About This Site

I'm a Tech Guy for over 30 Years Knowledge of Computers, Networks, PC Gadgets. This site is to be used to share some of my knowledge and reviews

I Detest NEW Outlook

I have been using Microsoft Outlook since the first version. Its the main desktop mail app that has dominated the Windows platform for a long time. I have used or tried a lot of other apps (Eudora, Thunderbird, MS Mail, MS Live Mail, eMClient etc). I loved Eudora when it first implemented. Powerful and easily transferred to new PC. Thunderbird is similar and is supported by many new Gmail and MS Auth 2.0. I normally install Thunderbird for clients that don’t have a MS 365 or Business Office account. Issue it it does not have the sync of email/contacts/calendar that a true Microsoft account has (Outlook.com to full 365 account). For me I live in classic Outlook. I dedicate a 32″ monitor just for it. Its the most MS app I use on a daily basis for all MS apps. Millions of people who use MS 365 and even POP and IMAP use classic Outlook. And millions of people (I can’t be the only one) that love the classic Outlook and DETEST!!!!!! the New Outlook. Look at the AI Brave search result on NEW Outlook detest:

I understand your frustration with the new Outlook for Windows. Many users share your sentiment, describing the app as poorly designed, slow, and unreliable. The new Outlook is a web-based application that doesn’t integrate well with the Windows operating system, making it feel more like a browser tab than a native app.
It lacks the seamless integration and performance of the previous Mail & Calendar app, which was lightweight and fast.

Users report significant issues with responsiveness, often experiencing a noticeable delay—up to half a second—between clicking an item and seeing the result.
The app is also resource-heavy, consuming around 373MB to 1GB of RAM, compared to the old Mail app’s 100MB, which contributes to its sluggish performance.
The loading time is also criticized, with users forced to wait for a splash screen for over a second before accessing their inbox.

Another major complaint is the app’s handling of notifications. Push notifications are inconsistent, sometimes delayed, and often arrive after the older Mail app has already alerted the user.
Clicking a notification can lead to a frustrating experience, where the app takes several seconds to open and may display the general inbox instead of the specific email, or even open the same email in two separate windows.

The user interface is frequently described as confusing and poorly designed. Features like a unified inbox for multiple accounts are missing, forcing users to switch between different views to see all their emails.
The layout, especially in dark mode, is criticized as poor, and the app is said to fail to open documents, lose emails, and incorrectly rename attachments.
Furthermore, the new Outlook breaks compatibility with many traditional add-ins, such as spam filters and project management tools, which are essential for many users.

Some users have even reported that the app fails to send emails, doesn’t sync correctly, and doesn’t mark emails as read even when they have been viewed.
The app is also criticized for displaying unwanted documents during attachment attempts and for presenting search results that are inaccurate or irrelevant.

Despite being labeled as a “preview,” Microsoft has been pushing the new Outlook to users by automatically pinning it to the Start menu and encouraging users to switch from the older Mail & Calendar app.
This has led to widespread dissatisfaction, with users demanding the return of the old Mail app, which they find superior in speed, design, and reliability.
Some users have even resorted to using registry edits to disable the new Outlook toggle to prevent it from appearing.

In summary, the new Outlook is widely regarded as a step backward in functionality and performance, with users expressing strong dislike for its design, speed, reliability, and overall user experience.

 

There are a ton of features that New Outlook does not have compared to classic Outlook. I live in Shortcut view. I maintain 4 email accounts and need new emails display. I also need calendar view options such that I can easily change from standard view of everything to only things I need to bill for clients. I have  Groups of Contacts and a group of invoices I use. New Outlook will likely NEVER have these options. I Can easily do this with classic and New Outlook does not and possible never have this options. I have a Hyper-V of Windows with MS 365 clients that I can easily switch Outlook profiles to test emails. New Outlook will NEVER have this option. I can easily transfer .PST files from one PC to a new PC. NEW Outlook will NEVER have this option. I have a client that has 3 emails setup in NEW Outlook with POP accounts and I can’t transfer to a new PC because there is no option for this. The only thing I can export is contacts. This drives me CRAZY!! I can go on and on why Microsoft should NEVER abandon classic Outlook. They say 2029 is possible stop support classic Outlook. If this happens people need to revolt and stop Microsoft from doing this. They make a great app that links into Exchange perfectly with email/Contacts/Calendar and flows great between multiple PC/Laptops and they are going to abandon will drive me crazy!!

Setup Shadow Copy On Newer Windows 11

Microsoft has a feature in Windows Servers and Windows workstations called Shadow Copy. This allows it to take snapshots of your files so that if you want to restore from a previous time you can. Windows servers make it easy to setup and I use this all the time for my clients. Its not a backup but it does allow to easily restore files. I normally set this up on my client servers to run 2 times a day. Once at noon and the other after hours. For Windows 10 and early Windows 11 you can setup through the Task Schedule you can have PC automatically create the shadow copy. Here is one of many articles describing how to set this up.

The issue with newer Windows 11 is they are removing or not providing the WMIC option. To test if you have WMIC on your PC is open an administrative command prompt and type WMIC. If it says no file exist then you need to install it.

To install the WMIC from an Administrative command prompt type the following:

DISM /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:WMIC~~~~

This can take some time especially on slow Internet connection. Once its downloaded then WMIC should be installed. Issue is its not in normal location so if you follow the instructions from article above you need to change the WMIC command to the following:

C:\Windows\System32\wbem\wmic

Along with the following in the argument:

shadowcopy call create Volume=c:\

Now it will allow Shadow Copies to be made. The issue with Windows 11 is to restore you cannot use the right click folder and select Restore Previous Versions. That works fine if the files are on a Windows Server or Windows 10 but Microsoft decided to not allow it in Windows 11. Another great wisdom from Microsoft.

In order to restore on a Windows 11 you need to use a 3rd party application. I like to use ShadowExplorer

It does require .Net Framework 3.5 so you will need to install this before using.

Scam Remote In Hidden remote software with support.client.exe

Had a few clients that got scammed for people to remote into their PC. Indication that its a scam is when they have a support.client.exe file in their download folder. What this does is installs ConnectWise screenconnect service. Typically the files are stored under Users\{Username}\Appdata\local\Apps\2.0 and if you check services you will see screenconnect service running. I stop the service. Then disable the service and then delete the 2.0 folder.

If you check the location of the files under services for screenconnect will show where the files got installed.

Outlook Sending From Shared Mailbox Sent Items Not Going To Shared Sent Items

If using a shared mailbox and you want the sent items to go into the shared sent items the easiest way is to add a registry item

Go to the following:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\x.0\Outlook\Preferences

Add a DWORD  DelegateSentItemsStyle and give it a value of 1

 

Got this from here.

 

 

Outlook 2007 Search Does Not Work Windows 11

Found online from here.

Basically do the following:

Control Panel->Indexing Options->Modify->Unchecked “Microsoft Office Outlook”

Save everything and restart the Outlook.

Finding QuickBooks license info from a non bootable PC

Have a client who did not have the license info when installing QuickBooks on a new PC. The original PC is not bootable. I found this online.

Basically you need to find the QBRegistration.dat file and open it in Notepad. Inside is the Installation ID and License number and client ID

The file is normally located C:\ProgramData\Common Files\Intuit\QuickBooks

Shadow Copy and Windows 11

I have used Shadow Copy on all Windows servers and Windows 10 and everything works great. Windows 10 you have to manually setup but it works. Do the same setup for Windows 11 and it creates the shadow copy BUT they don’t show up under previous version in Windows Explorer. You have to use a 3rd party utility call Shadow Explorer

Here is one link into how to configure Shadow Copy for Windows 10 (same for Windows 11)

 

Windows 11 Netplwiz missing required password option fix

Change DevicePasswordLessBuildVersion under registry entry:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\PasswordLess\Device

from 2 to 1 Then go into NETPLWIZ Now can change Uses must enter a user name and password to use this computer

 

Business Vision Won’t Allow Login From Workstation

If you have BusinessVision on a server and you can’t login from a workstation then check the Firewall settings on the server. Make sure if the network is configured with Domain/Private/Public that the Database Service Manager allows through Firewall with appropriate Network.

Sometimes rebooting the server may change the network from Domain to Private.

VoIP Calls disconnect after 15 Minutes with SonicWall

Found this on the Internet.

Basically from the comments I did the following:

I have found that SonicWalls NSA units have SPI and DPI causing major problems with VoIP.  Under Firewall Settings, go to settings and choose Maximium SPI Connections (DPI services disabled).  Also there is additional internal settings you can enable/disable by “\diag.html” (https://10.1.10.1/diag.html) .  Also under the Firewall Settings option, I would recommend increasing the Default UDP Connection Timeout to: 3600 seconds.

I also did the following:

Also, under “VoIP” settings, enable “Consistant NAT”.