Saturday, March 15, 2008

Outlook Error Message

Error Message:
The macros in this project are disabled. please refer to the online help or documentation of the host application to determine how to enable macros

Solution:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302632

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/selfcert.htm

Friday, March 14, 2008

How to save animated picture from Microsoft Outlook


You’ve probably come across this at least once; You receive a nicely HTML formatted message with embedded pictures so the sender can tell the story with the pictures and when you try to save the pictures you can only save them as a bmp-file. Or; you receive a fun e-mail with an animated gif-file and when you try to save it you can only save or copy it as a bmp-file which will of course break the animation.

This How To article explains how you can save the embedded pictures in their original file format.

  • Make sure the Visual Basic editor is installed
  • Create macro
  • Create a button for the macro
  • Using the macro

Make sure the Visual Basic editor is installed

Since we are going to create a macro from code you must have the Visual Basic editor installed (which is the default). If you don’t have it installed you can install it by Control Panel-> Add/Remove Programs-> select your Office version-> button change. Now setup will start. Here you choose for Add or Remove Features-> Select “Choose advanced customization of applications” (Outlook 2003). In the list you get expand Microsoft Office-> Office Shared Features-> Visual Basic for Applications and set it to Run form My Computer. Press “Update” to install. You might need to insert your CD during setup.


This is where you can find the Visual Basic Editor when you have it installed

Create Macro

As I already provide you with the code, creating the macro is easy. The code has been tested with Outlook 2003 on Windows XP and Outlook 2007 on Windows Vista but should work on previous versions as well.

We start up the Visual Basic Editor by going to Tools-> Macro-> Visual Basic Editor. This will open a new screen. Choose Insert-> Module to create a new module dedicated to this macro. Select the newly created module in the left pane and rename it to “SaveAttachments” by changing the Properties value in the pane underneath. Copy and paste the code below to the module.


Click in the area above and press CTR+A to select all. Press CTRL+C to copy the code


The code copied in the Visual Basic Editor.

Since this macro also uses Windows functionality to prompt you for a folder location we must add the reference to the project. To do this choose Tools-> References… and select Microsoft Shell Controls And Automation. After this press OK.

Now we debug the code by choosing Debug-> Compile Project1. You shouldn’t be getting errors if you’ve done everything correctly.
If you do get errors retrace your steps and also verify that any previous code you might have in ThisOutlookSession is correct. Debug until you’ve solved the errors (the code provided works correctly without any modifications).

To be able to run the code without setting your macro security level to medium I recommend that you Sign your code which is a very easy process and only takes a minute.

Create a button for the macro

You can run the macro through Tools-> Macros… -> select the SaveAttachment macro and then press Run. However the easiest way to access and use the macro is to create a button for it. Since the macro works on the selected item we can create the button in the main Outlook window. Follow the instructions below to create a button.

  1. Set the Toolbar in edit mode by going to View-> Toolbars-> Customize…
  2. Select the tab Commands
  3. In the Categories column select Macros
  4. In the Commands toolbar click on Project1.SaveAttachment and hold down the mouse button.
  5. Drag the icon to a location on the Toolbar so the pointer will loose the cross and release the mouse button to drop it in that location
  6. Right click the icon to change the name and to assign it a button image you like (if you want to learn more about editing Toolbar buttons click here)
  7. Press Close to leave edit mode

The Save Attachments icon in the Toolbar. Curious what my Running Man icon does?

Using the macro

Alright, now that we’ve gone through all the trouble we can finally save all types of embedded pictures in their original file format. To do this you select the message that contains the embedded pictures. When you click on the Save Attachments button you’ll save all attachments with a date and time stamp to a folder of choice. Note that it doesn’t save

Say good-bye to converting bmp-s back to jpg-s and broken gif-s!

Reference:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/saveembeddedpictures.htm


Thursday, March 6, 2008

What is Maleware?

Malware


Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner's informed consent. It is a portmanteau of the words "malicious" and "software". The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code.


Many normal computer users are however still unfamiliar with the term, and most never use it. Instead, "computer virus" is used in common parlance and often in the general media to describe all kinds of malware, though not all malware are viruses. Another term that has been recently coined for malware is badware, perhaps due to the anti-malware initiative Stopbadware.


Software is considered malware based on the perceived intent of the creator rather than any particular features. It includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, most rootkits, spyware, dishonest adware, and other malicious and unwanted software. In law, malware is sometimes known as a computer contaminant, for instance in the legal codes of California, West Virginia, and several other American states.


Malware should not be confused with defective software, that is, software which has a legitimate purpose but contains harmful bugs.

What is spam?

What is spam?


Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. Spam costs the sender very little to send -- most of the costs are paid for by the recipient or the carriers rather than by the sender.


There are two main types of spam, and they have different effects on Internet users. Cancellable Usenet spam is a single message sent to 20 or more Usenet newsgroups. (Through long experience, Usenet users have found that any message posted to so many newsgroups is often not relevant to most or all of them.) Usenet spam is aimed at "lurkers", people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away. Usenet spam robs users of the utility of the newsgroups by overwhelming them with a barrage of advertising or other irrelevant posts. Furthermore, Usenet spam subverts the ability of system administrators and owners to manage the topics they accept on their systems.


Email spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Email spam lists are often created by scanning Usenet postings, stealing Internet mailing lists, or searching the Web for addresses. Email spams typically cost users money out-of-pocket to receive. Many people - anyone with measured phone service - read or receive their mail while the meter is running, so to speak. Spam costs them additional money. On top of that, it costs money for ISPs and online services to transmit spam, and these costs are transmitted directly to subscribers.


One particularly nasty variant of email spam is sending spam to mailing lists (public or private email discussion forums.) Because many mailing lists limit activity to their subscribers, spammers will use automated tools to subscribe to as many mailing lists as possible, so that they can grab the lists of addresses, or use the mailing list as a direct target for their attacks