue reading: Clear the Most Recently Used lists


Tips For Cleaning Up Your Mailbox

Mailbox Cleanup buttonAre you reaching the limit of your mailbox storage quota or simply want to get rid of some clutter in your mailbox but don’t know where to start? This is the guide for you!

While there is no single “holy grail” method in storing your emails, the strategy used for cleaning up your mailbox effectively are much more generic and can be used for pretty any storage method you use.

In addition to having that “cleaned up” feeling, there are also technical benefits to having a tidy mailbox such as faster loading of Outlook, less clutter in your Search results and quicker backup ups since the mailbox to backup is now smaller.

Continue reading: Tips For Cleaning Up Your Mailbox


Enabling/Disabling Cached Exchange Mode through the Registry

Cached Exchange Mode is new in Outlook 2003. If makes a local copy of the Exchange Mailbox. The benefits of enabling this is reducing network traffic, faster responds time of the Outlook client (especially with large attachments), being able to use the Junk E-mail Filter and being able to work off-line.

When you create a new profile in Outlook 2003 Cached Exchange mode is enabled by default.
When you upgrade from a previous Outlook version with an Exchange mailbox to Outlook 2003 Cached Exchange mode is disabled by default.

This makes it really hard to determine and control remotely whether your clients have Cached Exchange Mode enabled.

Enabling/Disabling Cached Exchange Mode can be controlled though the registry. This allows you to enable/disable it with a simple logon script to create a standard in your organization without the need of forcing the recreation of the entire profile at start-up or visit each client.

Cached Exchange Mode is controlled by the following key;
[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\<ProfileName>\13dbb0c8aa05101a9bb000aa002fc45a]

00036601     (REG_BINARY)

enabled value;  84 01 00 00
enabled with Public Folders/Favorites: 84 05 00 00
disabled value; 04 00 00 00

Please note that the “00036601” registry key stores more connection settings that just wether or not Cached Exchange Mode is enabled. The values above are taken from a new mail profile with only the Cached Exchange Mode setting changed. If you’re going to deploy this registry key I recommend taking the value from a properly configured machine for your environment