My Digital Life

Try out Exchange 2007 without installing it

Here is a link to a Microsoft sponsored Hosted Exchange 2007 site where you can sign up for a free demo account.

You will be able to try:

• Outlook Web Access (OWA)
• Outlook Voice Access (Unified Messaging)
• Outlook 2007 (Outlook Anywhere, Autodiscover)
• Outlook 2007 (Outlook Anywhere, Manual Configuration)
• Outlook 2003 (RPC over HTTPS)
• Exchange ActiveSync (Windows Mobile Device / Pocket PC)
• Outlook Express (POP, IMAP, SMTP) or any other POP or IMAP client

The accounts are limited to 10MB of storage and there is a limit to 256KB message length (FAQ). This is however a great way to walk around the user features of Exchange 2007.

Thanks to Jason Langridge for the post.

Updating your Windows Mobile device for the new Daylight Saving Time

In less than a month the United States and most of Canada will begin observing Daylight Savings Time (DST) from the second Sunday in March (March 11th, 2007) until the first Sunday in November (November 4th, 2007). The European Union will continue to follow the Daylight Savings schedule it adopted in 1996 from the last Sunday in March (March 25th, 2007) to the last Sunday in October (October 28th, 2007) and no changes are required. Here is the link to Wikipedia diatribe on DST.

There are two major functions in the Microsoft Windows world that are affected; the clock and Outlook Calendar events. Microsoft has provided a comprehensive set of web pages with the required fixes here.

Outlook calendar events are affected because they are based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This means that any calendar events you created prior to updating your systems for March 11th and later need to be adjusted with the correct offset from GMT. Outlook 2007 is not affected since it recognizes the new time offsets for DST.

In short before you update your Windows Mobile device, you need to make sure:

• If you sync your calendar with Windows XP, you need to update Windows XP with KB 931836 (you will get the update automatically if Automatic Updates is turned on) and run the Outlook Calendar update utility found in KB 931667 (this is not required for Outlook 2007).
• If you sync your calendar with Vista, no update is necessary, however if you are using Outlook 2003 on Vista you still need to run the Outlook Calendar update utility.
• If you sync your calendar with Exchange, you need to ensure the Exchange server you are using has been updated.

You can then update your Windows Mobile device directly using Pocket Explorer at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx.

Scroll down the page and click on Download the Daylight Saving Time 2007 update link and follow the instructions to download.

Check to Open file after download and click on Yes.

And Install on device. These are updates to the registry.

The week of February 12th in My Digital Life

The 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona Spain is in full swing this week with plenty of mobile product announcements. First off, Microsoft officially announced Windows Mobile 6.0 and specifically mentioned that T-Mobile USA plans to provide an upgrade to the DASH. Will T-Mobile provide an upgrade for the MDA, probably not since they mayl release their version of the HTC Hermes with Windows Mobile 6.0. Microsoft has also unveiled a new Windows Mobile 6.0 portal here.

There is a lot of good information out there on Windows Mobile 6.0, the key take away is that this is an evolutionary step with over 10,000 improvements across the board. Jason Langridge provide a good high level overview on his blog. In typical Microsoft fashion, the version names have been reinvented:

• Windows Mobile is now Windows Mobile Classic for the Pocket PC platform (touch screen, no phone)
• Windows Mobile Phone Edition is now Windows Mobile Professional for the Pocket PC Phone platform (touch screen, phone)
• Windows Mobile Smartphone is now Windows Mobile Standard for the Smartphone platform (phone, no touch screen)

It is clear that the product naming folks at Microsoft work hard to keep their jobs...

Brandon Miniman has published a good overview of Windows Mobile Standard on pocketnow.com.

Live Search for Mobile has officially been released by Microsoft, Google Maps released a Windows Mobile mapping application as well and now Nokia is in the game with Smart2go application for Windows Mobile. When Nokia builds an application for Windows Mobile, you know Windows Mobile is mainstream.

On the Windows Vista front, I made a lot of progress last week updating the applications I use (see my current list here). I thought I had solved my modem problem by stopping the Venta Fax service, however Vista is still aborting. More research has revealed that there is a newer Intel driver from Windows Update, however my modem must not be reporting itself correctly as an Intel 536EP modem since the update is not being downloaded, the Vista driver is not available on the Intel website which is bizarre. For $18 (including shipping) I can get a new Intel based modem at newegg.com that correctly identifies itself with Windows Update, that maybe the way to go to avoid blue screen frustration.

Apple has not yet released their new version of iTunes which fully supports Windows Vista.

This week:

• My Spectec SDIO GPS review should be published on pocketnow.com.
• I will working on my review of the Transystem iBlue 737 Bluetooth GPS receiver.
• I have had time to upgrade my D-Link DFL-210 router to the latest firmware, hopefully I will have time this week.
• Continue my application testing on Vista.

Small Business Accounting 2006 is not supported on Vista

I have had problems running Small Business Accounting 2006 on Vista and created a support case with Microsoft. The response was that SBA 2006 is not supported. I needed to use Office Accounting 2007 Express or Professional which can be downloaded at the following links (http://oaisbetter.com or http://www.ideawins.com). I chose to upgrade to Office Accounting Professional 2007.

Unfortunately I ran into a problem trying to install SQL Server Express, even though I already had SQL Server 2005 installed and working with SP2 CTP2 (required for Vista). After backing up my SBA and Outlook Business Contact Manager (BCM) data, disconnecting BCM from the accounting database, uninstalling SBA 2006 and SQL Server, the install still failed with a "SQL Server Setup Failed to compile the Managed Object Format (MOF)" error. After hours of searching, I found this post on TechNet, what a life saver. Who knew that a corrupted WMI repository would affect the installation...Thank you Jin Feng.

I was able to easily restore and upgrade from my data backups. Office Accounting 2007 provides a feature to integrate the Business Contact Manager database into one (very nice). I have done that and I am sharing my Business Contact Manager data with my XP Tablet laptop. The sharing feature is very easy to setup and provides excellent instructions. You have the option to replicate the data for off line use which is great.

After a harrowing day and half, I am back up and running better than ever.

The week of February 5th in My Digital Life

Apple has finally officially commented about iTunes and Vista on their web site. Here is the link to a document on how to install iTunes 7.0.2 on Windows Vista. This document also points to a utility you can download and run to reset file permissions. I will try it this week and turn User Access Control back on. Apple is apparently a couple of weeks out from having a version which is 100% compatible with Vista and Microsoft has supposedly been helping them.

I had two disappointments over the week end. The first was with Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0; I applied the 5.0.2 update to resolve Windows Vista issues but Elements still does not run correctly. It seems to initialize, but the main User Interface never gets launched yet the process is still runs. I opened a support case with Adobe. The second is with Venta Fax 5.71, a Windows service which monitors my SunRocket signature number (distinctive ring), receives a fax and forwards it via email; it worked very well with XP, however it looks like the service was causing a problem with the Intel EP536 modem driver. Since I stopped the service, my system has not had a blue screen. I contacted support, they are working on a solution however no time frame was given.

I upgraded to the production version of Microsoft OneCare security/pc management application. The installation turned off the Vista firewall. With the OneCare RTM firewall, the only problem to date has been with SQL Server. I had to manually add SQL Server to the allowed list of applications. The firewall seems to be working fine, however it still does not integrate with Vista's security center.

I filed a support case with Microsoft for Small Business Accounting 2006 (SBA) and Windows Vista. SBA drop down selections do not work correctly and any attempt to select an entry causes SBA to abort. It is a good thing I can still use SBA on my XP laptop and connect to SQL Server on Vista.

Microsoft released the Vista Windows Mobile Device Center last week, I have not tried it yet.

Google Maps released a Windows Mobile application similar to Windows Live Mobile. I will have to compare them.

This week I plan on:

• Complete my Spectec SDIO GPS review for pocketnow.com.
• Install Outlook 2007 Business Contact Manager (BCM) on Vista and configure a shared BCM database that I can use from my laptop.
• Continue my application testing on Vista.
• Upgrade my D-Link DFL-210 router to the latest firmware.

Windows Vista Launch

When I get comments from non techies about new products, I know the product launch has been successful. This was the case for Windows Vista. Microsoft did a very good job of saturating the press both Monday and Tuesday. There were those pundits who questioned the wisdom as well as the marketing strategy in spending so much money. Given that this was a worldwide launch, I think the amount of money being spent is probably reasonable, how it is being spent will always create a debate and probably won't match the slick Apple ads. I do have to say that I think the Apple ads with the PC guy may actually help Microsoft by bringing awareness to Vista.

I attended the Washington, DC launch event. The venue was stretched for the crowd of about 3000. The message was clearly targeted to government and commercial customers, as well as partners. The highlights were Vista, Office 2007, Sharepoint 2007 and Exchange 2007. There were some interesting statistics about how much money would be generated by Vista for the local economy. This was clearly aimed at the partners where there has always been a love/hate relationship since my observations lead me to conclude that Microsoft always does what is in its best interest. There are three statistics worth mentioning. The first is that there are about 800 million PCs in the world. The second is that Microsoft expects that in the next 12 months 200 million PC will be sold with Vista. And third that only 5% of current PCs will be upgraded to Vista. I hink they are on target with the third statistic, it is not worth the headache involved with the upgrade process unless you really need a Vista feature and have a new PC. You are just better off purchasing a new system with Vista pre loaded.

The bottom line is that over time Vista will be a success, regardless of what the pundits have to say. Yes Apple will gain some market share but I think that has more to do with the iPod than with Vista. I also heard a notion that that Apple may break back into the corporate world, given all the business oriented features built into Vista, i think that is a totally idiotic premise.

The week of January 29th in My Digital Life

This week is all about Windows Vista, Bill and Steve have completed their launch in New York, the webcast live feed had its issues with sound, but it must have been great to be in Times Square when all the monitors surrounding the square lit up with Windows Vista and Office 2007. That's what a $100 million in advertising will buy you. Anyway, regardless of what will be spent on marketing,Vista is a great operating system. The Aero graphic are stunning and I would recommend that anyone purchasing a new computer, make sure it comes with a graphics card that supports it.

There are some things to be mindful of. I would not recommend upgrading your current computer to Vista unless you are a techie and have the time to spend to fiddle with settings. Microsoft has said that they expect only 5% of users to upgrade and 95% to purchase new systems. I took the upgrade route and I am still fiddling. The problem is that not all the programs behave correctly with the Vista's security enforcement. The biggest of these security enforcement features is User Access Control (UAC) which alerts you of any change an application tries to make to the core of the system, Some slick applications like Apple's iTune on XP did some slick things to enforce their Digital Rights Management (DRM). Vista and UAC specifically does not allow and does not report the infraction. Turning off UAC has solved most of my problems, although this is an important security feature that should be left on. Apple support emailed me that they plan to release an update soon after January 30th.

Tomorrow, I will be at the launch event in Washington, DC and will report on Wednesday. I am also going to start a list of applications I use on Vista and whether they need an upgrade, work partially or fully.

Office 2007 - Business Contact Manager 2007 for Outlook 2007

Business Contact Manager 2007 (BCM) was finally released on the MSDN subscriber download site this week. As a consultant I have been missing it for the last 3 or so weeks after the release of Office 2007 which did not include of BCM. The only issue I had with the installation was that I needed to un-install the Office Small Business Connectivity components.

An error message with a good explanation. I am assuming these components were installed with Office Small Business Accounting 2006 (SBA). As a consultant BCM provides great integration with SBA to track your billable time which then feeds into the creation of invoices. You can use this feature with calendar appointments. BCM also allows you to create projects and associated tasks which can feed into SBA's time entry feature. The integration is excellent for any small business interested in keeping track of employee time against both billable and non-billable projects and tasks.

BCM adds additional buttons (circled in red) to manage time from Outlook 2007.

The week of December 11th in My Digital Life

I have been playing around with Windows Live Search for mobile beta this past week and along with my Pharos Bluetooth GPS. It is a very nice application and very powerful when attached to a GPS receiver. Here is the link to install the application on Windows Mobile.

• Link to a pocketpcthoughts overview.
• Link to a gizmodo overview.

Business Contact Manager (BCM) for Outlook 2007 has finally been released on the MSDN subscriber site. I will be installing it today, however I need to cleanup the mess that BCM 2007 TR2 left behind when I tried to install it with the RTM version of Outlook 2007. It seems to have left some .sys files in the driver cache and the RTM version won't install over them.

There is some good overview information about Vista and upgrading in the latest PC World magazine, although their experience was done with Release Candidate 2.

Items I am working on this week:

• Windows Live Search on Windows Mobile with GPS
• Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007

Outlook 2007 comparison chart

Here is a link to an Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, and Outlook for Web Access 2007 comparison chart of some key features. I can't say enough good things about Oultook 2007, it contains many new helpful features you can read about on this blog.

Thanks to Jason Langridge for the link.